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
1 Like
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.
2 Likes
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.
4 Likes
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
13 Likes
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.
7 Likes
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.
4 Likes
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.
30 Likes
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.
3 Likes
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.
4 Likes
behind the fold of the wrapper it says Copyright and Tm 2004The WB television network
1 Like
Thank you for sharing!
What do y’all think, were these part of the original 5250 print, or did they print extra for shops and there are more than originally thought?
Fellow Poke Card Creator enjoyer and shiller here. It’s really cool to see that document! Does anyone have access to the video of the promotion on the Today Show? Might be lost media at this point.
1 Like
I don’t believe they’d open up a separate print order for a second batch of these after already promoting that they were highly scarce to begin with. I’ve seen lots of emails and sheets of paper floating to POP reps and contest entrants from back in the day (PTCG was in the wild west at this point in time with communications) and even before the contest results were announced it was known that these would be incredibly limited in distribution. The packs look identical to every sealed copy I’ve seen available in the past five years ¯_(ツ)_/¯ The stapling of the promos to the piece of paper they were mailed with also lines up - I’ve seen several of these packs with staple holes, and unfortunately, have seen a few raw copies of cards with a pin hole or two. 
Although, whether that’s from staples or kids just pinning them to their walls is anybody’s guess.
The more plausible scenario in my mind is that after sending out packs to as many entrants as they feasibly could (I imagine it was hard to track down and mail these in the days before standardized personal emails and “tHe iNTeRnET”) they likely sent packs to established hobby stores like OP’s in hopes to stir up some orders for other PTCG products and Organized Play.
2 Likes
the only thing i found this far is supposedly the Torchic winner in a video on you tube posted from 15 years ago.
2 Likes
and then there is this, but this could be anyone but the target partnership is interesting
He only has 1 pack, so I assume he is one of the 5000 “first prize winners”. Randomly selected he said in the video…
2 Likes
For reference, even when was PSA was less strict on the 10 grades, I sent approximately 15 pack fresh pikachus in and all were 8-9. 10s are extremely hard to come by, especially the pikachu in particular. I believe it is due to its placement in the packaging (last 5/5).
I think he drew a torchic but didn’t actually draw that one and is misremembering.
As he claims to have drawn the one pictured.
1 Like
Agreed