Hey all! I'm just looking for some quick help on some classifications of Pokemon Cards. I've been working on a Manifest (Picture of it on the last page of the images) to sort my childhood collection. It is fun, and time-consuming, and an absolute nightmare, but it's coming in handy!
The issue here is I'm a bit of a neat-freak when it comes to using something's official name. So, when I set out on my journey, I got pretty straight in my head how to classify different cards: Holo means shiny parts in the art, Reverse Holo means shiny parts outside the art. Simple!
Except now that I'm getting to older cards, cards with only shiny bits inside the art are coming up as Reverse Holo, like Slowpoke, Electrike, Gastly, etc. Is this the correct lingo for these cards, or is the classification online not correct?
by WaywardOath
3 Comments
The EX era was different than other eras. They started doing “set stamps” as reverse holos. These cards would have a set stamp in the framed art work, along with a holo pattern. There were a couple of those sets that didn’t do a set stamp, but changed the holo pattern from cosmos holo to some sort of pattern. The slowpoke is from EX FireRed & LeafGreen and it has an energy holo pattern. It is the equivalent of a reverse in other sets
Yep these are basically reverses for this era. They’re also referred to as “parallel holos” for this era as a way to distinguish them from typical reverses, since the holo was inside the art box
It is correct, these are reverses. It’s just the ex era doing ex era thing, like changing it’s reverse pattern every two or 3 sets at first. Thankfully in the later part if the era (Starting with Team Rocket Returns or FireRed LeafGreen), they at least settled on denoting reverses with the set’s stamp.
In the early sets they used that stamp in, holos and rares pulled as reverses would also have gold name, HP and star, after a few sets tho, only holos would get that treatment.
Pokécardex has a great write up (In French) about how reverses changed in the west over the years, of course the ex era part is the biggest. Slap that shit into Google Translate and you have yourself a neat guide on what reverses looked like in the ex era.
https://www.pokecardex.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=49648
One of my favorite card that I own is Milotic 5/101. I traded for the holo as a kid and a year or so later while on vacation I found a box with some ex era packs, I pulled the reverse holo Milotic 5/101. I also pulled a holo Togetic from that set, to this day these are the only ex pack I ever opened and probably ever will.
The ex era did reverses like no other, and I was really hoping we would get stamped reverses for SV, since the ex would return. Alas, we got more reverses for your reverses.