DALLAS, TX.- An exceedingly rare playtest card that represents one of the most significant steps in the creation of the Pokémon Charizard card will become an instant centerpiece of a collection when it is sold in Heritage’s Trading Card Games Signature® Auction August 16-17.

The Pokémon Charizard Japanese Beta Playtest CGC Trading Card Game NM/Mint+ 8.5 (Media Factory, 1996) Mounted on Cardthat will be in play in the event was one of the earliest in the process of creating the most powerful and desirable cardsin the enormously popular game.

“Every creation goes through various stages between the initial concept and the eventual finished product,” says Jesus Garcia, Consignment Director for Trading Card Games at Heritage Auctions. “Playtest cards contained much of the same information as the cards released in the Base Set, but with a very different visual presentation, including habitat information above the flavor text, which then was removed for the Base Set release.

“While the Base Set version features artwork by Mitsuhiro Arita, this playtest card features artwork by Ken Sugimori — the same artwork used for the Pokémon Redvideo game but never was included on an official card in the actual game ... and this version of playtest cards features an error in which Sugimori’s name is misspelled.”

The significance and desirability of the card is only elevated by its utter rarity: the example offered in this auction is the sole copy graded by CGC, earning a NM/Mint+ 8.5, and when another copy will come up for public auction is unknown.

“Finding these playtest cards is incredibly difficult,” CGC Cards Vice President Matt Quinn said in a 2023 interview. “They were made in exceptionally limited quantities, they were reserved for only the people that were intimately involved in the creation of these games, and when they surface, usually it comes from a prized collection ... from someone tied directly with the creation of the game.”

The Charizard is one of three exceptional playtest cards in the auction, a group that also includes a Pokémon Blastoise Japanese Beta Playtest CGC Trading Card Game Mint 9 (Media Factory, 1996) Mounted on Card and a Pokémon Venusaur Japanese Beta Playtest CGC Trading Card Game NM/Mint+ 8.5 (Media Factory, 1996) Mounted on Card.

One of the most unique finds available to trading card game collectors is a Magic: The Gathering/Pokémon Test Print Uncut Sheet CGC Authentic (Wizards of the Coast) White Back, with demand generated in part by the fact that it features cards from two of the world’s most popular games on a single sheet. The first four rows feature foil test prints of Lightning Dragon, the first foil card released by Wizards of the Coast until 2023, and Drifting Meadow, which did not have a foil release until early 2023. Both were printed with Urza’s Saga set symbols. The final row at the bottom features five copies of the Blastoise Prototype Pokémon card. Also part of the appeal is the fact that the back of the sheet is entirely white, while test print sheets like these are usually printed with Magic: The Gathering card backings.

Another notable sheet in the auction is a Magic: The Gathering Unlimited Edition Uncut Sheet (Wizards of the Coast, 1993) that came about as a response by Wizards of the Coast to the Alpha and Beta Editions of MTG. The sheet, which contains 11 rows of nine for a total of 99 cards, is one of only two known Unlimited Edition uncut sheets, and is the earliest known sheet for the card game to feature the Magic: The Gathering card backings.

Always popular with collectors are sealed booster boxes, eight of which can be found in this auction. Among the most intriguing is a Magic: The Gathering “Arabian Nights” Sealed Booster Box (Wizards of the Coast, 1993) — the very first expansion set for the game. It is based on The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, with an Arabian setting and many of the characters and locations included. This set consists of 78 unique cards, with 27 commons and 51 uncommons. A number of cards have two versions, known as “light” and “dark” versions, due to printing errors that led to mana symbols being printed darker. The “Arabian Nights” set was produced in a limited print run, and the cards from this set nearly had a different card back design, which can be seen on the booster box.

Other booster boxes in the auction include, but are not limited to:

• A Magic: The Gathering Legends Edition Sealed Booster Box (Wizards of the Coast, 1994)

• A Pokémon First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Box (Wizards of the Coast, 1999)