I’ve recently learned the Japanese classroom participation prize Pikachu and Raichu has two different sets. One from 2012 (BW) and the others 2013 (XY). What I didn’t know was that while the 2013 have artwork that was reprinted in English sets, the 2012 because of a release cancellation has exclusive art. The only other chance to get this Pika and Raichu art is in Korean where I’ve never seen a copy pop up. The pop of both years is low. Pikachu BW has a total population of 30 with only a few LP copies on eBay. Oddly the 2013 which has more price data seems to be the same price as the 2012 even though it only has a unique stamp and the 2012 has unique artwork and stamp. I’ve looked through Efour past threads and found a few posts on it but wondering what people think today.
Smpratte had an auction for the BW 2012’s in the start of the year in PSA 10 I believe sold for around $500 each. This seems awfully cheap.
Does this just fly way low under the radar where people just assume it was produced in English like the other two? Aren’t Pika collectors after these?
Here’s the 2012 BW exclusive art:
And the 2013 XY art:
I was also able to pick this up on eBay recently for $350:
I didn’t realize until after auctioning these cards they were only physically released in Japanese. They never physically came out in english and were only digitally released. They are some super niche cards!
That’s right! I saw your video about the consignment saying they were released in English afterwards. Thats when I knew these must be some dungeon level secrets.
Thanks for getting your Classoom Pika facts straight @smpratte @Leo agree with your analysis - especially comparing 2012 and 2013 prices, it just doesn’t make sense when most factors are similar, except '12 are physically completely unique art and '13 are reprinted as set commons & uncommons. But it’ll be quite some time until more people discover this by themselves, so who knows if or when it’ll correct.
Another thing is how hard the cards are to grade, I’d compare them to Warm/Uniqlo Pikachus in average raw condition (~PSA 5 ish?). Pikachu is pop 10 / PSA 10 and pop 13 / PSA 9, and I don’t see those numbers increasing much at all throghout all of PSA’s backlog, because I have been looking to buy and grade them during all that time
