So I was under the impression that the cosmos holo variant of Machamp 8/102 was exclusively in the 2-Player CD theme decks from Base Set 2. This week to my surprise I opened a regular Base Set 2-Player Starter theme deck and got the cosmos variant inside!
Not sure if this has been documented before? I have opened well over 50 of these over the years and this is my first time encountering this.
Deck and card shown below:
What does the back of the box say on the bottom? It would be helpful to check the copyright / made in location.
What do the other cards in the deck look like? What copyright do they have?
Should be noted you’re in the UK. Can you provide more pics of the box from all angles?
theres other stuff id like to see too twith non-holoS. would like some information off them too
There are at least 7 styles of the base set 2 player deck. Im glad everyone is on the same page with needing to see back, bottom, and even both sides of the box to confirm which style it is.
You opened it yourself? No chance for the cards to get mixed?
Its not the hangtab version box, nor is it an international printing. Its not a printing with damage stones so definitely not an early printing.
Yea, I was wondering if the entire box was sealed or not too. If it wasn’t, then someone could have just placed a Machamp holo in there to make it “complete” and it happened to be the CD cosmos version.
I’d love to see some other information too like the booklet and what not, maybe see if you can share the pages. It’d be cool to know what came in it..
Hi guys, sorry for my late reply. I am working a 2 day card show in London this weekend so have been super busy.
The box was sealed and bought from Ebay.
Opening it inside everything was sealed and nothing seemed wrong with seals etc.
I have unfortunately already sent the card for grading with ACE as I thought it would get a 10 there. I will run checks on it when back.
Here are some pictures of the sealed box from the ebay listing I got it from. Also attached my pre-grading shots.
Apologies if I haven’t responded to DMs yet this card show has been intense!
I Should get the card back from grading within a month so it won’t be too long of a wait!
Hey so I got back this evening and opened the non holo pack so I could check the stock for you guys.
This was the charmander out of the pack:
I also then put it next to a shadowless charmander and a 4th print ponyta for comparison:
Please let me know if you need any more details.
I will do some similar tests when the machamp arrives back.
I purchased a lot of around 50 sealed base set 2 player starter decks a few years ago. I opened around 30, about 75% of them were cosmos holofoil. These were obtained in Australia for referrence.
First: Jealous.
Second: That might make sense for the included cards. Australia always got late printings based on other deck releases.
Third: If that is true, based on the images there is no basic physical way to tell an Australian print deck from normal. There may be a way to tell based on how things are packed in the box but its a lot of speculation.
Any chance you have any of those decks left 
?
Would you compare the UV of the theme deck charmander and ponyta under blacklight?
Wondering if charmander glows yellow on the back and also the front borders compared to your UK stuff. Wondering if the back may compare to the bright yellow on the bottom usa3 vs the UK back
I’ve just found a photo I took of the inner package containing a cosmos variant. I don’t have any sealed decks left unfortunately!
Hope this is helpful.
It’s interesting both examples shared show very poor quality wrapping around the brick and half decks. Normally it is much tighter.
Here is Korean which was Australia. It has the different crimp on the Machamp cello.
Assuming the ponyta is UK, you said all your 4th print was…
charmander looks like a close resemblance similar to PBMs stuff. You wouldnt be on board with letting go of a card from the theme deck by chance?
I just noticed there actually is something special about this box if you look closely on the back. It may giveaway which ones are more likely to have cosmos inside.
Did you want one from the deck with the cosmos holo or the 4th print theme deck?
