An uncut sheet of the Pokémon cards from the base game of the first edition is now on sale. The Goldin auction house has put auction the blade, with a current high offer of $ 34,000 at the close of this edition. The sheet not only contains all the rare charts of the original _ game of collectible cards of Pokémon_ base set, it also provides a valuable vision of the history and manufacture of the Pokémon cards. Due to the fact that the blade has a hand-written note indicating that the sheet is “either by color and adjustment”, it was probably a test sheet designed to test card printing before they entered production mass. We will notice that these letters are all holographic: the rare letters that are not holographic were not introduced until Wizards of the Coast produced the Jungle expansion. Details were not provided on the vendor of the sheet.
Pokémon cards (and other types of cards) are usually printed on large sheets and are divided by rarity. The letters of the same rarity would generally be placed on the same sheet, with more sheets of common letters and rare cards printed than rare cards. This sheet also shows how some letters were rare than others. For example, Machamp’s letters occupy almost half of the sheet, which makes sense, since that letter was included in the basic startup sets, as well as in the envelopes. There are also more letters of Hitmanchan, Gyaradas and Mewtwo on the sheet, since those letters were included in the first boxes of thematic decks. In particular, Zapddos, Chansey, Venusaur and Raichu have more letters on the leaf than Charizard, Alakazam, Blastoise and other rare Holophil charts, although probably only a peculiarity on how the letters were placed on the leaf instead of pointing. That those letters are somehow less rare.
The auction is scheduled to end February 23. While it is likely that it does not reach such a high price as a chairized first-edition graduate card, this card sheet remains an intriguing and important piece of the history of Pokémon collectible cards.
You can consult the full auction on the Goldin website.