I found some topps cards that looks exactly like the second English print (blue topps, oval Nintendo) but corners are rounded and the card seems slightly smaller. Any idea of what it is ?
Thanks
Hi,
I’ve starting to collect Pokemon cards again and one thing I’ve discovered is the Topps Pokemon cards. Can anyone explain to me the differences in the cards? Looking at Ebay, some auctions say that the blue labels are better some the black. Same thing with the foil cards, silver versus rainbow. And then there’s the Chrome cards. Can anyone help me before I spend a lot of money collecting the wrong thing?
Thank you for your help.
It’s topps series 1 that has the most variety. In the non foil topps cards there isn’t that many differences between the logo colours, blue is considered the first edition but there’s differences too since the round nintendo logo ones are GB ones and oval nintendo logo ones are US ones. The holo patters differ a lot between the print runs but they’ve all printed with black logo, bulbapedia has a good topps page to tell the differences. After series 1 in series 2 and 3 it’s basically just non holo, silver foil and rainbow foil. I do think that the rainbow foils and the embossed foil cards from latter print runs are considered more valuable but since topps isn’t that much collected as tcg imo the prices aren’t that stable. Then there’s several sets after the kanto sets but they don’t have very much variety, some are a bit more difficult to find tho.
With topps chrome it gets expensive, it’s divided in series 1 and 2 with series 2 being more rare and valuble. Base sets can be found a bit more easily and from the 3 holo patterns spectra chromes are the most common and easiest to find (they can still be a bit costly tho). Sparkle and tekno chromes are the ones that can easily get expensive, especilly in series 2 and with starters etc. Really don’t know what your focus will be but don’t recommend these 
Overall vesides this thread the bulbapedia topps page has quite good info of these as set lists with pics and holo variants and when you are more familiar with them you can track down the prices of certain cards and prints but like said the prices aren’t very stable.
Edit: now that i’m truly woken up i realised the original post was a lot more detailed than i remembered and i guess i didn’t provide that much new info. I guess i’ll just say that i don’t think any of the print runs is “better” than any other, it’s just personal preference, and indeed the prices vary a lot but chrome cards and latter holo patterns and rainbow foils are the pricier ones. I’d say you decide what you want to collect since getting them ll isn’t very realistic and then start to track down the prices
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Also, i think original post is missing one jumbo card. There’s also a silver foil jumbo pikachu with a checklist art on background. I should be getting one soon myself so i can verify that when it arrives.
Also, i don’t know if they count but from topps chrome there were several uncut 9 card sheet promos featuring all the holo variants
And with stamped anniversary cards i guess there’s a lot more and the original post just haven’t beed edited but i can also confirm 70 since i have that one
I bought these cards yesterday. Charizard and some cards are from “1st Print UK Edition”. I haven’t found an identical card anywhere.
Charizard:
More:
Thanks for help!
I recently found these in the old childhood box and didn’t really remember the Topps Movie Edition cards, but the art and the colors are awesome.
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Got back into collecting and purchased a few huge collections of Topps and other collector sets. Seems there’s been some development lately and some new discoveries. I will overhaul the guide a bit and fix some outdated information
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Awesome to see you back!
I picked up some of the 75th anniversary cards from your middleman a few years ago.
@pfm made this great article regarding Series 1 that expands on your article.
And @DanielGirardBolduc created a great resource for Topps collecting as well. And has a website for 75th anniversary info.
@joponnes displayed an incredible complete Topps collection and reference in this article as well!
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Some new things to be added:
Non English sets scans and information. I’m getting back to work on finishing collecting these and making some new progress. Ive even found a new set that hasn’t been discussed anywhere that I’ve seen. I’ll post pics when I get some in but it should be awhile and it will be a pain to find a full set for sure.
Some new series 1 English variations have been found. Working on getting those and adding some more pictures.
Some more box and pack information should be refined a bit
Some other obscure things as well
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Yea those buyback cards are cool! There is one from the american pie set as well that I was not able to purchase at the time and I have not seen them turn up. Im trying to do data recovery on some old drives to recover the picture but so far no luck. I had 15 buyback cards at one point. Glad others are finding some!
