A thread on the most popular Pokemon forum, E4, has just uncovered what could be one of the largest scandals in the industry. Credit to user "pfm" for the in-depth research and discovery. The thread can be found here:
https://www.elitefourum.com/t/many-of-the-pokemon-playtest-cards-were-likely-printed-in-2024/52421

I will try to recap here:

A flood of "playtest" cards, claimed to have been early prototype cards used in the development of the TCG, have surfaced this past year and hit the market. Though some early articles exist showcasing them in the past, they had never been brought to market. That changed dramatically this past year, with many copies coming to auction seemingly every week, and almost always fetching in the thousands of dollars (and the record public sale being $99,000 at Fanatics Collect for a "Beta" Charizard, graded a GCG 8).

While many collectors were concerned with the undisclosed provenance of these cards, most of those concerns were put to rest when CGC started authenticating them, though notably their authentication process was not disclosed. A surprising number of copies also received either Gem Mint 10 or Pristine 10 grades.

The one thing known about the origin of these cards has been that Akabane, often credited as one of the early contributors to the development of the TCG, is involved with their surfacing. CGC has even arranged for sessions where he has signed copies of these playtest cards in the presence of a CGC representative for them to authenticate the autograph. I will note that most people suspect he is the person who has operated under the alias "Pkonno" the past decade or so, releasing after-market copies of the top tier trophy cards that have also flooded the market the past years, and regularly sell in the 5 and 6 figures (I have posted about this astonishingly overlooked fact on Mantel in the past).

The shocking discovery being discussed now is that high resolution scans with specific color settings seem to reveal metadata from the printer used to print some of these cards, specifically a version of the "Beta" playtest cards. Decoding these signatures seems to reveal a print date in the year 2024, implying that these may have been very recently printed rather than originating in or before 1996, as originally thought and advertised.

While the story is just beginning to unfold, this does seem like quite damning evidence for the Pokemon influencers who have been heavily involved in bringing these to market, possibly Akabane himself, and CGC, who have authenticated the vast majority of copies. Collectors are due an explanation, and compensation if it turns out how it looks, from the parties involved. The auction platform ALT, who has sold a number of these cards, has already issued a statement that they are aware of the problem and that CGC has assured them that they are looking into it, although CGC has not yet made any public statements at the time of this article.

My early takeaway is that lack of transparency is always a red flag with collectibles, and provenance should be given much more respect in the Pokemon space, like it is given in most mature collectibles spaces. We will see how it plays out - hopefully those that are affected are compensated appropriately, and the hobby can use this as a lesson to grow and mature.

The first thing I have always done when I receive a slab is to sleeve it before it can get scratched. Over the years, I have also noticed an abundance of vertical scratches along PSA slabs. Now I see that they are related.
I just received back a PSA order and immediately got to sleeving my slabs into perfect fit sleeves. When I popped one back up, I noticed the familiar thin vertical scratches, but this time, I knew I had just put in a completely clear and clean slab. I went back and checked all of the slabs I had just sleeved, and sure enough, every single one had immediately been afflicted with the vertical scratches to varying degrees.
I attempted to buff them out with a natural polish, but had no success. I have read in forums about removing scratches with plastic polishes, but I don’t love the idea of putting abrasives that close to my cards.
After doing some research, I found that this is actually a pretty common phenomenon. See here for threads discussing the topic:
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1522481
https://www.elitefourum.com/t/do-graded-card-sleeves-scratch-up-the-case/40138/15
I must say that I am disappointed that even the new PSA cases scratch this easily - I gently slid the cards in and out of the sleeves, even being careful not to apply pressure to the surface. However, it seems that perfect fit sleeves are not at all suitable to protect slabs and actually do more harm than good. Looking through my collection, I see that this occurred with multiple brands of perfect fit sleeves rather than being a problem with one product in particular. This realization makes the appeal of alternative companies that focus on slab quality like Rare Edition - who use scratch-proof Gorilla Glass for their slabs - much more appealing.
My entire collection is sleeved, but I will be removing them from every card. I am looking for suggestions on alternative ways to protect and store large quantities of slabs. GradedGuard offer a nice product, but they are quite bulky and leave one side exposed. Slabmags offer protection on both sides but are also quite bulky and obscure the card a bit.
Would love to hear what other people use, and if people do have suggestions on safely removing scratches. Thanks!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!

