There is no documented evidence anywhere of any product containing no rarity until someone has the balls to open up short-code packs or those early decks on camera.
Yep, a great show from an era when reality TV was still fresh and interesting (and didn’t dominate the airwaves)!
Back to the topic at hand — I saw plenty of “short packs” opened back when they were originally released, but never saw no-rarity cards pulled from any of them. My money is still on first-run starter decks. (I’d love to be proven wrong, though!)
EDIT: I should have said packs from the “blank bottom” boxes, which didn’t necessarily contain short packs.
I’ve spoken to the card-ten guy at mandarake (he is the main card guy for the whole company, not just one store). This is the guy I’ve spoken to before as he seems ridiculously knowledgeable about anything I’ve ever asked him, no matter how obscure. He says (with no uncertainty in his answer) that no rarities can come in both boosters and decks, and the long post code is a definite “no” sign (we knew this already) and the short post code is a “maybe” sign. He doesn’t seem to know of any way of telling without opening the short code packs whether or not it would be a no rarity pack, so maybe that’s the case. He’s told me that even the long packs have a chance (if the post code is short). To me that makes sense as long packs were produced for hanging and short packs were produced for storing in display boxes - there’s no evidence that I know of that suggests they were released at different times. Of course this is all from his brain and not written evidence, but hopefully that helps point people into some sort of direction. I believe we’re still going to have to open as many as we can until we find some no rarities xD .
I’ve read a post that described how to tell the difference for a pack that had a chance to get no rarity cards in the booster or not (the same info you’ve shared). I stopped debating about this on this site. Every time I tell people there’s a chance they can be found in boosters people just rebuttal with ‘there’s no proof’. In all I’ve lost interest in debating this point, but that’s great to hear another source confirm the info.
I opened a deck with the different serial number and the cards had rarity symbols.
NR are probably the earliest print with the serial number. This has always been the theory.
I spoke with the Japanese about NR cards at worlds, and they didn’t know the exact release.
I would gladly buy and/or open a short pack on YouTube. The only frustration I have are people who want to propagate the myth of short packs, but don’t want to open one of their own packs and confirm. There is a weird subtle strategic and slightly shady atmosphere around NR cards. Perhaps because NR cards are some of the most flipped items in the hobby.
I don’t understand the myth you’re talking about Scott. It’s been mentioned over and over that short pack doesn’t guarantee no rarity, just like shadowless boosters doesn’t guarantee shadowless cards. Also, the chances of having no rarity cards in a short pack is so rare that it’s not worth opening the pack and devaluing the booster. It would be like me opening a shadowless booster to try and find a no damage Ninetales, it’s just not worth taking the cost hit if my odds are that low.
The difference with shadowless is that we know the deal, because people are not overly strategic and opened the boxes, packs, decks, etc. There are people like myself, Gary, Rusty, and countless other individuals who opened up product to find the answer, rather than go the most strategic route possible to make a buck. Think about how many countless videos we have on every type of shadowless release, and how we are still waiting for one No Rarity opening. This is due to the large amount of flippers involved with these cards. This is partly why imo these cards are still a niche item. People can’t properly research them. This thread is proof positive. How many times have we had this same discussion. An actual objective pack opening video would remedy the issue.
My point is opening the pack won’t do anything. By the way they’ve been opened before, there’s regular cards in them 99.9% of the time (made up statistic). How opening one on video changes anything is what I don’t understand about your argument. The documentation that no rarity cards can be found in them is out there. If you buy one expecting no rarity cards you’re in for some bad luck.
@cullers I understand your point and perspective, and don’t necessary disagree with what you are saying in that context. I think I am making a larger point about No Rarity cards. In fact, this back and forth is exactly the larger issue with No Rarity cards. Here are two very seasoned individuals in this hobby, 21 years later, and we still don’t have a unified precise understanding of the NR release.
More specifically, where we are with No Rarity sealed product reminds me of shadowless back in 2000. The old generic claim used to be: “Shadowless cards are in Green Wing boxes”. Today we better understand the probability of obtaining shadowless cards, and each subtle difference in boxes, because people were and are willing to break boxes. I think NR are most likely a similar release to shadowless, as there was an adjustment to the print, but the box/packs remained the same or similar. However, because no one has opened anything in front of a camera, we can’t be more specific, thus the debate continues.
Also, Shadowless is younger than NR, and we have a more specific understanding of the release. That is ultimately what I am pushing for; a more specific understanding. Even your point about error ninetales, we still don’t know the exact origin, but we have a better understanding, because trial and error of people opening product. Every deck variant has been opened, and no error. Therefor, the current theory is they were in a brief print of shadowless packs. Keep in mind this is one very illusive card, not an entire set. Either way, at least we have something, where with NR, we literally have zero actual openings. This ultimately limits the cards to a niche market, because people can’t easily access a cut and dry specific distinction.
I think part of the frustration is that there isn’t any link at all between the short packs and the no rarity cards. So when people peddle that possibility as a selling point, they’re just telling a lie. Unlike no rarity, we have definitive proof that shadowless sometimes come from certain products. So it’s not a lie because it’s proven. There is a chance and we know that to be true. But the short pack thing isn’t even a founded theory. The most generous way it could be described is an unlikely best guess.
Thus, if someone opened a short pack on camera and pulled no rarity cards, there would be no beef. At that point it would be a legitimate way of advertising a chance. Until then, it’s just an indirect lie on par with keyword spamming.
There is documentation on them. It’s just not in English. I’m not sure if there’s a video camera evidence, but there’s deck boxes opened with no rarity cards coming out. Heck right now there’s a Japanese auction where someone is trying to sell the deck they opened with no rarity cards in it. There’s documentation of people explaining the difference in booster packs that can contain no rarity cards and can’t. It already exists.
The situation we’re actually in is the same with the Prerelease Raichu, where people have the documentation available and yet people still don’t want to believe. Like I said when I quoted Viral, I’m tired of trying to prove that they come out of boosters on this site, it just keeps going back to this same rebuttal ‘there’s no proof’.
All that needs to be known:
-They came out of starter decks; verified proof from images no video I’m aware of
-They probably came out of booster packs; I don’t have images of anyone doing it, but I have read documents explaining how to check and now have virals source saying the same.
One person did that one time. I’m not even debating that, and honestly I didn’t have a problem with it at the time because it was the general census at the time. Either way it doesn’t make my point any less relevant that video evidence would do nothing to help.
Do you have a link to these documents? I’d be happy to translate for this site when I get a moment.
My 1 aim is to find out exactly how these were released, to tease my curiosity and also because without it NRs will remain as niche as it is. They’re easily one of if not my favourite sets and I would prefer if more people had their hands on them. Plus it means I could stop paying over the odds for booster packs here because they ‘might’ have no rarities if in fact there’s solid evidence that proves they dont. Either way I’m pretty optimistic that both starter packs and boosters have NRs, but I would prefer more evidence.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the links. This was so long ago that I did this. Back then I was more interested in finding info for PSA to recognize the No Rarity variance. After they did I didn’t have much interest in keeping all the stored links, just the info they contained.
Here’s my note on it:
Booster packs without 104-01____8-4-17 code it won’t have any 1st ed base japanese.
example:
