This is really interesting. I wonder how frequently these cards appear on the market?
The same person wrote two additional quick blog posts after this about obtaining the Pichu/Pikachu and Chikorita/Clefairy cards with slightly higher resolution images than what’s already been shared here:
The second image is actually much bigger.
Piecing together information from this thread and from this person’s blog post, I’ve made a list below of the known cards.
These cards definitely exist (as in, there are pictures of them):
- 007/128 ポニータ (Ponyta)
- 016/128 ピカチュウ (Pikachu)
- 028/128 ピッピ (Clefairy)
- 029/128 ニャース (Meowth)
- 071/128 リザードン (Charizard)
- 082/128 ピチュー (Pichu)
- 002/029 フシギダネ (Bulbasaur)
- 005/029 チコリータ (Chikorita)
- 010/029 ヒトカゲ (Charmander)
- 011/029 リザード (Charmeleon)
- 022/029 ワニノコ (Totodile)
- 023/029 アリゲイツ (Croconaw)
- 024/029 オーダイル (Feraligatr)
These cards are mentioned either in the blog or in this thread but with no pictures:
- 078/128 パルシェン (Cloyster)*
- 086/128 ミュウツー (Mewtwo)
- 106/128 バクフーン (Typhlosion)**
- 009/029 ヒトカゲ (Charmander)
* This is mentioned in the original post in this thread, but the blog entry it links to lists “リザードン（パック版）078/128” - リザードン being Charizard. I think the 078 instead of 071 here is a mistake by the author of the blog; interestingly they make the same mistake in an earlier blog post of theirs.
** PSA can be inaccurate, but they’ve supposedly graded 2 holographic Typhlosion cards, a PSA 9 and a PSA 10 (https://www.psacard.com/pop/tcg-cards/2001/pokemon-japanese-expedition/99974). This hasn’t been mentioned in this thread or on that blog yet. Typhlosion is the card displayed in the picture attached to the tweet from the post I quoted above, so I can only assume this to be real.
If Typhlosion exists, and we consider that Chikorita, Totodile, Croconaw and Feraligatr exist, it’s might be safe to assume that they didn’t release this deck without including Cyndaquil, Quilava, Bayleef and Meganium. That said, the mix of the e-Starter Deck and Base Expansion Pack sets is very bizarre.
I’m hoping I’ll be able to get my hands on a Pichu at some point in the near future. I’ve been quoted $2,500 for a “mint but not PSA 10” copy, but that’s way out of my budget and seems way overpriced. 