Sleeves are an overlooked form of pokemon merch

This is such an interesting thread. I’ve sworn up and down I don’t care about sleeves but man there’s some awesome arts that seem to have such a large spectrum of styles! I have a bunch of burning questions for anyone who can help.

  1. Does TPC give info on who the artists are on each sleeve art and where do you get that info?
  2. I’m assuming there is no “set lists” with a picture of every sleeve ever produced…or is there?
  3. What is the range in cost per sleeve generally? I would imagine more rare and older styles command a large price.
  4. What’s the largest “lot” or “sleeve collection” someone could reasonably expect to buy? I don’t have the time or patience to acquire sleeves one by one, but I may be interested in buying a large lot or collection potentially.
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I can’t answer all of your questions but there are multiple people with incomplete lists (few excel sheets and websites) that are being worked on.

Age is definitely a big factor in the price but even more so is the circumstances of it’s release. A lot of tournament releases were very limited and to they can command quite a price (mind you nothing compared to card prices).

I know of some people with near complete collections and I imagine some people do have compete collections it’s definitely in the realm of possibility unlike sith the actual cards. It’s also something that I’m currently working on. I’ll post photos of my progress shortly.

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Thanks for the tips, and makes sense regarding the releases. Everyone loves a story, just like promo cards. Would love to take a look!

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As I’m trying to collect them all I’m organizing the binder in chronological order (loosely so that I can group reprints and themes). Right now I’ve collected sleeves from 1999-2011 with a few gaps.

The sleeves early on are really interesting because of their history (my favorite is the New York pokemon center exclusive sleeve). But the modern sleeves make up for the lack of history with gorgeous art

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Thanks for sharing the binders look great. Which one is the NY sleeve?

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First picture bottom left. Another really interesting one are the transparent sleeves at the top of the third picture

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Whoa, amazing collection! I had no idea there were PCNY sleeves! I have fond memories of visiting as a kid, did you get the sleeves back then or have you acquired it later?

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I would have loved to have visited but I would have been 3 years old when it was open. I got this sleeve from a Japanese website for $16

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I don’t believe the public information for artists exists, i think some artists share their work in social media and some are just very recognisable but i guess that’s it. Also regarding price, most of the modern sleeves are available as singles for 1-2$ so very affordable even if you only pick something here and there instead of buying lots

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Appreciate the help thanks. Makes sense on price it’s a much more niche market I’m sure. I kinda of like how there is less information available, everyone loves some mystery.

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Ooo, this is a fine collection. Those binder pages are really awesome and you can see the evolution of sleeve art from 1999 to later. Very cool. Awesome work compiling these without many official sources and thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

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Have over 250 scans of more recent sleeve designs (including Worlds, ICs, English Pokemon Center etc) from our eBay store if anyone needs. Feel free to share/use.

Especially at the card shows people are loving picking up single sleeves at the moment, they are definitely becoming more mainstream in the past year or so.

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