It’s Thursday, so it’s time for another Pokémon newsletter!

Already my third weekly issue in a row! That’ll teach my friends in the gym who say I’m not consistent enough, lol.

This week: an item most of you guys have never seen before. At least, I didn’t until a few weeks back.

"Orange Card" sounds quite exotic, but it's just a Japanese prepaid train ticket.

JR (Japanese Railways) started with these back in 1985. The name comes from the "Orange Girls," train attendants on the Shinkansen Relay Train. When the Tohoku Shinkansen line was extended to Tokyo's Ueno Station in 1985, making the relay train obsolete, the new prepaid train tickets were named "Orange Cards" in their honor.

But now comes the good stuff.

Between 1997 and 2013, JR released special Pokémon versions most years with different designs.

My copies are 2 versions from 1998: a red and a blue card, tied to that summer's double movie release. Mewtwo Strikes Back as the main film, paired with the short Pikachu's Vacation.

It’s pretty hard to find enough reliable sources on these train tickets. As far as I understand (but this could be wrong) these 2 cards are the main prepaid Orange Card tickets for the year 1998. Sold directly at major JR East stations.

However…

There are plenty of (regional) variants apparently of which the documentation is pretty poor in some cases. For example, JR East Sendai Branch and JR West released individual promo cards some of the years besides the “main” JR East tickets.

A small, easy-to-miss detail on the train ticket, but a fun easter egg.

In the summer of 1998, when these Orange Cards were released, the Gen 2 Game Boy games weren't out yet and the anime was still in Gen 1.

However, Togepi appears on the card, even though it's a Gen 2 Pokémon.

Not really surprising they picked Togepi, though: Togepi had apparently already been appearing in the anime since June 25, 1998.

Still, it’s fun to see that they used Togepi as their “Gen 2 teaser” roughly 1 to 1.5 years before the actual Gen 2 release. Both in the anime and on promo material like these train cards.

For anyone looking to buy these Pokémon Orange Cards, I’ve got a quick tip.

When you used the ticket back in the day, you had to insert it into a machine at the station. That machine punched a small hole in the card, marking how much balance was left.

Old school stuff, I know.

So the more it was used, the more holes.

If you’re looking for a cheaper copy just to add to your collection, look for these versions with small holes, like my copies. The holes aren’t that prominent but the cards are way cheaper. 

Personally, I don’t mind the holes in these cards that much since they are “part of the story”, if that makes sense. 

However, if you value a pristine condition, look for a version without these holes.

Unpunched cards are rarer: never used, better condition, and technically still holding their full balance. Or so I believe.

Problem is, there's barely a machine left that still takes these things. So that balance still exists, just mostly in spirit at this point.

I contacted @alittleitalycollector on Instagram, who owns multiple JR cards.

He took a lot of pictures for me to share in this issue! I had to pick and choose which ones to discuss and these are the ones I picked:

1) One of the cards he owns is a JR ticket from 1998. The artwork looks like the red prepaid card but unlike my Orange Cards, this one's a day ticket, meaning it wasn't prepaid but gave unlimited rides for one day.

An absolutely amazing copy and in a really great condition judging by the pictures.

2) Next up a booklet and a medal you could get at the train stations, also in 1998. With the book you had to collect stamps (stamp rally) at different stations.

If you collected enough stamps, you would get a golden medal!

3) He also sent me pictures of what he says is the first JR Orange Card Pokémon promo ever released, from 1997.

To be honest, when I saw this card for the first time, I thought Kyogre stood behind Ash and his friends, which would have been weird since it’s a Gen 3 legendary. But it turns out to be a train with the same color scheme as Kyogre hahaha, whoops!

Am I the only one who sees the resemblance?

Thanks to @alittleitalycollector for the extra pictures and information. Like I said, he owns way more JR promo items and vintage Pokémon stuff in general, so go check out his page if that interests you!

Aaaanyway, thanks again for opening and reading my email!

You guys are slowly but steadily growing in size. I had 7 subs last month, but I’m at 35 subs now!

So thanks to all 35 of you for joining and reading.

If you got some tips, suggestions, or just want to say hi, feel free to respond to this mail!

See you next week!