WotC e-Reader vs. Nintendo e-Reader print runs

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Hi all! While Pokemon card print run sizes are generally shrouded in mystery, it’s common knowledge that, for instance, the print run of Skyridge was much, much smaller than, say, Jungle’s. One could probably, in fact, rank the print run sizes of each of the WotC sets without much controversy (I.e., Base Unlimited > Jungle Unlimited > Neo Genesis Unlimited > Expedition > Skyridge, etc.). I don’t think a single forum member would disagree with that print-run size ranking. Despite the fact, of course, that none of us have precise figures.

Now here’s one thing I really can’t figure out: between WotC e-Reader sets (Expedition, Aquapolis, & Skyridge) and Nintendo e-Reader sets (Ruby, Sandstorm, Dragon, & TMTA), which had the smaller print runs? What makes it tough to figure out (for me, at least) is the disparity in collector interest in the two eras. So there’s effectively no use in comparing pop reports or other data – the WotC e-Reader sets have just historically been much more actively collected and sought-after.

But which of the two eras is ‘rarer’? Obviously, Ruby had a larger print run than Skyridge. But what about Dragon vs. Skyridge? I feel like I’ve gotten a fairly close handle on the relative print run sizes of the Nintendo e-Reader sets – but that’s been easy because they are all collected to pretty equal extents. But I honestly just have no clue when it comes to Ruby vs. Expedition or Dragon vs. Skyridge, or cross-era comparisons.

And, for what it’s worth, my primary collecting habit during childhood was from 2003-2005, and I remember opening tons of packs from both eras. I honestly don’t recall either era being scarcer or more desirable than the other. All sets at that time, IIRC, seemed readily available for quite a while after they were released.

TL;DR: between WotC and Nintendo e-Reader eras, which had larger print runs? Or were the print run sizes generally comparable?

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I absolutely love this thread already. I just made a video talking about why I think ex dragon is underrated. Nintendo or WOTC I love e series cards.
In my opinion I would say ex ruby and sapphire is about as rare as expedition.
Aquapolis and ex sandstorm are about as equally rare.
And skyridge and ex dragon are also pretty equally rare.
From my experience the 3 WOTC and Nintendo e series sets parallel each other extremely closely in many ways.

Oh something I just remembered, Nintendo e series cards are ONLY available in one language, English. If you factor this in, you could argue that overall that makes the Nintendo e series cards rarer.

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What do you mean by Nintendo e series cards are only printed in English? :confounded:

  • EX Ruby & Sapphire is available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean.
  • EX Sandstorm is available in English, German, French, and Italian
  • EX Dragon is available in English, German, French, and Italian
  • EX Team Aqua vs Team Magma is available in English, German, French, and Italian

I do agree with the top part of your post though:

Greetz,
Quuador

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Yes the sets themselves are printed in other languages, but the e series cards are removed. The e stamp with the thick border and barcode is completely absent in every language except English from what I’ve seen.
I’m on mobile so I hope this works, but here is a Japanese ex dragon salamence with everything that would make it an e series card removed.

52f4e29a8321344e30ae-0f55c9129972ac85d6b1f4e703468e6b.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/products/pictures/1471695.jpg

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I’m also a HUGE fan of both e-Reader eras. They’re the most nostalgic for me and the art is incredibly diverse, and by far the best in the entire TCG. I totally agree about EX Dragon being a very underrated set, too. First TCG appearances of Rayquaza, Flygon, Latias, and Latios, and has by far the best-looking holos of the four Nintendo e-Reader sets (like Salamence #10 – talk about a stunning card).

Relative to your opinions on print runs, my sense is generally, though not entirely, in line with yours. Based on the data I’ve absorbed, I’m actually pretty confident that the print run of Sandstorm was similar to Dragon’s, and that TMTA actually had a somewhat (though not significantly) smaller print run. I’m assuming, of course, that you consider Skyridge to have had the lowest print-run of the three WotC e-Reader sets, and Aquapolis to be the second lowest.

