With Pokemon coming being so popular during its first release there was a lot of sealed product that was available. There are blister packs, booster packs, booster boxes, theme decks, and all the differences between them can be confusing.
In this guide, I’ll take you through just about everything you need to know to help your collection.
English Released Product
Demo Booster Pack
Before the Pokémon Trading Card Game was released in America, demo booster packs were produced to display on shelves to promote the game. These packs are now more commonly known to collectors as Demo Packs.
Like it says on the back of the pack, inside are “a 2-player Demo Guide and 24 ready-to play tradable game cards.” Specifically, the cards inside are Shadowless cards of the following:
- Two Pikachus
- One Machoke
- Two Machops
- One Potion
- Two Lightning Energy
- Three Fighting Energy
- Two Nidoran♂
- One Ponyta
- One Charmeleon
- Two Charmanders
- One Switch
- Two Grass Energy
- Three Fire Energy
- One Doduo
Here is a video of an opening.
Booster Boxes
The main product produced would be booster boxes. Inside were 36 booster packs 12 of which contained holographic foil cards. Booster boxes can have a variety of changes. There there are 1st edition markers, Wizard’s logos, Charizards artwork changes, and county codes that can all be different.
Base booster boxes can either have a 1st edition marker or not. Obviously, only 1st edition booster packs can be found inside a box with a 1st edition marker.
Base Set booster boxes can come with either square Wizards of the Coast logos, curved Wizards of the Coast logos, or no logos at all.
One one side of the booster box will be Charizard, there are two images that Charizard could have, they’re commonly referred to as either Green Wing or Blue Wing Charizard. The green wing artwork was produced by Mitsuhiro Arita and the blue wing is Ken Sugimori.
On the bottom of the booster box, the manufacturing county can be found. There are three different countries that produced booster boxes the USA, UK, and Australia. The UK and Australia booster boxes also have copyright information of 1999-2000.
The final difference in base booster boxes is their contact information again found on the bottom of the booster box. This is oftentimes called the country code, I’m not sure why but it’s a term that been used for so long that it’s seemed to have stuck. There’s either no contact information, a single contact, or multiple contacts on the bottom of the box.
Now for the combinations of all the booster boxes. Because, yes, all these differences in the booster boxes can come in multiple combinations. So I’ve created the table below to help, I’ve also included the types of cards booster packs found inside. Please check the next section to see what types of cards can be found inside. For example, I call a booster pack shadowless but not all shadowless booster packs have shadowless cards inside.
| 1st Edition Marker | Logo | Wings | Manufacturing Country | Contact Info | Booster Packs Inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | None | Green | USA | None | 1st Edition |
| No | None | Green | USA | None | Shadowless or Unlimited |
| No | Square | Green | USA | None | Shadowless or Unlimited |
| No | Square | Green | USA | Multiple | Shadowless or Unlimited |
| No | None | Blue | USA | Multiple | Shadowless or Unlimited |
| No | Square | Blue | USA | Multiple | Unlimited or Triangle Error |
| No | Square | Blue | USA | Single | Unlimited |
| No | Curved | Blue | United Kingdom | Multiple | 1999-2000 |
| No | Curved | Blue | Australia | Multiple | 1999-2000 |
Here is a 1st Edition Booster Box opening if you’re interested.
Booster Packs
Base set booster packs are best identified by their three artworks on the front. When it comes to booster packs there are 10 different booster packs and three artworks of each type. This makes a total of 30 base set booster packs variations. Each booster pack contained 11 trading cards; one rare, three uncommon, five commons, and two energy cards. The rare had a 1 in 3 chance of being a holographic rare.
Not all the cards inside the booster packs are the same variant. I’ll first go through all the variations of booster packs and then explain the types of cards that could be found in each one.
First, let’s discuss the identifying characteristics of the booster pack. There is the artwork, 1st edition stamp, the seal type, the trading card game logo placement, the copyright dates, and the manufacturing country.
As said before there are three artworks for Base set booster packs, they include artwork featuring Charizard, Blastoise, or Venusaur.
A 1st edition stamp, which can be seen in the image below, was always placed on the same spot. However, there are some booster packs that have a 1st edition stamp without first edition cards. This is one of the reasons why the trading card logo placement is important. We’ll discuss this error booster pack later in this guide. Besides that exception, any booster pack with a 1st edition stamp is called a 1st edition booster pack.
The Trading Card Game logo placement can either be found at the top of the pack underneath Pokemon or it’ll be at the bottom of the pack above the text “11 Tradable Game Cards”. If it’s found on the bottom of the text, there will also be the backs of three pokemon cards on the top right corner of the logo. Booster packs with the logo on the bottom of the pack are called Shadowless booster packs. Boosters with the logo on top are considered Unlimited.
