So I'm sure everyone is familiar with the famous illustrator pikachu card that was given to the winners of the 1997 Corocoro illustrator contest, pictured below:
Now, according to bulbapedia, in addition to the pikachu card, winners also received 20 copies of the card they illustrated:
"Three entrants received the Best Award, each of them receiving 20 copies of a Pokémon trading card featuring their illustration and a special Pokémon Illustrator promotional card."
The three illustrator cards were subsequently reprinted in both the Quick Starter Gift Set and the Vending Series 1 set. Here are the three winning cards:
In all my years of collecting I've found a lot of information on the Pikachu illustrator card, but have never found anything about the 20 copies of the illustrator cards that were given to each contestant. The obvious assumption is that these 20 cards were identical to their reprint, either from the vending series or the quick starter gift set. If that was the case, these 20 cards would essentially be worth nothing.
Now, here's were it gets interesting. PSA recently added 3 cards to it's database, all of which were graded together and by the same person. Here's an image of one of the cards in its PSA case:
Notice the slip? It would appear to indicate that this poliwrath was one of the 20 copies given to the winners. PSA has graded many cards from both the Quick starter gift set and the vending series, including the reprints of this poliwrath card. Both of those sets have their own classification given to them by PSA. Again, this poliwrath and the other two cards graded with it were the first cards to ever get classified as being part of the corocoro illustrator contest.
So what's going on with this card? Well it lacks a rarity symbol so it's not part of the vending series. But how does one distinguish it from the quick starter gift set? The quick starter gift set is distinct in that the cards are unglossy and lack a rarity symbol. I recently won one of the poliwraths on ebay, but the seller told me it was unglossy. If that is indeed the case, then I have no idea how PSA would have made the distinction? Both cards are unglossy, lack rarity symbols, and (to my eye at least) are identical.
So here's my question: Does anyone know what the difference is between the illustrator cards from the quick starter gift set and the 20 copies given out during the illustrator contest? Or did PSA just screw up and mislabel them? I think mislabel is likely given how obscure these old pokemon cards are, but at the same time it seems weird that PSA would create a new category for these cards given they've graded quick starter cards before and should be familiar with them. Here's the PSA pop report page with both the poliwraths and the snorlax listed.
Obviously I will update with more info once I receive the card and can take a look at it in person, but in the meantime any thoughts or information would be much appreciated!
Now, according to bulbapedia, in addition to the pikachu card, winners also received 20 copies of the card they illustrated:
"Three entrants received the Best Award, each of them receiving 20 copies of a Pokémon trading card featuring their illustration and a special Pokémon Illustrator promotional card."
The three illustrator cards were subsequently reprinted in both the Quick Starter Gift Set and the Vending Series 1 set. Here are the three winning cards:
In all my years of collecting I've found a lot of information on the Pikachu illustrator card, but have never found anything about the 20 copies of the illustrator cards that were given to each contestant. The obvious assumption is that these 20 cards were identical to their reprint, either from the vending series or the quick starter gift set. If that was the case, these 20 cards would essentially be worth nothing.
Now, here's were it gets interesting. PSA recently added 3 cards to it's database, all of which were graded together and by the same person. Here's an image of one of the cards in its PSA case:
Notice the slip? It would appear to indicate that this poliwrath was one of the 20 copies given to the winners. PSA has graded many cards from both the Quick starter gift set and the vending series, including the reprints of this poliwrath card. Both of those sets have their own classification given to them by PSA. Again, this poliwrath and the other two cards graded with it were the first cards to ever get classified as being part of the corocoro illustrator contest.
So what's going on with this card? Well it lacks a rarity symbol so it's not part of the vending series. But how does one distinguish it from the quick starter gift set? The quick starter gift set is distinct in that the cards are unglossy and lack a rarity symbol. I recently won one of the poliwraths on ebay, but the seller told me it was unglossy. If that is indeed the case, then I have no idea how PSA would have made the distinction? Both cards are unglossy, lack rarity symbols, and (to my eye at least) are identical.
So here's my question: Does anyone know what the difference is between the illustrator cards from the quick starter gift set and the 20 copies given out during the illustrator contest? Or did PSA just screw up and mislabel them? I think mislabel is likely given how obscure these old pokemon cards are, but at the same time it seems weird that PSA would create a new category for these cards given they've graded quick starter cards before and should be familiar with them. Here's the PSA pop report page with both the poliwraths and the snorlax listed.
Obviously I will update with more info once I receive the card and can take a look at it in person, but in the meantime any thoughts or information would be much appreciated!
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