Im pretty sure CGC will try anything at this point to try and get ahead of their competitors even if it means to bend the rules because other companies try to stay out of the grey area. I personally dont think it makes them appealing to grade with each time they do this, and the history of things theyve done in the past. Good eye for pointing that out!
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Cool cards but I have beef with whoever cut them. There is no way that was not malicious. So many red flags without answers.
If CGC bent their rules for the headline then they’ve lost all trust from me
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where is the QC with CGC? Honestly not surprised though.
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Mine says 1999 lol
Maybe they mislabeled the one you posted which is definitely incorrect. Odd
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Me too. If you’re going to cut up a sheet why on freakin earth would you not have it professionally done? I find the whole thing suspicious.
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If we take a look at the pop report, it seems to be a mixture of 1998 and 1999. All for no apparent rhyme or reason. 
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My Germany sheets are cuts like by a crab too. I’ve seen this happen many times, but I don’t know the reason either. Straight cut = chance for more money.
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Does anyone following this thread have a subscription to PSA magazine? If so, would you kindly provide images of the pidgeot test proof article at your nearest convenience? I’m dying to know what they claim the origins to be 
+1!
When is the premiere of this magazine?
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@SeasidePokemon posted the scans of the first one, maybe he would be kind enough to do it again whenever the next one is out
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He’d be a hero
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I haven’t received the June issue yet but don’t mind scanning and sharing a particular article when I get it. Do you know that they will have an article on that card?
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Yeah it’s a story titled “Test Flight” you can see it teased in this video
I would GREATLY appreciate scans 
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Few thoughts.
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These are sweet! Enjoy them.
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There have been a few times in my time collecting that the market has had a huge wave of stuff come through and we missed out on what we really had because we took for granted the availability. SNAP poliwags being auctioned all at once, noodles selling his art academy cards on E4, etc. The sheer quantity of these test items coming out right now is misleading people and I’m not sure they’re fully appreciating that these things are frickin rare lol. We didn’t see stuff like this at alllllll for a really long time. Maybe it persists and this is the new norm, but there’s a good chance that one or two sources dries up and these things are non-existent again. I know that I’m definitely picking up a few things for my collection. Amazing conversation pieces and really cool history to own.
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I understand the general ire around slabbing and wanting a perfect designation of NFC every time. That said, I’m surprised that people are so caught up on it with cards that are pre-production. What does factory cut even mean for a non-distributed card? Errors, yeah, makes sense because they could feasibly make it out through booster packs or something and there’s an appeal of a “found” treasure. But for cards that are obviously color tests or other types of standard quality assurance work before the print run is done, there’s no proper procedure associated with how they would be cut.
I just find the hangup super weird. I get it, but I can’t say it bothers me at all as a collector. I’m intimately concerned with my base set square cuts and them being properly identified. I do not care when my card with no text on it that is clearly a pre-production item does not identify that it wasn’t cut normally. Wasn’t it being atypical…obvious? Haha. If all we mean is it was technically cut by the right machine (those machines are rudimentary and you basically guide it by hand anyway, for what its worth) that seems like a worthless distinction to me. If we mean it was cut within some specific window of its production, that feels really arbitrary to me.
I just can’t totally wrap my head around why we put the amount of baggage on test prints that we do to go through a specific process. For me, being entirely out of the normal system is exactly the appeal of the cards. I expect they were carted off by some employee and that is how I got to own them at all. And that seems more egregiously deviating from protocol than how it came to be slab-sized instead of a sheet.
Just my two cents and how I think about these things when I’m buying them.
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Surely this is better in all ways? More transparent, more comprehensive, more accurate? The card was put in an altered state by a third party, is that not worth noting? The precedent already exists for sports cards where the only way to acquire them was to cut them out:
If we’re appreciating these items for the pre-production history and the context for why they exist, then the sheet is the pre-production artifact. The intention was to produce a test sheet and in this case it wasn’t intended to be cut up. That’s why there isn’t a meaning to what is a correct “factory cut” is in this context (it “shouldn’t” be cut) and why the distinction on the label matters.
It’s cut because someone wanted to maximize the value of the sheet. Not that making money is a problem, but the intention of making these slab-sized has nothing to do with any pre-production history or test. In contrast, we can look at FPO and matchprints as counterexamples to that.
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I agree 100% with you! Great breakdown and you did a fantastic job at articulating all the major points on why these cards should be more loved. I suspect as time goes on they will be. I’ve seen comments recently of people saying things like, “I had no idea these even existed!” Once the public eye is on them, they’ll become far more coveted to the right collector base.
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Man that time when noodles was selling his cards was once in a lifetime!
I think the hang up, at least for me is the cut is such an obvious reminder these were altered. It’s why in mtg inked cards are the lowest ranking in condition. An alteration is something inorganic that is now married to the card. While I agree with the rarity aspect, I’d rather not have that ambiguity. However, if they were cut by wotc and especially if there were a legitimate backstory, I would like them much more! Personally I’d put something like sample cards way above these nfc items.
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I personally think alot of collectors DO like the items, but the current prices of these are scary from a standpoint of being NFC. Its another thing to promote to the nostalgic market as rare. Theres a common trend with even modern regarding FOMO, and these seem like they are trying to hard to become something they shouldnt be. When this inevitabily does happen people will probably try to alter the normal variations of these cards to replicate them, and everyone who coveted them will fall into a weird spot owning one. Id like to think alot of collectors have thought about it as a possibility
I agree with both Churlocker and pfm simultaneously.
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