I keep getting the wrong Jigglypuff and I am mad.

General
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I don’t have many IRL peers who would relate to this frustration so I am taking advantage of the “need to vent” part of this subforum to express my built up annoyance over the last few weeks.

I am not really angry at anybody. Unless you are really researched or invested in the hobby, it is very difficult to tell cards apart from one another. People are going through their childhood collections trying to make sense of their cards and list them accurately and it is a challenge in any language, but I am sure is even moreso with Japanese cards and their many more minute variations and differences. But over the last few weeks I have ended up on the wrong end of this numerous times and due to the language barrier and proxy purchases there is nothing I can really do about it.

I am currently collecting vintage Japanese promos. Some cards were distributed multiple times with a different finish, or altered art, or re-released many years later as anniversary items. This creates a ton of opportunity for error with many, many cards listed as something different than what they actually are because the owner has mistaken them for a different release. I review every photo carefully before I buy and weed out a lot of these mislistings early, but I keep getting burned by one card in particular: 1996 Glossy Jigglypuff from CoroCoro.

I do not even like this card. I think it’s one of the most truly hideous Pokémon cards ever released. It had two distributions in 1996 - a glossy version and an non-glossy version. It is usually paired with the “Ivy” Pikachu, which it was distributed alongside in each case.

The first one I bought was listed as glossy, but arrived as non-glossy.

The second one I bought alongside a Pikachu, which was fine as I needed both. Pikachu was glossy as advertised, but Jigglypuff was not.

The third one was also listed alongside a Pikachu. The Pikachu was undesirable quality, but the Jigglypuff looked good. I decided to spring for the duo because I really wanted to lock down this Jigglypuff. But once again, Pikachu was glossy and Jigglypuff was not.

So for the fourth time I way overpaid and spent more money than I spent on all the others combined on an expensive listing on eBay just so if it was wrong again I would have some form of communication or recourse. I am not happy about that, but at least I can say beyond any doubt that the card is correct. The cards are still coming from Japan so they haven’t arrived yet, so this wound has not really healed yet.

Four times is a lot to have to buy an ugly card that you hate. And I wasted a lot of money over the many attempts that I could have spent on other cards to finish this category, not to mention the time spent waiting for the international shipments just to be disappointed. It just feels bad. Listings on Mercari and Yahoo are only 50/50 on whether or not they’ll have a clear picture of the card, let alone a picture of the back of the card. A lot of the time it’s hard to tell and you can’t take the user description for granted. All the “please do not buy if you are nervous” disclaimers have started to get to me because now I am nervous all the time.

This is my new least favorite card. I look forward to receiving it so I never have to buy it again. Boo.

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@stagecoach, I get this frustration all too well.

As many would state in a collectors state of mine, the thrill is the chase. However, sometimes the chase is very, very annoying with many barries along the way such as the ones youve just experienced. I myself can relate in a similar way with some plush ive just got into that are seemingly fake and now puts another bump in the road for my goals. Its not exactly the same, but the emotions behind it for sure are which is why i bring that up.

But if theres one thing being in the collector space has taught me its that patience is key. By nature, there will always be little hiccups that prevent us from achieving the end result of what we desire. But the more you stay in with a positive mindset, the more likely those dreams will end up becoming reality. Just have to let those bad experiences fizzle out and keep your eye on the prize for the long term.

Im rooting for you and youve got this!!

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It’s actually one of my favorite cards ever :grin:

All hail Kinebuchi.

Here’s a tip. The glossy one is very heavily saturated. The non glossy is very pale, very unsaturated by comparison. Hopefully this helps you. You are welcome to PM me a listing and I can tell you straight away with one look at the front.

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I don’t really have time to check, but with the Glossy vs non-Glossy Pikachu you can see a difference in the Energy symbols of weakness and resistance as well. Not sure if the same also applies to the Jigglypuff?

And I also know the feeding of certain cards that just take multiple tries and bumps along the road before you finally have it in hands. For me the worst case of that was the Italian HGSS Pikachu with Pokémon Day stamp. It first took two years before one finally popped up for auction, which I won for 40 bucks. While it was incoming, of course another one pops up for sale soon after for 25 bucks (funny how that always happens with cards you’re searching for for years, where a cheaper copy pops up the week after you’ve finally bought one - happened quite a lot of times to me…). Anyway, because I already had one incoming, I ignored the 25 bucks one, and it sold the next day. Fast forward about a month, and my won card still hadn’t arrived. I said to myself to wait one more week before asking a refund (I had already contacted the seller, but never received a response). Due to some other things I ended up forgetting about it for a few weeks, and only remembered just after the 45 days eBay refund period was gone. So no card, and byebye 40 bucks. Halve a year later, another one popped up for sale (for 20 bucks or so iirc). I bought it, a month went by again, and it also didn’t arrive… :unamused: I checked to make sure it wasn’t the same seller as last time, which wasn’t the case fortunately. When I contacted the seller he was pretty responsive, and we agreed to wait one more week. After that week it still hadn’t arrived, so I received a refund. At that point I deemed this card cursed… About 1.5 months later another popped up for sale. This time I let a friend of mine buy it, and after it arrived I let him ship it to me. Pretty stupid, I know, since it having to be shipped twice only increases the risk something could go wrong, but partially for fun and partially because I had such bad luck with this card, I let it ship to my friend, and he forwarded it to me. After that I finally had the card in hand. :blush: And tbh, because of all this shenanigans I actually appreciate it more now, haha.

