I saw there is no post or information whatsoever on the Pokemon Banapassport cards, which on ebay are listed for quite the price, so I decided to do this post in order to show the different cards that exist and their rarities. Banapassports, also known as Bandai Namco Passports, are normal-sized cards which serve as a kind of ID where players can store data from compatible Bandai Namco arcade games. These cards, which were initially introduced in 2011, have many different designs including basics ones like the photo below and more personalized ones with images of games and characters from some of the playable games.
These (often exclusive) Banapassport include game designs like Tekken, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, Gundam Arsenal Base, Mario Kart and the one that really interests us; Pokemon´s Pokken Tournament. For those who don´t know, Pokkén Tournament is a Tekken-like fighting video game with Pokemon characters that was released in 2015 for Japanese arcades. This game was then released for Wii U in 2016 (some of you might recognize the Shadow Mewtwo card that came with this game) and Nintendo Switch in 2017 (Pokkén Tournament DX), including 23 different Pokemon available to play with. In 2019 the Pokkén Tournament arcade game was terminated. As they had done with previous arcade games, Bandai Namco released several Pokemon-designed Banapassports between 2015 and 2017, with some being more rare than others. Here is a list of all Pokemon Pokken Tournament Banapassports ever released:
1. 1st Batch “Test Cards” [2015]
-On January 30th and 31st, as well as February 1st 2015, Bandai Namco organized a limited time event where individuals could try for the first time the Pokken Tournament arcade game before it was officially released. In the event, if you were one of the first 200 people who played the game and answered a questionnaire each day, you would receive an exclusive Banapassport.
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The first 200 people on Jan. 30 received the Lucario card.
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The first 200 on Jan. 31 received the Gardevoir card
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The first 200 on Feb. 1 received the Pikachu card.
-On February 13th and 14th 2015, Bandai Namco organized a 2nd limited time event where individuals could again try the Pokken Tournament arcade game before it was officially released. In the event, if you were one of the first 500 people who played the game and answered a questionnaire, you would receive an exclusive Machamp Banapassport.
-On March 7th and 8th 2015, Bandai Namco organized a 3rd limited time event where individuals could try the Pokken Tournament arcade game before it was officially released. In the event, if you played the game and answered a questionnaire you could receive 1 of the 5 different exclusive “test” Banapassport cards (you could not choose the card and only could receive 1 per day). These 5 cards included the 4 previously released cards, plus a new Suicune card. It is not announced how many of each card was released each day, but we can see that with this event, the total number of existing cards is higher than 200 for the first 3 and higher than 500 for the Machamp one. The rarest one out of the 5 is probably Suicune and the most common is Machamp (assuming all 5 cards were released in the same quantities during this 3rd event).
2. 2nd Batch [2015]
-When it was announced that the official release date for the Pokken Tournament arcade game was July 16th, 2015, it was also announced that there would be 5 new Pokemon Banapassports widely available for purchase at arcade game centers.
3. 3rd Batch “Pokemon Center Exclusives” [2016]
-Around April 2016, 3 new Pokemon Center exclusive Pokemon Banapassports were released, featuring Charizard, Gengar and Masked “Lucha Libre” Pikachu (These seem rarer than batch #2 and #4 as they could not be found in game centers).
4. 4th Batch [2016]
-In August 2016 a new batch of 5 Pokemon Banapassports was released for general sale through arcade game centers. These include Darkrai, Garchomp, Mewtwo, Braixen and a Darkrai vs Pikachu card.
5. Niconico Tournament Exclusive prize [2017]
-In the 2017 “Niconico Super Championship” (Arcade) that took place during the 2017 Chokaigi event, this exclusive Pokemon Banapassport featuring 20 pokemon was given to all participants of the tournament. There were 64 2-person teams that participated, so this card was given either 64 times or 128 times (depending on whether they gave 1 per team or 1 per individual). I believe it was given 128 times, which would still make it the rarest Pokemon Banapassport of them all by a great difference!
Observations
I do understand these cards cannot be considered “vintage” as they are from 2015/2017, however this does not indicate its rarity. Some of these can be pretty hard to find, especially in mint condition as they were never truly meant for collectors, but for arcade users. Due to its main purpose, these were very susceptible to be “worn off” and damaged from constantly inserting them into the machines. As the Arcade version of Pokken Tournament was cancelled in 2019, there are no more releases, making the complete “set list” number to 19 (for those who wish to collect them all). In terms of prices, I do believe some prices on ebay are exaggerated, especially for the “Test Card” versions where sellers usually tend to exaggerate the exclusivity of such cards. For example, based on my experience searching, I find the Pokemon Center Exclusive cards to be harder to find (although this is not 100% verified of course). The only thing I know for sure is that the 2017 Niconico Tournament prize is 100% the rarest by far. I don’t think there is enough demand for these (yet), but who knows, maybe in some years down the line these cards will be coveted like the 90s/2000s Pokemon phone cards.
