I recently purchased a lot of vintage PSA 10’s and there were a few oddballs in there. These 2 Pikachu’s stood out because they aren’t labeled as Shadowless or anything else. Just 1999 Pokemon Game- Pikachu. I checked the Cert #'s and they come back as a pop 8? What is going on with these? Is this some special version of Pikachu, or is it just a really old slab that’s mislabeled? I’ve never seen one like this before. Any insight is appreciated, thanks.
Ye olde certs from the dark ages
Probably from before Shadowless was designated
TLDR: These are legit shadowless cards. The date and lack of drop shadow makes this obvious. PSA is infamous, especially in their early days, for not properly or consistently labeling their cards because pokemon was so new; and what we now know as fact wasn’t widely circulated back then (it was the dawn of the internet).
Your cards are legit. If you want them re-labeled to be more accurate, reach out to PSA and see what they say.
Tbh I think it’s cooler if you dont get them relabelled. You got a little piece of history.
^what he said - not trying to be funny, seriously - little piece of grading history right here.
This was gonna be my next question! I thought they would be more unique if I left them in the old slabs.
Something you might find even more interesting is, I graded those lol. Both the cd promo shadowless and the english base shadowless were first graded by me. I wasn’t able to convince PSA to designate “shadowless” till a couple years later. The lighter colored one’s would be the cd Promos. These are probably the cd promos.
Note the consecutive cert numbers. I normally graded several dozen cd promos at a time. Many of the pikas ended up getting recased and designated on the label as “shadowless” when I got it accepted though they were Japanese card stock and not out of the english boxes.
At the last collectacon in Houston an old timer came up and had me sign one of these pikas and had me write “CD” lol.
+1 on this. I’ve got a Masaki Omastar in the same style case, labeled as “Vending Mail-In”. It’s a nice bit of hobby history!
According to this guide the case style is PSA’s 3rd gen (I’m sure the grading vets will jump in if wrong): PSA Slab History
That’s awesome! You’re absolutely right too, these Pikachu’s are definitely lighter than my 1st editions. I never even knew there was a CD promo version of this card! These 2 came in a big lot with a bunch of older gen 2 and 3 slabs, all zero certs. Most of them were Japanese CD promos, Corocoro comic promos, and some neo gens. Some interesting stuff there for sure.
Gary, I’ve always meant to ask you: Did you buy many of the sealed “Best Collection” CDs from me? Or was that a deal you worked out with somebody else (perhaps Media Factory directly). I sold a few thousand of them, though I never quite knew where they ended up, haha.
In any case, those sure were the halcyon days of Pokemon wholesaling. We are both lucky to have been part of it 
Glad Gary commented because I noticed they seemed a bit lighter like the CD promo. You can tell the difference, but an untrained eye would just call it english shadowless. The CD promo was printed by media factory.
Nice job convincing PSA to give the shadowless designation eventually Gary.
I’m glad too! These were listed as regular English shadowless cards, I thought they were just old and sun faded. I guess the next question is- If I sent these back to PSA to have the label corrected,(I’m not) would they be designated as regular shadowless cards, or as CD promos? I couldn’t find a “Pikachu CD Promo” in PSA’s database anywhere.
PSA doesn’t recognize them as a unique variant apart from shadowless at this time, but CGC and BGS do.
That’s so strange! Why wouldn’t PSA have a separate label, especially since their competitors do? As I understand it, the CD promo Pikachu’s are a completely different card and are more rare than a regular shadowless Pikachu. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but it should command a higher price than a regular shadowless, no? I read through this thread here- www.elitefourum.com/t/pikachu-shadowless-cd-promo-vs-base-shadowless/29779/1
Makes you wonder how many mislabeled CD Pikachu’s were sold as regular shadowless cards. As far as these two Pika’s in particular, I did some more searching and found an auction back in '16 for one that’s similar. It has the same mislabeled cert, 1999 Pokemon Game- Pikachu Gem Mt 10. Pop 8. It sold for $15 and the picture shows an unlimited Pikachu. It’s clearly not the same card that I have, so I guess that adds to the mystery.
Here it is on PSA’s website- www.psacard.com/auctionprices/tcg-cards/1999-pokemon-game/pikachu/auction/-2227193906344621808
It would not suprise me if in the near future PSA starts recognizing it. They seem to be recognizing more and more odd variants as their competitors do and pokemon becomes more popular as a collectible.
That being said, they stopped grading the pikachu WHF promos from the peel off sheet and I was one of the last people to get a Japanese French Gotta Mew graded before that was discontinued. Why? I have no idea…