Greetz,
Quuador

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I completely understand this because I tried to grab a copy that was listed as glossy and when I received it, it wasn’t. Honestly I just moved on because I had other things on my list I wanted even more, but it’s definitely frustrating. I didn’t even take time to send a message or anything to the seller, I just threw it in a pile and it’s sitting in a dark, forgotten spot right now.

I hope you’re able to secure a copy very soon, good luck!!

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If it makes you feel any better I need one of these for a binder and am in the same boat. I have multiple non glossy and no glossy.

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I’ve had this happen a few times. Sometimes it’s my own ignorance or rush and not double checking, other times it’s for a listing that was incorrect but the fees and return packaging was more of a headache than trying to scramble to search for a seller’s Japanese email and try to get them to talk one-on-one.

Sometimes this turns out for the best though - one of my favorite cards was one I had NO attachment to whatsoever with the exception it was a meh Gyarados trainer card, but it had slipped by my hands so many times that when I finally got it, I immediately felt a great appreciation for it.

Who knows - maybe the same will happen with you. :blush:

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I suppose there’s no accounting for taste. :stuck_out_tongue:

The thing about the saturation has been tricky for me. I have seen some listings where its instantly apparent from the photo. You can clock it from a mile away because it’s so much darker than the non-glossy print. But in some pictures it doesn’t look as dark, which shakes my confidence. Even in the listing I bought (still waiting for it), it doesn’t look as dark as some of its more obvious counterpart listings.

972×690 207 KB

I am still confident this is the correct card (you can see the glossy edge in the top right) but after making the wrong purchase several times I hesitate and worry that sure, it’s dark, but is it dark *enough*? It’s enough to keep me up at night.

Thank you everyone else for the reassurances. I know it’s something we’ve probably all been through. This is just the most amount of times I’ve been through it on the same card. I guess comparatively it was not as hard to buy as the Japanese English VHS Mewtwo #3. And less expensive too. But I really wanted that card so I was more on board with the struggle to acquire it. This card I just want to slot in and stop thinking about. Terrible vibes!

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That’s the glossy one, @stagecoach! :grin:

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Can you imagine if it wasn’t though lol

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Maybe the seller had multiple copies and send a non-Glossy one, though. :dk: (sorry, I hope your pain will end soon once the Glossy version has arrived)

Greetz,
Quuador

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No, I understand your frustration. When I was trying to buy an alternate art staff Cynthia I kept getting the staff version but the normal art OR the alternate art but non staff version. What even made it worse was that all of these were listed as NM and some of them surely were not NM. It took some time and a lot of returns until I just messaged a seller and explained a situation and they pulled through and had the exact card. I think some people don’t try enough to make sure something is something which can be a little frustrating for sure. I’ve learned that sometimes it’s easier to take a breather and maybe walk away for a bit, just so you don’t build up some frustration on it.

As a side note, when I was going through this, there were none on ebay so I was using tcgplayer. That’s why I didn’t know what I was buying was exactly what I wanted lol

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Oh boy, this makes me a bit nervous as I was just about to start searching for the glossy Pikachu. Can anyone give some tips on how to spot one? I heard someone say they’re more saturated, and there may be ways to tell based on how the energies look?

I’m going to try and avoid having to make my own post here with this card by asking all of this first, although, because of how ebay works, I guess it’ll always be possible.

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Pikachu is easy because the artist is misprinted as Ken Sugimori (barring extraordinarily rare corrected prints, which would not likely be where you were starting). The typical glossy print says Ken Sugimori instead of Ken Kinebuchi whereas the How to Play non-glossy print is correct to begin with.

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As @stagecoach mentions above, if you’re going for the original CoroCoro 1996 glossy Pikachu, indeed just look at the illustrator. There are four different Japanese versions (two of which are very rare and I’m still looking for myself), but the original one you want is the only one with error Ken Sugimori illustrator, and all the other versions (except for the Portuguese Pikachu World Collection 2000 version for some reason) will have the correct Keiji Kinebuchi illustrator.

Greetz,
Quuador

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Thank you to you and Quuador for the info. Makes it a million times easier, time to start hunting for a good deal :open_mouth:

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Here are some pics that might help, glossy seems to be a bit darker in person (Edit: Just realized Jigglypuff has much more contrast in the glossy, the non-glossy he’s more washed out), in photos it’s very difficult unless they take a pic with a flash UNSLEEVED (Right click on pic > “Open image” will yield a larger photo):

Non-Glossy Left and Glossy Right:

https://i.imgur.com/Z3ynyxB.jpg(image larger than 4 MB)

https://i.imgur.com/c9dGYNb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/c9dGYNb.jpg4032×3024 3.45 MB

Find the non-glossy:

https://i.imgur.com/12Ttu81.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/12Ttu81.jpg4032×3024 1.91 MB

https://i.imgur.com/5qC3nQP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5qC3nQP.jpg4032×3024 3.88 MB

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