The No Rarity cards that weren't, and the lying POP report

Background

Always on the lookout for no rarity base set Japanese cards, I’ve run countless times into sellers or collectors who mistakenly (or on purpose?) label some trainer cards as "No Rarity Base Set _____ " although they are not. And although this might be common knowledge for many collectors, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to write down a few tips about how to differentiate the real no rarity base set cards from their less rare – but very similar in look – variants. The main reason? I’ve recently found out that even grading companies seem to get it wrong, so much so that over 70% of the POP report on some rarer cards might actually be mislabeled stuff.

Look at these two graded cards for example. This is one instance of CGC and PSA offering the same quality of service, as they both got it equally wrong: despite what the label tells you, neither of these cards are from the Base Set.

Quick Starter Gift Set

These cards are actually from the Quick Starter Gift Set, which contained non-glossy versions of Vending cards (including beautiful holo versions of some of them), and updated versions of trainers such as Gust of Wind, Pokémon Trader, Energy Retrieval, Switch and Potion.

All the cards in that set are non-glossy, and none feature a rarity symbol.

If the trainers in that set are reprints from Base Set, non-glossy and featuring no rarity or set symbol, how are you supposed to tell they’re not the No Rarity Base Set versions? (is the question the good people at grading companies forgot to ask)

Well, it’s all in the card text. And good news: you don’t even need to know Japanese to tell the difference. The simple rule of thumb is that the No Rarity Base Set versions are messier: it was the first ever set of Pokémon cards, and the designers had no idea how to efficiently phrase card effects yet.

Now let’s look at all five offenders in detail.

Pokémon Trader

one big block vs two paragraphs

See how the text in the Quick Starter Gift Set version is cleanly organized over two paragraphs in a smaller font size, while the No Rarity Base Set version is one chonky block taking all the available space? I told you you really don’t need to know Japanese to tell the difference.

Gust of Wind

6 rows vs 2 rows

This is another one that’s easy to recognize at a glance. The No Rarity Base Set version has a bunch of extra text. By the time they printed the Quick Starter version, they’d figured out maybe they didn’t need to specify you can’t target your opponent’s benched Pokémon if they don’t have a benched Pokémon.

Switch

4 rows vs 3 rows

Here as well, the No Rarity Base Set version’s text is longer. By the time they made the Quick Starter Gift Set, they’d improved the wording enough to make it a whole line shorter.

Energy Retrieval

one big block vs three paragraphs

Same as with Pokémon Trader, here the text on the Quick Starter reprint is cleanly organized over several paragraphs clearly explaining how the card works, while the No Rarity Base Set version was more like “here, good luck figuring out the detailed rulings on that one”.

Potion

3 rows vs 4 rows

This one breaks the pattern as for once the Quick Starter version is neither shorter nor organized over several paragraphs. The original No Rarity Base Set version is actually the shorter one, using only 3 lines of text.

Population Report

Now you know the differences between both versions or cards that may look very similar at a glance, but are actually very different both in terms of release and in terms of content.

But now you might be thinking: “great, as if there’s much of a difference in value between two versions of freaking Potion”. And although I won’t get into an argument about the difference in value between two versions of some non-inspiring trainer cards (No Rarity Base Set version is the OG and much rarer in good condition /end of argument), there’s one where I think the difference really matters…

No Rarity Base Set Pokémon Trader’s PSA 10 POP report is all messed up

Screenshot from July 2021

Take a look at the Pop report for No Rarity Symbol versions of all nine Rare Trainers from Base Set. Are you seeing the issue? Mint copies of these cards are extremely rare: there weren’t many made in the first place, and trainers back then were absolutely broken, so most copies have been put in decks and played to oblivion. Some of them have only one PSA 10 copy, with Item Finder still waiting for its first Gem Mint 10 copy. And then there’s Pokémon Trader, with a PSA 10 population 5 times the average.

I’m willing to bet that’s not because Japanese kids in October 1996 took particularly good care of that smartly dressed fellow and his faithful Farfetch’d, nor is it because considerably more copies were set for grading due to Pokémon Trader being several times more popular than even Lass, the original waifu card. I’m pretty sure it’s just that a bunch of people sent in their considerably less rare Quick Starter copies, which ended up being mislabelled.

I’m pretty sure anyone who’s in the business of collecting a PSA 9-10 No Rarity Base Set master set nowadays should already know that, but please be careful when buying a graded Pokémon Trader. Otherwise you might end up being the fool who buys a random reprint for 400$ thinking they got a killer deal on the first print of an old classic.


*Apologies if you’re the person who bought that card, and purchased it fully knowing it was the Quick Starter version and thinking it was a fair price. You do you!

Conclusion

Now I’d like to ask a favour from everyone here: if you own a PSA graded copy of “No Rarity Symbol Pokémon Trader”, could you please check and let us know what version it actually is? Or if you know someone who has one, get them to chime in here?

