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- Seen Oct 18, 2015
Hi, I'd like to start off by saying that i am brand new to this forum, and i am finally seeking out answers to the question that has plagued me for quite some time.....
A little background to help understand my situation.....please, please, bare with me.
I'm 29 years old. I was 12 when the pokemon craze hit America. I was in the 7th grade, and one day , right after getting home from school, i saw a TV show i recognized as "Japanimation" (as we called it back then) and was instantly hooked.
Before this show, the only "Japanimation" I had been subjected to were the 60 second Informercials that would rarely come on, advertising a 3 pack of Japanese Animation VHS( or beta) tapes of Akira, Ninja Scroll and one other that i cannot remember. I always wanted those tapes, my mom knew better than to buy them for me at the age of 8.
I remember the very episode, and i remember the first pokemon i ever saw (magnemite).
This was back when it came on UPN....before WB even bought the rites. For about half a semester i would rush home from middleschool to catch the last 15 minutes of this strange show called Pokemon. UPN had it coming on at 2:30pm EST....which was crazy, since most middleschools let out at 2:25pm and Elementary schools at 3pm ( in Maryland at least).
Anyways. Before it stopped coming on UPN, i only found 1 other person who watched the show....a kid in my class i heard humming the theme during homeroom. We kept it a secret for fear of embarrassment. Little did we know how HUGE it was about to get....
Ok. Now to the part pertaining to Pokemon TCG.
My older brother is 14 years older than me, and has always been a collector of comics/trading cards. This means, i have been frequenting the same local comic book shop since i was about 6 years old. At 12, i knew the owner and his adult son very well and were very comfortable with them.
A few months after Pokemon disappeared from UPN.......WB started advertising it, and putting it on at 3:30pm EST. This was , of course, genius.
Very quickly, the buzz spread. Not long after , they announced the release date for the TCG.
On my weekly visit to the comic book shop, I talked to the owner of the store about the TCG release. He hadn't heard anything about the show. I told him about it, and told him he should buy ALOT of the boxes of booster packs to sell. I also asked him if he could order me 2 full boxes of booster packs just for me if i paid him in advance ( something i had never done, and didn't know if he would agree). He did agree, and actually sold them to me at the price he pays, not retail.
On the day of the Pokemon TCG release, I had my brother pick up my 2 booster boxes of cards before school even let out. WHen i got home, there they were.
I already had a binder, i already had sleeves, and i carefully opened each pack....i touched ONLY the sides of the cards, and i slid them right into the binder sleeves in their respective slots. On the day of release, i had an entire set (charizard in my 17th pack of my second box) minus Chancey.....I also had a respectable amount of doubles, almost an entire second set.
The next day, i went into school and traded a boy named Tony for his Chancey...it had 2 tiny scratches on it. I got home and put it into my set. On day 2, i had a complete set of Pokemon cards....all untouched, except for Chancey.
Ok.....now onto what has always bothered me.....
I continued to buy pokemon cards....i put together a total of 3 full sets of the original set. I sold 2 back to the comic shop i frequent. I always kept my original set though, with the scratched Chancey and everything ( in hindsight, i should had switched it for a better one, but it was sentimental)
I realized very early on that my original set.....in fact ALL of my cards from the first 2 boxes i had purchased, were not labeled as first edition. THIS BOTHERED ME. It seems to me, that if i bought boxes the DAY of release, they would HAVE to be first edition.
They were not. I assure you, they were not.
I kept those pokemon cards. I sold everything else i had pokemon....my entire collection. I kept my very first set, which is still completely untouched ( except Chancey). That set was literally assembled the DAY of the US release.
I always assumed even back then that the set would be worth big bucks one day....even my older brother assured me they would, and he was a big time collector.
I then one day, not long after Jungle set had come out, full sets of Pokemon cards being sold on HSN....my mom pointed it out to me. This depressed me, and i realized my cards would be worth nothing.....mass production at it's worst.
Since that day, i kept my set for sentimental value only.....showing all of my nephews for the next 15 years as they went through their pokemon stage....
