Hi all. Ive just recently picked an unlimited E1 (expedition) japanese charizard and a thread on here around 3 years ago was mentioning that they are extremely rare but there is not firm idea of the origin or that varient of the card. Any information would be great as all im getting is conflicted opinions on its origin, as most of the E1 unlimited cards have this issue but zard in particular. Thanks all for the insight
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Unfortunately, we haven’t learned all that much since that major thread below.
Here’s one anecdote from a Japanese seller:
An event to teach how to use Pokémon Card e at the Pokémon Center was held. Unlimited E Series 1 was distributed on the last day of the event.
- Mercari unlimited Charizard description (translation by KEI)
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Exceptional pick up, congrats!
I’d love to one day find out the secrets to E1 too. For now though, the way I think about E1 is they’re rare cards but not to tie them to numbers.
The different stories about their release or the numbers associated to them is far too inconclusive, making it more enjoyable to focus on the mystery of the cards for now until something more concrete comes to light.
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Some of them have pretty good stories and on the whole make total sense but the zard just doesnt have that information, just speculation. Im pretty confident there are no more than 50 that were printed tho. Can we agree on that do you think as psa pop is only 10, not sure on beckett. And a friend of mine could only find 4 for sale on japanese marketplaces.
This feels made up and also like a large underestimation.
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I believe there is almost certainly more than 50 Charizards
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Are you saying ive made it up?
As i said it is speculation and im going by what im reading. If you ever find any updates please let me know.
How so? If you have some evidence please i need to see it. The story doesnt add up to me but from what ive read thats what im getting from it. By no means am i saying its 100% correct, just feel confident in it thats all because i can find very little for sale etc. I know thay doesnt prove only 50 of them were printed tho
Yeah sadly i dont think many people really know about it or care to find out. Ive messaged a couple people i know who live in japan but no message back yet. Fingers crossed
I totally get where you’re coming from, but I wouldn’t be too set on the idea that there are only 50 copies. I don’t have any concrete evidence to disprove the number 50 however, as anecdotal as it is I’ve seen far too many for sale and know some collectors who also own them, to have only 50 wouldn’t be realistic.
I could ask you where is your evidence to support that claim (other than that thread). It’s easier to prove something doesn’t have x copies than to prove that it does.
In my experience, there’s often more flexibility with these things, and it’s exceptionally common to see additional copies pop up over time. We’ve seen this time and time again. I just wouldn’t marry myself to the number, as there are usually more out there than initially thought.
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@Frosty.Puppy nailed it but I’ll add a bit more. Mostly print numbers don’t matter, available supply is a more relevant and meaningful metric.
I also can’t disprove 50, but after a while you get an intuition for this stuff. Only a fraction of the supply ever surfaces for any given card. Especially when it’s something easy to miss like a small symbol not being there. Japanese collectors also exist, many will knowingly have a copy and it will be sitting in a binder, maybe way more have a copy (or thrown one out) without realizing the significance.
The point is we don’t know the answer, but 50 feels like a major underestimation to me. Either way you shouldn’t tie yourself to a single number as frosty suggests
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If we’re going by Price is Right rules I’d like to guess 51 copies.
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The estimate of less than 50 refers to the random Deck. Since each deck has one random gen 1 or 2 evolution line, it’d mean there would only be ~6 or 7 Charizard. We also made this estimate when we first discussed these back in 2017/2018 (see the thread and blog linked by @Dyl earlier), when only one or two copies of each card had popped up.
Considering we’ve already seen three times that amount of unlimited edition Charizard by now. And the Pikachu which would be 1/3rd decks (~16 or 17) can already be found in one collection (Ignore the top-left one, which is 1st edition. All the others are unlimited edition versions.), I have no doubt at this point there are more than 50 for most of these cards.
In addition, apart from the Ponyta promo, the Charizard seems to be the most common one to find. Possibly also due to the popularity of the Pokémon itself, causing the cards to be listed more often.
I still think these are extremely rare. And it wouldn’t surprise me if there are less than 100 copies of each card to be found. But these are all just guesses, since we still have no idea how these cards were released, except for some rumors (e.g. the 50 random decks; or the lottery consolation prize). Regardless, like others mentioned above, whether there are just 50 or 500 copies in existence, they are very rare cards with almost no supply but a reasonable[1] amount of demand. 
Greetz,
Quuador
there aren’t too many people caring about 1st vs unlimited edition tbh ↩︎
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I like the random dispersion of these cards and where they end up in the world.
I got my Feraligatr in a trade where the other person showed me a random pile of Japanese e-readers when I declined their first trade offer. The Ferraligatr was sitting, randomly, on top of the pile. They had no idea what it was. They were US based.
I got my Bulbasaur in a random e-series lot. The seller was American but based in Japan. When I looked at all of their other binder cards that they had for sale, they also had unlimited L2/L3 and some rare XY sets. They had no idea of the rarity of any of the cards.
My Cyndaquil was from a Japanese seller who knew what they were but didn’t have an exorbitant price tag on the card.
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Appreciate your input 
Like my previous reply i havent said there definitely are only 50 copies of the card. I know its speculation.
I appreciate you reply a lot. As ive said i know it is speculation how many of them there were, im just going by what ive read and i am currently doing more research to try and bring some light to this topic
I would recommend having saved searches on eBay and mercari.
You will see just how many pop up.
Every week there are multiple new ones listed.
I don’t see any specific e1 unlimited cards having different quantities.
I used to see a ton of pichu and now I haven’t seen one in a while.
Just like I rarely see meowth pop up.
I’m not monitoring all listings 24/7 I maybe check eBay and mercari (buyee) once a day. I can be missing many listings that get picked up quickly.
I also agree with many people here with the impression there are greater than 50 Charizards.
There are many stories from different sellers and perhaps each story is true. There were likely a bunch printed and dispersed in various ways.
I believe the idea that certain convenience stores had lotteries and these were the losing prizes. This method was either posted on e4 or told to me during one of my e1 unlimited acquisitions from a Japanese seller, I can’t remember.
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