The seal type refers to the way the booster pack was sealed. There are a few different ways they have been sealed, the most common are short seal and long-sealed booster packs, while seals for hanging racks were less common.
To find the copyright date and the country of manufacture, you have to look under the flap on the back of the booster pack.
The copyright dates can be either the common 1999 or 1999-2000. If a booster pack has a 1999-2000 copyright date, it’s considered a 1999-2000 booster pack.
Three countries manufactured English booster packs, just like the booster boxes, they are the USA, UK, and Australia.
There are also booster packs with a triangle printed on them. Due to a printing error, some booster packs were produced with a 1st edition stamp on them. To prevent people from thinking they were buying 1st edition cards Wizards of the Coast placed triangles to cover up the 1st edition stamp. These booster packs are considered Triangle Error packs.
Very few of the booster packs with the misprinted 1st edition stamp were released without the triangle. I haven’t personally seen any come released accidentally. Instead, they came directly from a staff member of Wizards of the Coast. You can tell they’re different due to their logo placement though. This is only true for English versions, other languages always have their logo in the same spot.
When it comes to which cards can be found inside it’s not always a guarantee. For example, booster packs are considered shadowless when they don’t have a 1st edition stamp and their TCG logo is on the bottom; however, it’s never a guarantee you’ll find shadowless cards inside.
| 1st Edition Stamp | TCG Logo | Seal Type | Copyright Date | Manufacturing Country | Card Variants Inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Bottom | Long | 1999 | USA | 1st Edition |
| No | Bottom | Long | 1999 | USA | About 80% Shadowless 20% Unlimited |
| No | Bottom | Short | 1999 | USA | About 50% Shadowless 50% Unlimited |
| No | Top | Rack | 1999 | USA | Unlimited |
| No | Top | Short | 1999 | USA | Unlimited |
| Yes | Top | Short | 1999 | USA | Unlimited |
| Triangle | Top | Short | 1999 | USA | Unlimited |
| No | Top | Short | 1999-2000 | USA | 1999-2000 (All Holographic cards 1999.) |
| No | Top | Short | 1999-2000 | Australia | 1999-2000 (Sometimes Holographic Cards 1999) |
| No | Top | Short | 1999-2000 | United Kingdom | 1999-2000 (Sometimes Holographic Cards 1999) |
Blister Packs
Holographic cards have slightly more weight than the other cards, so many people open booster boxes and weight the booster packs inside using a jeweler’s scale. They take the twelve holofoil packs for themselves and sell off the non-holographic booster packs. This practice is called weighing booster packs. Due to the extra cardboard on back blister packs, they aren’t as easily weighed.
I’m not going to judge the practice of weighing but instead comment on it to help my readers understand why blister packs tend to sell for a premium compared to booster packs. There’s also a visual appeal that might account for this, but the highest factor is the weighing aspect.
Blister packs don’t need as much detail as the other post, they were simply packaging used to house booster packs, the packaging made it easier to hang the packs for shop displays. The majority of the booster packs variations could be found inside a blister pack. The only ones I’m not aware of any 1999-2000 booster packs and booster packs designed to hang on display hooks, for obvious reasons.
There is also a special blister pack that contained a Base Booster pack and a Jungle Booster pack.
Here is a blister pack opening for your enjoyment.
Theme Decks
There are five theme decks for base set. They are:
- 2-Player Starter Set
- Blackout
- Brushfire
- Overgrowth
- Zap!
Each theme deck has very specific cards included.
2-Player Starter Set
The 2-Player Starter Set is unique as it’s the only way to get the exclusive card Machamp. The set was intended to be used as in introduction to the Pokemon Trading Card Game and was designed to be two decks of 30 cards. One deck centered around fighting type Pokemon while the other focused on fire type Pokemon. In addition to the two decks and Machamp, there was also a starter rules sheet, rulebook, damage counters, and a card checklist. Below are the cards included in the two decks.
| Fighting Deck | Fire Deck |
|---|---|
| One Pokedex | One Energy Retrieval |
| One Energy Removal | Two Switch |
| Two Potion | One Gust of Wind |
| One Dratini | One Bill |
| Two Rattata | One Growlithe |
| Two Machoke | Two Charmeleon |
| Four Machop | Four Charmander |
| Three Diglett | Four Ponyta |
| Fourteen Fighting Energy | Fourteen Fire Energy |
The video below is an opening of the 2-Player Starter Set.
