EX Era variants

Boring Completionist hypersensitive to card nuances OCD issue.

Can someone give me the rundown or post a link to a thread on EX era variants. I’m trying to put together my binder set and need to make sure that I leave the appropriate amount of blank spaces for cards that I don’t have but I don’t understand how many cards are actually in each of the EX sets.

I understand and have accounted for the normal non-holo/holo and then the Reverse holo counterpart. However, I have cards in my collection with different serial code numbers at the bottom and then also cards with different boarders and copyright dates. Are these from theme decks? Which cards from these sets actually have this “boarder” variation?

For example, EX Ruby & Sapphire has cards with
1)- a thin boarder (c) 2004. (These seem to be non holo variations of what should be holo cards… possibly from theme/trainerdecks?)
2)- Thick boarder (c)2003. (These seem to be the standard print)
3)- Reverse holos. (Standard print)
4)- promos (e-league, professor program)
5) - cards that have different serial numbers on the bottom left of the face of the card. (why?)
**To be clear, I understand items 2,3,4 but don’t understand items 1 and 5.

*Below - NUMEL - Thin boarder (c)2004 / thick boarder (c)2003

**Above - ENERGY SEACH - Thin boarder (c)2004 / Thick boarder (c)2003 with two different serial codes / Reverse holo

I’m having the same problem with EX Sandstorm, EX Dragon. Are there master card lists anywhere that cotains how many barcodes there are of each card? Are these the only three sets that have this issue with boarders and serial numbers?

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There’s a list of the EX English serial code variations that @quuador pointed me to when I was putting together my stadium check list. Fortunately I have no doubt he’ll come in with a far more comprehensive answer to your questions than i’m able help with, but for the time being hope the list helps a little. :blush:

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I can only reply based on the research done when collating my energy checklistst1. Are from EX Battle Stadium releases
5. I dont know why but they came with code variants. In addition to the above reference I had this bookmarked
R&S had many variants. The followup sets only had code differences
As it goes from my information for R&S printed cards:
Ruby and Sapphire Set numbered & logo ©2003 - This card is missing the E-Reader Logo - Foreign released Ruby and Sapphire set (FRA/ITA/GER)
Ruby and Sapphire Set numbered & logo ©2003 - Has E-reader logo - Actual set release
Ruby and Sapphire Set numbered & logo ©2004 - EX Battle Stadium (missing the E-Reader Logo)

Ruby and Sapphire Set numbered & logo ©2004 - Professor Program 2004-2005 stamped (top left) (no E)
Ruby and Sapphire Set numbered & logo © 2005 - This card is missing the E-Reader Logo © 2005 and Can be found in ExDeoxy/Emerald Theme Decks - (Fighting type may not exist as these theme decks did not have any fighting types)

(Ruby and Sapphire) - Un-numbered, no logo ©2005 - Most probably theme deck released

(Ruby and Sapphire) - Un-numbered, no logo ©2006 - Most probably theme deck released
(Ruby and Sapphire) - Un-numbered, no logo ©2006 Matrix Pokémon League 2006-2007
MISCELLANEOUS:
Metal Energy (Winner) (Jumbo) Ruby and Sapphire 94/109 2003 - Promo
Darkness Energy (Holo) Ruby and Sapphire 93/109 2004 Cosmos (has E) Cosmo Holo version of Ruby & Sapphire card
Darkness Energy (Holo) (Winner) Ruby and Sapphire 93/109 2004 Cosmos Winner Stamped (has E) Cosmo Holo version of Ruby & Sapphire card
Metal Energy (Holo) Ruby and Sapphire 94/109 2003 Cosmos (has E) Cosmo Holo version of Ruby & Sapphire card
Metal Energy (Holo) (Winner) Ruby and Sapphire 94/109 2003 Cosmos Winner Stamped (has E) Cosmo Holo version of Ruby & Sapphire card

Maybe this can help you :grin:

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@credits I had no idea R&S had so much variation. Can the same be said for any of the other EX sets?
I’m wondering if there are any Pichu card variants I might be missing.

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For the ex Pokemon cards:
-Non-Shattered Holofoil Articuno,Moltres,Zapdos ex FRLG. Have seen the articuno a few times
-Groudon/Kyogre ex Nintendo Promo blact star 001/002 non-holo thin boarder (no e-series dotted thing)

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I only dealt with the energy cards, so could not say about pichus, sorry

Wow I had no idea about all those varients for ruby and sapphire either. That’s wild!

One obscure thing that comes to my mind is for the EX delta species set. There is a larvitar and dratini that came from a Finish comic book, or magazine or something called Donald Duck and Friends. They are just like their normal non holo cards in the set but with the stamp a reverse holo from the set would have.