Sharing a handful of my favorite "holiday cards" in my collection...

Would love to see yours!

Here is a cool duo I picked up separately. Both are from an awesome 2020 Topps set - Women of Star Wars.

The first is the red 1/1 base parallel. The second is from the only character-driven parallel in the set - Weapon of Choice - here featuring Leia's iconic "Drearian Defense Conglomerate" blaster pistol.

I will admit that I didn't know her pistol was attributed to a certain make until reading the back of this card. One thing I love about the expansiveness of the Star Wars universe is how many different creative people and groups have contributed to the lore from different places over the years. The Drearian Defense Conglomerate, a weapons manufacturer specializing in weapons for nobles like Leia, was first coined in the 1992 rulebook for "Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition," and later became canon when mentioned again in a 2015 "Ultimate Star Wars" reference book. Now it is prominently featured on an official Topps trading card!

I appreciate that Topps made a set highlighting the great female characters in the universe, especially given how toxic and misogynistic much of the fan base can be (at least online). I really hope that changes with the younger generations and Disney continues to write strong women into their stories.

Many of my weekends as a 5 year old kid were spent going to whatever local collectors shows were on that weekend with my dad. Minerals, trading cards, coins + currency, you name it.

While I appreciated the coins and currencies from across the world and centuries past, one dealer had something that really caught my eye - Disney Dollars. They looked just like real money, but the portraits proudly depicted my beloved Disney characters posing in place of presidents, and the reverses had scenes from the theme parks I loved rather than the Illuminati's all-seeing eye. And of course, treasurer Scrooge McDuck's signature guaranteed each note.

At the Disney parks, you could exchange your US Dollars for Disney Dollars on Main Street with a 1-1 exchange rate, and the new bills could be spent on Disney property just like real money (but more fun). And you bet, when we took our vacation to Disney World, the first thing I did was race to Main Street to get an envelope of crisp bills for my collection. At that time, there were only a few variations to collect since their inception in 1987. But Disney continued to print new series with more characters and designs until 2016, making this a fun and challenging set to complete.

Higher denominations were less common, and some later years often had smaller print runs, so there is a range of rarity and value dependent on the bill. There were only a couple of $50 bill designs, made in extremely limited quantities, as most tourists were not looking to arbitrage large amounts of cash on top of their entry ticket price, so these are usually considered the grails of this collecting niche.

For serious Disney Dollar collectors, a lot comes down to serial number and grade. Completionists will attempt to collect each of the serial number designations for each bill - usually there would be three distinct serial number designations, depending on where the bill was distributed: D for Disney World, A for Disneyland (Anaheim), and T if the bill originated from an offsite Disney Store. There are a few year/designations that likely only had a few sheets reach distribution, so though nearly identical to another bill with the same design, will fetch prices miles above them as it is the same few bills that are missing from most near-complete sets. Some collectors also covet low serial numbers, proofs, high grades or other small distinctions that may set a bill apart from others with the same design.
Grading is a similar process as with cards or coins, and Disney Dollars are recognized as legitimate bills from the major grading companies. The currency grading scale is like coins, where a perfect bill would be given a score of 70, and anything in the high 60s is considered a great grade.
Here is a trio that is special to me. This is a set of three bills, a $1, $5, and $10 from 1990, which display the original 1987 design that spanned the first decade or so of bills before they changed it up. However, the serial numbers on these three match - they are all D00000728A, a seemingly random number, but a special one if you are born on July 28th, like me. To find the 3 matching bills with this extremely low number, and have them all come back with the same GEM 65 grade, seems like a little bit of Mickey's magic. For me, it is fun to find distinctions among what is uniform to the non-collector's eye, assert meaning in the randomness, and find new ways to collect old things.