Set of the Fortnight #2

Expedition

bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Expedition_Base_Set_(TCG)

The often forgotten older brother of Aquapolis and Skyridge, at the time of release it was the largest set ever released.

What are your favourite cards/artwork from the set?

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Some really nice artwork in this set, my favourites


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Love the Blastoise and the Alakazam.

Oh yes, good old Expedition. Iā€™ve probably told this before but this was the set that made me quit collecting back in the days, drastic change of borders was too much because they didnā€™t look like ā€œnormalā€ Pokemon cards. Funny enough currently I really enjoy of e-series sets, lots of good stuff in them.

Feraligatr is absolute favourite card from rares, Tyranitar is stunning too. From lesser cards these 2 have nice artworks:

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Iā€™ve never opened a pack of this set but owned some singles anyways getting them from trades, flea marketsā€¦ I was 10 when this set came out and in the opposite of @nauticads I actually found the borders as interesting :blush:

My favorite cards from this set are these two, both of them look so cute in their own way. The Charizard looks like he is a shy one and Raichu is just so happy :3 I also love the #12 Feraligatr which was posted before on this thread, the art looks nicely realistic

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The Blastoise, Feraligatr and Totodile artworks are indeed great.
I personally also really like the Kingler that I have in my collection. It isnā€™t all that special, but for some reason I just love the artwork of it and itā€™s one of my favorite cards in my collection. Itā€™s something I canā€™t really express/explainā€¦

I also like the Flaaffy one, especially around Christmas time of year:

And the following two look so happy and mellow in the windy grass plains:

As for least favorite, probably Metapodā€¦ Aparently heā€™s a jigsaw puzzle. :unamused:

Greetz,
Quuador

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Yep, same here - I think the switch to e-cards single-handedly killed off my interest in collecting Pokemon cards back then. Even now, with very few exceptions, I donā€™t have much interest in that era compared with everything before and after.

But in terms of individual cards, I do really like that Flaaffy posted above.

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My least active time in the hobby was during the E-card series. While I do not like the larger border, there is some solid artwork.

Here are some I was reading about in the Illustration Collection Book:

This was the first time Arita did a pokemon underwater, and of course knocked it out of the park:

I like this one as it is Bill from the Game Boy game fixing the machine that turned him into a pokemon:

And this squirtle is very poignant:

THIS SET MADE ME SCREAM BLOODY MURDER

YOU KNOW WHY?

THIS IS WHY:

WHY IS THERE SO MANY VARIANTS OF THIS CARD

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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You forgot all three variants in French, German and Italian. :stuck_out_tongue: (Yeah, I know you only collect the English and Japanese variants.)

And youā€™re also missing the English Matchprint oneā€¦

Greetz,
Quuador

The what one? :tada: Show me this please.

EDIT: Okay I checked what that was and tbh I donā€™t count that as a card. Itā€™s a beta card at best and frankly considering THAT as part of ā€˜allā€™ the versions of a card is insanity, simply because if you count that, how many OTHER beta cards are out there that we donā€™t know about?

Itā€™s the same thing about languages.

So while it does have a visible difference, itā€™s not something Iā€™d ever personally collect for the above reasons. I mean if I ever found one Iā€™d get it but thatā€™s more for novelty and nothing more.

Furthermore, thereā€™s probably a matchprint of ALL cards. We just didnā€™t see them.

You could be right. But I guess most are destroyed. As far as I know the Expedition Base Matchprint cards are the only ones leaked to the public. Unfortunately there are only two copies in existence, one in Justinā€™s collection and one in Rustyā€™s. And I donā€™t see either willing to sell it.

Ah well, cards like that and misprints are a pain to get anyway. Like the Thin 1st edition Base Pikachu (if it existsā€¦); Inverted WB stamp misprint; German Flug-Pikachu misprint; 016/Dpt-P short print before they changed it to 019/L-P; etc. etc. Cards like that will either cost me 1k+ or wonā€™t be in my collection. Since I canā€™t afford to pay 1k on a single card for my collection (unless it would be the very final card to complete it), itā€™s unfortunately the secondā€¦

Ah well, who knows. Maybe Iā€™m one day lucky to find one cheap. Iā€™m still able to find new Pikachu cards every week, and sometimes even daily. Take today for example, Iā€™ve been browsing eBay.com/.de/.it/.es/.co.uk/.co.au and pokemoncardmarket and have found 8 new cards again (mostly from the Evolutions set in other languages, though). But sometimes when youā€™re lucky and look at the correct time before anyone else does, youā€™ll come across a gem (got my second Art Academy Pikachu incoming). Things like that make wasting time browsing eBay so worth it. :grin:

Btw, you must know by now that I am kinda insane when it comes to Pikachu variations to collection. :slightly_smiling_face: Currently have 644 unique ones, 29 more incoming. 119 more to go.

Greetz,
Quuador

I know, but to clarify, if we as completionists go after cards that were NEVER supposed to be revealed and, in this case, are BETA cards that ONE person got cause they made a deal? Then I donā€™t count it on account of it never being a ā€˜publicā€™ release, unlike the other error cards that we have seen, like the upside down pokeball misprint or the HP-less Giovanniā€™s persian, for example.

Those were released in boosters or in the case of the inverted stamp movie promos, given out.

Stuff like the matchprints and whatnot are interesting, no doubt, but they were never supposed to see the light of day and therefore never ā€˜pubicallyā€™ released. Thatā€™s why I wonā€™t count it and tbh I donā€™t think any other collector should either, because it opens the floodgates, as I said before, to all a manor of OTHER beta cards we probably donā€™t even know about.

So yeah. Thatā€™s my stance on such cards. Interesting, but not and shouldnā€™t be counted, as an error or pubically released card.

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You know, I agree. But I still have it on my list simply because another collector owns one and it exists. I know I wonā€™t be able to get every card currently on my list. Some Iā€™m not 100% they even exist (like the Italian XY124, German HGSS03, Base 1st ed. Thin print, etc.), some are just way too expensive (Solid Gold with a retail of 2.1k for exampleā€¦), and some are just close to one-of-a-kind (like this Matchprint). Still, owning this Matchprint has a much higher chance by the looks of it than the YOU Wagon, SNAP Photo contest or two never-released-to-the-public Sample Pikachus.
I might remove them from my ToBuy-list, but currently my list contains all the Pikachu TCG Cards in existence, even if no one would ever be able to get them. I also prefer to have cards on my list even if I later discover they donā€™t exist. Because if they are on my list, I search for them regularly. And although justinatorā€™s list was a GREAT resource for me when I started, I personally have come across about 10-15 Pikachus that werenā€™t in his list. So Iā€™ll always stay on the look-up for possible unknown Pikachu Cards. :blush:

But, like I said, I can defintely understand your view. In fact, I even agree. But, like I said, my list isnā€™t really a ToBuy-list I NEED to complete, itā€™s more a compilation of every Pikachu card I know to exist, regardless of how easy/illusive they are to find.

Greetz,
Quuador

Sorry to derail the thread btwā€¦ Letā€™s get back to the amazing artworks.

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