While browsing through the cards for sale on Yahoo Auction Japan, I stumbled upon a very interesting auction (ending in a few hours) worth sharing.
Source: Yahoo Auction / Buyee
As you can see, the card is regular-backed, but with a double front print. In the case of the card currently up for auction, the front displays Dark Weezing / Dark Hypno, and you can also glimpse a part of a Dark Slowbro.
Source: Yahoo Auction / Buyee
Source: Yahoo Auction / Buyee
Reading through the product description, we find that the current owner bought it four years ago from someone else who claimed to have received it directly from a Nintendo employee.
Source: Yahoo Auction / Buyee
The card’s origin
As described in the auction listing, it’s highly likely that these cards came from a make-ready test sheet. These make-ready prints are commonly conducted to test printer settings or troubleshoot any potential issues.
In an effort to minimize paper wastage, they often reuse the same printing sheet.
Subsequently, these sheets are sometimes cut and distributed among Nintendo employees (or WOTC). There are instances of make-ready test sheets available even for English sets like Fossil.
The cards’ backs remain standard, indicating that the front and back of these sheets were printed at different times. For example, in the case of WOTC, it’s known that the backs were printed before the fronts. Therefore, they likely utilized partially prepared sheets for these trials.
As seen below, two five other identical cards have surfaced in recent years, likely originating from the same sheet.
The two cards in question are a Dark Gyarados / Dark Dugtrio, where you can also see a glimpse of a Dark Charizard, and the second one is a double Dark Blastoise revealing a hint of a Dark Machamp.
Source: Aki11231231ruO Twitter
Source: Qwachansey Instagram
Another user named linkdu83 was kind enough to share with me the photos of 3 more make-ready cards that went to auction on Mercarci in 2020.
So, the make-ready cards from the Team Rocket set released on the market aren’t 3, but actually 6. Below you can find the other pictures.
The Dark Machamp / Rocket’s Sneak Attack with a part of Dark Golbat:
The Dark Alakazam / Rainbow energy:
And the card with Rainbow Energy / Dark Alakazam (?) / Dark Arbok (?):
After the post was published, a user named Nicolò MTG was kind enough to message me privately to send me a screenshot he had taken a few years ago. The image you see below refers to the auction for one of the make-ready items I mentioned to you.
The double Dark Blastoise was put up for auction on April 29, 2020, on Mercari and was sold for a sum close to $1300.
Source: Nicolò MTG
Great, that’s all for this episode of ‘The Spotlight’! Now, all that’s left is to wait a few more hours to see how much this beautiful card will sell for.
The auction ended a few hours ago, and the card was sold for 856,555 yen / $5,731 / €5,242.
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