Pokemon cards and their ridiculous varients can be such a daunting endeavor!

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Oh, I knew about most of the ones mentioned by @credits , but didn’t knew there were cards from the same ‘set’ with copyright dates from 2003, 2004, 2005, AND 2006. TIL, thanks @credits ! :blush:

Well, most has already been said, so not much to add (EDIT: not much to add, and here I ended up with this wall of text and pictures, rofl). The checklist provided by @dizzylochs is originally compiled by @tonysandlin and can be found in this thread. A great source which I use as well when making my Pokemon specific lists.

Three minor non-English things to add perhaps:

  1. The ‘English’ Energy cards without border and logo from the Theme Decks can be found in both the English theme decks and German sets. Although all other Energy cards in German are spelled ‘Energie’, this isn’t the case for the Energy cards from these EX era sets, which are spelled as ‘Energy’ and are a.f.a.i.k. identical to the English cards. Also note that all French, German, Italian, etc. versions of the EX era sets will be without the bar, unlike the English sets. The ‘Energy’ cards from the German set which are identical to the English theme deck cards can just be pulled from the set packs. (A.f.a.i.k. - not 100% sure about this one, since I’ve never seen any prove pack opening videos of German packs. I do know this set is released in German, and the Energy cards I’ve received from sellers which had it listed as German were all with ‘Energy’.

  2. English Uncommon cards from the EX Emerald set only have a single non-Holo code in Eric’s spreadsheet. But for whatever reason the foreign releases has two codes for the Uncommons instead of one, where the second code is identical to the code of the Reverse Holo versions. I for example included the Battle Frontier trainer card in my Seviper collection (since it contains a Seviper in its artwork), and for German, French, Italian, and Portuguese I have both the codes 2SC-NZB-1E1 and 2SC-NZB-IJA for the non-Holo card, but for the English I’ve only been able to find the code 2SC-NZB-1E1 for non-Holo (I’ve checked over 150 copies of this card in English, and none had the code ending in -IJA).

  3. In English, the Commons usually have three different codes; Uncommons one or two depending on the set; and Energy cards usually two as well. The same applies to European foreign releases (German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese). The Japanese sets however, contain four different codes for Commons (both in 1st and unlimited edition; so eight unique versions for a non-Holo Common card from the set actually). Uncommons and Energy cards I’m not sure, but both will have at least two codes.

The codes of promo cards, Reverse Holo cards, Rares, Holofoil Rares, stamped cards, etc. will all be the same for the specific card. I don’t know any example where there are multiple different codes available for let’s say a promo card of the EX era. So in terms of codes you’ll only have to worry about set released non-Holo Commons, Uncommons, and Energy cards (see Eric’s spreadsheet for the English releases - unfortunately there isn’t a comparable spreadsheet for Japanese sets).

And to clarify some of the cards mentioned earlier by @aquaz and @mikejofthecoast with some pictures:

Kyogre/Groudon ex:
Original holofoil versions (given to participants of the Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire Challenge in the US in August 2003):

Regular non-Holo versions (inserts in the Nintendo Power magazine of October 2003):

Rare no bar non-Holo versions (inserts in the Australian K-Zone kids magazine):

EX FireRed LeafGreen Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres:
Regular Shattered Glass Holofoil versions (part of the set):

Non-Shattered Holofoil version (error - I only have a picture of an Articuno (as well as a second miscut one here)):

Non-Holo EX Delta Species Dratini and Larvitar with set stamp:
The non-Holo common versions are available with three different non-Holo codes, as well as a Reverse Holo in the set.

The non-Holo versions with stamp were inserts in the Swedish/Danish Donald Duck Magazine #49 of December 6, 2005:

A non-Holo version of the 035 Nintendo promo Pikachu was also available in the Swedish magazine Pokémon Official Magazine Summer Special, released in 2007:
https://instagram.com/p/BRGt129DSZ2

And there are probably more variations I’ve missed tbh. Not to mention all kind of language exclusive variations. :wink:

Greetz,
Quuador

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Thank you for being willing to share all of that. It is seriously impressive that you have been able to put that together. It is so much more comprehensive and there are far more variants from all the sets than I would have ever imagined. This unfortunately is a nightmare for me and my competitionist mentality so I think I’m just going to pretend like I never saw that master list and move on in life.
Jk. But i now need to reconsider what I’m actually going to do as far as editing my “collecting goal” and I need to rearrange my binders. Thank you again!

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There are also some cards with the e-reader layout but completely blank borders with neither an e-reader code or the placeholder vertical bars. The english ex series took their sweet time with phasing out the e-reader layout, with a lot of inconsistencies from RS to Magma & Aqua. All other languages seemed to just use the non e-reader layout starting with RS