My Charmander Master Set (English)

[HolographicStash]

Greetings collectors. I finally found time to get this thread going for my English Charmander master set. As it grows closer to completion I’m getting more and more excited to finish it. Also more frustrated lol.

Currently I have 98* (fluid number). One of the challenges of this endeavor has been finding a straight forward complete list strictly for English (so any feedback is welcomed if I’m missing something). It seems every list has discrepancies so one of my goals after completing this will be posting a readily available list just for English in chronological order. From what I have gathered there are 105 (this number is also fluid) Charmanders, 106 if you include the 1 oversized card and 109 including the 3 weakness guards from Aquapolis (which I will not). I feel they are better fitted in a cameo set.

Note: These figures do NOT include Topps variations.

Charmander’s I’m missing:

1. Legendary Collection reverse holo
2. City Championship stamp holo
3. Delta species 61 Ditto Charmander Origins stamp 2007 promo non holo
4. Charmander 61 non holo (need 1 of the 3 different code variations).
5. EX Crystal Guardians reverse holo
6. Promo 44 Pokémon Center stamp
7. EBgames promo (I’m on the fence about including this).

The ultimate goal is to take my collection over the top and get the entire set sequentially graded by PSA. However, I have been on the fence about that as well. I’ve been as mindful as I can be about condition of each card and will probably comb back over all of them several times before submitting. But with this many submissions avoiding anything lower than a 7 and ideally every 8 and up will be a tall task especially with the vintage stuff.

If anyone has any of the cards I mentioned needing for sale please feel free to reach out.

Here is the binder and page 1 to start:

Thanks everyone!

Binder:

Page 1:

Pages 2-3:

Only card I’m missing from page 2 is the Legendary reverse.

I have the Charmander 97 Expedition reverse holo in a PSA 9 so I just use my back up regular copy as a placeholder.

The holo energy card marks the end of WOTC era.

Only card missing from page 3 is the City Championship stamp variant.

The divider is used a placeholder for the Charmander 58 from FireRed LeafGreen I have graded (CGC 9.5/10).

Pages 4-5:

Pages: 6-7

Pages: 8-9

In addition to the Charmander 7 reverse holo from Hidden Fates in the binder I have a PSA 10

Page 10:

The order towards the end may not be perfect. Will be sorting that out shortly.

In total I have 4 graded Charmanders:

#98 Expedition reverse holo PSA 9

#7 Hidden Fates reverse holo PSA 10

#46 Base set CGC 10

#58 Firered Leafgreen reverse holo CGC 10

———————————————————————————

I have a total of 3 sealed Charmanders:

Toys r Us

Build a Bear

Promo 44

[cwebfan23]

Love it!

One nitpick with eventually grading with PSA to get a sequential set is that more Charmander cards will eventually come up, so there will ultimately be a break in the order.

But then again, different strokes for different folks!

[HolographicStash]

Yea I would just have a hard cutoff like “first 25 years” or something along those lines.

[mrbubbles]

Really great collection goal and I absolutely love the binder. I wish you success in your hunt for the missing pieces. Great first page and I look forward to seeing more of them. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

[harvvu]

The dittomander is a must

[HolographicStash]

Yea I have the non holo 37 (surprisingly hard to find nm raw copies). But the reverse holo has been tough. I’m being very particular about condition like I’ve mentioned and I’m trying to avoid buying cards already slabbed. But I may have to (already have with a few cards I got good deals on). When it’s time to grade the lot I’ll just send the slabs into psa with my order and ask for new cert # to match sequential without regrading (if they do that). Otherwise I’ll ask for regrades.

As for the 61 variant I recently scored a beautiful copy of both the regular and reverse holo variants. Love them.

The Origins 2007 stamped variant has been a flat out bitch. There is a couple CGC 10s going for $200+ which I’m not so keen on. Trying to be patient although when I’m this close it’s tough.

[Quuador]

Do you have a list somewhere of your English Charmander TCG cards? Or better: could you post pictures of all your binder pages to enjoy seeing instead of just the first? Yesterday I did a quick count through Bulbapedia and counted 100 Charmander + Ditto Charmander (or 101 if you include the Jumbo), but I counted very quickly, so I’m pretty sure I simply miscounted somewhere and your 99 (or 100) is correct.

Also, you only collect English, without any of the non-English exclusive artworks (mostly Japanese, and one Simplified Chinese one)?

Greetz,
Quuador

[HolographicStash]

Thanks for quickly fact checking.

