Feel free to edit, but I thought I’d add what information I have on this as quickly as possible before I forget it. I managed to find a sealed one of these in a local shop today, and asked the staff member (who is incredibly clued up with all things Pokemon) whether or not it would have no rarity cards. I don’t know whether or not this is common knowledge, but thought I’d add it anyhow.
First of all, starter packs are not like English decks - the cards found inside are random, think of it like an extra large booster pack. These ones always include 60 cards, 1 coin and 1 rule book.
The card contents:
3x Rare
9x Uncommon
18x Common
30x Energies (6x each type)
Upon asking about holos, I was told that one of the rares could be a holo, but he does not know with 100% certainty whether this is always the case or not. Anyone who knows, please let me know!
Now for the interesting information; no rarities. So, important thing to note here is the postal system changed around 1997. Why is this important? The starter pack lists the post code on the side of the pack. After 1997, the postal code was written in a format of 〒1xx-xxxx whereas pre-1997 it was written like 〒1xx only. Therefore, if you have 〒1xx-xxxx on the side of the pack, it is from post-1997 and therefore definitely has no “no rarity” cards whatsoever. No rarity cards apparently were replaced with the rarity variants before 1997, so the short postal code 〒1xx does not guarantee no rarities, but instead means it’s a possibility. This is all the information he had on it. I’ve added an image of mine below, showing the long postal-code format, indicating it does not have any no rarities.
Just a note that it isn’t even confirmed that no rarity cards came out of decks it is just a theory with no proof. Also the decks guarantee 1 holo as far as I’m aware.
It isn’t a theory in this case, this guy has opened them and confirms that no rarities are available in these starter packs. There are 3 separate versions of the packs, just the first two are not exclusively identifiable. He has opened them himself and confirms the existence. For this reason, when they receive a 1xx postal code box, they price as if it is a full NR pack. This post 1997 pack was sold for ~$50 for an idea. Whilst his word isn’t proof, he’s probably the most knowledgeable person I know on this front, and has sold and collected the things since they came out on day 1, and works for the most reputable card reseller shop there is .
Like @ozenigma said, there is no reason or call for people to believe something like this. Who it comes from and the reputation of that person is completely irrelevant.
I have seen a few people claim that they have ‘confirmed’ that NR’s come from the Decks and mysteriously every time there is no photo(which wouldn’t be good enough proof) or video proof whatsoever. The community in general speculates that that is where they come from but there is no confirmation available anywhere. It’s the exact same thing with the Base Short Packs. I’d personally love for there to be some concrete confirmation to the Starter Decks, though. It’d be such a good thing for the market.
Having said that, this sort of guide is really good. Because variations are variations.
Just remember that almost all science that we take for granted now, wasn’t able to be proven instantly, but the basis was there.
I’ve already said I have no proof, but this is the information I have, and as it’s come from someone who’s opened the packs himself (remember this isn’t some fanatic off youtube, but someone who grew up with these packs and has collected and sold since) - I 100% believe the information. There was no hesitation in what he said when he said it to me, and if he even thought for a second there would be a NR in this sealed starter pack, no way in hell would he have sold it for $50. As an idea, the pre 1997 packs have a base price of $1000+ depending on condition in this store.
This person you know may very well be correct, and you are also correct in stating that a lot of things are correct long before they are proven to be.
But what I meant, and I am going to assume that Ozenigma meant is the amount of trust that you have for this person is irrelevant when it comes to it being ‘proof’. What matters is the proof and this persons word is not good enough, nobodies is. If Jesus descended from Heaven and told the Pokemon community that he pulled 6 Charizards from a 1st Edition Base Set Box nobody would say ‘Well Jesus said it so it’s true’ people would say ‘Well Jesus where is the proof?’
I know that’s a bit of an extreme analogy, but I just want to make it clear that what I at least meant was not to attack your relationship with this person or cast shade on your trust in them, it was more to explain that someone saying something without proof makes it meaningless to the community and hobby as a whole.
I’ll also re-iterate that your information IS valuable to us, any information on the possible source of No Rarity cards is only going to bring us closer to having actual concrete proof.
Here is my short postcode boxes which funnily enough, I opened with pokemonsyndicate today!! Haha
I didn’t even see this thread until a few mins ago.
Very interesting you made a post, and I am glad you take the time to research this well. I respect your efforts, and it’s good you admire the hobby like many of us do here.
I personally don’t know any true indicators on the decks yet. I just love to collect, and enjoy the hobby as is.
These are two short decks I broke today for fun.
2nd print booklet came from the first deck, both are identical.
3rd print grey booklet came from the second deck
Both have written the short postcode inside the booklets.
Dam crappy centering!!
Ninetales has an orange blotch on the left… Shame.
Anyways, that’s my breaks. I think could be an odd chance that these short postcodes may have non rarities. So I agree with you in that aspect. But didn’t work for me, and hasn’t been proven yet elsewhere.
As an aero-engineer, I know first hand that proof and validation is 100% necessary for anything, whether it be in preventing planes from falling out of the sky due to a miscalculation or finding out the source of no rarity cards. But saying that it is meaningless to the community and hobby as a whole is a stark comment to make by anyone’s judgement. A good example of this is Giordano Bruno’s unproven cosmological theories, which had him burned at the stake simply as they were not proven and went against what was currently known. Without his theories, it’s very possible that Copernicus would not have had the ideas he had, and in turn would not have proven what he has proven (which has led us to what we now regard as general knowledge in cosmology). My point: my information on NRs out of starter packs is not directly proven, no, but it is in no way meaningless. In my opinion, it’s a huge step forward in finding out the source of these NR cards. That, and the knowledge he has shared with me has now got me finding many new Japanese web pages confirming exactly what I have said about the ‘3 generations’ of packs.
