Saw this mentioned in another thread and wanted to hear what efour thought.
Yes it’s not first edition but with not knowing print runs would you consider it to be unlimited?
I always was under the impression that shadowless was printed along 1st ed but then wotc made a change at the last minute and that’s where we got the unlimited we know.
Base set to me was always four rarity tiers
Yeah. It was the original unlimited design.
I would categorize 1st Ed and Shadowless together. They share the same awkward positioning of energy symbols and the unshadowed area to the right of the art box. Unlimited fixed all of the centering issues on energy symbols and added the shadow.
Shadowless (without the 1st edition stamp) is the first unlimited print.
First, we have to define terms:
when you say, “unlimited”, do you mean it as in a separate, non-limited print-run? Or do you mean the first group that was intended NOT to be a ltd edition, but not necessarily printed separately for an unlimited run?
To clarify more:
1 print run with 2 separate edition stamps vs 2 print runs, each with 1st or 2nd edition stamp are NOT the same thing.
It’s a subtle difference, but I think it warrants a specification by whoever is asking.
Personally, I feel that shadowless IS the first unlimited edition, BUT it is NOT the first unlimited print-run, as it was printed, in my understanding, as part of the initial run, and thus as part of the 1st edition run. Please correct me if I’m wrong about the method of creation.
This was always my take too. My understanding was that shadowless cards had been manufactured with the final run of 1st edition cards (hence the deeper ink saturation, lack of shadow) but minus the 1st edition stamp being added. I agree though, I’d consider shadowless “unlimited” as that’s what they were intended to be, but not an “unlimited print run” as such.
-Now goes to check Bulbapedia to see if I’m wrong-
On a different note, I always used to think it was a shame that they changed the colour palette of unlimited print run cards because they just don’t look as visually appealing to me, but now I’m glad they did, because if they hadn’t, we would be missing that extra layer of history / transition and maintains something being “special” about 1st Ed and shadowless.
That is an awesome point!
Isn’t all of it limited? Or is there infinite of the whatever we are calling ‘unlimited’
All base cards are limited, but some are limiteder than others.
- George Orwell, I guess
They could actually be infinite there’s a never ending supply of packs for sale 
Unlimited refers to the upper limit on how many could be printed, not how many actually were.
Thatll explain the never ending supply coming through the backdoor then.
Shadowless is “Unlimited” in the sense that it seems that WOTC had to ramp up production to meet demand in the early days of Pokemon. It seems that these were possibly left over 1st Ed cards without the stamp added initially. It also seems likely though that due to the massive demand that Shadowless was printed in a larger quantity and may have been printed similar to a regular Unlimited print at some point before it switched over to ‘true’ Unlimited as it’s still much easier to find Shadowless cards than 1st Ed cards. However, there’s still a lot less Shadowless than the ‘true’ Unlimited cards overall which was printed in far higher amounts than 1st Ed or Shadowless prints combined.
When you go looking for sealed boxes it’s very rare to see Shadowless booster boxes. 1st Ed boxes are also scarce of course. Unlimited is still readily available compared to both.
Everyone has made really good points.
So it was intended to be unlimited but due to the design change the print run was far smaller to regular unlimited?
Also the other theory was that due to demand for product in the beginning they sent out non stamped 1st ed cards until the unlimited versions were ready and that’s how we have shadowless?
Loved this
From everything I’ve read, that’s basically how it went down. Early sales exceeded expectations by a huge margin and so WOTC basically finished the 1st Ed printing early on and immediately switched to Unlimited which happened to be the Shadowless variants at first before going to what became the actual Unlimited cards with the shadows and other changes made to the cards.
All in all though they’re very distinctive to me. I don’t think of Shadowless as “Unlimited”, but I do see them as being a unique release/variant in their own right. If the 1st Ed cards didn’t exist, Shadowless would definitely be even more collectible and in demand since they’d be the “first” editions in a sense.
I agree I really like the color pallets of shadowless/1st ed. They give the cards so much more life
Shadowless is the best unlimited.
Something I’ve always wondered: why is prerelease Raichu the updated unlimited design? Did they start printing cards before they decided to do a prerelease promo?
Because it was printed around the same time as the Jungle prerelease cards. It was made as a test/for fun thing and not intended to be an actual base set promo
