I was big on Pokemon in my teens, that was quite a while ago now, I was even a gym leader (I’m married, sorry). I stopped when someone borrowed then stole my deck and pieced out the cards and I just lost heart and I felt a bit old for it and decided to do other stuff.
Now many years later I started picking up a few packs for fun with my wife and then that evolved in to entering and winning a competition for a sealed Team Rocket booster box, which I sold almost immediately as I was too scared to keep it for long.
With that money though I decided to have a bit of fun and try to collect every English unlimited Raichu card in mint condition. As you’ll see that evolved in to including 1st editions. The tickets are space holders for ones I know are missing. If you’re interested I can share my master spreadsheet with the list of all the ones I know about.
Why Raichu? I just like that bean, I think he’s a great pokemon and I had him in my first team.
So I’m at 135 including the box topper/jumbo with my maths at needing 152 total (until Paldea evolves next month, which adds 3 more). I have 7 cards about to come back from grading, not having much luck there as only 2 of them seem to be 9’s including two cosmos hard to get cards which I bought new in blister. I can track most of these because the pop reports are tiny for most Raichu cards. There are a handful that I am really struggling to find in good condition so we’ll have to see how it goes. I’ve hit a brick wall which is why I’m sharing.
I have accepted there are four that just won’t happen and that’s fine as they were never available for general release anyway
Prerelease Base Set Raichu - I’m still not convinced it exists but you’re all more englightened than I am. If it does exist there’s no way I’d be able to bid and win it anyway so it’s a moot point.
Jasmine’s Raichu - just too few of them in English to have a chance of getting it.
The not released promo (BW78 I think it was). No idea if it ever made it to print or if it was just an art preview. Haven’t seen one in the wild so I’m assuming it doesn’t exist.
Cosmos Holo Raichu Fossil - I saw an 8.5 on ebay a few months back but it was too rich for me.
I hope when I hit submit all the photos will appear, forgive me if not, I’m new here. I can upload the other photos in a comment if it works!
I have a couple coming from America that I have tracked down but the final missing ones are
Mr Stone’s Project - EX Emerald and EX Dragon Frontiers - Non- Holo - 79 and 77
Raichu - HS Trainer Kit - Non-Holo - 19/30
Raichu XY Base - Holo - 43
Raichu XY Base - Cosmos Holo - 43 (Had two of these new in blister and both are
coming back as low grades)
Raichu - Burning Shadows - Cosmos Holo - 41 (Had two of these new in blister and both are coming back as low grades)
Kangaskhan - Unified Minds - Reverse Holo - 9 (Got an 8.5 coming back in a couple weeks)
Drifblim - Unified Minds - Rare and Reverse Holo - 81 (I have the cards here but they don’t look guaranteed 9’s)
Raichu - Evolving Skies - Reverse Holo (Got an 8.5 coming back in a couple weeks)
Sewaddle - Fusion Strike - 9 - Common/Reverse Holo (Got an 8.5 common coming back in a couple weeks - yes I’m being that picky, it has a tiny Raichu on it, my reverse holo doesn’t look a guaranteed 9)
Alolan Raichu - SM65 - Oversized - these are very poorly cut, I’ve ordered a few and they all look rough. Not sure how they’ll grade.
Received some more from grading that I already knew the grades for. Except for Sewaddle which was a nice surprise and shows how dedicated/stupid (delete as appropriate) I am being to this.
I am struggling on the cosmos holo blister front, the 7.5 must be a ding I can’t make out with my eye as the card is really clean. And the 8.5 is fair with the surface scratches (top left) but I needed the 9 to satisfy this mission. The cards rattle about too much in the blister as I got these new and opened them myself.
If I get drifblim from unified minds sent away soon and get the 9 then i have every card just not every variation.
I make it 12 left to go now that I know i haven’t hit the 9’s
Okay so not strictly the mission but these guys would gladly stop me by stealing so they count okay? I have a small autograph collection and couldn’t pass up the chance as I have been seeking a meowth for a while.
First 2 were proving hard to get so that’s a lovely buy and the last one was a replacement as I bought an Ace graded one in my rush (not wanting anything but the big 3 graders for this one).
