The order of those postcards bothers me…
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Congratulations. These 10s are actually rare and super super hard to come by. Actual condition rarity cards. Great pickups. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
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Thank you! Agreed - most of the raw copies that I’ve seen are in MP condition or worse. I’m curious how many were distributed back in August 2003 via the Shogakukan Elementary School 3rd Grade and 4th Grade magazines.
I would assume thousands, but then why aren’t more available on Mercari, Yahoo Auctions, etc.? There seems to be a disconnect between how many should exist, and how many are available for purchase/grading.
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I think the distribution for the 3 cards differs slightly in terms of the actual months and grades these cards were distributed. These cards had specific months in which they were included as the appendix and also for different grades. So maybe cards handed to younger kids (1st and 2nd) grades were in better condition compared to older grades. Saying this because older kids may have tendency to handle / play with the cards more.
This is just my head cannon but I also feel that Takeshi’s Mudkip is the less available card compared to the other two. Maybe the popularity of Satoshi and Haruka as characters, specially Satoshi adds to how it was preserved compared to the other cards. However, it is just feeling and observation based.
Cheers!
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Ah, that’s right. Here’s what Bulbapedia says. So 3rd and 4th grade for Treecko, 1st grade for Torchic, and 2nd and 5th grade for Mudkip. It looks like one issue for Torchic and two issues for Treecko and Mudkip.
Treecko
This card was distributed in Japan as an insert across two Shogakukan publications in August 2003. These publications were the September 2003 issues of Elementary School 3rd Grade magazine and Elementary School 4th Grade magazine.
Torchic
In Japan, this card was available as an insert with the September 2003 issue of the Shogakukan magazine Elementary School 1st Grade , released in August 2003.
Mudkip
This card was distributed in Japan as an insert across two Shogakukan publications in August 2003. These publications were the September 2003 issues of Elementary School 2nd Grade magazine and Elementary School 5th Grade magazine.
The PSA pop reports are pretty low.
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Dream cards! I can imagine moreso for a fan of the anime like yourself, congratulations 
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I didn’t know these even existed – killer pickup.
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Thank you! Yes, these niche cards are a handful of very few promos that directly reference the anime. If I remember correctly, they were released at the season finale of Pokemon Advanced (Season 6) and the start of Pokemon Advanced Challenge (Season 7) in Japan, marking the end of the first season and beginning of the second season of the Gen 3 anime.
I’ve had to exercise a lot of patience to wait for a sequentially graded 10 set to show up. 
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I realize I forgot to put this on my collection goals. But I’m going for Traditional Chinese Legend Maker. The story of the ONLY set between base set and 2019 in chinese is so unique and I already have one legend maker set that is special, why not this too?
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Thank you to @thundermoo for new additions for the binder mostly compiling of Himeno.
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Who is the actual artist for these? It looks like the same one who did all of the generic, “stock” anime style illustrations that appeared in books, merch packaging, publicity stuff etc. I’ve never known who it is and even these cards don’t give it away!
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Bare art rares, if it’s not here I already had it or it’s on the way. Was missing some and the binder was looking at me sad
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Thats a nice catch on that cameo! I would count it too tbh.
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I’m going through some stuff and am at a crossroads in my collecting journey. Haven’t bought anything new in a while but I saw these and well. Yeah.
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What reverses do you need i may be able to help you out i have exess from getting my own master set
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A 2003 Pikachu Project copyright is credited with the art for each of them.
It’s also credited for this Butler’s Magic Trick card too, which directly references the Jirachi: Wish Maker movie.
My guess is that TPC credits the anime/movie illustration teams through this 2003 Pikachu Project copyright, rather than a specific illustrator. The art is most likely taken from each of those properties (i.e., Pokemon Advanced / Advanced Challenge anime Pokemon/character illustrations; Jirachi: Wish Maker character illustrations).
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Yup that’s my guess, it’s why there’s numerous “Pikachu Project” illustrators to credit the team for each movie:
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Promo |
| 2003 Pikachu Project | Jirachi Wish Maker (movie 6) |
| 2004 Pikachu Project | Destiny Deoxys (movie 7) |
| 2005 Pikachu Project | Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (movie 8) |
| 2006 Pikachu Project | Ranger and the Temple of the Sea (movie 9) |
| 2009 Pikachu Project | Arceus and the Jewel of Life (movie 12) |
| 2010 Pikachu Project | Master of Illusions (movie 13) |
| 2014 Pikachu Project | J-League Promo |
| 2017 Pikachu Project | I Choose You (movie 20) |
| 2018 Pikachu Project | The Power of Us (movie 21) |
| 2019 Pikachu Project | Mewtwo Strikes Back (movie 22) |
| 2020 Pikachu Project | Secrets of the Jungle (movie 23) |
The only anomaly would be 2014 in which the promos are related to Japan’s top division soccer league but both cards have the “Pokemon XY the movie” stamp.
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