Since the arrival of Pokémon cards in 1996, they have become indispensable among avid collectors. Millions of children around the world collect and exchange the collectible cards. New sets and editions are released every year, so it doesn't look like Pokémon is stopping. Why are Pokémon cards so popular? Read more here.
Did you know that Pokémon cards were first released by the maker of Magic! The Gathering (hereinafter referred to as Magic!) cards? Wizards of the Coast (hereinafter Wizards) released the first Magic! cards released in 1993. It was only logical that they would also release Pokémon cards in 1996. In 1999, 400,000 Pokémon Booster Packs were sold in the United States alone, 10x as many as Wizards expected.
Wizards of the Coast
In 2003, a new division of Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, would take over the production of Pokémon cards. However, this did not go completely smoothly. In September 2003, there were even Pokémon cards from Wizards and The Pokémon Company on the shelves. In December 2003, an agreement was reached whereby The Pokémon Company took over the production of the collectible cards.
Fun Facts
- Since 1999, more than 22 billion Pokémon cards have been shipped in 76 different countries in 10 different languages;
- Although Pokémon cards were primarily created for the card game, they are more commonly used as trading cards;
- The Pokémon World Championship is organized every year. Here fanatics play the Pokémon card game against each other. In 2018, the tournament was held in Nashville, United States.
- Sneasel and Slowking are 2 Pokémon cards that are not allowed to be used during official events, because these cards turned out to be too strong.
- Pokémon cards are banned in Saudi Arabia, because they believe that Pokémon symbols have to do with Israel and can be painful for children.
- "Shadow Lugia" is the strongest Pokémon card there is. This was released as a Jumbo card (large size Pokémon card), and is probably only used for promotion.
Most expensive Pokémon card
The most expensive Pokémon card there is is a "Trophy Pikachu No. 1". This card was won by the winners of the first official Japanese Pokémon Tournament in 1996. This card is said to be worth a whopping €120,000. A Pokémon card generally weighs 2 grams. The price of 2 grams of gold is €67.32 (on July 30, 2018). This means that this card is 1,783 times more expensive than gold! Read our other blog about Most expensive Pokémon cards in the world .
Trophy Pikachu No. 1
Rhydon
The very first Pokémon designed isn't Pikachu or Charizard. Rhydon is the very first Pokémon designed by Japanese illustrators and designers Sugimori and Nishino. The idea for Pokémon was to give them a dinosaur appearance. Here you can find Pokémon such as Rhydon, Lapras and Clefairy, for example.
Rhydon
That's it again with fun facts about Pokémon cards! Do you have any fun facts? Share it with us in a message below!