Apologies in advance for the long post.
So I bought a Japanese Emerald cartridge said to contain a legitimate Old Sea Map (acquired from Poke Festa 2005) off eBay back in early 2022, and have been sitting on it since them. The seller was based in the UK. <insert photos of cartridge for reference>. His story regarding how he obtained the cartridge, as told over Discord calls and DM's, is as follows:
When the seller was young, he had a Japanese friend who was a massive Pokémon fan. Let's call him Yuuki, since that is the name of the player on the save file. Yuuki moved away to Japan in the early 2000's. Years later in 2016, the seller visited Japan and reconnected with Yuuki. At the time, Yuuki was in the process of moving and was getting rid of items in his Pokémon collection. One of these items was a Japanese copy of Emerald, which Yuuki recalled was used extensively. Specifically, he remembered performing many trades with his friends, trying to complete the Pokedex. He gave it to the seller as a gift, since he was going to get rid of it anyways.
When the seller booted up the version of Emerald, he noticed a couple of event Pokémon in the PC boxes including two Wishmaker Jirachis and an Aurora Ticket Deoxys, the latter seeming caught on Birth Island from a copy of Fire Red. There were also multiple box legendaries, including six Rayquazas. The seller asked Yuuki how they obtained so many rare Pokémon; Yuuki reiterated that he would trade with his friends from school constantly, with Rayquaza being his favorite Pokemon at the time. They also added that they attended several in-person events while living in Japan, including events where they gave away Mew and the Aurora Ticket to catch Deoxys. Everything was legit, according to Yuuki.
That matched up with what the seller saw, but did not see Mew in the PC. Yuuki swore up and down that he had received an event Mew, as he specifically remembered his parents took them to a huge Pokémon event in Tokyo. They remember the event being in a huge building, with a ton of different Pokémon related things to do. They did bring their Gameboy, and thought he remembered receiving Mew. Keep in mind that Yuuki was really young at the time, so the memories aren't the most detailed.
Later, the seller booted up his Gameboy with a wireless adapter plugged in and checked the Wonder Card. Sure enough, the WC for Old Sea Map popped up. When he went to the Pokémon Center to try to claim the item, he realized he couldn't obtain it. He freaked for a second, but checked his bag. The Old Sea Map was there! He traveled to Faraway Island, and saw that Mew was still there, uncaught. From there he turned the power off without saving to maintain the event. The seller let Yuuki know, and Yuuki was surprised but let him keep it.
The seller showed me the Wonder Card over video call, showed going to Faraway Island, and showed me the Pokémon in the boxes. I asked if Yuuki had shown any photo or phsycial evidence that he was there, and the seller communicated that Yuuki told him his family had taken photos at the time, but that the photos were taken on a crappy flip phone and were forgotten about/lost when they the phone was disposed of.
After the call, I did some research into the 2005 Tokyo Poke Festa event and confirmed it took place in the Tokyo Big Sight. I was satisfied with the story, and agreed to purchase. Upon receiving the cartridge, I saved a copy of the save file using a Flash Boy. Due to life circumstances at the time, I paused on further analysis indefinitely until now.
Looking back at the save file copy in the present using PKHeX, the story of the cartridge as told by the seller matches with the data. There are over 40 unique Trainer ID's on the cart and the save file has totaled 105 trades. All the Pokémon are legit according to the PKHeX's verification. The Deoxys was caught on a Fire Red cartridge that has the same Trainer Name as this copy of Emerald, lending credibility that the owner went to the an event to acquire an Aurora Ticket to catch it. The only Pokémon I have any doubt in is a Scizor with a TID and SID of 00000. It says it was hatched from an egg, and has Pokerus. In other details, all the event flags seem to be in order. The Pokedex isn't maxed out, and the bag items seem realistic. I can't take a photo of the wonder card at the moment because I don't have a wireless adapter, but I have seen it.
That's all I got. What do you think? Is there other information I should include that would help to verify? Thanks in advance!
PS - I also have a copy of a Japanese Leaf Green that has a supposedly unused Aurora Ticket, but I'll probably make a separate reply giving details for that one.
