@japanime yep, so for some reference 493 and 452 in both barcodes simply refer to Japan (493 is the older pre-1992 code, 452 is the newer 1992 onwards code), then the 4 digits which follow refer to the ID of the company which manufactured the goods - in the first case, 4935228 is Media Factory and in the second 4521329 is The Pokémon Center Company.
I have a write-up about what I believe happened here if it’s of any interest: www.elitefourum.com/t/guide-to-early-pokemon-tcg-history-1995-test-card-versions/31779/1. The tl;dr is that The Pokémon Center Company took over manufacture of Pokémon cards from Media Factory in 2001 and initially stuck their own barcode over existing Media Factory product barcodes (which is what those sticker barcodes are) but in some cases went on to directly print their own new product (which is what the top Neo 2 pack in my first post here is).
Under that sticker barcode should be the Media Factory 4935228… barcode.
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@shizzlemetimbers in terms of corrected card distribution, earlier this year I had a chat with a Japanese collector who believes:
- If it’s an original Media Factory 4935228… pack it will not contain corrected cards;
- If it’s a Pokémon Center Company 4521329… sticker barcode pack there is a 50% chance it’ll have corrected cards (if TPCC printed the cards directly instead of repurposed old Media Factory packs);
- If it’s a Pokémon Center Company 4521329… printed barcode pack it will only contain the corrected versions of the cards (Jungle Venomoth, Neo 1 Typhlosion, etc.).
I don’t know if this is true though, but it would certainly make a lot of sense. I’m certainly not going to be opening any printed barcode TPCC packs though as they’re not exactly common!