Maybe eventually we can get a rough idea of how many PSA 9 and 10 copies of that card actually exist. We might at some point even get an exact number – after all, there’s at most 24 people we need to contribute to check the full 9 & 10 population.

I doubt there’s more than 4 PSA 10 copies, the record currently held by Super Energy Removal.
I’d love to see at least one genuine PSA 10 copy, for a start.

Click here for a list of currently confirmed PSA 9 & 10 Pokémon Traders
Column 1 Column 3
22452728 no rarity
25459094 no rarity
25746404 no rarity
25746405 no rarity
26422138 gift set
28239460 gift set
28779883 gift set
43617781 gift set
48032571 gift set
48032575 gift set
49630638 no rarity
51014639 gift set
73 Likes

I’d say a good chunk of the above cards have blown out pops here is some for Pokemon Trader:

PSA 9
22452728 - no rarity
25459094 - no rarity
25746405 - no rarity
28779883 - gift set
43617781 - gift set
48032571 - gift set
49630637 - likely no rarity (graded with confirmed NR)
49630638 - no rarity
51014639 - gift set

PSA 10
25746404 - no rarity
48032575 - gift set
26422138 - gift set

4 Likes

Thanks, that’s already a very good start!

I do wonder how much '637 and '638 getting graded together really increases the odds of '637 being a no rarity as well – the probability that neither the owner nor the grader noticed a difference in the Japanese text is unfortunately not zero :stuck_out_tongue:

Kinda makes you want to send both versions together to give the grader a eureka moment.
It’s funny how on the other hand “1998 Pokemon Japanese Red/Green Gift - Pokémon Trader” only has a population of 4 cards in total, when there’s already more than that just in the few “no rarity” specimens you’ve identified.

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Excellent guide!

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This is good info, thank you.

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Another reason to assume if psa has confirmed it it’s still very unconfirmed

While completing my NR set I came across two mislabeled cards. I still have them despite replacing them…

They are:
40848783 PSA 9 Energy Retrieval
28239460 PSA 9 Pokemon Trader

2 Likes

Thank you for this enlightening article! :blush:

It turns out the Pokémon Trader & 2 Energy Retrieval cards I have are all Gift Sets with NR labels from PSA!

Pokémon Trader PSA 9: 51014639
Energy Retrieval PSA 8: 51014640
Energy Retrieval PSA 7: 50407478

AT.

Very useful information. Thanks.

Eggcelent guide!

So has anyone told PSA about this? Might be good to educate them for future cards being submitted.

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Thanks @shizzlemetimbers, @teammagma and @megashiningmagikarp for your contributions! I added a list of currently identified PSA 9 & 10 Pokémon Traders at the end of the article.

@eeveeteam If you know how to tell the relevant people at PSA, it sure wouldn’t hurt to have them give this guide a quick read!

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Hey there funnily enough that’s my photo you’ve used! (me holding the QSS gust of wind). I recently set out to complete a non holo psa 9 set and then learned about this difference luckily not too late.

I will try and post the cert numbers of what I have here to cover NR base and QSS. I wonder how many QSS have graded, we need to get them to stop!

@hayo,@shizzlemetimbers,@qwachansey,@mingemirl,@joponnes,@megashiningmagikarp,@teammagma,@pokemoncardproject,@papafrankgod,@eeveeteam,@thepokemontrader, @pokemoncardproject, @teammagma, @megashiningmagikarp, @joponnes,

Just wanted to update this thread with some of my cards / ones I’m aware of - hopefully it helps.

Pkmn Trader
PSA 9
58775234 - Gift set
51014639 - Gift set
49630637 - Base set
63470010 - Base set MC
63470011 - Base set OC

PSA 10
52360290 - Gift set


Energy Retrieval
PSA 9
43778947 - Base set


Gust of Wind
PSA 9
25931757 - Base set

PSA 10
28779907 - Base set

Sorry for any overlap, I really hope this can be sorted cause I genuinely have no idea how many true base set ones there for each card!

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Ah just to add to my last post, 637 is confirmed it’s on my insta, I was thinking of buying 638 as well. I’m glad I managed to discover all this through research after I bought two PSA 9 gift set cards when I began collecting these. Luckily didn’t pay too much! :blush:

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Do yall keep up with holos that are just plain mislabeled in this thread? I received an advertisement from PCSportsCards with this in a photo

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@thecharizardauthorty, There’s a few out there, the mislabeled Charizard (minus 1) and there is a Gyarados no rarity 10 with normal label (plus 1).

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Another mislabel:

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Damn. What would be the technicality regarding the PSA Financial Guarantee of Grade & Authenticity if someone actually paid 15k for it?

Rip

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