Blackout
Blackout featured cards in the fighting and water typing, the holographic foil card inside was a Hitmonchan. In addition to the cards listed below, there was also a rulebook, damage counters, a Chansey coin, and a card checklist found inside.
| One Hitmonchan |
| Four Energy Removal |
| One Gust of Wind |
| One Professor Oak |
| One Plus Power |
| One Super Energy Removal |
| Four Machop |
| Two Machoke |
| Two Farfetch’d |
| Two Wartortle |
| Four Squirtle |
| Four Staryu |
| Three Onix |
| Three Sandshrew |
| Sixteen Water Energy |
| Twelve Fighting Energy |
Here’s an unboxing video.
Brushfire
Brushfire featured cards in the fire and grass typing, the holographic foil card inside was a Ninetales. In addition to the cards listed below, there was also a rulebook, damage counters, a Chansey coin, and a card checklist found inside.
| One Ninetales |
| Four Weedle |
| Two Tangela |
| Four Nidoran♂ |
| One Arcanine |
| Two Growlithe |
| Two Charmeleon |
| Two Vulpix |
| Four Charmander |
| One Lass |
| One PlusPower |
| Two Energy Retrieval |
| One Switch |
| Three Potion |
| One Gust of Wind |
| Ten Grass Energy |
| Eighteen Fire Energy |
Here’s a Brushfire theme deck, the video covers information we’ll discuss further in the article.
Overgrowth
Overgrowth featured cards in the grass and water typing, the holographic foil card inside was a Gyarados. In addition to the cards listed below, there was also a rulebook, damage counters, a Chansey coin, and a card checklist found inside.
| One Gyarados |
| Two Magikarp |
| Three Starmie |
| Four Staryu |
| One Beedrill |
| Two Kakuna |
| Two Ivysaur |
| Four Weedle |
| Four Bulbasaur |
| One Potion |
| Two Bill |
| Two Super Potion |
| Two Switch |
| Two Gust of Wind |
| Twelve Water Energy |
| Sixteen Grass Energy |
Here’s an Overgrowth theme deck opening.
Zap!
Zap! featured cards in the lightning and psychic typing, the holographic foil card inside was a Mewtwo. In addition to the cards listed below, there was also a rulebook, damage counters, a Chansey coin, and a card checklist found inside.
| One Mewtwo |
| One Kadabra |
| Two Jynx |
| Two Haunter |
| Three Gastly |
| Two Drowzee |
| Three Abra |
| Four Pikachu |
| Three Magnemite |
| One Computer Search |
| One Defender |
| One Super Potion |
| One Professor Oak |
| Two Switch |
| One Potion |
| Two Gust of Wind |
| Two Bill |
| Twelve Lightning Energy |
| Sixteen Psychic Energy |
Here’s another theme deck opening by Rusty (TCA gaming). He again gives a preview to more information I’ll be discussing below.
Card Variants Inside Theme Decks
Inside theme deck you can get Shadowless, Unlimited, and 1999-2000 copyright date cards. The only 1st edition card you can find is Machap in the 2-Player Starter Set which can be found in both with and without a drop shadow. The theme decks are also where you can find some error cards, No Damage Ninetales, Ghost/Phantom Pikachu, and Sideways Fighting Symbol Diglett. You can read more details about these cards here.
Theme Deck Variants
There are a lot of different variations to the theme decks that help determine which variants of cards might be found inside. When discussing the differences the 2-Player Starter Sets have more differences than the other four theme decks, so I’ll discuss that box separately later.
The differences between the theme decks can be found in the pull strips, cards being stored on the top or bottom of the box, the artwork on the back of the box, and of course the copyright dates on the box. Let’s go over all these differences.
The pull strips can come in three variations, either a vertical pull strip, a horizontal pull strip, and a gold-colored pull strip. It should be noted the gold-colored pull strip will always be horizontal.
The cards stored inside the box can’t be seen unless the box is opened. However, you can feel the box and determine if the cards are stored at the top or bottom of the box. Once the box is opened you can see the difference that I’m talking about.
You can rewatch this video to see this:
The artwork of the cards on the back of the box that either feature:
- Grass Energy, Charmeleon, and Fire Energy – For Bushfire
- Grass Energy, Ivysaur, and Water Energy – For Overgrowth
- Fighting Energy, Onix, and Water Energy – For Blackout
- Lightning Energy, Pikachu, and Psychic Energy – For Zap!
There are three different layouts these cards will take.
You’ll either see the middle card in the in front of the two energy cards with damage counters featured in the artwork:
You could see the middle card behind the energy cards with damage counters featured in the artwork:
Or you can see the middle card again in front of the two energy cards but no damage counters in the artwork:
The final variation within the boxes is their copyright date. If you’ve been following along with this article you can probably guess that it’ll either be copyright 1999 or 1999-2000.
