Post by Eskizo on Aug 21, 2020 14:21:35 GMT
Beckett Bootleg Series
General Information
General Information
What is Beckett?
Beckett Pokémon Unofficial Collector was an English Magazine with information from the Pokémon Trading Card Game world. The magazine also worked as a price guide for Pokémon cards. It was distributed in other languages too, like: Italian, French, Spanish, and Dutch. It isn't sure how many numbers where printed in Non-English languages.
The magazine was in circulation since 1999 and ended in 2010. On July 16th, 2010 The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Beckett Media LLC because they used Pokémon images and images from the Trading Card Game violating the copyright. In September 2010, subscribers received a note that the magazine was going to be cancelled.
According to the Wayback Machine archive the website of Beckett linked to both a Pokémon Unofficial Collector page as well as a grading page. It's an archived source from September 2008, which pretty much confirmed a link between the Beckett Pokémon Unofficial Collector and the Beckett which, just like PSA, grades cards. Below are some examples of what the Beckett Magazine looks like.
The relationship between this magazine and Bootleg Trading Cards?
One of the interesting things of this magazine is the close relation to vintage bootleg cards. Before the arrival of Gen II outside of Japan, the Beckett Collector Guide published "spoilers" showing all of the Gen II Pokémon. They were drawn as some sort of fanarts.
This artwork used a very characteristic fanart style that they used before to illustrate the Gen I Pokémon. The Pokémon from Gen II used their Romanized Japanese name in the magazine. This suggests that the original English names of the Gen II Pokémon were not available at the time and had yet to be revealed. Below are some examples of the Gen II designs.
So, what did Bootleg Factories decided? Well, they took the Beckett artwork of the Gen II Pokémon present in the Magazine, and they used them to create Bootleg Pokémon Cards.
Beckett I - Holo Sticker Beckett I - Card
Beckett I - Holo Sticker Beckett I - Card
They also created Beckett Bootleg Figurines. Yes it exist Beckett Bootleg Figurines, just look at this Alien Celebi figure below. But for now we are going to focus on the Trading Cards.
The 'Beckett Bootleg Card'-saga
Let's start with the Holo Stickers. Holo Sticker Cards are a very popular type of Vintage Bootleg Cards that while the back was cardboard, the front was a holographic sticker that can be pulled off. They exist in many different holo patterns. We don't know if the Holo Stickers were made after, before, or even at the same time than the Normal Cards.
But both types do exist. An interesting thing to note is that all the 100 Gen II Pokémon were made as a Holo Sticker Card, but not as a Normal Card. How Beckett Holo Sticker Cards were distributed is still a mystery. They probably were distributed in different ways.
Beckett I (Sticker) - Serebii
The Normal Beckett cards were distributed the same way as the Original TCG bootleg booster boxes, with 36 booster packs each. Each pack contains one Holo, with 11 cards total.
There exist two types of Beckett Booster Boxes. Each one contains different Beckett cards with different Set Symbols. The first one is dubbed "Becketts". They have the Japanese Gym Series symbol, as well as the 1st edition mark. The second version is dubbed "2nd Ed. Beckett". This is because they have a 2nd edition mark, which is an edit of the 1st edition version. They also have the Neo Genesis symbol present on the cards.
Beckett Brick Bordered Bonus
Becket I - Pichu Becket II - Abra
Since the two Beckett Card sets together don't complete the 100 Pokémon featured in the magazine, we created a list of Beckett Pokémon that don't exist in normal card form. The card lists of the respective sets will be featured in their own articles.
List of missing Beckett Pokémon Cards
Chikorita | Wobbufet | Pineco | Dunsparce |
Steelix | Snubul | Granbul | Quilfish |
Tediursa | Slugma | Magcargo | Swinub |
Pilosowine | Corsola | Octyllery | Remoraid |
Kingdra | Phaphy | Odoshishi | Porygon 2 |
Hitmontop | Magby | Miltank | Raikou |
Entei | Larvitar | Celebi |
Beckett Brick Bordered Bonus
As a bonus, there is another super-rare Beckett Artwork set that we know exists, but can't say how they were distributed, how many of the 100 Pokémon are included, or even how long the set itself is. I'm talking about the Brick Bordered. For know all the info we can verify is that they are Vintage.