Thanks for the info
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I actually have an exciting update for that thread when i have a little bit of time to make a proper post!
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I should of never let them go 
He waa just a buddy, not a middleman. I sold them to him awhile back
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Ill try and at least lay out some of the topps mysteries I am trying to find examples of to figure out exactly whats going on
Rainbow foils for non US sets
It appears there are indeed rainbow foils for the non US sets. The strangeness with these foils is that they don’t seem to be consistent like the US. I’ve opened boxes and not all are rainbow or the same level of intensity. Some appear to be silver. The rainbow treatment is also not the same as the US sets. Maybe there are two distinct sets (silver and rainbow) or the production process just created a large degree in variation. I am leaning towards the second because topps is known to lack quality control. So far I’ve found found UK, Italian, German series 1 amd Italian series 2
Unconfirmed Series 1 Sets
The unconfirmed sets are mostly unconfirmed because they are error sets. This includes the 5th print rainbow and “ghost” sets. They either missing debossing when they should of had it or have partially transparent pokemon/characters that give the appearance of a fully shiney card rather than typical cards wjere the characters are not shiney. Ive been trying to find examples of more 5th print rainbow but there are not many… most likely not even a full set. Theres some cgc pop reports and a few pictures ive found but thats it. The ghosts I’ve confirmed to be mostly in blue logo rainbow US sets but could potentially be in any set.
Series 2 French foils
Where do they come from? The only French packs Ive been able to find are the wax packs that potentially were distributed by mcdonalds in France which dont seem to contain foils. There are also the Canadian French packs that only seem to contain English cards. It could be similar to the Spanish series 2 that was distribitued at Burger King. This set had the foils handed out in plastic wrappers.
Non US sets series designation and galleries
Yea the set lists for the non US sets are very confusing because the 3 possible series do not map directly to the US series.
I’m working on finishing them now. Hope to have some galleries of all the complete sets as they dont really seem to be posted anywhere.
There are two different Spanish sets depending on the dialect (Spain and Argentina). Very hard for a non spanish speaker to tell the difference. Im like one card away from having a gallery of both.
I have cards from the following sets
Italian:
Series 1,2,3
French:
Series 1,2,3
Spanish Spain
Series 1
Spainish Argentina
Series 1,2
Portuguese
Series 1,2
German
Series 1,3
UK
Series 1,3
Non US Series 2 set list
CL
77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151
HV 1,HV 2,HV 3,HV 4,HV 5
OR 1,OR 2,OR 3,OR 4,OR 5,OR 6,OR 7,OR 8,OR 9,OR 10,OR 11,OR 12,OR 13,OR 14,OR 15,OR 16,OR 17,OR 18,OR 19
Series 1 is the same
Series 3 is mentioned in the previous link
Some other language cards also dont differ from the UK set like the series 1 puzzle and checklist
And the other puzzle in johto series 3
Weirdly this puzzle is corrected from the US series 3 set. Id like to update my master checklist to account for duplicate cards across sets
Top 10 Set
Some potential mock up sheets may have been found but likely will remaim mysterious
JLC Description Text Differences
Some of the back text is slightly different. I have no idea which cards or why
Chrome Spectra Errors
Seems some S1 spectra Chrome are missing the set designation on the back. Curious if any other chrome cards have sumilar error. Ive read post claming there was a base chrome with a spectras designator
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Just some albums of some of the above mentioned mysteries.
Non-US Rainbow
https://imgur.com/a/kKMxePo
Ghost
https://imgur.com/a/uyetT9T
5th print rainbow
https://imgur.com/a/BCAaVv0
JLC text differences
https://imgur.com/a/9yRYRaC
Top 10 set
https://imgur.com/a/JDQ3shW
Non-US Series 2
https://imgur.com/a/FIp8DY3
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The top 10 ones are crazy! I’m not sure how the set was supposed to look like but the individual ones and the sheet sure differ from the ones in the marketing materials 
Would be nice to know for sure what those mockups are. There are 10 pokemon so it seems possible but who knows
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