Japanese Unlimited E Series 1 Cards (Base Expansion Pack)

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5 chikoritas including yours and that’s the first time I’ve seen a cyndaquil as well

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I posted about these in the discord a little while ago but I found these in my bulk e-reader cards after sorting it all:

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What an amazing find, congrats

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Yeah that is really nice! Think we need others to have a sift through their collection, see if we can add more up and debunk the theory on the table currently.

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Yes yes please sort them through and do let me know if a 012 unlimited Charizard exist and would want to let it go for a nice price :yum::face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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To be fair, these were also acquired from a pretty high end collection auction I won a few years ago so don’t write it off too quickly haha

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I’d rather not to be honest, it’d benefit me greatly haha. Hopefully we’ll find out more.

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Just to keep adding to the annoyance of the unknown. You can also see an unlimited Pikachu on the front of some of the 1st Edition Decks, which I’ve only just remembered. It’s probably of no signficance, just interesting.

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Almost all promotional material associated with this set features digital images of unlimited cards.

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I can now confirm that the PSA 8 copy is the one I’d sent in.

I also recently picked up another played copy from YJA, bringing the total to 10 or 11:

Nothing special about the listing which would identify the source.

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So I was going through my graded card backlot and I have found Mint copies of the Unlimited Pikachu and Unlimited Pichu. I knew I had them somewhere!

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So jealous at the Pikachu. :slightly_frowning_face: One of the few cards still missing in my collection. If anyone comes across a spare one, or if you’re willing to part with your copy @thecardcenter :wink: , let me know. Or if anyone finds one for sale on YJ, you can also just buy it and sell it at triple the amount to me afterwards for all I care (if the price isn’t too high of course), haha.

Greetz,
Quuador

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I hope you find one, if I see one crop up I’ll let you know as I’m not concerned with having more than the one at the moment and if it helps you towards your goal then all the better!

I’d maybe sell if we could pinpoint their history, even then I’m not sure I would. Ideally I’d like it graded.
I’ve found the Auction ID from where I obtained all these Unlimited cards. I’m not sure if there’s a way to search old auctions and find the Seller’s name. Might be someone with a bit of expertise who can track it down and ask.
Auction ID: j508030315Auction Title: ポケモンカード 引退 旧裏面 多数
Auction End Date: 2018-08-26 21:14

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I’m certain this guy was your seller.

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I had been swayed over to the general consensus that both Charizard and Pichu were not part of the 2002 colouring contest set (after all, why would they be - they were not part of the Pokémon-e Starter Deck the set appeared to be based on). However recently I’ve noticed that Japanese sellers who are aware of the unlimited variant tend to own Charizard and Pichu alongside the other unlimited cards. This could just be a big coincidence, but to me it doesn’t feel right.

If the majority of the unlimited cards we’ve seen so far are solely distributed in that obscure 2002 set, I feel that perhaps Charizard and Pichu may have been given out alongside the sets or even included as part of the sets themselves, perhaps replacing cards which I do not believe have surfaced yet like Koffing or Hoppip.

That said, I now own 3 unlimited Pichus and in the past 6 months have actively chosen to ignore 2 separate auctions which included them. I’m aware now of 15 different unlimited Pichus, which I believe to be significantly more than any of the other unlimited cards (second to Charizard with 5 copies [edit: actually I’m aware of 8 Cyndaquils]). Could the contest have worked in a similar fashion to the Battle Road contests whereby the Pichu could have been a participation prize and the Charizard some sort of finalist prize? Heck, the Charizard may be just as common (for lack of a better word) as the Pichu itself… maybe?

To back up what I said before, here are some images from Japanese shopping sites:

  1. mhcqw353 on YJA with both unlimited Charizard and Pichu along with both Charmanders, Charmeleon and Clefairy: i.imgur.com/MakbO2C.png, i.imgur.com/1EtD7xf.png
  2. 切れ味 on Mercari with an unlimited Pichu along with 2 unlimited Chikoritas a Bulbasaur and a Charmander: i.imgur.com/WmViEpk.png

Here is the full list of cards contained in the Pokémon-e Starter Deck cross-referenced with known unlimited variants:

FixedThese cards always appear in the Pokémon-e Starter Deck:

RandomEight of these cards are included in the Pokémon-e Starter Deck at random:

  • 001/128 Koffing
  • 002/128 Hoppip
  • 003/128 Caterpie
  • 004/128 Ekans
  • 005/128 Oddish
  • 006/128 Vulpix
  • 007/128 Ponyta
  • 008/128 Poliwag
  • 009/128 Shellder
  • 010/128 Krabby
  • 011/128 Goldeen
  • 012/128 Magikarp
  • 013/128 Marill
  • 014/128 Qwilfish
  • 015/128 Corsola
  • 016/128 Pikachu - i.imgur.com/vd9zl0x.png
  • 017/128 Mareep
  • 018/128 Abra
  • 019/128 Gastly
  • 020/128 Diglett
  • 021/128 Machop
  • 022/128 Geodude
  • 023/128 Cubone
  • 024/128 Larvitar
  • 025/128 Pidgey
  • 026/128 Rattata
  • 027/128 Spearow
  • 028/128 Clefairy - i.imgur.com/t1uE8bD.jpg
  • 029/128 Meowth - i.imgur.com/7JtslYL.png
  • 030/128 Tauros
  • 031/128 Dratini
  • 032/128 Houndour

Notice how the majority of cards have yet to surface. Furthermore the 079/128 Charizard and 082/128 Pichu are not part of the mass-produced Pokémon-e Starter Deck which only had a 1st Edition release. choco7maron, who appears to have now deleted the posts about his unlimited collection, owns at least 2 Clefairy and 3 Meowth, likewise I’m aware of 3 Pikachus that have surfaced. With 32 cards available and only 8 picked at random per box, if there were 50 of the colouring contest sets give out statistically only 12 or 13 of each of the 32 random cards should exist, so the fact we’ve only seen 3 but we’ve seen multiples of those 3 is suspicious.

I’m leaning more to the conclusion that the colouring contest box likely had fixed contents which all included Meowth, Clefairy and Pikachu along with the Charizard and Pichu that aren’t part of the original Pokémon-e Starter Deck - perhaps it contained 2 or 3 Pichus in each box to make up numbers. Perhaps though that’s just what I want to believe as a Pichu collector - owning 3 of a card which potentially only had 50 copies distributed feels more like a pipe dream than a reality.

Anyway, I figure it’s worth sharing this here (you know, for the internet points):

https://instagram.com/p/CANzPVmFxQK

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The previous page contains a better picture :wink:

And the Charizard evolution line ended up at a whopping 588,888 JP Yen last week: page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/q372111367

I’m still looking for the Pikachu… :sob:

Greetz,
Quuador

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That auction ending price…

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Ikr!..And one of the two Charizard cards isn’t even unlimited.

That ending auction price definitely isn’t too good of a sign when a Pikachu does finally pop up for auction… I think I can expect a 300-600 USD price tag.

Greetz,
Quuador

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Is there any significance that the unlimited charizard has the expedition base set numbers while the evolution line has the starter Deck numbers?
I’m trying to think how these would have been printed.

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pokemoncard30.com/wordpress-010

If you read the replies at the bottom of this page people have claimed to have seen/own some others not included on your list of all know copies. I don’t think there are any extra photos though.

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