Right now I just collect English. Once I finish I will probably target a few non English exclusives like the Japanese McDonald’s promo from 2002 (such a beautiful card).

As for the list I still have to put some finishing touches on it. And tonight I’ll post the rest of the pictures.

Stay tuned!

[Nightvulture]

Pretty sure everyones tired of my comments on these types of threads but i can prob add a bunch of charmanders to this list depending on your outlook and end goals. You have a 99-00 base set charmander, do you want UK? Aus? USA? Technically theres like 6-7 variants of these alone. Differences between regions are subtle but they exist. Differences within regions are basically different ink and cant see em without uv

[HolographicStash]

Thanks for popping in. I’m happy with just the 1 variation of the (99-00) copy. Like you said the variations are minute and I don’t think they add tremendous value to the collection as a whole.

Update: these Delta species Charmanders I need are gonna be tough to find at a reasonable cost. Anybody out there that can help?

I will post pictures of the rest of my collection later this afternoon I’ve been very busy the last couple days.

[HolographicStash]

Check it out. I edited my original post to include more details and pictures. Hope you enjoy! @Quuador

Edit: my list is coming I’m just being as thorough as possible. I also intend on this being used as a resource down the road so I want to make it as clean as I can.

[Quuador]

Thanks for the pictures.

There seem to be some missing after all, though. Luckily the missing ones should be pretty easy to find. The early EX era sets had different codes in the bottom-left corner for the non-holo Commons and most of the Uncommons. For Charmander, this would be:

1. [4 missing] Both EX FireRed & LeafGreen Charmander non-holos: FT9-P20-FTR; FT9-P20-HJ9; and FT9-P20-5E5 (note, only the last three characters differ) for number 57/112 and CCF-B8B-6J9; -AE5; -E7Z for number 58/112.
2. [2 missing] Likewise for the EX Delta Species Ditto number 61/113: codes 5BV-ND5-6BK; -D4X; -ER2.

PS: I know you’re only going for official releases, but for completeness and as FYI, there is also a MATCHPRINT color test prototype of the 97/165 Charmander (more info in this video - timestamped at the Charmander).

Best of luck completing your English Charmander collection!

Greetz,
Quuador

[HolographicStash]

Glorious. This is exactly why I was excited to discover and join this community. I might not have the vast knowledge some do here but I definitely have a thirst to learn like those who do possess said knowledge.

To be honest I was actually kinda astonished that I was spot on with my original card count. Kinda glad I was wrong lol because now you have sent me down a rabbit hole .

Overall I like the idea of including these in the set so for the sake of completeness I will obtain them. It definitely helps it will cost under $100 to get all of them including duplicates. I do have some follow up questions specifically about the list you linked me.

1. Do you know what the last column signifies in that spreadsheet for serial #’s? They don’t seem to appear on any cards but it’s just weird they exist at all.
2. The serial #s that do appear on the cards, do they signify anything? ie. intended region of distribution
3. Has anyone explored the possibility that these #s are a cryptic way to differentiate between 1st edition and unlimited? From the limited research I’ve done so far some #s seem to appear more often than others. And coincidentally the # that seems to appear the most for each card is also seen on example images on Collectr and other references. Maybe these would be like an unlimited variation?

Since your post I’ve already purchased 2 copies of one of the 6 I needed and made offers on 2 others.

As for the matchprint card I might be out of luck. I actually took the time to reach out to the person who made that YT video on their eBay and unfortunately they do not have access to that copy anymore. With that being said I’m not optimistic I will be able to track 1 down considering there are only 2 in existence.

Card count update:

105 which includes the cards recently discussed

1 Oversized card

3 variants of weakness guard from Aquapolis

Total of 109 excluding Topps releases.

Cheers

[Quuador]

@HolographicStash

Do you know what the last column signifies in that spreadsheet for serial #’s? They don’t seem to appear on any cards but it’s just weird they exist at all.

The last column are the codes of the Reverse Holofoils of the set. But since the RHs, stamped cards, and promos of the EX era all have a single code each, you can basically ignore them. Overall, only the non-holo Commons will have three codes, and most (but not all) Uncommon and Energy cards will have two codes. Everything else (like non-holo Rares or Holofoil Rares, etc.) will have single codes. (PS: The same applies to German/French/Italian/Spanish/Portuguese, and Japanese Commons will have four instead of three different codes.)

@HolographicStash

The serial #s that do appear on the cards, do they signify anything? ie. intended region of distribution

Not that I know of. For decades the purpose of these codes have been mostly unknown, and still are for the most part. The only thing I know is that the Japanese codes can be used to get HD scans on an old mobile app called Pokémon Hiroba, according to this source. That still doesn’t explain why there are different codes, though. So even after all these years, the reason of the codes is still a mystery.

