Does anyone know why there were glossy card stock and matte card stock for vintage Japanese cards? The only information I could find was that glossy card stock became quite popular through the time of 1998 until about 2001 for promos from magazines such as CoroCoro. Does anyone have any more information on this?
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Anyone have any info on this?
@1steditionbs , From a technical/material standpoint the peel away CoroCoro promos would have to have been made with a glossy finish on the face as to be able to remove them from their contact sheet. Much like the way stickers peel off of their backing. If they were matte they would stick. Think of putting a sticker on regular copy paper “matte finish” versus sticking it to a “glossy” sheet.
I don’t know much about other glossy promos/Japanese cards that were made not as peel aways so I won’t comment on those. But maybe they just used the same stock?
– Well actually now that I think of it- early cards were released as “vending series” expansion sheets and they also were “peel away” sheets. This is how alot of people first got access to pokemon cards. bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Vending_Machine_cards_(TCG)
Unpeeled CoroCoro promo back/front:
Hope this was maybe a little helpful??
–caveman
EDIT: if you havent peeled one these promos yourself you can pick some up cheap on ebay. www.ebay.com/itm/POKEMON-JAPANESE-POCKET-MONSTERS-COROCORO-CLEFFA-PROMO-CARD-UNPEELED/352904672117?hash=item522ac1f375:g:iAAAAOSw0NZeANRs
Here’s a TCAgaming unpeeling a set of vending machine sheets on Youtube. You can hear the stick as he peels them off: Complete Vending Series 3 UNPEELED! Large Purchase - YouTube
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@cavemantaco, Thank you, this was helpful information! I wasn’t aware of that you would actually peel them from a sheet.
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Glad I could help! Yeah I didnt know these existed until recently returning to collecting after many years. 
Was thinking more about it and I think certain Vending Series (glossy) cards/artwork was reprinted for following/other products
like the Quick Starter gift pack ( bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Quick_Starter_Gift_Set_(TCG) )
and the Intro VHS Pack ( bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Intro_Pack_(TCG) )
These sets used the same artwork but had different set symbols. Well I think the Quick starter gift set came with two decks
and used the same upside down pokeball set symbol as the Vending series.
The Intro VHS packs had a squirtle deck and a bulbasaur deck and their set symbols were their respective themed pokemon.
heres a vending bulba and a bulba deck bulba for example.
Im guess the ones from the intro decks had more of a matte finish and the vending obviously we know were glossy.
VENDING:
INTRO BULBA DECK:
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