Pratte explains that "silvered" (or "silvering") refers to the silver of the holographic layer showing through on the front border. Also, the holo material on the 15 holographic cards is often found scratched or "silvered." One of the most common condition flaws on the Lapras, and in general on cards in this series, is the chipping of the blue borders on the back. "I think three or four times, the Lapras has sold for over $1,000 in PSA 10 because so many people needed it to finish this set." "Every set has a card that is difficult," added Pratte. "Lapras is the rarest holo, with only about half the population of PSA 10 cards compared to the others," noted Hall. Hobbyists seem to agree that the Lapras holographic card (#10) is the most elusive in high grade. "This misprint can be found on all of the 1st Edition Zapdos, while only some of the unlimited Zapdos have this misprint." "Even though Zapdos is a basic Pokémon, the holographic Zapdos card has a space for the evolution box punched out of the holographic foil," explained Abraham. If you look closely at the 1st Edition version of this card, you'll notice an error. The Zapdos single is also highly sought after. Of the three legendary bird cards, the Articuno (#2) is the hardest to uncover in top condition. They're legendary in the game they're very powerful and they're difficult to collect, so people have a higher appreciation for them." In the game, you would encounter Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos in these caves and you had one opportunity to catch them. "The 'legendary' term was reserved for the rarest Pokémon and typically the most powerful. "The legendary bird are always pretty prominent no matter what set they're in," noted Pratte. The "unlimited" cards do not have the small circular black stamp on the left (that says "Edition 1") below the character box on the front. It should be noted, however, that another "unlimited" version of these cards was produced in much higher quantities and is far less valuable. "I would say that the 1st Edition Fossil cards were much more accessible than Base and probably on par with Jungle," said Pratte.īut Fossil 1st Edition cards are still relatively tough to track down today. He even remembers having a few 1st Edition Fossil cards as a kid. Pratte believes that 1st Edition Fossil cards were distributed more widely than 1st Edition Base. 7 Current Finest, 1999 Pokémon Fossil 1st Edition set on the PSA Set Registry. "Unless you were waiting outside of a trading card shop on the day these sets were released, buying 1st Edition booster packs or boxes was near impossible since they would all practically sell out that same day," said Jobin Abraham, who owns the No. The 1st Edition packs and booster boxes are clearly marked with the "Edition 1" stamp. There were three different Fossil 1st Edition pack wrappers that highlighted different Pokémon - Aerodactyl, Zapdos, and Lapras. Holographic cards were inserted in approximately one of every three packs. The Fossil cards were available in 11-card booster packs that consisted of seven common cards, three uncommon cards, and one rare card.
The most common explanation for the Fossil series having two less singles is that Mew, who was featured on a holographic card in the Japanese Fossil series, was not included in the English offering.īulbapedia, an online Pokémon encyclopedia, indicates that the Pokémon Fossil 1st Edition cards were originally slated to be released "around January 2000," but the release date was bumped up to October 10, 1999. The Jungle series, released a few months before Fossil, is comprised of 64 cards. Following in the footsteps of the 1999 Pokémon Jungle series, Fossil offers rare holographic cards (#1 to #15), as well as a second subseries featuring the same Pokémon in non-holographic form (#16 to #30).