@HolographicStash

From the limited research I’ve done so far some #s seem to appear more often than others.

Yeah, teddyr had a similar conclusion recently here. Some codes are defintely easier to find than others, although when I was still collecting all codes for Pikachu in all languages, I haven’t really noticed too much of it tbh.

@HolographicStash

Since your post I’ve already purchased 2 copies of one of the 6 I needed and made offers on 2 others.

Glad to hear you’re able to find them without too much issues. Especially since I read you only buy Mint cards.

@HolographicStash

As for the matchprint card I might be out of luck. I actually took the time to reach out to the person who made that YT video on their eBay and unfortunately they do not have access to that copy anymore. With that being said I’m not optimistic I will be able to track 1 down considering there are only 2 in existence.

Yeah, there are only two in existence indeed, and Rusty (TCA Gaming you contacted) sold most of them years ago. I’m lucky to have bought his second Pikachu at the time, but this was way back in 2017 iirc. Most are in collectors hands these days, so finding a specific Matchprint like Charmander is indeed tough. And they’ll likely be more than multiple thousands of USD if they do eventually pop up for sale.

But it’s a prototype card, and therefore nice-to-have imo. It was never intended to be released.

Anyway, glad I could help. Best of luck finding the remaining 9 cards.

Greetz,
Quuador

[HolographicStash]

Greetings collectors. Here is an update:

Currently I have 98* Charmanders.

* this number is fluid

One of the challenges of this endeavor has been finding a straight forward complete list strictly for English (so any feedback is welcomed if I’m missing something). It seems every list has discrepancies so one of my goals after completing this will be posting a readily available list just for English in chronological order of release.

From what I have gathered there are 105* Charmanders (this number is obviously also fluid) 106 if you include the 1 oversized card and 109 if you included the weakness guards from Aquapolis. I will not be including those in my master set as I believe it’s more appropriate to include them in a cameo set. Again, if someone has a different figure please lmk.

Missing Charmanders)

1. Legendary Collection reverse holo

2. City Championship stamp holo

3. Delta species 61 Ditto Charmander Origins stamp 2007 promo non holo

4. Delta species 61 non holo (need 1 of the 3 different codes).

5. EX Crystal Guardians reverse holo

6. EBgames promo

7. Promo 44 Pokémon Center stamp

The ultimate goal is to take my collection over the top and get the entire set sequentially graded. However, I have been on the fence about that. I’ve been as mindful as I can be about condition of each card and will probably comb back over all of them several times before submitting. However with this many submissions avoiding anything lower than a 7 or ideally 8 and up will be difficult.

If anyone has any of the cards I mentioned needing for sale, feel free to reach out.

Here is the binder and page 1 to start:

Thanks everyone!

Binder:

Page 1:

Pages 2-3:

Only card I’m missing from page 2 is the Legendary reverse.

I have the Charmander 97 Expedition reverse holo in a PSA 9 so I just use my back up regular copy as a placeholder.

The holo energy card marks the end of WOTC era.

Only card missing from page 3 is the City Championship stamp variant.

Page 3 had some updates which are highlighted below.

Pages 4-5:

Major changes have occurred to page 4 and page 3 (above) thanks to @Quuador ‘s help. I learned the serial numbers on the bottom left corner from certain cards/sets had multiple variations. In my case it was for cards:

Charmander 57 & 58 from Crystal Guardian both had 3 different codes:

57:

FT9-P20-5E5 | FT9-P20-HJ9 | FT9-P20-FTR

58:

CCF-BBB-6J9 | CCF-BBB-AE5 | CCF-BBB-E7Z

Dittomander 61 from EX Delta Species Also had 3 codes:

5BV-ND5-6BK | 5BV-ER2-ER2 | 5BV-ND5-D4X

Pages: 6-7

Pages: 8-9

In addition to the Charmander 7 reverse holo from Hidden Fates in the binder I have a PSA 10

Page 10:

The order towards the end may not be perfect. Will be sorting that out shortly.

In total I have 4 graded Charmanders:

#98 Expedition reverse holo PSA 9

#7 Hidden Fates reverse holo PSA 10

#46 Base set CGC 10

#58 Firered Leafgreen reverse holo CGC 10

———————————————————————————

I have a total of 3 sealed Charmanders:

Toys r Us

Build a Bear

Promo 44