Then, one day about 2 years ago, i saw the word "shadowless". No idea what that meant...i stopped caring about pokemon by the 9th grade (DBZ took it's place). So i started looking up shadowless......and learned that there are different theories on shadowless cards.
From what i have read, Some people believe that only first edition cards were meant to be shadowless, and the shadowless cards that do NOT have a first edition stamps are in fact misprints......and that there were less non-first edition shadowless cards printed then actual first edition stamped cards. This theory, if it were proven, would make shadowless cards worth much more than first edition cards based on the general rules of collecting.
Some people, and what seems to be generally accepted throughout the community, believe that shadowless cards were simply the cards that were printed before Wizards of the Coast decided to add the shadowing to the cards. I believe Wizards of the coast released a statement verifying this back in the day, thus , the general acceptance.
Therefore, all first edition cards of the original set.....are shadowless. And what is generally accepted is that non-first edition shadowless cards.......are cards that fall in a unique time period before Wizards settled on a final design.
This makes non-first edition shadowless cards sought after......but worth MUCH less than first edition.
HERE IS MY BIG PROBLEM........and this is what i need opinions on....because it drives me crazy...
It has always bothered me since 12, that my cards were not first edition. IN my mind, they would HAVE to be first edition given the circumstances in which i bought them.
I still have this set, and ever single one is shadowless.....not first edition, but shadowless...
This leads me to believe that the FIRST theory i mentioned MUST be true.....Wizards released a portion of first edition cards UNSTAMPED.....making them errors, and worth more. Now, if this were true......Wizards would NOT come out and say it....it would be so bad for PR. They would instead come up with a reason why there are shadowless and shadowed cards......And to be quite honest.....i find the reason they came up with MORE unbelievable then , lets say, and entire production plant ( one of lets say 5) NOT using stamps for the first month.
What is everyone's thoughts on this?
Has anyone heard stories like this before? 2 entire boxes bought the day of release....not even put on store shelves...and they weren't marked 1st edition. IS that even possible?
This bothers me so much......because i just feel screwed. I feel like my untouched shadowless set should be worth about $5,000, instead of about $125.
Any feedback would be appreciated, sorry for the book.....it's 17 years of frustration.
A little background to help understand my situation.....please, please, bare with me.
I'm 29 years old. I was 12 when the pokemon craze hit America. I was in the 7th grade, and one day , right after getting home from school, i saw a TV show i recognized as "Japanimation" (as we called it back then) and was instantly hooked.
Before this show, the only "Japanimation" I had been subjected to were the 60 second Informercials that would rarely come on, advertising a 3 pack of Japanese Animation VHS( or beta) tapes of Akira, Ninja Scroll and one other that i cannot remember. I always wanted those tapes, my mom knew better than to buy them for me at the age of 8.
I remember the very episode, and i remember the first pokemon i ever saw (magnemite).
This was back when it came on UPN....before WB even bought the rites. For about half a semester i would rush home from middleschool to catch the last 15 minutes of this strange show called Pokemon. UPN had it coming on at 2:30pm EST....which was crazy, since most middleschools let out at 2:25pm and Elementary schools at 3pm ( in Maryland at least).
Anyways. Before it stopped coming on UPN, i only found 1 other person who watched the show....a kid in my class i heard humming the theme during homeroom. We kept it a secret for fear of embarrassment. Little did we know how HUGE it was about to get....
Ok. Now to the part pertaining to Pokemon TCG.
My older brother is 14 years older than me, and has always been a collector of comics/trading cards. This means, i have been frequenting the same local comic book shop since i was about 6 years old. At 12, i knew the owner and his adult son very well and were very comfortable with them.
A few months after Pokemon disappeared from UPN.......WB started advertising it, and putting it on at 3:30pm EST. This was , of course, genius.
Very quickly, the buzz spread. Not long after , they announced the release date for the TCG.
On my weekly visit to the comic book shop, I talked to the owner of the store about the TCG release. He hadn't heard anything about the show. I told him about it, and told him he should buy ALOT of the boxes of booster packs to sell. I also asked him if he could order me 2 full boxes of booster packs just for me if i paid him in advance ( something i had never done, and didn't know if he would agree). He did agree, and actually sold them to me at the price he pays, not retail.
