Majority are unhappy with the vagueness of the process (on here and IG, at least). A few people have sent theirs in so could be worth holding out for a week or two to see what happens
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The statement from CGC really wasnāt one; it lacks empathy or clarity, mixed with their standard hubris. I know there are already cards on their way, so those will help us understand an outcome. The process shouldnāt be this unown, but that is the result when the customer isnāt the priority.
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Btw I thought again to the argument already raised by some people about the inconsistency between the date of Ken Sugimoriās revised artworks and the fact that the beta are supposedly from 1996.
It is quite true 
I looked for the date of appearance of these revised artworks.
We find them in the CoroCoro of May 1997 (therefore published in April 1997) and many products from May 1997 (the Fan Book, the Slowpoke promo card, etc.). On the CoroCoro before May 1997, we only see the first version of Ken Sugimoriās artworks.
Moreover, we notice that in the Jungle expansion (released in March 1997), all of Ken Sugimoriās artworks are those of the first version, while in the Fossil expansion (released in June 1997), all of Ken Sugimoriās artworks are the revised versions.
The first teaser of the Jungle cards is in the CoroCoro of February 1997 (therefore released in January 1997). If they already had the revised artworks, they would have used them for sure (otherwise what is the point of making new ones?).
So itās reasonable to think that Ken Sugimoriās revised artworks were indeed made somewhere between January and April 1997. Which therefore excludes beta to be from 1996 as they are using themā¦
Another problem is that between the alpha and the final version of the cards in the Base Set, there are a lot of differences in text, attacks, etc.
While between the beta and the final versions of the Jungle or Fossil cards, there are very few big differences (some are just text in parentheses that skip, or the end of text that skip because there is no more space (cf. the Gastly), 1 energy in less or more, there are no Pokemon Power too on all the card concernedā¦).
It was already linked, but someone did an incredible job here to quickly compare them all: https://www.pokemonaaah.net/research/prototype/cards/
This is as if the beta cards were created based on the Jungle or Fossil ones (for the PokĆ©mon concerned), and not created beforeā¦
I might change what I said before, and go with the camp of those who think that even the beta cards were also created from scratch recently
But this assumes that the scammers had access to the revised artworks with the original colors (they are not found elsewhere than in the Fan Book I think, and sometimes the artworks are cut in this book, so it cannot be a simple scan/cutout of them I think).
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Itās very unlikely playtests were used only for base, as you still need to make cheap quick cards to playtests with and you would not send off to the factory and have playtests made. Wotc did, and still does this today with magic, and used to just put stickers on blank cardstock for Pokemon playtests cards as well.
If beta was something that existed back in 1997 it would in my opinion def not be for base, but further testing of the game to expand to the rest of the Pokedex. I donāt really believe any of the ones we have now are those cards, but I would bet they did exist in some form, whether like the ones we see now or some other form to test the new cards for future sets
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Itās easy to have posts buried in this thread but hereās the one I made regarding this if you (or anyone) missed it.
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I sent mine in and will be providing updates as I get them from CGC.
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This is the unfortunately catch 22. There are many things in which no expert will ever disclose. For instance, Samuel Bell was a famous early knife maker, but for the sake of avoiding counterfeits, his marks and other identifiers have never been made public.
The good thing about all of this is that itās easy to get metadata. I mean the FBI used it to catch BTK. Iām sure once some federal crime has been brought to light, an agency like the FBI or Secret Service will be involved at some point. (Secret Service investigates forged currency)
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Purchased three beta playtest last month, have not scanned any of them yet but based on certs I donāt have much confidenceā¦
I own:
Gastly - 9
Poliwhirl - 9.5
Poliwhirl - 10 w/ Akabane sig.
I may send in the Poli 9.5 to cgc to see the process through while maintaining evidence for litigation should they not do the right thing. Just here to say thank you to the contributors, and happy to support in any way. #WeArethe.03percent
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your second clefairy is the corocoro one
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Sell 10 million of fake cards, grab some pennies on grading fees, invest in a business which will yield another 10 million in a year and start returning buyers their 10 million.
Now thatās how you get a free investment. Well done CGC.
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What if they were made in late 1997 or 1998 for some other purpose and are not prototypes?
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I have not sent mine in, i have a hq beta and my concerns are if they cant prove its fake they may say its real even though they can not prove its actually real, also if they deem it fake do i get reimbursed and what happens? Also they said if thr card gets damaged while they are handling it its not their fault. I am demanding that heritage pay me back and waiting for an email back from them before i do anything. Heritage can send it back to cgc if they want.
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If the alpha dot pattern cards turns out to be legit I am just going to hold onto mine. If they are reproductions I will weigh up my options based on the response of CGC to the cards being sent in now and if Fanatics offers an alternative route of compensation.
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I think Iāve been able to partially decode the alpha pattern. The pattern DOES have the ability to encode time. But it seems like in many cases the time doesnāt end up being put in. The code uses a base-6 number system. Two digits (dots) are used to represent each of day, month, year, hour. This represents about 30% of the data that could theoretically be stored in the pattern. Some printers put in this information, others have straight 0s in all the datetime positions. It looks model-specific. For example, I have 7 patterns from Konica Minolta Magicolor 2300 DL and none have the datetime.
Very unfortunately, the alpha pattern does not include the date - or possibly itās encoded a different way. In theory, it still may be possible to decode the printer model, which I believe I may have identified a clue to that.
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Its the kind of thing I would hope CGC would be able to get to the bottom of (and then be transparent about). I donāt think CGC could āre-authenticateā legitimately without understanding the dot pattern (not that the dot pattern is enough to authenticate with on its own necessarily). Ideally some collaboration from Akabane would be good, if he has details about which printer models were used (if anyone has a line of contact with him). Apart from that I hope that we can muster something in this thread. It is also possible the alpha dot pattern cards are proven reproductions by others means than the dot pattern ofc. Your analysis, true to form bears the most fruit so far.
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Did cgc update anyone regarding the sending in etc? Last email i got from them was regarding that they will update the site as needed bla bla
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No, nothing. I asked them 2137 times about more details about refunds or possible outcomes but they only copy paste previous message.
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Hi! Do you need high quality scan of 1995 black & white alpha proto? I have one.
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CGCs own investigation is just refreshing this page every hour
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Unfortunately it wonāt be able to tell me much. That one might need require some kind of paper or ink dating.
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