Thats what i was trying to say. I think a lot of people were put off from these as they seem easier to fake than real cards and the story of them seems to be “trust me bro”
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Again, CGC did their due diligence. Now a little more public information has been released on how they came to this conclusion. But either way they don’t have to divulge it. They just don’t. That’s ultimately the part people are the most upset about.
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Agreed, this is sleezy. Characteristic of the auction platform at times.
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Well yea, they don’t have to, but…cmon now. I think it is reasonable that anyone would expect some sort of article or video or something for “cards” of this status, especially given the sheer quantity of them and the variety. Unless there is a video or statement out there, I haven’t seen or heard anything substantial about them other than just general definitions of playtest cards. CGC can do what they want at the end of the day, wouldn’t be the first time 
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Slow down now… anything but unyielding acceptance and optimism toward these items is CGC hate. Dont be mad Akabane make huge money 
stop asking questions and just buy, buy, buy!!! Why would CGC, an authentication service, be obligated to share why they believe such an obscure item is authentic? Isnt their word enough? Their ~4 years of TCG grading experience and immaculate track record??? C’mon man!!
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By looking at this prototype we can deduce that typhlosion was originally meant be a basic stage bug type with 40HP
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The difference is how good of a relationship and how much business party x, y or z holding these cards brings to CGC. That’s how you determine 9.5 or 10
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That is the last thing we need to do.
What will censoring the community be good for?
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What censorship?;
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“I think we need to mute this thread. People just looking to be outraged at CGC like always.”
What benefit is there for the community to muting this thread?
None.
What benefit is there for CGC muting this thread?
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That was me saying to mute the thread so I don’t get notifications on it. It’s one of the site settings. Has nothing to do with censorship lol
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Speculatively this is where it falls for me. In my mind this explains the conditions being what they are on most of the copies we’ve seen graded. Its telling when a few days after Alt’s auction block ends a full deck is listed Buy it Now with several cards being below the lowest auction price we’ve seen so far.
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It started as ‘a few playtest cards have been found’ posts on ig and a few months later there are full decks on BIN & auction. It wouldn’t shock me if 10 more full decks are around.
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I saw the smpratte youtube short on the topic and I have been intently trying to figure this all out for a few days since.
Intriguing! I will say that I underbid one of the recent goldin auctions lots… I did get a bit carried away and I feel the final price was a bit disproportionate in relation to the others… But I liked the vibe of the specific card and the romance of it being the origin of the card game/auction fomo led me to bidding far higher than I initially intended. Perhaps fortunately for me someone outbid me, clearly wanting it intensely.
I have maybe a few concerns with these cards. One, CGC states ‘mounted on card’. Were they mounted on card originally or recently? Were they recently cut from original sheets? I would just like a bit of clarification in regards to this.
In relation to valuing/purchasing these cards, my major concern is the supply. These are the initial cards hitting the market. The impression is that the supply is small and these are rare/special (even mythical) cards that represent the very seed of the card game. What effect does this impression have upon our bidding on these first cards hitting the market… The lurking worry is that a lot more of these cards exist and the insiders/connected people in the Pokemon world have loaded up directly from the source. If this is the case, they would not want to spook the market… If they do not hold large supplies, it could even be that they are aware a lot more exist (perhaps still held by people like Akabane). The former impression of rare mythical status is favorable for selling. But then there is the competing temptation to sell before other people do to cash in whilst the impression is more mythical, there is potential for ‘pvp’ among the insiders.
What indications do we have so far? Part of what made me duck out of the auction was the idea that over the next year or so we will possibly have waves of new supply coming onto each selling platform (I can rest patiently as more will available with time). First of all to buy these initial cards is a bold move with some of these risks, but also to pay a relative high price is perhaps even more reckless… I have to say, the next day when some 150 of them were listed on eBay I could not help but find the humor. I expected a probable scenario where new supply keeps coming over the next year or so, but the very next day!? I started to feel that me being outbid was even more fortunate than I had initially intuited!
Now moving into the future, supposing that the connected pokemon people do hold a fair quantity of these I would expect that they are at least partially aware of the market/forum sentiment. Perhaps they will re-access their approach and be more mindful of how they sell these cards.
Though maybe the supply is quite limited, even if there is 1000 of each card I personally value them in a similar way to trophy cards (in some cases I feel they surpass the trophy card). This is my personal feeling, the market will disagree no doubt. This is an aspect of these cards, they do threaten the previous ideas of what are the grails in pokemon. People that have sat on a lot of trophy cards might have some of these feelings. Though it is important to note these are not professionally made cards, rather paper on card. I am not saying they actually outcompete trophy cards.
One last concern I have. These are being presented as the apex, but what of the possibility of any ‘new discoveries’ of cards that are even more original and meaningful? We see above that CGC has already worked with Akabane to do a special certification with the signatures. As the playtest/prototype cards value is largely contingent upon the provenance/‘authenticness’, do these special CGC certificated signed cards have more ‘authenticness’ than the unsigned cards? Now the unsigned ones are not the apex? Let alone any discoveries of currently unknown prototypes/playtests (how can we say how many variations exist? Even differing little details).
The MTG Blastoise was an interesting one. After the initial sale you started having sheets cut etc… Also in relation to more traditional ‘grail’ cards like the illustrator, new supply has been entering the pop reports.
Thank you for reading my stream of thoughts here in regards to the matter, I have enjoyed following the threads on the matter and will keenly follow with interest. I feel a push pull here of incentives and perceptions. As an outsider with empty prototype/playtest bags, I would prefer to not buy into a version of reality wholeheartedly only for the perception to flip shortly after when new information (and indeed supply) is available. But at the same time, the prospect of owning a prototype that forms part of the seed of the card game is very attractive to me.
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So when are the “-Minus Alpha’s” (the true alpha alphas) going to be revealed, graded by CGC and BIN’ed from Tsunekazu Ishihara?!
I agree that it seems like Pokemon are trying to stamp out/cool down the second hand collector market. It makes sense with Pokemon Pocket being released and other future projects.
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First, Welcome to the forum!
Second, thanks for the good takeaways as an interested party. I feel very similarly as there is a bit of romance to owning a prototype for such a large franchise. Its a unique situation to be able to find early things for a franchise like this but I wish we had more open answers now before information is lost or muddled further.
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True Alphas are called Sigmas, you are welcome.
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I had the same chain of thoughts and feel the same way, personally I would step away for a while and just watch how everything develops. I doubt these auctions are one in a lifetime oportunities.
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Welcome to the forum and looks like those Smpratte shorts are working hahah
Scott had mentioned how they feel like they are dumped haphazardly into the market with the assumption that it was all of the supply. Your theory of a large amount of these sitting in storage actually makes more sense that they would give a portion like they are now to grading see how they turn out and then release the rest as time goes on. Confusing to say the least but insightful turning point
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He has sold a lot of that other stuff as well
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