How were the Japanese Game Boy promos obtained at the time? Are they rare and hard to find in raw mint condition? I tried looking online and couldn’t find any info about them. Mewtwo, Lugia, Venusaur, Dragonite, etc.
Venusaur GB was released with a book/guide;
Mewtwo and Lugia GB were released together, (can’t remeber how)
Dragonite GB was released with the Game Boy cartridge;
Dark Fearow Gb was released with a book too;
Meowth Gb I think with Corocoro, but I’m not sure.
Bulbapedia should have some infos on them
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Dark Fearow seem to be the hardest one to find. But they are all readily available on ebay from several sellers at all times and are often auctioned off by various Japanese sellers. They are not the cheapest cards out there, but still very affordable. Especially considering most of them have awesome unique art. The GB promos have the best art of Dragonite and Lugia in my opinion.
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Forgive the crappy formatting as I pulled this straight from my excel sheet.
Holo / Name / Pokédex / Year / Method of obtaining
Yes Dragonite No. 149 1998 Pokémon Card GB
Yes Venusaur No. 003 1998 Pokémon Card GB Strategy Guide
No Meowth No. 052 1998 CoroCoro Comic [February 1999]
Yes Mewtwo No. 150 2001 Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR!
Yes Lugia No. 249 2001 Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR!
No Dark Ivysaur No. 002 2001 Pocketmonsters CardGame [2001 Vol.10]
Yes Dark Venusaur No. 003 2001 Pocketmonsters CardGame [2001 Vol.10]
No Dark Fearow No. 022 2001 Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR! Strategy Guide
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All GB Promos were distributed in relation to Pokémon Trading Card Game (1998) and Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR! (2001) for the Game Boy Color.
Dargonite was included as promo card with all cartridges of the first game, Venusaur was included in its respective Guidebook.
Meowth was later released as a promo to this game in a 1999 issue of the CoroCoro Magazine.
Lugia was the standard promo card with all cartridges of the second game. Mewtwo was only available in a special edition ‘Celebi Game Boy Advance bundle package’ in March 2001. Dark Fearow was included in the Guidebook for the second game.
Dark Venusaur and Dark Ivysaur were both included in volume 10 of Trainer Magazine in March 2001.
They are great cards, that slowly gain a bit of traction price wise. They are also getting a bit harder to find in mint condition. There are many offers from Japanese sellers, but most of them have some kind of wear. Both the artwork and the connection to the Game Boy make them very desirable in my opinion.
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I didn’t know about the Dark Fearow, pretty cool. Also the least dark “Dark” card I’ve seen lol. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was meant to be light.
Thank you for all the info everyone.
This information is actually incorrect. Sadly I have no idea how to update incorrect data on the likes of Bulbapedia.
It’s only included with the GBC game “Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR!”. Here you can see a CIB copy:
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Can’t confirm or deny that. But it would certainly explain why Mewtwo is almost always offered together with Lugia and both of them seem equally common.
I can confirm it from opening dozens of these games, but halas I can’t edit out the mistake from Bulbapedia. And yes, that explains why you always see them together, they’re inserted into the same plastic bag with a paper insert showing both cards and simultaneously shielding off one of the 2 sides.
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