What kind of card is this?

[danielm]

Hello all :)

My son asked me to help him figure out how to best categorize this card. Is it a Japanese promo card? We know it's a Meowth card, aside from that, not sure :) I have searched the web and could not find a similar card, so I'm not looking for it correctly, I'm sure. We have a few like it (different characters, same style) and would like to know a little more about them.

Thank you so much for any information you may offer :)

 

[Young Stunna']

Its either extremely rare or fake...

 

[danielm]

Thanks for the response. They are real from what I can tell. They have the Game Freak and Nintendo copyright at the bottom, if you look closely. :)

 

[Young Stunna']

Well anything can have that. Hold it up to the light... If you see the other side, it's fake. If not then put that $h*+ on ebay.

 

[danielm]

Can't see the other side :) That's a good sign. Now we really want to know more about the card!

 

[danielm]

So please keep the posts on this card coming! We really need help figuring it out :) Thanks everybody!

Any thoughts/ info on it welcomed! :)

 

[El Gofre]

Its not a pokemon tcg card:
*Incorrect formatting
*No "trainer" box means it's not a trainer/supporter
*No energy symbols or numbers indicate no attacks, so it's not a monster card either
*The bottom-right corner mentions game freak, who were never involved in the TCG
*Wizards of the Coast are not mentioned, and they were the distributor of the cards at the time
*The date reads 1995, a year before the TCG was first released

So yeah, half of those things were common sense and logic. There were many other pokemon collectable card serie made, especially in japan. They look similar to a set I used to collect, which were purely for collecting purposes. Since game freak are mentioned it's likely to be a promotional card released with pokemon red/green.

 

[danielm]

Gofre,

Thanks for the thorough review of the card! That's the kind of information we were looking for. Have you ever seen a card like it before? Also, I don't know much about the cards in general, however, I do notice the number 052 seems to be consistent with the TCG number for this character, I believe. Also, there is a #14 somewhere on the card as well, I wonder what that signifies...

So your assessment is that it's a promo card that came with a toy?

Thanks :)

 

[Amp]

Meowth's number as a species is 52. That's why you see it pop up everywhere. What you have there is and old, and possibly pretty rare, trading card from way back when Pokemon first hit Japan. It seems to be just some sort of little promotional card for the little kids to ogle over and trade. As Gofre said, definitely not a game card.

Still, I've never seen one like that before, which leads me to believe it was release din limited numbers. Probably as a promotion to subscribers of a particular magazine, a toy, or a pack of candy. Tell your son to take good care of it, that's a rare piece of memorabilia, especially outside of Japan.

 

[El Gofre]

Gofre,

Thanks for the thorough review of the card! That's the kind of information we were looking for. Have you ever seen a card like it before? Also, I don't know much about the cards in general, however, I do notice the number 052 seems to be consistent with the TCG number for this character, I believe. Also, there is a #14 somewhere on the card as well, I wonder what that signifies...

So your assessment is that it's a promo card that came with a toy?

Thanks :)

First of all, no problem. Gald i could help :D

Secondly, yeah it seems most likely. The tcg aside there have been multiple series of cards just for collection or promotional purposes. It may have been a marketing ployby game freak in a similar way to how games like yu-gi-oh give away cards with their games. Since it is of game freak brand and all they have ever made is games (Full list of products can be found here) So it's likely they had them made for release with pokemon green, something for kids to collect.

 

[vano-m]

Maybe Fake

I think that s fake. But if not, i really want to have one like this in my collection. For example in Russia we have a lot of diffrent fakes, of course nothing like this. But sometimes fakes can be realy rare too)

 

[DaSpirit]

I'm not sure but I think its a card from when they where first creating Pokemon. Look at the backgound, and the mewtwo for example. It has some features not in our version. I think it is old cause there were some Pokemon that had some little changes like for example, a famouse one, Charmander. If you have Red/Blue you will notice in the booklet, it has spikes on its back which was changed later. My point exactly. If its not what I think, it's fake but I dont really think so...

 

[Jaimes]

Oh for crying out loud..


No it's not a fake...ignore these noobs.

It's an early Vending Machine Card, they existed in Japan at 1997 or something. Before the TCG kicked off over there, they were just as popular.

 

[o0oBahamuto0o]

IT look like so simple, i don't like

 

[danielm]

Sorry, I've been out for a little while. Thanks for all of your input, I really appreciate it! Keep it coming, we'll get to the origin of this card, yet! :)

One note: From all of the feed back I have received on different forums, this card most definitely not a fake :) It seems to be an extremely rare card, extremely. Whether that makes it outrageously valuable or not, has yet to be known, as no one can really put a price on it...

I'm just happy we have it and it has been really fun trying to find where it came from and what it is.

Again, please keep the input coming, some one must have seen one or own one like this :)

We were thinking about offering a $10 reward (via paypal) to the person who can, through research, clearly show us this card's type, origin and maybe value. Posting this card on many forums or news groups, for a larger reach could also be considered as 'research' as long as the feedback leads to verifiable proof of what this card is :)

So, anyone want to make $10 ??? :)

 

[DaSpirit]

Oh for crying out loud..


No it's not a fake...ignore these noobs.

It's an early Vending Machine Card, they existed in Japan at 1997 or something. Before the TCG kicked off over there, they were just as popular.

1997? It says 1995 on the card...

 

[Jaimes]

So, anyone want to make $10 ??? :)

OH HELLZ YEAH

Also disregard my previous post. It's not a VMC (but I was close), my bad lol.

On the prospect of money I did some research and now know exactly what it is... And would like to make an easy $10 - so I'm not gonna spill the beans just yet. lol :P

As proof I'm not BSing- here's a rarer card of the same set I found, note that the layout is the same, as is the background style (besides the red due to rarity), there are 166 holos in the set, of which the holos seem to have a ridiculous collectors value ;)

Though I'm starting to think that this Meowth isn't as rare/desired as some of the others- therefore unless you can find a collector, then I can't imagine a high price.

 

[danielm]

Ok. Let's hear what you have so far :)

Ehhh... Some one beat you to it :)

Here's what they showed me...

pokemon-2u dot com/Topsun/TopsunFoilPromos dot htm

Sorry for the 'dot' , but I guess I'm not allowed to post URLS yet :)

 

[vano-m]

There is a subscript in the card bottom. It says 1995, see!

 

[Jaimes]

Ehhh... Some one beat you to it :)

Here's what they showed me...

pokemon-2u dot com/Topsun/TopsunFoilPromos dot htm

Sorry for the 'dot' , but I guess I'm not allowed to post URLS yet :)

Lol, I was giving everyone else a chance to use search for themselves and since it could be worked out by googling my post ;)

But yeah, it's a Topsun card. They were pretty much the first collectors card set to be released in Japan before the TCG kicked off.

The booster packs were of 2-3 cards and came with a piece of bubble gum (Topsun is a Japanese confectionary producer). A box was 20 packs, with 1 holofoil per box.

There are 150 promo cards (the non-holographics) and the signifcantly rarer holos (16 of these) making a set of 166.

Taking into consideration that Meowth isn't a holo, then it's hard to work out it's rarity - it would be a big assumption to say it's extremely rare, especially since you're guaranteed at least 2 cards per pack...
On the Pokemon2U site, it seems that the cards are based upon aesthetic value as well, as is here (the site I used). Therefore I wouldn't believe a Meowth card is in huge demand.

In terms of being able to sell a single card, it's very unlikely you'll get a buyer. I can't imagine who would be collecting these (and for what purpose), since they are difficult to acquire & don't compare to the TCG.