With all those different variations down, here’s a chart for all the combinations and what variant of cards can be found inside.
| Pull Strip | Top/Bottom Stored | Artwork | Copyright | Card Variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Top | Middle card in front with damage counters | 1999 | Shadowless only *For Zap! Theme Deck there is a chance of pulling a Ghost/Phantom Pikachu from this deck. *For Bushfire there is a chance of pulling a no damage Ninetales from this deck. |
| Horizontal | Top | Middle card in front with damage counters | 1999 | Nearly 50/50 split on shadowless or unlimited |
| Horizontal | Bottom | Middle card in front with damage counters | 1999 | About 1/4 will be shadowless the majority will be unlimited |
| Vertical | Bottom | Middle card behind with damage counters | 1999 | About 1/4 will be shadowless the majority will be unlimited |
| Horizontal | Bottom | Middle card behind with damage counters | 1999 | About 1/4 will be shadowless the majority will be unlimited |
| Horizontal | Bottom | Middle card in front no damage counters | 1999 | Unlimited only |
| Horizontal | Bottom | Middle card in front no damage counters | 1999-2000 | Almost all will be 1999-2000 it’s very rare to have unlimited. Except for the holographic foil card which is about 50/50 unlimited or 1999-2000 |
Now we can talk about the 2-Player Starter Set. There are a bunch of variations on this box as well. There are differences in how the box opens, an asterisk or might not be present after the TM on the front, the back of the cards artwork has different cards, Pokemon is sometimes centered aligned on the back of the box and sometimes aligned left, the pull strip can be gold or clear, and the copyright dates could be 1999 or 1999-2000.
The first variant I’ll discuss is the way the boxes can open. 2-Player Starter Sets boxes can either open from the top of the box or you’ll find one that opens up from the side.
Here’s a video of a box that can be opened from the top:
Here is one of a box that opens from the side:
On the front of the box sometimes there’s an asterisk next to the TM for the Pokemon Logo.
One of the biggest differences that helps determine what might be inside the box is the artwork on the back. You will either see the art feature Pokemon species or just energy cards. If it features Pokemon species the Pokemon cards on the back will be Fire Energy, Charmander, Rattata, a back image of a card, Potion, Machop, and a Fighting Energy the art with only energy cards shows one Pokemon card back and Grass, Fire, Water, Lightning, Psychic, and Fighting energy cards.
On the back of some boxes, the Pokemon logo will either be centered aligned or aligned left.
The pull strip on the box could either be gold or clear.
The copyright date in 2-Player Starter Sets will either be ©1995, 96, 98, 99 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, ©1999, ©1995, 96, 98 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, ©1999, or ©1995, 96, 98 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, ©1999-2000.
For this guide, I will call the ©1995, 96, 98, 99 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, ©1999 copyright Shadowless.
The ©1995, 96, 98 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, ©1999 will be referred to as 1999.
©1995, 96, 98 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, ©1999-2000 will be referred to as 1999-2000.
*Please note the guides referenced names is so I don’t have to type out each copyright date and can instead refer to them by my given name. This will come in handy for my table below.*
The final change can’t be shown through an image without opening the box. The cards inside the box could either be loaded on towards the top of the box or the bottom, much like the other theme decks.
Now for the part where I give you the chart for all the combinations and what variant of cards can be found inside.
| Pull Strip | Open Top or Bottom | Asterisk | Back Box Art | Pokemon Logo Centered or Left Aligned | Copyright | Top or Bottom Stored | Card Variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Side | No | Energy Cards | Centered | Shadowless | Top | Shadowless |
| Clear | Side | No | Energy Cards | Centered | Shadowless | Top | Shadowless |
| Clear | Side | No | Energy Cards | Centered | Shadowless | Bottom | About 1/4 will be shadowless the majority will be unlimited |
| Clear | Side | No | Energy Cards | Centered | 1999 | Bottom | Unlimited *has Diglett sideways fighting symbol error card |
| Clear | Side | Yes | Energy Cards | Centered | 1999 | Bottom | Unlimited *has Diglett sideways fighting symbol error card |
| Clear | Side | No | Energy Cards | Left | 1999 | Bottom | Unlimited |
| Clear | Side | Yes | Energy Cards | Left | 1999 | Bottom | Unlimited |
| Clear | Top | No | Pokemon Species | Left | 1999 | Bottom | Unlimited |
| Clear | Top | Yes | Pokemon Species | Left | 1999 | Bottom | Unlimited |
| Clear | Top | No | Pokemon Species | Left | 1999-2000 | Bottom | 1999-2000 (Machamp 50/50 unlimited or 1999-2000) |
| Clear | Top | Yes | Pokemon Species | Left | 1999-2000 | Bottom | 1999-2000 (Machamp 50/50 unlimited or 1999-2000) |
Trainer Decks
Trainer Decks have two versions, Trainer Deck A Brock’s Deck and Trainer Deck B Misty’s Deck.
