Just opening up a discussion on the PokePark Forest set - why it’s so cheap and whether the rumoured 1,000 print run is correct.
In my view the set fundamentals are strong (focusing on the Holo cards):
Exclusive art
Great art that ties to the theme
Collectible set with identity
Low supply
Popular species
Difficult to grade
Obviously some of these points are subjective, but there aren’t many other boxes to tick!
So why so cheap…there’s an element of them flying under the radar sure, but it seems to me supply is higher than the mooted 1,000 for the following reasons:
c. 50 of each graded at PSA = 5%
c. 20 of each listed for sale = 2%
Availability higher than other cards with similar runs such as the Lottery Shiny L-P cards.
Add in attrition, which would bring the total number lower than 1,000.
What are your thoughts, maybe the above percentages seem about right? Are these very underrated, or is the supply higher than expected? Where did the magic 1,000 bulbapedia figure come from? etc etc
I don’t think either of the packs were limited product. I’ve always assumed they were up for sale for the duration of the PokéPark’s existence.
The Bulbapedia article was edited to include the 1,000 figure in September 2012 by the user Nuva-kal (revision), but unfortunately Bulbapedia doesn’t enforce references and the user who made the edit left no description of why they made that change.
If we go on the assumption they were for sale for the duration of the PokePark’s existence (6 months: March - September 2015) we can start to guesstimate the numbers.
I’ve found a source that confirms the Park visitor number:
“POKePARK was very popular as the world’s first theme park of Pokemon and attracted approximately 4.15 million visitors.“ (Nobukazu Saito, PokePark general producer). www.pojo.com/pokemon/news/2006/2-21.shtml
Plus a few background points:
The park was open at the same time as Nagoya Expo so would have attracted all kinds of visitors. Not necessarily all big enough fans of the franchise to buy merch.
It was free entry but pay-to-ride using a pre-paid “Edy” card. You also used this card to order items from the shops.
PokePark was a traveling fair rather than a fully-fledged theme park, so won’t have been optimised for shopping I.E. stores at ride exits.
If the Premium Files were print to demand, it’s likely their run would be more in the Regional Pokemon Centre release realm. Although these tend to have a shorter availability window, they’re generally free and are sourced from a store which is the destination in itself. I’m thinking along the lines of Pretend Tea Ceremony Pikachu.
If we assume 1% of guests bought the Forest File (probably overestimated) it would suggest c. 40,000 copies. If there are indeed only 1,000 copies, this suggests only 0.02% visitors acquired the file (or 1 in 5,000 visitors).
The truth is we’ll probably never know…and unless Nuva-Kal had access to the Edy card order data they probably don’t either!
This isn’t exactly a concrete data point or anything, but I have had an eBay alert set for the Torchic for almost a year now. On average I would say only one or two per month are listed, sometimes more and sometimes less. 95% of the time they’re in poor condition as well.
Zero chance in hell there were only 1000 copies of each of the PokePark Forest cards printed. I had the same feeling as you originally – “wow, these are insanely undervalued if only 1000 copies of each were printed.” But what I came to realize through purchasing quite a few copies of each of them is that the print run was definitely higher than 1000 ea.
Agreed - my “feel” it’s more in the 5,000-20,000 ballpark which, after all, still makes them relatively rare releases. To Jonbo’s point, a significant portion of the available copies also seem to be in bad condition which is reflected by the PSA grading ratios.
I’m unsure how these were distributed but the Premium Files themselves have many more sleeves than the 9 cards in the set. Does anyone know if they were given out loose or put in the binder? The former could explain the wear and tear if you had kids stuffing them in their pockets prior to jumping on the bumper cars.
The Japanese definitely don’t value the card as a 1000 copy card. It’s fairly cheap on the Japanese market. That to me tells me much more than a rumor on bulbapedia.
So ive been scoping pokeparks for quite a while now, and i feel i could chime in to a degree but it may not be super helpful.
Notable points here i can clarify is that the number of 1k being distributed to my knowledge was a recent addition to bulbapedia. When i began searching these files ages ago, that info wasnt present on there (if my memory is correct as i feel that would have stuck out in my research) which is what made me weary on that number to begin with.
