Carddass Background Info Questions

General
1

Hi All,

Appreciate any help/insight in advance. I had an authenticity question on a Japanese Shining Gyarados that I brought to this forum a few months ago that you all were super helpful with, so thanks for that. I posted a follow up result in that thread if anyone is interested (spoiler: CGC ruled the card as “Altered Card”.)

Anyway I’ve very recently become interested in the Carddass cards. I’ve done some research (basically only found Bulbapedia and a few other posts on here) today and learned about series 1 & 2 have the more basic artwork and then series 3 & 4 have the more advanced art.

I’m interested to learn more about the background on these cards. Some of my initial questions I wasn’t finding specific answers on that would be super helpful to know are listed below. If anyone has any additional details or context to share that would be certainly be welcome!

  • Were these only sold in Japan?
  • Were these only sold in Vending Machines?
  • Where were the vending machines located?
  • All the holos are stickers?
  • Was there any sort of rarity on the cards? > I see there are only a certain number of holos…but are any cards any more or less printed? Meaning if I take a time machine and find one of these Vending Machines in 1997, I put my money in, I have an equal chance at the Charizard as the Weedle? Meaning there’s a 1/151 chance at any given card?
2

These were only sold in japan for a limited time. They were made by Bandai and weren’t a part of the tcg and were one of the early experimental things pokemon did. Technically, they were released before the tcg that we know today so you could call them the first cards ever. Regardless though, the first ones i know of have official Sugimori artwork and have that signature water color look. The most sought-after ones currently are the starters, charizard, and the 2 no.000 cards that show red with all the starters.

Some info may be wrong but thats all I know. Hope that helped!

3

cool, thanks

4

Only sold in JP originally.

Only vending cards, yes.

@japanime might know the locations, but I would guess card/toy stores.

All holos (prism) are sitckers, yes.

Holos were rarer than the non holos.

They aren’t the first Pokemon cards. '97 carddass, not 95 or early 96.

5

pokeboon.com/about-the-series-of-a-bandai-pokemon-carddass/

6

You raise a good question about the pull rates of these cards. I’d like to know more information on that as well. Also, I think only 16 of the 17 holo cards are stickers. I think mew is on regular card stock like the non holos. Maybe someone else can confirm.