These Decks were not intended for public release and even say on them “Not For Resale”.
What’s interesting about the decks is they say for Pewter City Season and Cerulean City Season on them and on the back, they mention they will be used “season to season”. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing Wizards of the Coast had the intention of releasing many of these trainer decks for Pokemon Leagues but that changed for unknown reasons.
I mentioned in my other guide, The exception guide to everything base set, Trainer Deck As were the main deck to get used for its original intention. Trainer Deck Bs, on the other hand, was unknown Pokemon collectors for years.
Unsurprisingly, I was unable to find a Trainer Deck A opening, and I refuse to open my own, but I did find an old video of a B deck opening.
Gift Box
The Starter Gift Set is a larger box that holds two theme decks a Jungle Set booster pack, a play mat with deck building tips on the reverse, and an Eevee coin.
One theme deck will be the 2-Player Starter Set I mentioned above, the other theme deck will be a Jungle set theme deck, either Power Reserve or Water Blast.
Here’s a deck opening.
UK Promotional Gift Box
Another product produced was a 1999 UK Promotional Box. I believe these were intended for European distribution, but information on this item is hard to come by. It is very rare and was never intended for resale.
Inside this box is:
- Three Base Set Booster Packs
- A 2-Player Starter Set
- One Window Poster
- A Promotional Booklet
The booklet is essentially a sales pitch to whoever opens the box. I’ve attached scans below so you may see the pages yourself.
Here is a scan of the window sticker.
Japanese Base Set
Booster Packs
Japanese booster packs have 10 cards inside them; one rare, five commons, and three uncommon cards. The rare that gets pulled has a 50/50 chance of being either a holographic foil rare or a regular rare. Energy cards, except double colorless energy, weren’t available through the booster packs.
Japanese booster packs come in three versions. A short pack where the seals at the top were sealed horizontally. These short packs were the first released booster packs, they’re speculated to sometimes contain No Rarity cards. It’s still very unlikely to open a booster pack containing No Rarity cards considering how limited the No Rarity print was.
All short packs have the 291円 price printed on them. There’s a long booster pack with 291円 price the difference between the short pack and long is the seals on the top and the bottom being vertical with short and a more textured seal for the long. There’s also a hang tab, which is the main reason for the production change.
The final booster pack is the long pack with 300円 printed on them. This change was needed due to a tax increase from 3% to 5% in Japan which went into effect April 1, 1997.
Here’s an opening video if you enjoy those.
Starter Deck
Japanese starter decks contain 60 cards, a guide book, and a Chansey coin. The cards inside were random but contained the following:
- One holographic foil
- One regular rare
- Eight uncommon
- Twenty commons
- Five of each basic energy (thirty total basic energy cards)
There are four versions of starter decks, but only two differences can be viewed, due to their postal code change that happened on February 2nd, 1998. The first postcode used was 104-01, which can be viewed on the side of the deck box. When the postcode changed it became 104-0061.
The other difference between the decks is the rulebooks. There were four changes to the rulebook, but it’s unknown exactly which book is inside till the decks are open. A 104-04 postcode can have either a 1st edition rulebook or a 2nd edition. The 104-0061 postcode box will have the 3rd or 4th edition rulebook.
The cards inside are most likely going to be unlimited, but in the event of a 104-04 postcode box with the 1st edition rulebook, you have a very slight chance of pulling no rarity cards. Here’s a video showing this:
1996 Gold Gift Box
The final product exclusively for Japan we’ll talk about was the rare 1996 Gold Gift box. First released on December 12th, 1996, there was very little sales of this gift box. Pokemon card sales started out slow in Japan and finding this box even opened is extremely challenging.
This gift box personally took me many years to locate a sealed one, and I haven’t seen another one since. Inside is the first print Asobikata Magazine (Easily Understand How to Play Pokémon Cards Magazine). A playmat, damage counters, poison markers, and two starter decks.
The starter decks inside are 104-01 postcode decks with 1st edition rulebooks. The decks inside are the correct boxes to pull no rarity cards; however, it’s not likely to pull no rarity cards out of them.
Thank You
Thank you for reading. I hope you found this informative. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with others who would like to learn more about Pokémon. If there are any corrections that need to be made, contact me through the contact page. Finally, make sure to check out my other articles, I put a lot of effort into all of them.