On the day of the Pokemon TCG release, I had my brother pick up my 2 booster boxes of cards before school even let out. WHen i got home, there they were.
I already had a binder, i already had sleeves, and i carefully opened each pack....i touched ONLY the sides of the cards, and i slid them right into the binder sleeves in their respective slots. On the day of release, i had an entire set (charizard in my 17th pack of my second box) minus Chancey.....I also had a respectable amount of doubles, almost an entire second set.
The next day, i went into school and traded a boy named Tony for his Chancey...it had 2 tiny scratches on it. I got home and put it into my set. On day 2, i had a complete set of Pokemon cards....all untouched, except for Chancey.
Ok.....now onto what has always bothered me.....
I continued to buy pokemon cards....i put together a total of 3 full sets of the original set. I sold 2 back to the comic shop i frequent. I always kept my original set though, with the scratched Chancey and everything ( in hindsight, i should had switched it for a better one, but it was sentimental)
I realized very early on that my original set.....in fact ALL of my cards from the first 2 boxes i had purchased, were not labeled as first edition. THIS BOTHERED ME. It seems to me, that if i bought boxes the DAY of release, they would HAVE to be first edition.
They were not. I assure you, they were not.
I kept those pokemon cards. I sold everything else i had pokemon....my entire collection. I kept my very first set, which is still completely untouched ( except Chancey). That set was literally assembled the DAY of the US release.
I always assumed even back then that the set would be worth big bucks one day....even my older brother assured me they would, and he was a big time collector.
I then one day, not long after Jungle set had come out, full sets of Pokemon cards being sold on HSN....my mom pointed it out to me. This depressed me, and i realized my cards would be worth nothing.....mass production at it's worst.
Since that day, i kept my set for sentimental value only.....showing all of my nephews for the next 15 years as they went through their pokemon stage....
Then, one day about 2 years ago, i saw the word "shadowless". No idea what that meant...i stopped caring about pokemon by the 9th grade (DBZ took it's place). So i started looking up shadowless......and learned that there are different theories on shadowless cards.
From what i have read, Some people believe that only first edition cards were meant to be shadowless, and the shadowless cards that do NOT have a first edition stamps are in fact misprints......and that there were less non-first edition shadowless cards printed then actual first edition stamped cards. This theory, if it were proven, would make shadowless cards worth much more than first edition cards based on the general rules of collecting.
Some people, and what seems to be generally accepted throughout the community, believe that shadowless cards were simply the cards that were printed before Wizards of the Coast decided to add the shadowing to the cards. I believe Wizards of the coast released a statement verifying this back in the day, thus , the general acceptance.
Therefore, all first edition cards of the original set.....are shadowless. And what is generally accepted is that non-first edition shadowless cards.......are cards that fall in a unique time period before Wizards settled on a final design.
This makes non-first edition shadowless cards sought after......but worth MUCH less than first edition.
HERE IS MY BIG PROBLEM........and this is what i need opinions on....because it drives me crazy...
It has always bothered me since 12, that my cards were not first edition. IN my mind, they would HAVE to be first edition given the circumstances in which i bought them.
I still have this set, and ever single one is shadowless.....not first edition, but shadowless...
This leads me to believe that the FIRST theory i mentioned MUST be true.....Wizards released a portion of first edition cards UNSTAMPED.....making them errors, and worth more. Now, if this were true......Wizards would NOT come out and say it....it would be so bad for PR. They would instead come up with a reason why there are shadowless and shadowed cards......And to be quite honest.....i find the reason they came up with MORE unbelievable then , lets say, and entire production plant ( one of lets say 5) NOT using stamps for the first month.
What is everyone's thoughts on this?
Has anyone heard stories like this before? 2 entire boxes bought the day of release....not even put on store shelves...and they weren't marked 1st edition. IS that even possible?
This bothers me so much......because i just feel screwed. I feel like my untouched shadowless set should be worth about $5,000, instead of about $125.
Any feedback would be appreciated, sorry for the book.....it's 17 years of frustration.