It’s very interesting also that, of their respective eras, both e-Reader blocks had the lowest print-runs. Hidden Legends almost certainly, from what I’ve observed, had a much larger print run than TMTA. And then they, of course, really ramped up the presses with FRLG. And after that, only a few EX-series sets had print runs remotely similar to those of the e-Reader sets, namely (IMO) Emerald and Delta Species (both of which still had larger print runs, just less significantly larger). I’ve seen people say on this forum that Deoxys and TRR are the rarest EX-series sets, which I’m effectively certain is false. It’s sort of the same effect with Skyridge/Aquapolis/Expedition – they are so sought-after and widely collected that they appear, on first glance, to be rarer than the Nintendo e-Reader sets. But Deoxys and TRR are just more in-demand, so the cards are scarcer, which gives them the appearance of being rarer.

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Honestly I tend to figure out which sets were printed the least when I’m buying. Usually if certain sets are hardly listed I assume it had a low print run or is a very popular set or both. Ex team rocket returns probably falls into the popularity category. Skyridge is pretty scarce as well but also pretty popular. But overall it seems that everything from E series thru Heart Gold soul silver era wasn’t popular at all especially when released. Real low point for the hobby. People are now starting to come around on some of these sets and eras. I wish there was some way of knowing a order of how little or how much of each set was roughly printed. But it’s somewhat easy to get a rough idea just looking at listings of each card from each set. Usually it’s not a chore if you’re actually in the market for what you’re searching :slight_smile: This is another reason why sometimes it’s good to look for cards or sets people don’t like as much. Sometimes you might find you really have a strong connection with a certain card, set, or era. I also mentioned things like this in my video. I personally like to go to Card Marvin and look up each set and check out the cards. I also like to watch at least one box opening of each set to get a idea of pull rates. The harder to pull the more likely I’d like it in my collection. For modern for instance people are really sleeping on Rainbow Rares. I watched Deriums Pokemon open 6 Burning Shadows boosters and pulled 3 Rainbow Rares. One per every other box? Does this pull rate sound familiar with a certain old era mentioned in this thread?? Not talking up modern at all just saying there is something worth collecting from every era for the most part. But only if you’re into the cards. Edit: Diamond and pearl era thru heart gold cards weren’t hard to find but I do believe it was part of the Pokemon low point

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@zorloth “I totally agree about EX Dragon being a very underrated set, too. First TCG appearances of Rayquaza, Flygon, Latias, and Latios”

Don’t forget Absol!

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Could you link the vid?

Thank you!

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I agree with most of this. I think Skyridge’s scarcity is a result of having a low print run (relatively speaking, of course) and being a WotC set. My impression is that it’s, in effect, an EX-series print run WotC set, which is a recipe for very high prices. That, of course, in conjunction with being one of the most visually stunning and unique sets. Team Rocket Returns is similarly visually stunning and unique, and like you pointed out, has a huge popularity factor that a set like Sandstorm lacks. All the prices ultimately just route back to supply (print-run) and demand (popularity). It’s easy to see just how massive the print runs of Base Unlimited were; by far the most popular casual collector set and still much, much cheaper to complete than a set of Team Rocket Returns (let alone Skyridge).

I think that, starting with Crystal Guardians, the print runs really ramped up. And then Power Keepers is a whole other ball game, and had closer to D&P print runs than its fellow EX-series sets. I agree that D&P through HGSS was also a relatively low-demand period for the TCG (compared to 1999-2002 and now), but I think the print runs were substantially above most, if not all, EX-series print runs. But I could be wrong. It’s honestly tough to tell, though, because everything after the EX-era isn’t really ‘collectible’ yet. And it’s tough to say if they ever will be. The GB games of the first three gens are straight-up iconic, and among the most significant releases in the history of video games. Once you get to D&P and later games, the games were still hugely popular, but the fan-base was largely people who started with gens 1, 2, & 3. So the real nostalgia in this hobby, in my view, is for Pokemon from Gens 1 & 2, and, to a lesser extent, 3. I simply don’t think (although perhaps I’m wrong) that there is remotely as much nostalgia for, say, Piplup, as there is for Mudkip (let alone Squirtle). So I think the popularity of D&P and later TCG sets among collectors is going to be severely hampered by that. I thoroughly enjoyed the D&P video game, and I don’t dislike gen 4 Pokemon, but I honestly have next to no desire to collect anything Pokemon TCG-related from gens 4 and later. I wasn’t young enough during D&P-era to feel any real nostalgia for it. And I think that’s the case for most TCG collectors. So this was basically all a roundabout way of saying that it’s going to be tough to evaluate the print runs of D&P-forward Pokemon cards because most people don’t really give a shit about them, so the scarcity factor isn’t there and will never be (or at least not for a while).

