This is also not true. Years ago there were only about 40 PSA 10 1st edition charizards. They were selling around $700 each. Today, there are 70 PSA 10 1st edition charizards. They sell between $4,000-5,000.
Saying that Illustrators would of sold for less if people knew 20 were produced is not only presumptuous but false. People already knew there were more than 4-6. Moreover, this magazine was printed in 1997. It is not like this was just published this year.
Ultimately, saying rarity is the only factor to demand is short sided and false. Even with the more frequent appearances of illustrators in the past few years, the prices have increased. Just as Charizards have, along with about every single card in pokemon.
Yes same, I am wondering if maybe there was another age group at this initial tournament. Perhaps there were up to 4 printed. Either way it’s time to dig up the old books
I have pictures of both No.3’s… the one m786ali bought is different from the one on Yahoo Japan when I bought the No.2 for Scott. Then of course there is Scott’s No.3 aswell.
I have seen 3 of each place…well actually four of the 3rd. I think we all rule out the possibility of them being able to hold multiple tournaments on the same day
Anyway the point I want to get across is do not buy cards based upon numbers! Remember this is a mass produced card game and printing many and limiting the release is much easier than printing just a few. Keep in mind that more of these cards did not just appear, they have been around since 1997. We were just misinformed.
Our hobby was driven by speculation, now that we are starting to weed out the facts it’s interesting to see what will happen.
never ever are there 90 trophy pikas in total! And Ali’s no. 3 is the one from YJ I guess… I think its very unlikely that they made different age divisions at the 1997/8 tournaments, then in 1999 made 2 different tournaments as age divisions and then from 2000 onwards again several age divisions at each tournament? That doesnt make sense IMO.
Mike, please provide photos of all 4 no. 3 trainers from 1997
I read that the Masaki Promos were printed in the region of 5000 cards. Now I don’t know if that was for all five holographic cards, or whether each holo was printed 5000 times.
Take it with a pinch of salt - I can’t remember where I read it, nor do I know if that total is accurate. But it’s definitely in the ballpark. The information in the table that each holo was printed between 21000-39000 times is almost certainly false.
@pokeg yes there are 90 total. There are roughly the same amount of English ones and how often do you see them for sale. Us collectors need a reality check and must separate fact from fiction. There were 7 tournaments in the Kamex mega battle and two age groups…thats 14 of each place alone. Math does not lie.
The third one on the list was sold at auction for around 2.6k about a year and a half ago. The fourth on in the list maybe an archival copy…but once again that is pure conjecture.
Which trainer Sold in auction? If it was the no.3 are we sure it’s not the same as Ali’s?
Also do you know for sure pikas were handed out at every blastoise/charizard tournament? And we shouldn’t refer to pikas as being 90 as that is misleading. There are not 90 no. 1’s floating around.
@smpratte Yes, I am sure it is different. Look at the holo patterns in the images I provided above, not to mention the lack of case. In fact your No.2 pikachu came from that seller!
@darkrai Given that Scotts card did not come with a case, I highly doubt the 3rd place did.
And no, that 90 total across three places, other words 30 of each. Judging by the TMB and SSB cards it is a safe bet that they were given out at each location. That being said without any magazine article or official word we can’t be certain.
Are the 27 tmb taking into account the year when they did not hand out cards? I just want to make sure we aren’t assuming that every tournament (pikas,tmb,ssb) distributed cards without knowing for sure.
Back to the Illustrator, it only caught my attention because it sold for $20,000 and was dubbed the rarest Pokemon card in history. Yeah, the story of the contest is pretty cool and all of that, but how does it separate it from other contests like the Snap cards? Stop fooling yourselves in an attempt to protect the Illustrator. It is NOT the rarest Pokemon card and its value is primarily born on the mystique of its print numbers and the idea that it is the rarest Pokemon card. This card would have NEVER sold for $20,000 way back when if this information was out there. Yeah, 20 cards is not a lot. But there are cards rarer than that and those don’t command a price anywhere near the Illustrator. Yes, the argument that there are not 20 that have surfaced does hold ground, and that is one of the main factors that will contribute to keeping its value $10,000 + but the price of the Illustrator won’t be as high as it was for a long long time. Maybe once all existing copies have surfaced and are stuck in collections, the price will go up because no one wants to sell, but that won’t be for a long time, and we can make another thread for that when it happens.
The difference between snap cards is that the Illustrator is much more unique. It literally says Illustrator. While just about every collector loves the snap promo cards including myself, they are base cards with different illustrations. If someone were to stumble upon them, the cards themselves do not explain themselves as concisely as the Illustrator.
Either way, saying the card would of not sold for what it did is completely hypothetical. Saying hypothetical examples as if they are fact is incorrect. And like I said before, this article we are referencing is from 1997… It was written before the 20k+ card sold.
And I guess no one likes to actually look at evidence that I typed, but look at psa 10 1st edition charizards. There are 30 more copies graded and they sell for 6-7 times more than what they sold for before when less copies were available. Even with the recent availability of illustrators, demand is increasing, prices are increasing.
. But still this could be an interesting topic (population of high end cards) to make an article/guide about right?!