Another notable point to mention is in their other merch they also made a 1/1000 pinset available during the opening of it i want to say the first week of operation. This pinset which seemingly had such a release, actually has been investigated by a few hardcore merch collectors whom actually discovered that there were some variants of it in regard to the engraved plate, which led to the idea that the 1/1000 was correct, but maybe there were several instances where another 1k of them were pumped out. I have one myself and my set actually is special in that its “/1000” where theres no serial number for it as it might have been an extra. I just think this could put some perspective into things here as say the 1k number is true for the cards, then maybe the cards saw many re releases as time went on just like the pinsets if the claims on those are true. Or to spin this info even more, maybe someone just added a 1k number by mistake when the info was actually geared towards the pinset to begin with. who knows.
All and all, its a mystery and i wish there was concrete info but thats all i can really offer that i know off the top of my head. I think a good bet to find even more help on this would be to check out old magazines and ads in japan from that era in time, as maybe they could offer some better insight into this but in the end its all just speculation until proven true. Regardless, theyre awesome cards for sure.
@diogonen is correct re: the distribution. I opened a sealed binder last year. The cards appeared to be in perfect condition, to my eyes. There was one card per slot in the binder. The Forest set had only 9 cards in it – the PokePark Blue set had 9 different cards and was distributed in its own binder.
I’ve been studying this release for a while now and it definitely flies under the radar. I’ve talked with veterans in the hobby who are completely unaware of its existence. They are attention grabbers at conventions I go to for sure.
I’ve been tracking the PSA pops and take screenshots every once in a while to chronicle it. It hasn’t budged much in the 2 years since I started tracking it. I’ve pretty much exclusively gotten all my product from Japan. Not many English sellers I’ve seen. I share what others have said about conditions in that it can be tough to find M/NM conditions. Unless your @daddynat who has some sealed Forest Files haha
What’s even cooler to me is there are exclusive ride promos cards that are alternative exclusive art to the forest files too. These were only attainable to those who physically went on the rides. They come in sealed Cellophane.
If anyone’s interested: here are pictures of the rides and the cards that were given out with them. Each card has the logo from the actual ride on it. Bumper Car Battle: Aqua vs. Magma (Groudon)
**Twister: Fury in the Sky (Rayquaza)
** Gotta Dance Tour (Whimsur)
Alto Mare Gondola Cruise (Latios)
Lugia’s Spinning Ship (Lugia)
Pokémon Star Swing (Celebi & Jirachi)
**The Pichu Brothers’ Rascal Railway (Munchlax)
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**Pokémon Giant Ferris Wheel (Torchic)
** Pikachu Forest (Pikachu)
Mudkip’s Big Splash (Mudkip)
**Pokémon Merry-Go-Round (Suicune)
** Pokemon’s Exciting Safari (Tauros)
Walkthrough Adventure: Mew and the Wave-Guiding Hero (Lucario)
Bit of a shame from my perspective, but it makes sense that they’d do it - the ears look very out of place otherwise!
If any Wynaut collectors are out there looking for cameo appearances: they left Wynaut’s arm in the final card artwork.
On the subject of Adventure Cards, a binder page is dedicated to PokéPark. The cards feature 9 of PokéPark’s attractions and the backs join up to form a larger artwork. Here are some old pictures from my Adventure Card binder:
That extended artwork was also available as a smaller sticker which could be bought at one of the PokéPark shops. I have one of those somewhere - I’ll dig it out if anyone’s interested.
Kind of away from the topic of cards, but still in the realm of pokepark for my merch enjoyers out here. these were too meant to mimic that of pokepark things
I just recently picked this hat up from YHJ courtesy of @swolepoke 's lead! I’m unsure if hats of other Pokemon were for sale at the PokePark (I would have to assume there were others. Torchic isn’t *that* special) but I had no idea these even existed until he sent me the link. So much incredible merch made for such a short-lived theme park.
Thanks for all the pictures and history behind these cards. I loved the art work and a few years ago started to purchase some here and there. That collection is crazy nice.
Finding them in good shape, even from Japan, seems almost impossible. Even in the sealed cards, many have dents or creases. Think 6 out of 6 rayquaza’s, all had issues.
haha
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