But if D&P-era cards ever approach EX-era cards in collector popularity, we’ll really be able to see what the print runs were like then. They definitely were a lot lower than most WotC sets, and certainly modern sets. I think that the print runs were larger than the EX-era, though, and I largely base that on the fact that the EX-series sets leading into the D&P era had the largest print runs of the era.

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Very true! Kind of overshadowed by the TMTA Absol, though (but both are amazingly nice cards).

Just realized that it’s also the first appearance of Salamence. Though I don’t really know if Salamence is a particularly popular Pokemon (although I love it, but it’s not comparable to something like Rayquaza).

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@zorloth Yup that’s exactly what I was getting at. No one cares about diamond and pearl thru heart gold. But there’s like zero booster boxes posted or hardly any. Plenty of the actual cards available tho. But yes the original Wotc sets had pretty big print runs. Base unlimited, Jungle, Fossil, Team Rocket. I believe gym sets are like a middle ground. Then Neo-Skyridge being a lot less printed. Especially e series. It’s funny how little people care about Expedition. I love the set and it was so cheap. Not sure if it changed yet but still interesting

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@7l7l, I sent you a PM with the video link! I won’t post it here because I don’t want to derail this thread. But thanks for showing interest.
Anyone else who wants to see the video or my channel please PM me here or on discord :blush:

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@quuador , I don’t think I articulated myself well earlier. But I am off work and at my home computer.

Here is a picture of a card for every language you mentioned for ex ruby and sapphire minus german and korean as I literally couldn’t find a single picture for those 2 languages.



You will probably notice right away that every feature that makes an e series card an “e series card” is completely missing in every language except english. As far as I am aware this is true for every nintendo e series set.

I think this adds another layer of uniqueness to these sets and arguably makes them rarer depending how you look at it.

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@sacari They look off without the boarder

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I think the gym sets had pretty ginormous print runs – less than the preceding sets, but still gargantuan. I think Neo was a relatively significant drop-off, though, but the real drop-off happened with the e-Series (IMO). I very much agree about Expedition; I also love it. I honestly think it’s just overshadowed by Skyridge and, to a lesser extent, Aquapolis. It doesn’t really have as coherent of an identity or theme as Skyridge. But it has some very unconventional art and it’s an absolutely fantastic set.

The prices on Expedition holos (not really reverse holos, though) have gone up a lot. They’re super scarce ATM. While I’m principally collecting the EX-series, I’m also simultaneously working backwards through the WotC-era, and I’ve had a very tough time finding the holos from all three WotC e-Series sets – even Expedition ones. I think part of why it’s so tough is the fact that they made 32 different goddamn holo rares lol. So individually each one is pretty damn tough to find. At least the pull rates were normal, though, unlike for Ruby through Sandstorm, where holo rares had literally half the pull rate. But, of course, there were much fewer different holo rares in each of Ruby, Dragon, and Sandstorm, so any given holo rare from one of those sets is comparably tough to pull. It’s a weird thing that a lot of people don’t realize – that the holo rares were, individually, up to twice as rare as the exs for Ruby through Dragon. Makes them much closer to the WotC e-Series holos rarity-wise. Those WotC e-Series holos have gone up an insane amount. Even many of the Expedition ones now are $200+ each in NM condition, and the cheapest ones are like $50 lol. If you can find them, that is.

