Italian Psyduck (WP 20): does it exist?

General Question
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Hi all! I’m an Italian collector, and this is my first thread on this wonderful forum. Like many of us, I used to collect cards as a kid but rediscovered the hobby a few years ago. Since then, I’ve been collecting all Wizards-era sets that were printed in Italian, i.e. they’re the ones I would’ve had as a kid. :smiley:

Since I am kind of a completionist, I’m also interested in all the promo cards that have been distributed in italian language. Some of them are quite common and easy to find, some other ones are rather obscure. In particular, the Psyduck (WB 20) promo is the one I’m currently researching: does an Italian version actually exist? I tend to think so, but I’ve found very little information so far.

Here is my evidence:

  1. This thread list the Psyduck as printed in several European languages (German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese).

  2. The page on Cardmarket shows many languages available, including Italian. A Spanish and a Portuguese version are currently for sale.

  3. In this amazing post by @Quuador there’s the strongest piece of evidence I’ve found: a photo of the promo card from an old eBay auction:

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  4. Distribution method: every wiki I checked said that it was distributed in Pokémon Leagues in November 2000. An archived version of the WoTC website of November 2000 adds more detail, mentioning the Pokémon TCG League – Victory Road Season, which in Italian would roughly translate to Lega Pokémon GCC – Stagione Via Vittoria.

    I’ve asked every collector I know about this card, but so far I haven’t managed to find any more information. If you have any proof or insights, please share them with me — let’s find this card! :smile:

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It does exist, but is unfortunately extremely rare. There are a bunch of foreign WotC era promo cards which are almost non-existent, and this Italian Psyduck (and I think also this same Psyduck in German, French, Spanish and Portuguese iirc :thinking: ) are among them.

I’m also still missing the Spanish Surfing/Flying Pikachu, and German Flug-Pikachu, both also shown in that old eBay listing you’ve linked. Coincidentally, I recently added the equally as rare German Surf-Pikachu to my collection, after I had looked for it for roughly ten years. This was only the third copy I had seen in those ten years, so I’m beyond happy to finally add it to my collection, and I hope I can say the same about the other three I’m missing one day. :slight_smile:

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The three I’m still missing I’ve only seen twice each thus far as well. One time in that auction, which ended up in thepikachucollector’s collection, and once before here on the forum.

As for information, it’s unfortunately even harder to find than the cards itself. :pensive_face: I don’t know when these cards were released (I assume somewhere 2001 based on the copyright dates); I don’t know how they were released; I don’t know how many copies were given out; and I don’t even know if they were ever officially released at all.

This last part is primarily because:

  1. That auction of foreign promos you’ve linked was sold by a US seller whom had found the cards somewhere in storage.
  2. The German Surf-Pikachu I bought was also from a US seller, who mentioned he got them from an ex WotC employee.

Given how few copies of these there are, and most collectors from Spain/Germany don’t even know about the existence of these Surfing/Flying Pikachu cards (and same applies to your Italian Psyduck for most Italian collectors), I’m starting to feel like these were made but never officially released, and all the copies we see out there came from ex WotC employees.

But again, I honestly don’t know. They could also be some very rare tournament prizes that only took place in a few small LGS events within their countries. I’ve heard some rumors the German Birthday Pikachu, which I’ve also only seen 7 copies of in ten years time, was once a tournament prize.
But unfortunately, it’s mostly rumors, and I’ve yet to see any release info for these rare cards in European languages anywhere.. :frowning:

EDIT: As for the mentioned Pokémon TCG League - Victory Road Season, that applies to just the English release of this Psyduck promo. The foreign ones are likely distributed differently (if distributed at all, as mentioned before). Just like how the Italian W-stamped Jungle Pikachu is released different than the English ones: in Italy, it was released inside a Topolino (Donald Duck) comic; whereas in English, it was inside The Duelist Magazine. Although some kind of event similar to the TCG League in Italy sounds pretty reasonable for these promos.

Greetz,
Quuador

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Thanks for the reply!

Why do you think so? I am aware of the Italian W-stamped Jungle Pikachu (I have one myself! :smiley: ), but there was a TCG League in Italy (Lega Pokémon) and I think that promos were distributed there, at least in some cases. In this old TV commercial they explicitly say that “you can win medals (i.e. badges) and promo cards”. Do you have any evidence suggesting otherwise?

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@achille im very interested in knowing if any italian promos you have came from Belgium…

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Why is that? :smiley:

I think I have bought cards from Belgium, but not any promo if I remember correctly.

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I was primarily referring to the ‘Victory Road Season’ part. :slight_smile: It’s indeed likely that the WotC promos that were distributed at Pokémon League events in the USA, had a similar release method for foreign cards within their own countries, like Lega Pokémon for Italy as you mentioned.

And the Pikachu with W-stamp was mostly used as an example where the same card can have different releases across the different languages. I tried to find an English vs Italian example, since it would hit closest to you, but unfortunately there aren’t too many where the releases are different. A better examples would be comparing English vs Japanese releases, where a promo in one language could be a regular set card in another.
Although both are promos in the case of the Psyduck, and I agree that if it was released, it’s likely released at some Lega Pokémon event, it’s not a guarantee. Similar cards could be released very differently across different languages/countries. :person_shrugging:

Greetz,
Quuador

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Been very interested in what cards they printed. It helps establish a timeline for when printing occured and its just overall good to know imo. pretty easily identifiable too in most cases if youre willing to look around your collection.

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Update: I managed to get in touch with some former Italian WotC employees, but unfortunately none of them has any recollection of the Psyduck promo. I also contacted several famous Italian collectors, but I didn’t get any insights.

Any suggestion about how to proceed further? I’m not giving up! :smiley:

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Have you posted on Pokemon Station Facebook? Maybe some random collector knows…

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Just posted there, thank you for the suggestion. By the way, I’m also trying to get in touch with the local stores that, according to an archived version of the WotC website, hosted the Lega Pokémon: maybe they remember something…

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Hi!

I own the card in the picture. I recognize the low-rez image of that Ebay auction. It was purchased by the French collector le cartable vert (ig), who sold all Psyducks of that insanely rare lot to me, except for the French one.

Here is my instagram post about them: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPiP3JJJN5D/?igsh=MW5yZjkwMTNzaHVrbg==

Since then I have come across a couple of Spanish and Portuguese Black Star Psyducks, and heard about 1 other german. But I have never ever heard about another Italian one. I think partially because the Italian Pokemon TCG community is seemingly not that large?

Sorry to say that the Italian and German Psys in my collection are NFS. But I am posting the Spanish and Portuguese on Ebay as we speak!

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I have a huge headache myself with EX era obscure Italian promos…not sure if it’s completely a card population issue or just a matter of the community being small. So cool so see that Psyduck!

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