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There Is Something Wrong With Pokémon Playtest Cards Graded By CGC

playtest pokemon cards

We are drowning in scandals involving the most hallowed institutions of the hobby. It can be tiring to get through. But darn it, this is our job here at Cardlines, and we will not let a single one get through the cracks.

Now, we have what some are describing as the biggest scandal in Pokemon history on our hands. We call it a tale of woe, the Pokémon playtest card scandal.

What happened?

In 2024 (remember that year), hundreds of prototype Pokemon cards, said to be from Takumi Akabane’s personal collection, began to circulate and sell for significant amounts of money.

Akabane is a Pokemon community legend credited with inventing the Pokémon Trading Card Game and Tsunekazu Ishihara and Kouichi Ooyama. He then served as its creative director from 2001 to 2008.

These cards had tremendous historical value. People had very little information on how the Pokémon TCG came about, so lore and legends emerged around it. These seemed to lay that process bare.

Thus, the Vice President of CGC, Matt Quinn, said, “In my opinion, they should be in a museum, but here they are available for the public. I mean, it’s cool to see these cards and to be able to handle them personally and talking with some of the people that were, you know, at the beginning of Pokémon TCG to get their authenticity verified and just basically just doing everything we can to ensure a viable product to make sure that these things are, can be bought with confidence.”

They showcase (or at least that is the claim) the prototype cards from the earliest days of the Pokémon TCG’s creation. The cards authenticated by CGC were said to represent the progression of the cards from their “proof of concept” stage to their finalized and commercially available phase.

The role of CGC

CGC released an article about these cards when they were graded. According to it, “CGC Cards was able to work very closely with Takumi Akabane — one of the original developers of the Pokémon TCG — to verify the cards’ authenticity and history. “I helped CGC Cards identify and authenticate these test cards; some I remember having marked for corrections,” Akabane said. “I was also the one who created the original back design.”

According to CGC: “CGC Cards utilized all the tools at our disposal to help document and authenticate these cards, compiling vast resources for comparison with future submissions. An extensive process is in place for the authentication and grading of these cards using ones verified by Mr. Akabane.”

They said, “The submission came from someone with close ties to the original Pokémon playtesters, who used these three cards to help develop the Pokémon TCG.”

That set off some red lights for observers at the time. Who submitted these cards? If they are authentic and a big deal, wouldn’t the person responsible be more than happy to take credit for it? Now that things have gone south, the lack of a name for this is glaring.

On the one hand, it implies that someone in the company is giving the submission official status. On the other hand, it suggests some plausible deniability regarding the authenticity of the cards.

The many suspicions surrounding the Playtest cards

A few observers noted that the condition in which those cards had showed up is suspiciously good for cards that have been play tested. After all, when you playtest a new game, you have no idea the cards will be worth anything.

When you play with cards, especially haphazardly, they get damaged. Testing the mechanics would require several rounds. Then many years had passed. Nonetheless, many of these cards got pristine 10s. CGC did not say how many of these cards were created and how they were created.

Another issue was the sheer number of cards. Often, ten or twelve sets surfaced, and new ones popped up. That made little sense with a historically significant set that should have limited circulation. The many categories of cards that surfaced (we have a complete primer below) were also suspiciously high.

There were too many cards around, especially considering that just a few guys were involved in the game at the time.

The problem with being mounted on cardstock

According to CGC, “Each of the three playtest cards is made from paper mounted on cardstock.” Then they add, “a common practice when producing prototype TCG cards for playtesting purposes.”

That implies that this was done when the cards were produced. But could it be covering up that part of the card (at the very least) was made in 2024? That remains an unanswered question.

That also raised concerns regarding the grades of the cards. If these are playtested pieces of paper mounted on card stock at some point (who knows when), it seems unlikely they would be worthy of a pristine 10.

Other concerns about the Pokémon Playtest Cards

 Those who were concerned have been vindicated.

But people were mainly very excited about the existence of these cards. One commenter on Reddit said at the time, “I didn’t even know these existed. I love how they have this certain prototype look to them.” Now that news of the scam is out, a spoilsport answered, “They don’t. Unfortunately, they’re fake, and many people got fleeced buying these.”

Most commercial printers include a large amount of metadata in everything they print. They leave tiny dots, usually in yellow, on what they print.

You often need to use a magnifying glass or change the resolution to see them. But they are there. They are placed in the prints so that law enforcement can track and locate the source of counterfeit currency and documents.

The metadata code

The data is maintained using code. The most common one is the “Xerox DocuColor” pattern. The code has not been released to the public. However, it was decoded and has been common knowledge since 2005.

The Xerox pattern is a 15×8 grid of dots that appears on a checkerboard across the entire page.

The data included in these imprints is the printer serial number and the date and time the page was printed. It appears in a grid with 15×8 dots on a checkerboard on the printed page. That lets us know when the cards were printed, even if the manufacturer does not want that information to be made public.

When the metadata pattern is analyzed using a decoder, this is how the year is decoded: 8: the year that page was printed (without century; 2005 is coded as 5). We can see in the dots that it says 011000 → 24 → 2024. That helps us establish the date these cards were printed. It says 2024-6-29, which is June 29, 2024.

That date raises many further questions. The article CGC published about these cards was published on June 1, 2024. These cards were only printed at the end of the month, which means that at the time of the publication, they did not exist.