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Very interesting! I had no clue about this since I only collect English. I personally think the e-Reader border only enhances the aesthetics of the card, though, for Sandstorm/Dragon. The blank yellow border for the Ruby ones looks fine, but I like the Sandstorm border much better. And I like the Dragon border the most because they made FINALLY brought back shiny e-Reader notches from the WotC e-Reader era. Kind of crazy that Dragon was literally the only Nintendo set to have it.

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I completely agree with people over stating the rarity of some sets. People often seem to confuse popularity with rarity. I have been on the e series hype train for a long time and have often said things like “E series cards are the next 1st ed cards” simply due to there extreme rarity and very few sets contain them (and even fewer promos). I can totally see ex sandstorm and dragon having very similar print runs, but ex dragon definitely has a bit more demand which again, gives a bit of an illusion of rarity.
The only thing I personally don’t agree on is that TMTA is a e series set. Only about 10%-15% of the cards in that set are e series cards for whatever reason. So I struggle to call it an e series sets since the majority of the cards in it are not e series cards.

It’s pretty interesting that the cards printed during the lowest point in the hobby also have a very unique aesthetic to them, making them stand out even more in my eyes.

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I second the idea that R&S is printed substantially more than Sandstorm and Dragon and I think the later two have very similar print runs.
As for how these compare to WOTC E Readers, I can’t say for sure. I think the demand for WOtC E Series means more of those cards are on ice in collections, but a lack of demand for Nintendo E Series means a lot of those cards are collecting dust under beds rather than being flushed out into the market.

I also see that trio as really analogous to Base, Jungle and Fossil. Like Base, R&S established Gen 3 and features a lot of standard artwork and a large print run. Sandstorm is like jungle in that it has rather “lackluster” species at the holo slot, is based tightly around the aesthetic of its setting (Jungle/Desert respectively) and even features the eeveelution cycle.
Finally we have Dragon which feels a lot like fossil to me. Rare and legendary pokemon are featured at the holo slot and dragonite makes a triumphant return.
I see these three sets at nintendo’s attempt to reimagine the first three sets for a new Gen and to kickstart the TCG under their control.

Overall, both e series frames are my fave layouts in the TCG and most of my nostalgia is wrapped up in that era. I was 8-9 years old at the time and while i had base and neo cards at a younger age, I think that was the sweet spot for me to really build those connections.

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I just glanced at the PSA EX populations only, and based on those Deoxys looks like the scarcest set in terms of EX total graded copied and PSA 10s. I would like to do a more thorough analysis of this, but the EXs are the most comparable thing between Ruby/Sapphire, Sandstorm, Dragon, TRR, Deoxys. Maybe pull rates were different? I can’t find any written evidence that’s the case though. And I’m not sure why people wouldn’t be sending in their Deoxys EX cards for grading any less than the other sets, if anything I would think they would have more incentive to grade them. FWIW, I have had the hardest time finding mint Deoxys EX cards for my binder, on par or even harder than Emerald which is known to have a lower pull rate (but also lower historical incentive to grade)

I love a thread focused on EX cards. Go zorloth. Having not much historical emotional or sentimental attachment to the hobby, I have found the EX era highly collectible and enjoyable in so many ways. And yet so different than the WOTC era. Nintendo doesn’t really get a lot of things wrong, and they made a lot of fun tweaks throughout the era with the change in themes, change in reverse rares, art styles, and the introduction of gold stars

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@zorloth Send me a link to any videos or a collection thread you might have. I’d like to check out your collection. Sounds like you’re building a sick collection :-). Back on topic. Kids originally collecting including myself grew up and a lot of us stopped collecting. Then you factor in the major changes they started doing from the original standard holo style. People don’t like change so the following eras did horrible originally. As a adult we embrace change so going back for once looked over sets is something I love doing myself. I’m sure others including everyone posting likes doing the same :slight_smile:

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