For lack of any other threads I could find which discuss the differences between the various different Japanese Base Set packs, I have something of an update which some of you here may find interesting.
Last September I posted the thread ‘A second Japanese Neo Genesis print run - but why?’ detailing a variant of Japan’s Neo Genesis booster packs which have updated 2001 barcodes. I then stumbled upon something I don’t think anyone has ever spoken of in depth before outside of Japan. I’ll quote an Instagram post I shared last month showing off some Team Rocket and Neo 2 packs I had found which also had these 2001 barcodes:
*Around February 2001 The Pokémon Center Company took over control of printing Pokémon products from Media Factory. In doing so they reissued barcodes for all booster boxes and booster packs which had been released prior to that point, from Base Set up to Neo 2 (Neo Discovery).
These barcodes were printed as labels and stuck over Media Factory’s original barcodes, but despite not being printed on the packs directly the new packs were safety tested by Japan’s Toy Standards authority meaning they weren’t simply new barcodes stuck on old product, rather a complete new batch of booster boxes and booster packs created with these new barcode labels stuck on top.
These packs are a lot harder to find than the regular Media Factory packs and in Japan they usually sell for double the price, but there’s very little knowledge of them outside of Japan.*
As such, the first additional variant is a 300 yen Base Set booster pack with one of these 2001 barcode labels stuck to it (this is unfortunately not my picture, but is from a 2017 eBay listing):
Long Pack 300 Yen Booster Pack with 2001 Barcode (sticker)
About a week after I shared that post I discovered something which takes this a step further - at some point The Pokémon Center Company updated the booster pack design to include the new barcodes printed directly onto the packs:
Long Pack 300 Yen Booster Pack with 2001 Barcode (printed)
These packs almost definitely will not contain No Rarity cards, but it is my belief that this is where corrected cards will have been distributed. I’ve been speaking with a Japanese collector who has told me that they believe there’s a 50% chance the packs with barcode stickers have corrected cards but a 100% chance the packs with the barcode printed on has the corrected cards.
I don’t know much about Base Set, so have no idea if that even includes any corrections, but for sets like Jungle and Neo Genesis cards this will definitely apply, however I have yet to see either a Jungle or Neo Genesis pack with the 2001 barcode printed on.
As far as I can tell there are no differences between these 2001 barcode Base Set packs and the original Media Factory packs, but I can say that I’ve also tracked down a printed 2001 barcode Japanese Neo Discovery pack which has its references to Media Factory completely removed and the copyright updated to simply read “© Pokémon”:
Whether this then means that there’s a third 2001 barcode Base Set variant with Media Factory branding removed I do not know.