Hello everybody
(Mods: feel free to move the thread if necessary)
In this article I am going to make some things clear about the 4 rarest new back trophy cards. There is unfortunately misinformation among the colletors community which is partially caused by wrong info on bulbapedia.
Please note: I have done a lot of research I am 99.9% sure about the numbers below, however I do not say 100 as we never know with 100% certainty unless the Pokemon company releases official numbers for certain cards.
I am going to explain and proof how many copies of the 2005 & 2007 Champio’s League, 2009 Wonder Platinum and 2010 Master’s Key were given out.
2005-2007 Champion’s League
Champion’s League tournaments were the final events in the years 2005, 2006 and 2007. Only the best players who qualified through the regional Battle Road tournaments were invited to these Champion tournaments. The 2005 version card was given out in the year 2006 as well, while the year 2007 had a Spring and Summer tournament presenting the 2007 version of the card.
Both cards were awarded in the same manner: the top 4 finishers of all 3 age divisions received the card. As both cards were awarded in two tournaments there were 24 copies of each Champion’s League card given out. Below are pictures from the 2005 event. As you can see there are the 12 top players on stage.
2009 Wonder Platinum
According to bulbapedia the card was given to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners of the 2009 World Championship Japan National tournament. Only the best players from the regional tournaments were eligible to enter this final event. A few years ago a Japanese player (who won the Wonder Platinum card himself) told me the card was given to 6 players in the Master and Senior league as well as 8 players in the Junior league. Until recently I didn’t understand how and why so I did some research.
On these pictures you can see the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies. Note the color of the label which is gold for 1st, silver for 2nd and bronze for 3rd. Note that the VGC players received a trophy but without the Wonder Platinum card.
I have also come across a picture of the trophy with a blue label:
Obviously the card was not only given to the top 3 players. Something important to note: all participants of this tournament were eligible to enter the World Championship in 2009. I found a list of all the participants (including names) as well as the below overview which shows that the Master and Senior league had 6 participants and the Junior league 8. The red are the VGC participants.
So there it is, it all makes sense: the card was awarded to all participants of this tournament, which makes sense as all of them were allowed to travel to the World Championship. Hence there are 6+6+8= 20 copies of the Wonder Platinum given out
2010 Master’s Key
According to bulbapedia there are 17 copies in existence as it was also given to the VGC players.
The 2010 Japan National tournament was the same style as the 2009. Same qualification procedure and same final tournament. This year however, the trophy card was also awarded to the VGC players. There were 8 VGC players in the final event of 2009 and 2010. Hence there are 20+16= 36 copies of the Master’s Key given out.
Although there are more copies in existence than we thought these cards are still amongst the rarest cards ever given out which is why they are incredibly hard to find.
touché…