I can’t seem to find anything about the origin of these cards online. Hoping a real vintage expert sees this post. I found a book called the “Pokemon Move Encyclopedia” made in 97 and published under T2 Publishing in Japan. That book seems to have every image that appears on these sticker cards. I’d like to know more information on stuff such as the company that printed the cards, whether they were in packs or not (I see many people call them Bandai Vending 1996 but with no proof), who the illustrator was (doesn’t seem to be Sugimori), and whether they are official / legit in any way. A local was selling 6 of them for $250 and i’ve seen past purchases ranging from $5-$1000 for just the charizard-machamp which is a huge range for 1 card (clearly at least one person was ripped off in one of the two deals).
Another separate posting here: Japan 1996 Pokemon Vending Machine Prism Holo Sticker Card RARE CHARIZARD etc | eBay
Again, this could be wildly underpriced or wildly overpriced - there’s very low signal on this
The book is official. Pretty sure the cards are bootleg, which is maybe why the origin is so unclear. Lack of copyright information is one giveaway.
I definitely know the book is real. I guess by official I mean “partnered with Creatures/The Pkmn Company”. For example Bandai, Cardass, Media Factory all had contracts which made them official.
I saw some Redditors site the lack of copyright as an issue but the interesting thing is that there seems to be a numbered set for the stickers (which are often images from the anime with a numbered circle) as well as a numbered set for the backsides which are the card arts from the encyclopedia book. These also dont seem to be one-off in that they pop up each month across ebay just that they get buried in the noise of other cards given low number statistics. Alternatively perhaps these could all be bootlegs of a real original set
Doesn’t mean it’s not possible for someone to create bootlegs of these, just a few things I noticed that made me want to avoid jumping there just yet. Obv best case is to find someone who knows where they got their from and trace it back. The company who wrote the encyclopedia as well as former employees could also confirm details possibly
There were a lot of unlicensed material released around that time that essentially do what you see in these cards: they borrow from vastly different sources (anime front, move encyclopedia back, but others have borrowed from official calendar arts and other products). There is possibly an actual set (as determined by the numbers), but it’s still all likely unofficial. A lot of these unofficial vending stickers were probably distributed widely back then, so they pop up decently often.
Also, being unlicensed doesn’t mean they don’t have value. There are some bootlegs that probably are rare and therefore valuable to bootleg collectors that seek them out. But I think, generally, collectors don’t value these too highly.
Also note that some Ebay sold listings can be inaccurate with regards to pricing. I think they recently changed it so that “best offer” listings only show the listing price, rather than the price with a strike-through, which indicated a sale at a lower price. Additionally, there are other ways in which sold listing prices may not be reflective either.
My understanding is that the cards are generally understood to be bootleg. This should also be the default position on these wonky nontcg type cards unless proven otherwise.
Also, these have been discussed here a few times before:
The artist is Yasuhiro Narita.