As always an amazing read 
How many points did you have to get for things like the grand party?
The release of the Southern Islands Collection was a banner day for not just the Pokemon TCG, but for Japanime Toys as well.
We had pre-ordered several dozen cases of the three-card sets. The day they were delivered, we immediately scanned the cards and offered them for sale on the pocketmonsters.com website. Within a few hours, we had sold nearly every set. Such was the frenzy of Pokemon fever at that time.
Online sales were so brisk, I didnât even have a chance to put the cards on display in the Japanime Toys store itself. Which meant I wasnât able to use these palm tree-shaped displays. (They are upside-down because they were meant to be affixed to a cash register so they dangled like branches of a tree.)
We all know now that the Southern Island Cards were anything but rare. Media Factory printed more than enough, and anyone who wanted the cards was eventually able to buy them.
But I wonder how many collectors were able to get their hands on these?
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thats something i kinda wonder abit sometimes as well.for me i actually was lucky i found a small store that had tons of these for just $1 each but they didnt have the mew set I did eventually get it later on for a big higher but not that much.I didnt know they were that popular when they were released
Japanime; were you required to sell at a set retail price or did you adjust prices on a supply and demand basis? Just trying to get a picture of what it was like, and your business size etc
They was a LOT of price-gouging back then, particularly among eBay sellers who imported Japanese Pokemon cards and then raised the price several times.
But never by us.
I kept our prices honest and fair. We usually sold the booster packs for just a buck or so above Japanese retail (to cover the shipping charges). Our profits per-item were modest, and we made up for it in sheer volume. At one point, we were the Japan Postal Serviceâs largest international shipper â the postmaster general even honored us at a special dinner!
I think our fairness is a big reason why weâre still in business today (albeit in a different capacity, as a manga publishing company). Rather than having a âtake the money and runâ mentality, we built a strong brand (and brand loyalty).
To me, Pokemon was never a get-rich-quick opportunity. Rather, it was one of the bricks in the foundation upon which a successful business could be built.
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Two thumbs up for you!
Ah, shucks!
Iâm not quite sure where or how I got this sheet of decals. Perhaps it was from the Pokemon Fan Club. But it might have been a retailer giveaway directly from Media Factory (whose logo can be seen in the bottom left corner).
Iâm glad I kept the sheet intact, though, rather than slapping the decals onto the cash register or store windows.
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Oh nice! I was actually bidding on one of those a few weeks ago but the auction ended while I was at work. 
Did the auction have any information as to where or how the decals were distributed? Iâd love to know more about it.
I have one of these and I still have idea why they were given out.
I have one as well along with the 2002 lugia neo battle road tournament. I remember seeing Mikes and wanting a copy for myself. They appeared on YJ! before.
I just checked my losing history on eBay and well sadly nothing worth noting in the description.
I have read on a Japanese blog that the SSB portion only was given out at the tournaments and I thought I recalled seeing the grand party sticker inside of the early 9 pocket card files as a bonus (do not quote me on that)âŚbut the full sheet?? No clue.
Among my favorite promo cards are four that Iâve never actually seen. And Iâm not going to let you see them, either. 
Thatâs because, more than a dozen years later, these four cards remain sealed in the envelopes in which they were originally mailed to the lucky recipients. (Sorry, but I had to Photoshop out the addresses on the envelopes, as they are private homes.)
The 1999 All Nippon Airways (yes, âAirways,â not âAirlinesâ) Pokemon campaign offered travelers the opportunity to collect two sets of cards. The âFlying Pikachuâ and Articuno set, which came in a yellow envelope, was the more popular of the two. And that made the Zapdos and Moltres set (arriving in a blue envelope) a more difficult acquisition for collectors in later years.
The backs of the envelopes are â OK, Iâll just say it â absolutely adorable! Or, as we say in Japan: kawaii! I mean, who could force themselves to tear open envelopes this cute. ;D
All these years later, I still feel the 1998-2001 ANA cards are among the most desirable in the hobby. Getting them direct from ANA required spending tens of thousands of yen on an airline ticket, and then remembering to send the used boarding pass to ANA afterward. I honestly wonder how many frequent fliers even bothered.
Is that really from 2002? I thought it must be 2000/1 as the Lugia Trophy card with the guys picture wasnât on the new card stock as the 2002 trophy cards⌠But I might be mistakingâŚ
I LOVE the ANA Promos, probably my favourite after the lilypad mew one. Amazing to see them in the original envelope!
Although I pretty much stopped collecting Pokemon ephemera at the end of 2001, I would still pick up odds and ends over the ensuing years. Such as this countertop display that I liberated (with permission!) from a McDonaldâs here in town.
The display folds into a sort of triangular shape, and there are strips of two-sided tape on the bottom so it can be affixed to the countertop or a table. The Japanese at the bottom of the display says that each Happy Meal (a burger set for kids) includes one card and one toy.
The other side of the display shows a 10-year Pokemon Poster that kids could also get with a Happy Meal.
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@_@ Aw man, I love the stuff you have! Itâs like taking a trip back to my childhood.
Thanks so much for sharing!
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The fun thing about Pokemon items in Japan during the late 1990s was that there was something for all ages and tastes. Plush toys. Figurines. Video game cartridges. Trading cards. And stickers. Lots and lots of stickers!
These particular decals are from Meiji Dairies Corporation, the same food company that released several Pokemon TCG promos in the mid-2000s. Although the words on the front of the decals are in English, these were available exclusively in Japan. (In fact, they were released several months before Pokemon was officially introduced to North America.)
The âsealsâ (which is the English loan-word that means âstickersâ or âdecalsâ in Japanese) were given to customers who bought Meiji products. Peeling away the back of the decal would reveal a message indicating whether the customer had won a Pokemon-related prize. (Hence the name, âLucky Chance Seal.â)
Fortunately, it wasnât necessary to send in the entire sticker, just the peel-away backing.
Here are a few more of the decals, as well as the back of one of them with instructions for claiming the prize.
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