In 1998 you could get Pokémon cards from a vending machine in Japan. You might know these cards, the Vending Series. 

Those glossy cards with great artwork.

I won’t go in depth about the Vending Series now. Instead, I want to talk about a sort of reprint of this set. Because at the end of that same year, a few of the cards were reprinted and came back in a box. But with a few key differences this time.

Vending cards didn't come in packs. They came on sheets out of a vending machine, and you peeled each card off.

That's why they're glossy. A matte card would stick to the backing, like a sticker on plain paper. The gloss isn't a layer added afterwards though, it's part of the print itself.

Same reason a lot of magazine promos from that era are glossy: they were peeled out of magazines like CoroCoro.

The third and last vending series came out at the end of November 1998.

A few days later, in the beginning of December 1998, the Quick Starter Gift came out. A Japanese-exclusive deck set with two decks, so two people can start playing the card game straight away: the Red Deck and the Green Deck, named after the first Pokémon games!

Perfectly timed before the holidays, so a lot were bought as a Christmas gift, I would assume. 

Every Pokémon in it is a reprint from the vending series. But these were never peeled. So they’re matte instead of glossy. Most trainers and all energy cards come from regular sets like Base and Fossil, I believe.

Also good to know: not every vending card made it into this set. Only 50 of the 125 vending cards got a Quick Starter version. So most vending cards only exist in their glossy form.

The box gives you everything to start: two 60-card decks in their own cases, damage counters, poison markers, a playmat, two Pokémon coins, a rulebook and a guidebook. Plus one unpeeled blue vending sheet, picked at random. Original price: ¥3,900 (around €21 nowadays).

And the box is just amazing by itself. Simple, but really cool. Small artworks of Gen 1 Pokémon run in a border all around it.

So it's just a reprint of the vending cards? Almost. Three things make it stand on its own:

In the vending series those five are regular, glossy non-holos. Each deck has 3 holos, so Master Ball is in both decks.

Personally, I like the matte versions better. Glossy is fine. But with matte the artwork stands out more, instead of the shine stealing the attention.

It also makes them easy to spot. Since I learned about this set, I check vending cards at conventions for that rarity symbol just in case they might be from this deck instead of the vending series. But I haven’t spotted any in the wild so far. Most vendors probably know.

But if you've got vending cards yourself, it's worth a quick look at that bottom right corner.

It’s a tricky question, but my guess is: the Quick Starter cards.

One collector on Elite Fourum estimated there are around a million copies of each vending card out there. No numbers are known for the Quick Starter. But a deck set from a gift box was probably printed in smaller quantities than cards from vending machines all over Japan. Most collectors in multiple discussions I read think the same.

What about prices? The 5 holos are obviously worth more than their non-holo vending versions. For the rest, most people on Elite Fourum say both versions are worth about the same. The vending set is more popular, the Quick Starter is probably rarer, and that seems to balance out.

Looking at individual sales doesn’t really help either. Sometimes the vending version sells for more, sometimes the Quick Starter version does, depending on the Pokémon. Condition plays a big role as well, and some Quick Starter cards get listed on eBay as “vending”. So sales can end up in the wrong place.

Long story short: besides the holos, they seem to be worth about the same. But it’s interesting to see. If you have more info or knowledge about this, please let me know!

This is the first time I'm writing about something I don't own at all. 

Usually I have at least one or a few cards from a set or deck I talk about. But I figured, if I only wrote about my own collection, I couldn't share half the stuff I think is cool.

A seller (nostalgia_provider_sales) I follow on Instagram, who I've bought from before, recently had a sealed copy up for €58,000. I contacted him and he shared the pictures of the box you see in this issue!

Sealed isn't my thing personally. If I ever bought this set, I'd want to see the cards, not a box in plastic. Complete, with the box, would be my perfect version. But that gets expensive fast too.

And to be honest, it's not a grail for me. I might hunt down the Scyther holo at some point for my personal collection but I don’t think I will ever own the complete set + box. Even though I really like this set and love the artwork on the box.

That's it for this week!

Know someone who’d like this? Forward it to them. I’m still a small newsletter, so even one share helps a lot. If you want to read more about vintage Pokémon collectibles, check out other collectible issues online!

Talk to you next week!