These Pokémon Cards Should NOT Exist (The 1998 Experiment)

This is not a Magikard. This is not your average Magikarp. And this sold for over $5 million. As it turns out, 1998 was without a doubt the most insane year when it comes to what the Pokémon Company let off their printing press. And I was actually really excited to make this video because I finally get to showcase my favorite Pokémon card of all time. But before we get there, let's start with by far the most ridiculous card of all and the definitive grail of the Pokemon TCG. The Pokemon Illustrator, known more commonly as the Pikachu Illustrator, is notable for several reasons. The craziest of which is its $5.25 million sale to none other than our very own Logan Paul. Now, I've talked about this card extensively in another video, so check that one out at the end screen if you're interested in learning more about the grills of each Pokémon, Magic, and Yu-Gi-Oh. [music] That said, this time around, we're going to focus on what makes this card so utterly strange. There are believed to be 41 copies of the Pikachu Illustrator in existence. They were awarded as prizes to winners of the Cororo magazine art contest in 1997 and 1998. Since that time, this card has made its way to being the face of ultra high-end Pokémon collecting. But why? It's not the rarest card of all time. As you'll see soon, it wasn't even the rarest card of 1998. Well, here's what the card itself does have going for it. An insanely limited distribution. The fact that it was awarded for an art contest, not competitive play. And it's the only card to say illustrator at the top instead of trainer. And it has the franchise's mascot Pikachu front and center. Even so, I would argue that none of this really matters, or at least it's not the whole story. Because what led to it becoming the most expensive trading card of all time is instead the combination of its cultural impact and history. It's easy to dismiss the Logan Paul buy as just a flashy influencer moment. And maybe it was, but that moment changed everything. When Logan paid roughly 5.25 million for the only PSA 10 copy of The Illustrator, he didn't just buy a card, he bought a narrative. Suddenly, this wasn't just one rare card among many. It became the symbol of high-end Pokemon collecting. And that shift happened because one very visible, very wealthy individual decided this card was worth that much and made it public. That decision rippled outward. Collectors, investors, speculators, all looked at that moment and said, "If this one card is worth that much, maybe there's more to chase here." The illustrator became less about the card itself and more about what the card meant. the convergence of nostalgia, prestige, and unbelievable wealth. But at the same time, it goes even deeper than that. Because if Magic the Gathering has taught us anything, it's the incredible power that a true one of card can have. And even though the Pikachu Illustrator is by no means a one-of-one, the lone PSA 10 copy absolutely is. This is a card that encapsulates the hobby, a niche art contest that awarded children for interacting with the game nearly 30 years ago. And if you're wealthy enough, you can have the single card that beats out all the rest. Well, as long as you don't look too closely. [screaming] PSA inconsistencies aside, what makes this card so relevant even to the conversation today is the fact that it simply cannot stop making headlines. In August of 2025, a PSA 9 copy sold for $625,000, which is of course ridiculous in and of itself. But then something even crazier happened because very shortly thereafter, word spread like wildfire of a $4 million sale of another PSA 9 copy of The Illustrator. The internet went absolutely crazy. Yes, we had been in the biggest Pokémon boom in history. But that kind of price increase is almost unheard of. And it turns out for good reason. Only a few days later, it was revealed to have been a troll account purchase that had no intention of actually buying the card. Of course, that didn't stop countless news sources from reporting on it anyway. So, suffice it to say, whether factual or not, this card is writing new history each and every year. Now, speaking of cards that are orders of magnitude rarer than the illustrator Pikachu, meet the first ever English Pokémon card, the commissioned presentation Galaxy Star Blastoise. This card is so strange and so elusive that for a long time even high-end collectors weren't sure if it was real. In fact, it wasn't meant to be collected at all. In 1998, Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak knew that they had struck gold with their Japanese trading card game. So, they immediately began looking for ways to expand production to an international audience. And what better place to start than with the very company that inspired the design of Pokémon cards from the very beginning, Wizards of the Coast. Having produced and distributed Magic the Gathering for over 5 years, Wizards seemed like the obvious choice for Pokemon's international partnership. But naturally, they had to be vetted. The trio of Pokémon TCG owners needed to know that they would be in good hands. So, Wizards provided them with a proof of concept, a vision of what the English and International Pokémon cards could look like if they were handed the contract. And that sample was this card, Blastoise number 009165R with that iconic Galaxy Star holographic finish. Only two copies have ever been printed. One is confirmed and publicly graded by CGC at 8.5. The other has never surfaced. Its location completely unknown. Everything about