Pokemon card experts like the folks at Elite Forum have looked carefully at all the cards in this series. According to the work of pfm, “I have checked multiple other cards. The “higher quality” beta playtests mentioned by @linkdu83 here Pokemon Card Prototype Discussion Thread – #348 by linkdu83 appear to have no dots, suggesting a different printer was used (some printers don’t add any dots). I have yet to find a low-quality beta playtest that doesn’t have a similar dot pattern to the above.”

I have checked multiple other cards. The “higher quality” beta playtests mentioned by @linkdu83 here in Pokemon Card Prototype Discussion Thread – #348 by linkdu83 appear to have no dots, suggesting a different printer was used (some printers don’t add any dots). I have yet to find a low-quality beta playtest that doesn’t have a dot pattern similar to the one above.

More evidence

Pictures were released at the time of the release, which may have been taken next to the printer that created them.

The popular account qwachansey wrote: “Fresh from a 2024 printer 😬 these trophy cards were being offered to people at very high amounts, advertised as being from the 90s and test prints without the holo layer. The seller had not included this photo, which was shared with me and shows the printer in the background 😭 It seems like someone or some group has access to ultra-high resolution original art files. Thankfully, these were printed on regular card stock, not with a Pokémon back, and are non-holo. But I strongly advise everyone against buying uncut sheets/test prints/oddities until the dust is settled on this debacle. 🙃”

What are Pokémon Playtest Cards?

They are what they sound like. When a new Pokemon product is in the planning stage, the Pokemon Company makes versions of the cards that are intended for beta testers to play with. That way, the company can find problems and quirks when using them in play.

One thing to consider is the theoretical implications of different cards and situations. Meanwhile, seeing how they play out in real life is another.

The mechanics of the cards are usually quite fleshed out. However, they are, by definition, not final. The mechanics are finalized and fully elaborated after they have been tested in playing situations. The designs on these cards vary. Sometimes, they can be very sparse sketches, fully formed play cards, or anything in between.

The Difference Between Beta and Alpha Playtest Cards

One classification of the differences between various playtest cards is the division into alpha and beta playtests.

The prototype

Before cards enter the playtest phase, they are drawn up in a rough sketch of what they will eventually look like. There are usually just a few of these, a mere fraction of the number of cards that will ultimately appear in the set.

They are benchmarks for the cards in the release and their gameplay. However, they are not ready to be used in gameplay. There can be several of these for the same card as it reaches the point where it can be play-tested.

Alpha Playtest Cards

The alpha set is usually already in color and has an attractive design, though not as appealing as it will be later.

They also have play mechanics that are closer to the final product. By now, playtesters should better understand how to use these cards in actual play. Sometimes, the cards have actual annotations from playtesters with recommendations for changes and things from this stage.

At this point, most of the cards that will be in the set will be present and accounted for.

Beta Playtest Cards

Most of the Alpha and Beta phase changes are related to the design. However, subtle gameplay changes are also made at this point. There are often mistakes in spelling or interesting design choices that are later changed. Some collectors like that about the playtest cards in this stage.

Delta Playtest cards

At this point, the cards are often almost indistinguishable from how they will look in their final phase. The whole design and gameplay are at least reliably represented. However, if playtesting shows the need exists, there is still a chance to improve.

What does this card ean?

First and foremost, do not buy these cards. They are still quite expensive, but as this information comes to light, the bottom will fall out on them. You can see them on eBay, Heritage, and Goldin. These cards were a big deal, and they remain everywhere.

We have often seen grading companies endorsing fake cards or altered ones. This is not an exceptional case.

The best cards in this set sold for tens of thousands of dollars, so some who completed sets spent hundreds of thousands on them. However, the people who have been burned will undoubtedly consider a class action lawsuit.

We don’t know the whole story of what happened here. But we do know this: CGC is responsible. They graded these cards, advertised them, and popularized them. The company is going to have to make this right somehow.

Recent problems at CGC

I have found myself writing about CGC a lot recently. A few days ago they raised their prices significantly. In November, we reported that they were laying off many employees. Customers have also been complaining that the company is increasingly handling their comics and cards badly.

All this is occurring on the background of PSA announcing that they will be entering the comic book game sometime this year.

With a deeply disillusioned customer base, this latest scandal is the last thing CGC needs. The evidence is circumstantial, but it does suggests CGC, or at least employees there, were involved.

Final Word On The Pokémon Playtest Card Scandal

CGC has a guarantee on its cards. It will certainly have an answer to this. But it is hard to see how it can contain this problem entirely.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are involved, and CGC did not just authenticate them; they created this problem, and they must fix it.

We already have little belief in the institutions of the hobby, and this does nothing to restore that. When cards come out that seem too good to be true, like the Pokemon Playtest cards, there is often a reason for that.

Luckily, we have wonderful people in the hobby who watch these things closely and have keen minds. They identified problems with these cards immediately, and those who listened to them avoided paying a significant price.

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Shaiel Ben-Ephraim

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim is the emeritus editor of Cardlines. He continues to write for several hobby outlets, including this one and Cardbase. He collects primarily vintage baseball and soccer and has a weird obsession with 1971 Topps.

In his spare time, Shaiel is sobbing into his bourbon when the Mets lose and playing Dungeons and Dragons. In a past life, Dr. Ben-Ephraim was a political science professor, journalist, and diplomat. But cards are more fun.

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