I have managed to buy another non stamped Mr Stone’s Project (EX Emerald) leaving Dragon Frontiers to find and I am hopeful that I have a good HS Trainer deck non holo 19 on the way to me.
That’d leave 14 to go now that Paldea Evolved is out of which I have 4 ready to submit. Getting there but the last Mr Stone’s Project will prove to be difficult I think.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I like his “it’s not considered real till someone wants to buy it” approach. Right guy at the right time for sure.
Irrelevant for me as i’m never going to have the funds for that!
So with today’s arrival of the Mr Stone’s Project i have now got 1 of every card in the hunt. Not convinced they are all mint worthy but at least i’ll have one of every card graded and can replace them.
I sent the big pile off to PSA last week so fingers crossed there’s a majority of 9’s and 10’s. Plus some random ones and autos.
I need to replace one coin as it came scratched but i’ll send those off shortly too
Because I use a middleman I only get my grades when the cards arrive in hand or if i’m organised on pop reports. Given these are very unpopular efforts it’s been easy to track.
It looks like my sub updated this morning and it’ll leave me 4 (+1) cards left to track down as mint to be up to date to 151 (which I have but haven’t subbed).
Mr Stone’s Project - EX Dragon Frontiers - 77 - non stamp
XY Base - 43 - Holo
Burning Shadows - 41 - Cosmos Holo (Team Up Blister)
Kangaskhan - 9 - Unified Minds - Reverse Holo
And a bonus jumbo - Alolan Raichu - SM65 Black Star.
I’ve got Mr Stone’s Project and Kangaskhan in 8.5 from cgc so i could crack and resub at psa and cross my fingers.
The xy base has been a pain, I can only assume no one cared enough for the card to look after it. I think it’s an 8 as my highest grade.
And the cosmos holo has been a disaster for me. Failed to get above a 7.5 from cgc quite a few times and there are no more new in blister packs I can find. Which given the cards rattle about in the blister has been my issue of scoring mint.
The jumbo will be tricky too given how bad the edges are cut generally are on those, I sent one I thought was decent to Becketts and the parcel went missing! What a pain.
But overall I did very well on this sub, 4 cards left is pretty amazing, I only started this about 14 months ago.
It’ll be nice to get it wrapped up, assuming I can find these last ones. I would guess Raichu will get a rest for the next couple of sets to let me catch up
XY Base is rough for just about anything! I am constantly hunting for better copies of the holo and reverse for the XY Base Greninja. Anyway, awesome collection! Love seeing the dedication of another species collector.
I have received my latest graded cards putting me 4 cards plus a jumbo away from completing the set. Annoyingly i have them all in 8’s so i’m just being teased at this point. The guilty 4!
If I can get these 4 as mint i’m up to date on all cards till 151. Which would be a relief at this point
I also have received these which is good news as they are low pop (sewaddle and one of the drifblims being pop 1) so i was never going to find them on ebay
The cosmos holo xy raichu is a massive relief as that plus the burning shadows above have been a nightmare to find
I also just had some fun stuff graded (the hg/ss ones coming from the trainer kit i got the raichu above from) and some autos. Shame the sequential promos aren’t all mint but it’s still good
Sorry for filling your screen with bean after bean, I couldn’t get the slideshow to work for me.
I was getting the cards out to put in to a new storage so I thought I’d do a stocktake as of October 2023. I have a PSA 9 illustrated paldea rare on the way to me and every card since is in a pile for submission. I’m going to wait for the pokemon classic tcg box to come out as I suspect there won’t be a Raichu card for a while so it gives me a chance to put them all in at once.
I have put the 4 failures in their spots marked by the yellow tape. I think these will take a long time to nab as 9’s, if I could get the cosmos holo sorted the other 3 should turn up eventually.
Mr Stone’s Project - EX Dragon Frontiers
XY Base
Burning Shadows Cosmos Holo
Kangaskhan Unified Minds
So close, 2024 I’ll make it happen somehow and finish the mint set. Hope I’ve not missed any! The cards at the end are just for fun, I don’t have a particular aim for those besides pick them up as cheap as I can.