My hope in sharing this information is it gets more people interested, and more people searching. The information is there, and now, hopefully, so is the motivation.
This is exactly why I shared this post. Instantly more information on this subject after seeing nothing on the internet for ages.
Thanks for sharing that mate. The guy I was speaking to mentioned something about the guidebooks, but I couldn’t fully understand him at that point (Japanese is not perfect yet!). Did you notice any differences between the two packs you opened, or these packs to long post code packs you’ve opened before?
In short, my reply above boils down to: “Yes, no one would believe you just because Jesus, or whoever, says it’s true. But it sure as hell would get them thinking.”.
It’s been rumored that no-rarities come out of early starter decks for a long time. Without wanting to be harsh, you’ve really discovered nothing new here. All you’ve found is a guy who says he’s found no rarities in some decks. You may completely trust him but we don’t. The short-postcode decks may be “more likely” to contain no rarities but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. With @kkthxbai’s info its actually been somewhat disproven.
I don’t think this gets us anywhere, until someone opens a sealed deck on video then its still all rumors, we still don’t know where they come from and we still have no way to definitively identify any decks that may have no rarities.
It’s cool man. I get what your intentions are and I believe your intentions to be more about sharing this information with us rather than trying to convince us that your friend is the final confirmation of where NR’s are from. Just wanted to make it clear that ‘My friend said so…’ is never enough for the community as a whole.
I’m not sure why it’s having to be repeated - but I’ll say it again anyway. Regardless of proof or not - the very information itself will get people digging deeper, it’s a step in the right direction. A quick search on yahoo using information I shared in my first post quite clearly shows that. I haven’t just found a guy who has said ‘some decks’ have NRs. I’ve found a guy who has opened packs himself with NRs. Regardless of whether or not you believe that (I don’t ask you to), the point being is, he’s given some incredibly interesting information surrounding it, that being the postal code on the box. As I said, in 1997 the postal code display in Japan changed. This means that as these boxes were printed around that display change, there is at least 2 generations of boxes, for sure. We know for certain that there are no no rarities in the boxes printed after the postal change, but this does not disprove the fact that there could be some in pre-1997. This is what he refers to as the short postal codes. For him to tell me this without hesitation, and for it to be proven by kkthxbai with pictures on the same day shows he’s not speaking out of his ass. For sure, I’ve not seen a NR pulled out of one of these packs yet, and I want to before I say anything more, but at the very least its information. We know for sure that if this really is a first print run, it will therefore only be in the short postal code boxes. That doesn’t mean that a short postal code guarantees NRs, i.e your claim that kkthxbai’s post disproves what I’m saying is completely false. It doesn’t disprove it, but it doesn’t prove it either. There is no way to disprove what I’ve said, it’s only possible for it to remain a mystery or for it to be proven by pulling an NR.
But I’ll say it again, it does get us somewhere. I now have more info on NRs, more people now have this knowledge under their belt which may prove handy in the future if we find any more info on it, and finally, it brings up a lot more interesting results on yahoo and other Japanese sites once you know that the postal code is the key here. I think what would be best here would be to restrain from “not proven therefore incorrect” posts, and instead use the information to see if gets you anywhere. If it does, great, if it doesn’t, well that’s one more road that no longer needs to be traveled.
Your my buddy fourstar, but I have to put you through a meat shredder… Because Im proud of my hard research and findings, and ill be damed if it is called nothing new.
your wrong dude, the information his come across is more important then anything has ever been mentioned on this forum.
Millhouse just told me he wasnt talking about the post codes being not enough as a whole, so oopsie doopsie. but anyway, there is one final secret.
Nobody has noticed this but… in short. Every single deck that says 0061 is unlimited and it has the 4th print run book in it… Hence 4 on the front.
Every single 104-01 is and always will have the 3rd and 2nd print runs in it. The second print run is the book with pokemon on the front, the third is the book that says 3 and its grey.
There has never been a deck opened that is 0061 that has the second or third rule book in it. Dont believe me? Look on youtube, instagram, and every person that has proof of opening a starter deck. Trust me i have watched evvvvvvveeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrry single video on youtube… HOURS… Be my guest, go and buy sealed smprattes box of 10 decks, and you will pull strictly unlimited as the code on them is 0061.
Nothing new? nobody from here new this, and in the entire history of this forum the code on the side has never been mentioned as far as the decks go, there was a single post of cullers writing the code on the back of the booster packs 104-01 and that is it. Everyone chose to ignore it. However I dug deeper because Im a hero.
And the last secret is where it gets even more intersting… or im just a total idiot right now.
Why do you think im trying to get him to delete all this, once you guys find out, ill never have a chance lmao! I even asked @darkrai when I first started researching this, and he had no idea. He said every single deck is the same, and you cant tell whats in the inside from what is on the outside, and that there is no difference on the outside between all the decks.
Ignoring this information, and saying it is nothing new is like saying That green wing charizard shadowless booster boxes are the same as unlimited booster boxes, and that none of the greenwing boxes have shadowless in them.
I have recorded the third rule book being pulled by myself, and I purchased it because i new it was different. I saw the code, and i grabbed it quikly, and boom My deck had the third print run rule book in it.
I took a while researching all this stuff guys, and I wanted it a secret. BUt now @viral has made it go viral, so I will have to destroy him Pm style… Same with you @kkthxbai
In other news… I snipered the crap out of pristine no raritan a few hours ago, and im OVER THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN!!!
Word of advice, never assume you are the only one that knows something just because its not publicly posted! In the collecting world, you are almost always 1 step behind someone…
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