Japanese Exclusive Charizard Artworks

[quuador]

@ripguyfawkes

@quuador , thanks for the pictures! Do you know if PSA differentiates between the cd promo charizard and the trade please A course Charizard? Or are there no visual differences whatsoever?

Although PSA uses both labels, there isn’t any visual difference between the two versions of the Venusaur/Charizard/Blastoise. To quote @pfm on the method PSA uses:

@pfm

@majomaal

Hi,

I wonder how PSA can distinguish the Fan or CD version.
Just wake me up
Anyone knows ?

Here is a simulation of the exact method the PSA Pokemon research team uses to figure it out:

www.random.org/coins/?num=1&cur=60-usd.0001c

It’s accurate to even the coin used since any larger amount might significantly cut into the researcher’s salary.

So PSA basically just flips a coin. Tbh, they’ll probably label it the one you send it in as in your submission form.

It’s rather similar with the other cards from the Pokémon Song Best Collection CD, although some can still be distinguished if you know how (although PSA doesn’t distinguish any of them from their similar counterpart):

• Pikachu: This card looks similar as the English Shadowless yellow cheeks Base Set Pikachu. The way to distinguish the English Base Set from this Japanese CD Promo version is with a flashlight test. The CD Promo is printed on Japanese cardboard, which is ever so slightly thinner than the cardboard used for English Pokémon TCG cards. I also mention this in my Base Pikachu artwork variations article.
• Computer Error: there are three versions of this card released in Japanese: January 1998 CoroCoro Comic insert; Kamex Mega Battle regional tournament participants prize; Pokémon Best Song Collection CD. The Kamex Mega Battle version has a white-shadowed ‘R’ as symbol, and the other two have red-shadowed 'R’s as symbol. See below at glossy promos on how to distinguish the other two with red-shadowed ‘R’.
• Super Energy Retrieval: there are four versions of this card released in Japanese: April 1997 Pocket Monsters Fan Club insert; Pokémon Best Collection CD promo; inside the Gold, Silver, to a New World… set (Neo Genesis in English); unknown release that was used for photos in books (see this thread). The first two are glossy with the same text (see below at glossy promos on how to distinguish them from one another). The other two versions are both non-glossy and also have different texts (so three different text versions), as can be seen in the picture of the linked thread.
• Glossy promos (Super Energy Retrieval; Computer Error; Mewtwo; Mew): Both the Mew and Mewtwo were included both in the 7th Next Generation World Hobby Fair vending sheet #00 of December 1997, as well as the Pokémon Song Best Collection CD of January 1999. How to distinguish these four earlier released glossy promos from the Pokémon Song Best Collection CD promos is like this:

@KEI

It is easy to distinguish the CD version from the fan book version.

You can distinguish it by looking at the cross section of the card.

Many Japanese use this method.

The other cards released in the Pokémon Song Best Collection CD promo set are all non-glossy, and cannot be distinguished from their earlier releases as far as I’m aware:

• Venusaur/Charizard/Blastoise: All three released in both the Trade Please campaign and CD
• Arcanine: Released as both a Toyota auto campaign promo in October 1997 and as CD promo
• Cool Porygon/Hungry Snorlax: Both released in the Nintendo 64 ad campaign of December 1997 and as CD promo

Greetz,
Quuador