Base set in the Spanish language was the only set to have two versions of 1st edition and two versions of unlimited. They have either copyright 1999, or copyright 1999-2000. They come from visibly different packs and are clearly identifiable from text on the cards and should be identified by OCR.
PSA, CGC, BGS, TAG, etc all seem to not recognize the clearly copyrighted variants still today after nearly 30 years.
What is happening here? And why do they refuse to recognize it?
Send them an email with this evidence. PSA needs more than âtrust me broâ on some variants or repeating errors. They need a well established website or publication that confirms what you are asking them to recognize. But starting with an email will get the ball rolling
They are slow to these things, probably due to laziness and a historic ignoring of pokemon variants and errors for years. I would think cgc would recognize it though.
Is one of these belgium?
Is one on the belgium stock and one on the generic stock?
@packyman could one of these be carta mundi and the rest general printings is what im getting at. Very interested in acquiring a pair
See that 30 alignment? Was the entire first attempt overly affected with errors?
Psa and others dgaf, they call it a pokemon card and people give them moneyđ
Cgc i respect the most for trying
PSA is open to variants with proper documentation. CGC existing has caused PSA to be open to variant and error labels.
Prior to CGC, yes I agree they told you to pound sand
What is considered documentation?
Bulbapedia or an official publication from Pokemon
I am not sure why any documentation is needed, it physically has 1999 or 1999-2000 typed out as the copyright date. Itâs not a mystery or hidden variant, they just never recognized it. I already reached out and they donât seem to have done anything.
1999 were made in Belgium, and have the long crimps. I assume for Spain distribution. The short crimp ones are 1999-2000 and made in USA for Mexico distribution.
I think the issue lies in the holo copyrights. All holos appear to be copyright 1999 and the non-holos have 1999-2000. They have no way of determining print runs other than the method @Nightvulture / @OCDCompletist have discussed.
For a long time, PSA only graded 1st Ed Base Set for languages other than English and Japanese. It took a while for them to recognize any other set in their pop report. They are much better about it now, but it still takes time and banging your head against the wall.
Best of luck!
Talk to bulbapedia about adding it to their pack database (assuming they have a blurb about it). Just that cards were printed this way and exist, 2 different copyrights, different sourcing/release information if available.
Then submit that to psa using bulbapedia and your own articles here as proof. It may take time but from people getting things added in the past, thats the process for it. Hopefully they can clarify it.
Never crossed my mind to reach out to Bulbapedia. They are usually wrong on most things I want info on to the point I dismissed them as a source, just like Wikipedia 
.
Thats awesome that one is belgium. Do you happen to know if they are both on Belgiums cardstock? Wondering if one is cartamundi usa.
If you do reach out to bulbapedia, lmk how it goes.
In regards to the copyright date, most cards in jungle with a 99 date are just laziness and not wanting to update the numbers from what i gather. Awesome seeing a split in the 1st edition run with those cards though, have you seen it elsewhere?
Which Iâve added 2-3 years ago, in the âLanguages this set released inâ section on each set at the time. 
Bulbapediaâs âIn other languagesâ sections on set pages are only confusing collectors imho, since those are just translations from the online app, and NOT the languages those sets are actually physically released in. E.g. Base Set has a Russian translation, even though Russian sets started with the XY set 15 years later. Those âIn other languagesâ sections are on almost all Bulbapedia pages, e.g. the Berry page, but are less than useless on set pages imho.
Greetz,
Quuador
Having an internal contact who can assist, or being a well-known collector or influencer, are the fastest ways for a grading company to recognize a variant. While this might sound bad or even corrupt, it sometimes reflects how things operate in the real world.
They simply donât care at all. I even offered them to scan my pack collection so they could properly recognize variants a while back.
All they ever say is send your stuff in and basically pray. I havenât graded in a long time after learning the BBCE CEO / Steve âwe all got dupedâ guy was solely responsible for grading packs.
Clown show and not worth the risk of an employee damaging, swapping, or mislabeling your product.
If you think the guy who is in charge of grading these things at that company is someone you think is disreputable, and fear the company employees will damage, steal or mislabel your items, why are you interested in them even recognizing this stuff to begin with? Grading companies donât lend any credence to anything anyhow, and you know what you have anyway. Is it not enough for you to enjoy what you have? These companies know far less and care far less than you do. So why should their little piece of paper make a lick of difference? I think its pretty cool that there is a this quirk with the Spanish(and I assume other languages) base set prints. Keep them nice and safe, and enjoy what you have!
I had heard rumors before but only more recently had seen other comments that Steve was doing it solo. Now it has since changed.
PSA finally dropped this page after bugging them and I was hoping they would extend it further.
https://www.psacard.com/info/tcg-pack-guide/pokemon
I am in it for the history / community. Random sellers are missing out on not recognizing much rarer versions of sealed product. Maybe only I care now, but eventually others will also care.
I personally had some packs damaged, and some packs mislabeled. They are still mislabeling from a few examples I have seen.
Honestly, it feels like youâd need an influencer or an âinside manâ to get PSA to pay attention. For instance, itâs been two years, and they still donât differentiate between the âslim/5-packâ and âfat/25-packâ versions of cards. Whatâs even more frustrating is that these âslimâ and âfatâ variations have been present from the CS3 era all the way through the end of Sword and Shield. The only exception where they do acknowledge a pack distinction is for the CS4a and CS4b sets (the Eeveelution and Rayquaza Mew set), and even then, itâs only for the VMAX alternate art cards, which is absolutely insane. My theory is that some major players initially pushed them to recognize those specific differences. Interestingly, I havenât noticed similar pack differences in the new Scarlet & Violet era cards yet."
