Is this the rarest Pokémon card ever?

Wow, it’s just a vintage Raichu, you say. Not so fast, Youngster Joey. This here card is one of two recently graded by CGC. It comes straight outta myth and legend. If you look closely at the bottom right corner of the graphic, a stamp that says “PRERELEASE” can be seen

But let’s back up a sec.

The Base Set Prerelease Raichu shown above was long thought to be nothing more than an internet fable. Back in days of yore when Wizards of the Coast (WotC) printed Pokémon cards, Clefable and Raichu were added to the top left corner of uncut sheets of Base Set holo cards, likely as test print runs. You can see them in the picture below.

Clefable was created with the “Prerelease” stamp as an award for players of the Jungle Prerelease Tournaments held in July 1999.

But they were all deceived, for another Prerelease Card was made.

In a tale rivaling the forging of the Rings of Power (okay, probably human error), 11 sheets also ended up with Raichu being stamped by mistake with the Prerelease mark as well. These 11 cards were likely distributed to random WotC employees as keepsakes.

One such employee, Mike Boozer, was the Customer Service Manager at WotC. He kept a binder of rare or misprint cards to show off at events, including Prerelease Raichu.

Years passed. The 11 changed hands. Many were lost. Maybe the Nazgul got them, I dunno.

Then, on November 6, 2018, a former WotC employee named Jennifer brought her old binder of cards to her new job at the Pokémon Company International. And there is was, a second Prerelease Raichu, given to her by a coworker named Freddi.

Eventually, both Jennifer and Mike’s cards were sold to David Persin, a collector boasting the most-complete English Pokémon collection in the word. It was he who submitted them to CGC, who broke the news on their website in November 2023.

So what do you think? Would you rather have Prerelease Raichu, a 1st Edition Raichu or Illustrator Pikachu?

…Maybe I just discovered the holy trinity of Pokemon cards?