In terms of the Pichu card, I’m aware of 9 or 10 which are in the hands of people who understand their scarcity:
- 2 graded PSA 10 (of which I’ve seen pictures of both).
- 3 owned by KEI.
- 1 owned by me (which is with PSA at the moment, and I notice PSA has added a new PSA 8 version, so I’m hoping that’s mine as I thought it’d only be a 6
). - 1 owned by your Pikachu collector friend.
- 2 or 3 owned by choco7maron.
choco7maron’s blog (https://choco7maron.blog.fc2.com) is down at the moment but Web Archive has some (but not all) thumbnail images cached:
I know they also have at least 1 Pikachu based on an older post of mine in this thread (which features a higher res copy of the first image).
Unless the Pichu card was distributed in a different way to the Pikachu, I think it’s probably safe to assume there are more than 4 of them.
As per [www.psacard.com/pop/tcg-cards/2001/pokemon-japanese-expedition/99974 for](https://www.psacard.com/pop/tcg-cards/2001/pokemon-japanese-expedition/99974 for) future reference - and it’s hard to judge PSA’s accuracy without pictures - PSA currently has the following graded (ignoring Ponyta):
- 028 Clefairy - 1x PSA 5
- 071 Charizard - 1x PSA 4, 1x PSA 9, 1x PSA 10*
- 082 Pichu - 1x PSA 8, 2x PSA 10
- 106 Typhlosion - 1x PSA 9, 1x PSA 10
* The PSA 10 Charizard with cert #28479148 has been reported stolen, see: www.elitefourum.com/t/japanese-unlimited-e-series-1-cards-base-expansion-pack/16426/21.
I have a handful of these packs up for sale on eBay. I’d say they’re not rare but they’re certainly not common any more (as can be said about any sealed product from that long ago). For reference, they look like this:
You’ll notice that it features some unlimited cards printed on the back, but it’s worth noting that almost all promotional material relating to this set also feature similar scans - including the regular 1st Edition E Starter Deck insert.