Mystery surrounding the 1997 Illustrator contest

[poorlydrawncat]

So I’m sure everyone is familiar with the famous illustrator pikachu card that was given to the winners of the 1997 Corocoro illustrator contest, pictured below:

Now, according to bulbapedia, in addition to the pikachu card, winners also received 20 copies of the card they illustrated:

“Three entrants received the Best Award, each of them receiving 20 copies of a Pokémon trading card featuring their illustration and a special Pokémon Illustrator promotional card.”

The three illustrator cards were subsequently reprinted in both the Quick Starter Gift Set and the Vending Series 1 set. Here are the three winning cards:

In all my years of collecting I’ve found a lot of information on the Pikachu illustrator card, but have never found anything about the 20 copies of the illustrator cards that were given to each contestant. The obvious assumption is that these 20 cards were identical to their reprint, either from the vending series or the quick starter gift set. If that was the case, these 20 cards would essentially be worth nothing.

Now, here’s were it gets interesting. PSA recently added 3 cards to it’s database, all of which were graded together and by the same person. Here’s an image of one of the cards in its PSA case:

Notice the slip? It would appear to indicate that this poliwrath was one of the 20 copies given to the winners. PSA has graded many cards from both the Quick starter gift set and the vending series, including the reprints of this poliwrath card. Both of those sets have their own classification given to them by PSA. Again, this poliwrath and the other two cards graded with it were the first cards to ever get classified as being part of the corocoro illustrator contest.

So what’s going on with this card? Well it lacks a rarity symbol so it’s not part of the vending series. But how does one distinguish it from the quick starter gift set? The quick starter gift set is distinct in that the cards are unglossy and lack a rarity symbol. I recently won one of the poliwraths on ebay, but the seller told me it was unglossy. If that is indeed the case, then I have no idea how PSA would have made the distinction? Both cards are unglossy, lack rarity symbols, and (to my eye at least) are identical.

So here’s my question: Does anyone know what the difference is between the illustrator cards from the quick starter gift set and the 20 copies given out during the illustrator contest? Or did PSA just screw up and mislabel them? I think mislabel is likely given how obscure these old pokemon cards are, but at the same time it seems weird that PSA would create a new category for these cards given they’ve graded quick starter cards before and should be familiar with them. Here’s the PSA pop report page with the snorlax and two poliwraths listed.

Obviously I will update with more info once I receive the card and can take a look at it in person, but in the meantime any thoughts or information would be much appreciated!

[justinator]

Woah, very interesting. What a miracle that they were preserved at GM10 if that truly is three of the illustration contest winner cards. I definitely agree - far more likely to be mislabeled, but who knows.

[ace1]

@poorlydrawncat

So I’m sure everyone is familiar with the famous illustrator pikachu card that was given to the winners of the 1997 Corocoro illustrator contest, pictured below:

Now, according to bulbapedia, in addition to the pikachu card, winners also received 20 copies of the card they illustrated:

“Three entrants received the Best Award, each of them receiving 20 copies of a Pokémon trading card featuring their illustration and a special Pokémon Illustrator promotional card.”

The three illustrator cards were subsequently reprinted in both the Quick Starter Gift Set and the Vending Series 1 set. Here are the three winning cards:

In all my years of collecting I’ve found a lot of information on the Pikachu illustrator card, but have never found anything about the 20 copies of the illustrator cards that were given to each contestant. The obvious assumption is that these 20 cards were identical to their reprint, either from the vending series or the quick starter gift set. If that was the case, these 20 cards would essentially be worth nothing.

Now, here’s were it gets interesting. PSA recently added 3 cards to it’s database, all of which were graded together and by the same person. Here’s an image of one of the cards in its PSA case:

Notice the slip? It would appear to indicate that this poliwrath was one of the 20 copies given to the winners. PSA has graded many cards from both the Quick starter gift set and the vending series, including the reprints of this poliwrath card. Both of those sets have their own classification given to them by PSA. Again, this poliwrath and the other two cards graded with it were the first cards to ever get classified as being part of the corocoro illustrator contest.

So what’s going on with this card? Well it lacks a rarity symbol so it’s not part of the vending series. But how does one distinguish it from the quick starter gift set? The quick starter gift set is distinct in that the cards are unglossy and lack a rarity symbol. I recently won one of the poliwraths on ebay, but the seller told me it was unglossy. If that is indeed the case, then I have no idea how PSA would have made the distinction? Both cards are unglossy, lack rarity symbols, and (to my eye at least) are identical.

So here’s my question: Does anyone know what the difference is between the illustrator cards from the quick starter gift set and the 20 copies given out during the illustrator contest? Or did PSA just screw up and mislabel them? I think mislabel is likely given how obscure these old pokemon cards are, but at the same time it seems weird that PSA would create a new category for these cards given they’ve graded quick starter cards before and should be familiar with them. Here’s the PSA pop report page with the snorlax and two poliwraths listed.

Obviously I will update with more info once I receive the card and can take a look at it in person, but in the meantime any thoughts or information would be much appreciated!

so u were the person who outbid me didn’t have a chance to post another bid before time ran out was wiling to go way higher if the card is the real deal.

[poorlydrawncat]

Sorry Ace! I still think the card is mislabeled, we shall see.

I should also mention that I’ve reached out to the original PSA submitter (i believe) on instagram. We’ll see if he responds with any info…

[cullers]

You can have PSA mark cards with different variations if you want. Just like there’s no difference between the N64 Porygon/Snorlax and the CD promo Porygon/Snorlax. You can even get a Trainer Magazine glossy Exeggutor with a mega battle label if you want.

PSA isn’t a huge authority on Pokemon Cards, they can google search just like we can. I’m sure all someone would have to do is send in a quick starter gift set card convince PSA that it’s a different variation, I wouldn’t be surprised if all PSA needed was this link bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Illustration_contests.

If you happen to find a difference in the card, congratulations. As far as I’m concerned until proven otherwise there’s no difference in the cards.

[ozenigma]

@anon92205803

I’m thinking what @cullers said as well. PSA isn’t exactly “familiar” with cards they’ve already graded. They have them in their database, but they don’t consult it to see if a card is already in there before creating a new label. This is proven to us all the time when we see one card with a handful of slightly different labels. They aren’t concerned with consistency, they put on the label what you request them to. And apparently they do consult sources like bulbapedia when determining if a card is real, so if there is a bulba article about it then there is a good chance someone can submit a card that looks like the card in the article and have it graded as that card.

This is somewhat true.

They must check something because I’ve had cards come back with labels that I’ve specifically asked not to have or come back differently to how I’ve written on my submission.

[fourthstartcg]

PSA has difficulty recognizing the difference between a 1st ed. and unlimited Japanese card. I wouldn’t put too much stock in their labeling at all.

[smpratte]

I would echo @cullers observation. It is the most probable answer.

I have not seen anyone information supporting a difference in the cards.