Many of you all may already know me on here for being the guy who loves to collect all sorts of non-tcg vintage cards (Bandai, Topsun, Meiji, Nissui, etc). I also love all the early 1996-1999 TCG Japanese cards as well.
My favorite set out of all the sets by far is the 1996 Bandai Carddass Vending Pokemon Card set. I love this set because it is the very first pokemon card set ever released to the general public.
Thanks to the help from many other collectors on here, I was able to piece many pieces of the puzzle together and prove to PSA, CGC, and BGS that Bandai Carddass Vending (1996) cards are the FIRST Pokemon cards ever released to the public, and that Topsun cards originated from the year 1997 and not 1995 like once thought… CGC and BGS now have correct date of “1997” on their labels now for Topsun cards and PSA will be changing the date on their slabs in next 3-6 months per my conversations with PSA.
With all that being said, I have been tracking prices of the 1996 Bandai Carddass Prisms and that market has boomed a lot over the last 2-3 yerars since I started collected the PSA 10’s.
Here is a price guide that I made of the most recent sale prices and values of PSA 10’s per last sale and Card Ladder Data.
Enjoy everyone!
If you all would like, I can also periodically update this list as well as more sales keep happening. As of right now, prices are booming!
Green cards and red cards came out simultaneously for characters but were released in 2 different parts. It’s a confusing concept to understand at first, but this infographic shown below describes it quite well.
Looking at this infographic as an example, you can see that Pikachu (green and red) were released as part 1 and Mewtwo (green and red) were released in part 2!
I believe a lot of factors have been going into this historic rise.
#1 Many people believed Topsun with “No Number Error” (Actually Released in 1997) were the first ever Pokemon cards because of PSA making an error and using “1995” date on their slabs. PSA slabs still have incorrect date of “1995” on Topsun cards but this error will be updated in next 3-6 months and all the Topsun Pokemon cards (No Number, Blue Back, & Green Back) will all have 1997 date on PSA slabs moving forward after this change . BGS and CGC have already corrected this error to having correct year of “1997” date now.
I personally believe the Topsun error caused many collectors to feel uncomfortable with non-tcg card collecting in Pokemon from fear of “being scammed”"
#2 Bandai Carddass is truly Pokemon’s first official cards ever released to the public and came out 3-4 weeks before No rarity base set and the corocoro glossy promos released in corocoro magazine that both came out in October.
#3 Bandai Carddass Cards preserve history and each card has an interesting back side to the card which shows the original sprite used in the gameboy games. I believe having the original sprite used in Pokemon Green and Red is a major factor that many people underestimate.
#4 PSA 10 pop count is currently 30-85 for most of the prisms which accounts for both colors. Charizard for example is pop 85 but will most likely have 40-45 PSA 10 versions of each color adding scarcity to collecting both colors.
#5 Collectors who only collect one Pokemon will always want “the rookie” pokemon card for their collection of their favorite pokemon and most of these copies disappear and are never sold again!
I believe all these factors are what is causing it to rise in price recently!
Your article post is well-written and researched, as good and detailed as an investment proposal that I’m attempted to get my fave pokemon, Mew’s carddass, even though the artwork don’t click with me.
How’s the general QC? Would getting a raw card for grading be more economical for the ordinary folks?
Grading 1996 Bandai Carddass Prisms in PSA 10 is extremely challenging in 2023. In fact, I’ve never done it myself and had to buy all the prisms I currently own in PSA 10 as I couldn’t grade any myself. I tried and failed miserably
This set is also hard to grade as a whole to be honest. A lot of the reason is because of a “nick” from being dispensed from original Carddass machines (I believe this is what causes this classic “nick”) that affects many cards in this set and is found on the bottom right portion on the front of the cards. If you look at high quality scans of many of the cards, you’ll notice what I’m pointing out.
Mew also is one of most highly desired in this set. In fact, it was #2 in prices for most of the last 3 years that I’ve tracked and was only recently passed by gengar. I believe Mew is desired heavily because this set directly relates with the original gameboy games and many people remember the “secret mew” in games and it is nostalgic for them. It’s sprite on the back is also very unique and “alien” looking.
Purchasing and trying to grade are both challenging options in todays day and age. PSA 9 prisms are at much more affordable prices and best scenario may actually be trying to crack and regrade a 9! That’s probably how I would approach it.
I’m like 0/20 for trying to get a 10 from Bandai prism cards submitted to PSA!
Got a few non-prism ones though which I really treasure. I also love the set but a complete binder set would be enough for me I think
I feel you! I recently got a complete green and red binder off of buyee for $850(green) and $1150 (red). And I love flipping through the pages of those binders so much that I’ve done it multiple times per week since acquiring.
I also love the classic ring binders for this set in which you can put in the 3x3’s and only use 1 card per slot and that way, you get to enjoy all the original gameboy sprites on the backs of each card too! So cool looking at all the sprites in that way!
If anybody needs help shopping on buyee for vintage Japanese items, I also created a guide to do so!
Yes It Is. It is listed strategically because I don’t actually want to sell the set and only keep it listed for public awareness for the Pokemon Rookie Card set.
As you can see on the price guide I listed here, the PSA 10 prices and values for each pokemon prisms are roughly 10% of what I have my ebay price for the entire set listed at.
Hunting and searching on eBay/PWCC is what has actually taught me so much about many of the vintage sets.
These prism cards are like 1990s dragonball prisms, easily scratched and tenderly fragile, much harder to get a 10 than Wotc base cards. A complete set of 10s selling for $500,000 is well-earned the price! Sick, solid collection!!
If I’m a billionaire, I would buy-it-now right away! Such rare, hard-to-grade collection will only go up and up in price that any selling price now is considered “modest”.
True that!!! The beautiful full-art prisms in this set are so extremely delicate and scratch so easy. Even the non-prisms damage so easily too! I love seeing the entire set of prisms all together!!!
Ask away my friend, I’m happy to bring awareness about this beautiful set to any collector our there. Many future collectors will also read our thread and become more educated so I appreciate you asking the questions!
At this point in time, I’d say both colors are pretty equal in price. However, if I did have to choose, I’d say people hold onto their reds harder than they do their green…especially when it comes to the PSA 10’s. So Red with slight edge.
I’ve always personally enjoyed viewing the red mew as an “evil mew” and the green as a “good mew” and attaching the colors behind them to their personalities! Love that so much about this set too!
hope this helps!!
that I’m attempted to get my fave pokemon, Mew’s carddass, even though the artwork don’t click with me.
