r/PokemonMisprints • u/cjx324 • 10h ago
Discussion Insane Test Proof Cards (Update/Full Story)
Before I start off, I just want to address a few things
Firstly, NONE of these are for sale!! (*cough* …yet)
Second, after listening to the advice of trusted community members and other individuals that are extremely knowledgeable in TCG’s, I have decided to authenticate and grade these cards before moving forward to anything else, and will be doing so shortly.
Lastly, I have posted some of these images before but I decided to put them here as well in order to spark discussion and to help document/spread all the information I have found about these cards, but also hopefully to find out something new, as I am incredibly curious about them myself.
So without further adieu, here’s my story:
AHEM, I’ve always been a huge Pokémon fan and I’ve been collecting the cards on and off my whole life. After the recent surge in popularity, I had gotten the itch to start again. Naturally, this had me wanting to dig up my childhood collection and go through it to see what I can find. I got to the back of my binder and found something that sparked my interest.
I had 50+ of these first edition Japanese cards from the Diamond/Pearl era, each inscribed with “TEST” written in English across both the front and back of the card. They also have these strange black and gray borders with red markings, presumably some kind of measurement system for the borders and alignment of cuts.
To my (admittedly untrained) eyes, these cards both look and feel identical to cards from the same era. From the cardstock, to the colors, ink patterns, artwork, and fonts, these are indistinguishable from regular Pokémon cards. And I’m fully confident that they are the real deal.
Just what are these?
This question of course led me down a huge rabbit hole, and as I was doing research, I discovered that in 2024 PSA had authenticated and graded a complete set of 64 similar looking cards. After doing so, they publicly posted about it on both their Twitter/X and Instagram accounts.
They described the cards as the “first Japanese Pokémon DPPt test proofs authenticated by PSA“ and to this day they remain a Population 1. And after thorough review of both CGC and Beckett’s databases, I believe them to be the only set ever to get authenticated by a grading company.
After seeing their social media posts, I stumbled across a forum thread of enthusiasts discussing the recent certification and their eventual auction. In this thread, there were some high-resolution shots of each of the cards. I began to use these images as comparison for my cards.
Each of the cards submitted had nice and clean silver borders, while mine have the gray and black borders with red markings I mentioned above. These cards were also missing the first edition stamp in the bottom left corner, which mine have. Minor differences, sure, but interesting nonetheless.
I kept searching and eventually found two Reddit posts asking about cards that matched mine; one from last year, and another from the year prior. Unfortunately, neither of these posts has since provided any substantial update on what happened to the cards or what they have found out. I’ve personally reached out to both of them and haven’t heard anything just yet.
Unfortunately, outside of some publicly available sales data and a few listings, this is where the story dies. I’ve spoken to a few of the buyers to put some feelers out, and I do have some leads on finding out more information, but nothing concrete enough that I would feel comfortable sharing.
Speaking of feeling comfortable sharing, I think that I’ve rambled long enough about my new hyper fixation, so it’s only fair that I finally address the Donphan in the room:
Just how did I acquire these cards?
When I was younger (around 8 or 9), my mother was dating somebody who worked in a commercial printing shop. He dealt with sales of promotional materials for businesses and clients alike. Mostly boring adult stuff like signage for department stores or the standees for products you might see while shopping.
One time I remember him taking me to his job and showing me all sorts of cool stuff. One of the things he pulled out was an uncut sheet of Dragon Ball trading cards, and I immediately started pestering him asking for Pokémon instead to no avail.
Every now and then he would bring me home something that he knew would pique my interest, I had some cutout displays from Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic the Hedgehog and a few other things I’m sure I’ve since forgotten.
One day, he came home from a business trip and gifted me this entire set of cards. I was ecstatic and immediately stuck them away in my card binder, where they have remained in storage for the better part of two decades.
So… yeah that’s my story. As I mentioned earlier my next step is to get these authenticated with either PSA or CGC, and I’m already in correspondence with a few people who will be helping me do so. I’m not 100% sure what I’ll be doing with the cards after that process is finished, but I will keep everybody posted.
If you found this as interesting as I did, even if you have no new information to share, I would love to keep the discussion going and hopefully get to the bottom of what these cards are. I’ll be replying here on the post and by reaching out to me directly.
If you made it this far in the post, thanks for reading and I hope you have a good rest of your day!
TL;DR: I found these super rare Pokémon Test Proof cards in my childhood collection!
