need more info on just how rare these are . I seen a guy on ebay selling a complete set of PSA 9’s for 8K$!!!
The bulbapedia states that only 5250 were awarded, with 200 given to the illustration winners and one pack to 5000 other entry winners?
Something seems amiss with these numbers.
Can anyone elaborate on their rarity or demand?
Thanks
You seem to have dustribution covered, there are 5,250 copies of each card.
You can check sold listings for price info, these sell pretty often. Looks like a PSA 9 set would be worth about half of that listing that you’re quoting at this time.
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Pikachu is by far the most valuable in the set with Wurmple being the cheapest. It has been documented on this forum that I am a big fan of the set (and still am). 10s are very hard to come by for this set.
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just opened these as they were sent to my store back in 2004. Just opened them this morning as i am selling my collection to a store here in canada. Thought at first they were pop promos. Only had the two packs stapled to an official release letter from nintendo. That is why i am asking about the distribution seeming off, as I managed to get two sealed copies sent to my little store in Canada at the time. I think these are probably great candidates for psa 10
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Def send them in but I just wouldn’t get my hopes up that they are all 10s. Centering is tough on these guys and I think PSA can be strict. My recommendation if they do get 10s though is to actually not dilute the market too much too quickly by selling them all at once.
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It’s awesome you were sent these from Nintendo and even more so that you got to experience opening them today. If you see a population number tied to a distribution of any card, it’s best to see that number as a rough minimum not as a maximum. There are always more.
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ok so i thought for historical purposes and for the record I would post the letter that I rec’d at my store from Nintendo. the last two pages are interesting as it puts what the company was up to at the time such as partnerships and releases. Just for the historical record I guess.
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This is incredible to see, thank you for sharing it!
I bought a PSA 9 complete set for ~$2,700 two years ago. Prices are a bit higher in 2025, but not astronomically so. Maybe ~$3,500. As others have stated, PSA 10 rates are very low due to factory whitening on the corners and issues with centering.
Glad you got to experience opening these packs. They’re hard to come by sealed these days.
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Thank you for sharing this history with us 
The letter refers to these packs as a part of a promotion from the year prior. Would you mind taking closer pictures of the cards and wrappers? I’m curious to see if the copyright and print info lines up with the original 2004, 5250 card distribution.
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