this card screams prototype. The corners are sharp and square, not rounded. The back is completely blank. There is no expansion symbol. And it's the first ever Pokemon card with English text across the name and text box. Interestingly enough, that same combination, square cut corners and blank back, is also found on artist proof Magic the Gathering cards, including the legendary artist proof Black Lotus. That connection isn't coincidental. Both Magic and Pokémon were printed by the same company, Cardammundi, under Wizard's direction. So, this Blastoise is, in a very real way, Pokemon's equivalent of an artist proof Black Lotus, a behind-the-scenes relic used to sell an idea before the game even existed in English. Its artwork by Kenugamorei is identical to the Japanese promo pack artwork that would be released more broadly in 1999. When one of the two known copies surfaced at auction in 2021, it sold for $360,000, cementing its place as one of the most historically significant and expensive cards ever printed. [music] But its value isn't just about price. It's about what it represents. This is the card that brided the gap between Pokémon's Japanese origins and its explosion into the global market. Pop quiz. You didn't think you'd make it through this entire video without being tested on your Pokemon knowledge, did you? Question one. Which of the following Pokemon evolves using the Moonstone? A, Pikachu, B, Clefairy, C, Jigglypuff, or D, Gastly? [music] >> Clefair's doing something. >> Hopefully, you got that one right. >> Clefairy. >> Question two. If your opponent uses a rocktight Pokémon, which of the following attacks would be most effective? A. Ember. B. Vinehip. C. Thundershock D. Quick Attack. If you've ever been slightly confused as to why Rock is weak to grass, raise your hand. Question three. Which of the following Pokémon would take the least amount of damage from Thunderbolt? A. Onyx. B. Sands Slash. C. Gyarados. D. Raichu. Gyarados is four times weak. Onyx is actually neutral despite what the anime would have you believe. Raichu has five times resistance. But Sand slash being a ground type isn't affected at all. Question four. Which of the following moves deals the most damage? A. Hyperbeam. B. Explosion. C. Fire blast. D. Solar beam. Explosion deals a whopping 170 base damage, making it the most powerful move in the original Game Boy games. Add in the fact that it have your opponent's defense on contact, and this move is far and away the most powerful of the bunch. Question five. Which of the following Pokémon are not able to learn Dragon Rage? A. Gyarados. B. Charizard. C. Dragon Air. D. Magikarp. Dragon Rage, while being a pretty weak 40 base damage move in the video game, is only learnable by a very select group of Pokémon, of which Magikarp is not one, even though Gyarados is. If you got every single answer correct, and it was 1998, then you would have had a small chance at actually winning the next card on our list, the Tamushi University Magikarp. Despite looking relatively [music] average, this card was not released in any booster pack. Instead, you had to earn it by passing a series of written Pokémon exams run through a fictional school called Tamushi University, which was named after Seladon City in Japanese. Kids across Japan could find the first entrance exam tucked inside of one of six issues of Shogu Kukon magazines. You'd fill out the answers on the postcard and mail it in. pass that [music] round and you take the next test, the professor exam, which was already much more challenging. And if you continued to do well, you'd then take the super professor exam and finally the hyper profofessor exam in early December of 1998. Only the top 1,000 students who made it through every round were crowned with the title of hyper profofessor. And along with their certificate, they received this, the university magic art. But you might notice something strange here. If you were paying attention during the quiz, the answer to question five was that no, Magikarp could not learn the move Dragon Rage. [music] And yet, here it is. Clearly performing the move Dragon Rage in the artwork, as well as having the move itself in the text box. But this wasn't an accident. During the second test, the professor exam, 30 of the highest scorers actually received an in-game Magikarp for Pokémon Red, Green, or Blue that knew Splash and Dragon Rage. So, this card is modeled directly after that special Magikarp. One of the rarest event Pokémon in history, [music] linking the TCG in video games in a way never seen before. Today, these almost never surface. Many were lost to time, [music] and high-grade copies are virtually impossible to find. Even so, collectors value them in the $50 to $70,000 range, depending on condition, and some consider them one of the top 10 grail cards in all of Pokémon. So, while Wizards of the Coast was pitching Pokemon to America, Japan was giving out diplomas to kids who could outsmart an entrance exam. All to earn a Magikarp that literally broke the laws of nature. All right, now that we're done with all of the artistic skill and books smarts nonsense, let's finally get to playing the game. Because the next 1998 grail wasn't earned by drawing or studying. It was earned by winning battles with your parents. Meet the Guruya Parent Child Kangaskhan Trophy. This card might look ordinary, but with a six-f figureure price tag, it's anything but. As you now know, a few years after its initial 1996 launch in Japan, the Pokémon TCG had been exploding in popularity. And with that came more and more people looking to compete and prove