For me there is no problem here, there are a lot of differences between Alpha Playtest cards as the cards are different iterations of the same card to test or correct things.
For example you can also point out that 1 colorless energy on the Mewtwo Alpha Playtest card is reversed for no reason (for me it was an error corrected in another iteration of the card):
Btw you can also see a “good quality” and a “poor quality” versions on the Alpha Playtest cards too, but it’s less pronounced.
I was being sneaky and posted two different scans of the same card, your observation is correct, both images are of the same card 
But I’m still not completely convinced that the difference isn’t simply based on the difference in how the image was taken. Would be really nice to see the two variations side-by-side in a single scan to make a definitive claim.
Assuming it’s true, I’m sure we can take the explanation in a bunch of directions from counterfeit versions to something as simple as Creatures buying a new printer during production of these cards.
Btw the “good quality” Beta Playtest cards are not “randomly distributed”, I mean there are 3 submissions with them (or at least I only found them in 3 submissions, there is almost a complete set, with no duplicates).
As the “good quality” are distributed in (at least) 3 different submissions, it can’t be based on the difference in how the image was taken. There is definitively a “good quality” and a “poor quality” version.
Moreover those are the only Beta Playtest cards which show a lot of dust (like black spots, you can see some on “good quality” Ditto and Psyduck) on every cards. So I am sure they are originaly part of the same set.
Yes it could be as simple as a new printer indeed. So this would mean that Alpha and Beta playtest cards were developped in parallel as there are both Alpha and Beta Playtest cards in “good quality” versions, so they would be printed with the same printer (if the new printer thing was the explanation).
EDIT : Another example where the difference is more “obvious”:
Yes, this is the same for all the Pokémon which exist in “good quality” version, so for M Mime too ^^
(btw the “source” for my pictures was CGC scans on their website)
I didn’t show the cert numbers, but as you show them, all the cards in the 1401036913001 to 1401036913082 submission (there are 82 cards) are “good quality” Beta Playtest cards.
Moreover there is a consistency between cards because for example, on the bottom left of Scyther, you can see a very small part of the pink M Mime card, so they were really side by side on the same paper before the cut back in the day (the cut is oblique between those 2 cards):
Can you eliminate differences in scanner settings/quality?
Looking at the card on the right both the flip and the card appear more saturated. If scan quality was identical then the flips should have the same level of saturation
Even if the 2 scans have a slightly different saturation level, that doesn’t change the fact that the quality of the printing of the cards is different, as are the colors (excluding the slight difference in saturation).
As I showed earlier by using scans from the CGC website, we can see the difference very well, and pfm supported this with other scans from the alt website this time.
Here are the CGC scans, the difference between the 2 cards is the same (please do not take into account the difference in saturation as this is not the best card to illustrate my point as the scans show an high different saturation level, this is not the case for a lot of other scans ^^) as on the pfm scans while the scans are different:
Doesn’t even need to be a new printer, with multiple people working on this project at once different people likely printed these from multiple printers in the work space id imagine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DAUIN1DxkDd/?igsh=MXVxb3BxbHhjYjg2Yg==
Here we go again?
Id assume these are a different product since they are labeled Pokemon club rather than any sort of prototype.
Yes definitely, but just the post saying it’s the true rookie set made me laugh a little given everything happening
I cringe so hard when I see someone use the term rookie card in Pokemon.
Also, how many cards have now been referred to as “true rookie cards” over the past few months? 
They are made by bandai and they are indeed the first official pokemon stickers/cards, nothing to do with pokemon tcg or test prints tho 
I’m not sure if this thread is appropriate to discuss playtests (not prototypes), but a new guy appeared on Instagram 3 days ago who seems to know a bit more about the cards, and I wanted to share that information and why I think he’s not full of BS.
He posted a photo with Akabane and in it and then shared the photo below.
A user named BeamCollector has been posting a video series very few days about the recently released cards. You most likely have seen them. His most recent post is about the double sided holos that went up for sale earlier this month. In his video, he claims they were made because no TCG had ever made holo cards and they wanted to test two patterns.
If Beam or Marco is here lurking… Hello!
Marco has been around for years he just deletes his posts on Instagram regularly. I thought it was interesting as well the different stories about those cards between the two of them. I think it’s likely they were both told different stories to no fault of their own.
How is it possible that there is an equal copy of each type of card? Considering that each type of card had its own unique purpose in development shouldn’t there be a varible number of cards to reflect each card type’s specific purpose?
It sounds like Akabane choose to keep 6 of each copy for his personal collection. I think you’re right that there was variations in numbers for each test. Who knows how many really existed and who else took them home.
Oh so youre saying that at that point in time he had 6 copies left, but nobody knows how many copies there acutally are? So its 6-x sets? I misinterpreted it as there are only 6 sets for each type of card which made no sense to me.
Correct. He took home 6 copies and recently sold 5 of those. Who knows how many other copies may have survived that weren’t part of his collection.
I wouldn’t marry yourself to any numbers personally. I’ve heard from equally trustworthy people anywhere from 1 all the way to 20 sets, its all speculation and Its not out of the realm of possibility that Akabane tells everyone something different, as proven already in the Instagram thread
