What is the Black Flame Ninetales?

If you asked that question to an AI today, you might get a response like the one ChatGPT gave me here:

The oldest cited source, and the first image used in many of those responses, comes from a post I made on EliteFourum (formerly elitefourum.proboards.com) all the way back in October 2020.

I was intrigued after spotting a version of Base Set Ninetales in the wild that looked noticeably different. At the time, there was barely any information about it online, so I dug deeper and decided to create a post documenting the card on EliteFourum. That post gained significant attention within the collecting community. Some collectors had already noticed the variant and had been quietly acquiring them for years.

The new information I shared prompted more collectors to come forward with additional research and insights into this mysterious card. Eventually, this community effort led to collectors formally requesting that the grading company CGC recognize the variant using my article as a key reference point.

Thanks to the support of the collectors at EliteFourum and the research I contributed, CGC officially recognized the card as a variant on February 9th, 2021. They even published their own article on the subject, which you can read here:

👉 CGC article on the Black Flame Ninetales

Since then the card has become more recognized in the community as well as other leading grading companies have officially recognized the variant too like PSA.

I’m incredibly proud to have made a lasting impact on the Pokémon TCG community and grateful to the fellow collectors at EliteFourum who helped along the way.

Below is a copy of the original article I wrote five years ago. For more discussion and collector insights, I highly recommend checking out the original thread here:

🔗 The Black Flame Ninetales – EliteFourum

Original Article (October 2020)

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The Black Flame Ninetales

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For those that are seeing this for the first time it’s an Unlimited Base Set Ninetales (12/102) but the flame around Ninetales is black instead of purple.

(See side by side comparison below)

After searching ebay for a few month’s checking every Ninetales card listed i managed to find one on a BIN and scooped it up, Having it in hand i was now determined to find out some more information about it starting with evidence of it being pulled from a pack.

It took a while searching through pack opening videos for every time a Ninetales was pulled but i finally found one being pulled from 6 years a go!

PrimetimePokemon’s Pull (Timestamp: 10:52)

See also LeonHart’s pack opening video found by @jkanly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0MU7sAmMVY

You can see in these video’s that the Booster Packs being opened are;

Identifying Shadowless & Unlimited Base set Boxes & Packs

9. Made in the U.S.A., “1999-2000” copywrites, Short seal pack:

There is no evidence this card comes from any other pack as of yet.

Error or Variant?

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My initial theory was that it’s an error card since the packs it comes from are a late print of Unlimited but the Black Flame is not present on previous print runs of Unlimited, leading me to speculate that it was a possible printing error.

However keep in mind that a 1999-2000 Base Set Booster Pack is not guaranteed to have a 1999-2000 print Holo card inside, it has been rumoured that the non-2000 print holo’s inside the packs are old stock, Possibly from an early print run of Unlimited. This would make the most sense as the Black Flame Ninetales shares it’s black flame with the Shadowless & 1st Edition versions and it is also not a 1999-2000 print holo.

Additional Information

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The black flame is also clearly visible on all 1st Edition, Shadowless, Japanese Base Set & Evolutions Ninetales as well. These are the only other prints that contain the black flame that i have found. All other Languages of Unlimited Base Set as well as the 1999-2000 Print, Base Set 2 & Legendary Collection Ninetales have the purple flame.

I would still love to find out more about this card. If you know any more information about it or have some theories please share! There is still a ton i don’t know but i am grateful for the efour community teaching me new things daily so please let me know if anything is wrong & i will correct it. Finally i encourage you to check through your binders to see if you have one of these super rare Ninetales and share it below 😄

Thanks to:

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• @alovell – for sharing his thread were he found one of these error’s.
• @jkanly – for his brilliant guide helping me determine which packs the error comes from.
• PrimetimePokemon – for opening a Base Booster Box 6 years ago.
• @fritz – for getting the first ever Black Flame Ninetales graded with CGC as well as his YouTube video about this card.

ϞϞ(๑⚈ ․̫ ⚈๑)∩

Changelog

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• 9th October 2020 – Added LeonHart’s pack opening (credit @jkanly)
• 9th February 2021 – Black Flame Ninetales officially recognized by CGC ➤ CGC article link
• 4th March 2021 – Error or Variant? : removed mention of it being an error card & added additional information regarding possible history of the card.

Have thoughts or questions? Curious about this topic? Let’s chat about it.

Leave a comment on 𝕏 — I’d love to hear from you!