that actually they were the very best. Tournaments were springing up everywhere. But Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc. at that time wanted something with a little more heart than the standard tournament structure. So they created a special event called the parent child mega battle. It could be a parent and their kid or even siblings as long as one was over and one was under 16 years of age. These tournaments were held as side events at larger competitions like the Lazardon Mega Battle and CamX Mega Battle. Some of the first organized Pokémon tournaments in the game's history. And for pairs who placed highly, the prize was this, a holographic Kangaskhan promo. This of course wasn't a random pick. It's literally a Pokémon parent holding its child in its pouch. The symbolism was perfect and adorable. The card itself features a clean classic '90s holof foil background with the original Pocket Monster trading card game logo printed in the corner, the same one used on the very earliest Japanese promos. As for how many were given out, no one knows for sure. Estimates range from as few as 30 to maybe a couple hundred. But make no mistake, even on the high end, this is still one of the rarest cards from Pokémon's first competitive era. And because of that, its prices are absurd. Recent sales show PSA 8s going for around 80k, PSA 9 for about 100K, and the elusive PSA 10, last recorded a few years ago, roughly $150,000. And that was back in 2020 when collecting hadn't yet reached today's uh craziness. Now we arrive at my favorite Magic the Gathering, I mean Pokemon card of all time. Because once the commissioned presentation Blastoise was given the go-ahad ahead by Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast wasted no time taking production in house. And thus was born the most bizarre Pokémon card of all time, the Blastoise Magic Back test print. Once again produced by Wizards of the Coast and printed by Cardamundi in late 1998. At this point, Wizards had already won the license to print Pokemon for the Western market. So now they were deep in the technical phase, testing layouts, ink calibration, and foil patterns for what would become the first set of English Pokémon cards. And since Wizards was using the same printers that produced Magic the Gathering, it was faster and cheaper to print the Pokémon prototypes on existing Magic card stock. That's how this bizarre hybrid came to be. a fully realized English language Blastoise card on the front and the familiar Magic the Gathering Deckmaster design on the back. For nearly two decades, no one was even sure these existed. But then in September of 2016, two of them suddenly appeared online, posted in a private Facebook group called MTG Rarities, Major Misprints, Test Prints, and Oddities. They came from a former Wizards of the Coast employee and were authenticated shortly after by the CGC grading company. Later in 2019, another copy surfaced in the storage unit of a long closed game store, sitting quietly among piles of old Wizards era promos and pre-production materials. These discoveries proved that Magic Back Blastoise wasn't just a one-off misprint. It was part of a small, deliberate test batch created during Wizard's final pre-launch calibration for the English Pokémon TCG. And here's where things get even more absurd. A fourth version, still attached to an uncut print sheet, was found featuring a black border and positioned alongside other Magic test cards. This sheet shows that the Pokémon prototypes were literally being printed on the same production lines as Magic the Gathering test runs at Cardammund's facilities in Belgium. Over the years, CGC has authenticated only a small handful of Magic Back Blastoise test prints. Each one is unique, but all of them share that iconic English Blastoise front and Magic the Gathering back. In late 2021, one of these cards graded the CGC 6.5 sold at auction for a staggering $216,000. The Magic Back Blastoise represents something that almost no other card can. The physical intersection of the world's biggest trading card games, created during the moment Pokémon was being translated from a Japanese exclusive TCG into a multinational empire. If I could own one card in the entire world, regardless of price, it would be this one. I've been playing Magic for well over 20 years now, and this crossover between two of my absolute favorite hobbies is without a doubt my personal Pokemon grail. Thanks for [music] watching. Oh yeah, if you didn't know, I'm only a short 85,000 subs away from 100K. So close. If everyone watching right now subbed, well, I probably still wouldn't get there, but I'd really appreciate it. Again, thanks for watching.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game went absolutely wild in 1998. Become a channel member to get my $20 Google Sheets budget template I use for TCG spending (and everything else), livestream replays, and my eternal gratitude! https://www.youtube.com/@CollectorsCorner-TCG/membership My favorite pickups for the week (affiliate links support the channel!): Mega Charizard UPC: https://partner.tcgplayer.com/OegnXA Phantasmal Flames Box: https://partner.tcgplayer.com/gO2a3B Mega Evolutions Box: https://partner.tcgplayer.com/LKVnz3 👉 If you LIKED this video, you will LOVE this one (How to Display Your Cards): https://youtu.be/jJWesSOPrO4?si=MHMNe7djL2e1-CII ✉️ Reach out to me directly at CollectorsCornerTCG@Yahoo.com! 0:00 Intro 0:34 Pokémon Illustrator 4:08 Presentation Blastoise 6:44 University Magikarp 10:38 Parent Child Kangaskhan 12:42 Magic-Back Blastoise #Pokemon #PokemonTCG #PokemonCards