Beckett Topps
The beckett artwork is not only used in bootleg versions of the Pokémon Trading Card game. There are also bootleg versions of the Pokémon Topps Cards. These card also use the romanized Japanese names, like Odoshishi, Muchuru and Kapoera for example.
The beckett artwork is not only used in bootleg versions of the Pokémon Trading Card game. There are also bootleg versions of the Pokémon Topps Cards. These card also use the romanized Japanese names, like Odoshishi, Muchuru and Kapoera for example.
Here is a short summary of the Trading Card sets
- Beckett Holo Stickers
- Beckett '1st edition' Cards
- Beckett '2nd edition' Cards
- Beckett Brick Bordered Cards
- Beckett Topps Cards
And that's all for this moment! That's the history of some of the most popular and most wanted Pokemon Vintage Bootleg Cards.
Credits and Sources
Other Credits
Written by Eskizo and Cinnamon
December 16th, 2020
Read more
- Beckett Pokémon Unofficial Collector by Bulbapedia (January 14th, 2017)
- source: Bulbapedia
- TPCi files lawsuit against popular magazine publisher by Immewnity (July 20th, 2010)
source: Bulbanews - Beckett to seemingly cease production of Pokémon magazine by Immewnity (October 1st, 2010)
source: Bulbanews - Beckett cancels new Beckett Game Strategyst magazine by Nathan2055 (June 16th, 2011)
Source: Bulbanews
- Fake Pokemon Cards by BloodScale (October 15th, 2020)
Source: DeviantArt
- Upaa squad is here by Kanto_wanderer (October 8th, 2019)
Source: Instagram - Beckett Bayleef fake in brick border form by Kanto_wanderer (October 8th, 2019)
Source: Instagram - Finally the elusive Beckett bootleg-of-a-bootleg Celebi is mine! by martincollects (October 23rd, 2020)
Source: Instagram - Very rare Beckett second generation Holo Topps fakes ! by Bootleg_Nidoking_ (December 14th, 2020)
Source: Instagram - Beckett Pokemon Collector was the best back in the day by [deleted] (~2014)
Source: Reddit - Pokémon Company International Suing Beckett Over TCG Images in Unofficial Magazine by Jamie Block (July, 21st, 2010)
Source: The Mary Sue - Beckett Homepage by Beckett (September 07th, 2008)
Source: Wayback Machine - Beckett Grading by Beckett (September 07th, 2008)
Source: Wayback Machine - Beckett Pokémon Unofficial Collector by Beckett (September 11th, 2008)
Source: Wayback Machine
Becket Pokémon Collector Scans
- Beckett Pokémon Collector Scans by U-Killersaurus on Wayback Machine (January 2nd-14th, 2019)
Sources: June 2000 ed., July 2000 ed., August 2000 ed., January 2001 ed., May 2001 ed. - Beckett Pokémon Collector Scan by ggg3000 on Wayback Machine (October 25th, 2019)
Source: December 2000 ed.
Other Credits
- Beckett Logo & 2nd Edition Symbol recreation by Cinnamon
- Beckett Card Photo's (Otachi sticker, Otachi card, Serebii sticker) by Eskizo
- Beckett Scans (Pichu card, Abra card) by Cinnamon
- Beckett Topps Card Photo's (Porygon, Serebll, Mirytanku) by Eskizo Cinnamon
- Celebi Figure Photo by Martin Collects
- Beckett Brick Bordered Card Photo's (Beiriifu, Upaa) by Kanto Wanderer
Written by Eskizo and Cinnamon
December 16th, 2020
Read more
- Beckett Holo Stickers - TBA
- Beckett '1st edition' Cards - TBA
- Beckett '2nd edition' Cards - TBA
- Beckett Brick Bordered Cards - TBA
- Beckett Topps Cards - TBA