In the Autumn of last year, I heard that some Asian markets were going to be getting a set of Victini EX ‘sealed deck’ tournament promos to promote the local release of the “Raging Surf” set.
The art on both was gorgeous - particularly the SAR print, which was a clear tie-in with that set in particular - and I had never seen anything that outstanding not be given out eventually in EN or JP markets. This in mind, I held off expecting Japan to do a sealed event with these, but it never came, and we are well past the release of the set in question by now.
At the start of the year, I finally pulled the trigger on a set, and am certainly glad I did.
In spite of the fact that even in JP and EN channels (where just about everything gets some attention eventually), I have not been able to scrummage up much information on them. At a minimum, I know the Taiwan and Hong King release came first, so their version (incidentally, it appears to be the most expensive) is what I opted for. That said, a lot of questions remain. Does anyone out there know any of the below and/or have thoughts?
How many total of these cards actually exist out there? Does the Chinese release command the most because it is most limited, or because it was the first one out?
The Van Gogh debacle is legendary by now, but even with the market being flooded with tens (hundreds?) of thousands of copies, they still command upwards of USD$100 apiece at resale. These Victinis must be many multiples more scarce, and yet their market price is significantly less than I would have imagined it. Why is this? Is there that little interest in the non-Japanese Asian market, comparatively low knowledge of these cards’ existence, or do they exist in greater numbers than I am imagining?
For anyone who speculated as I did, is it safe to say these are truly never getting an EN or JP release? Out of an abundance of caution, I am keeping them sealed. But the minute I can be sure no such JP version is ever to be released, they are going into a binder.
The lack of documentation concerned me, and I worried about counterfeits, but many of the measures I use for other cards (inspection with a jeweler’s loop, comparison with official photos of the cards, et cetera) alleviated those concerns. That said, have there been any documented examples of counterfeits on the market?
In 2023, Venusaur and Blastoise got Chinese-exclusive HR art cards, which introduced me to that market having a new “Pokémon” imprint on the bottom-left border (as am anti-counterfeiting measure) of foil cards. I was surprised these promos of all things did not get that treatment. Granted, they got a release in places like South Korea and Indonesia (which do not use that imprint) as well, but adding it would have seemed the logical choice to me. Any speculation as to why they did not?
I would love to hear your thoughts! Thank you in advance!
I can’t say much to the other points above but only cards printed in simplified Chinese (for mainland China) have the pokemon stamp imprint.
Your Victini ex cards are in traditional Chinese (for Taiwan and Hong Kong) which have never had such imprints. For most purposes S-Chinese and T-Chinese should be treated as seperate languages in the pokemon tcg.
Your mentioning the Simplified and Traditional differences reminded me of how they have been rush-releasing everything from the SM-era onward for the Mainland beginning a couple of years ago, which leads to another interesting possibility.
The precedent is there - at least for Mainland China - that these may see an eventual localised release (given that we have seen their versions of things like “Alola Friends” and ‘Extra Battle Lillie” released but months ago). I will be sticking with my copies, but it is cool to think these may be in the Poké-news again at some point.
English sometimes does very weird things, who knows if they will ever be released as part of e.g. an UPC promo or in some box together with a jumbo card.
for Japanese I cannot say for certain of course but at this point I doubt it will release in Japanese since so much time has passed by now. The artwork seems to be inherently tied with the Japanese Raging Surf expansion that released a little after the Japanese Victini ex deck. All the pokemon depicted in the background of the special art are from that set.
There is also a precedent with another special art that released in other Asian languages but not in Japanese: Charizard VMax.
In this case the price is driven by demand. There are going to be way less Victini copies but there are way more buyers for the Van Gogh, with a lot of people buying multiple copies.
I think your intuition is right that it has to do more with the level of interest than a secret huge supply of the Victini
S8b VMAX Climax (2021) reprinted cards both of D and E regulation, so as far back as cards from 2020. S12a VSTAR Universe (2022) reprinted only E and F, which is why the UPC Charizard VMAX (D) was left out in JP at the time and still is. I’ll say that if this year’s high class pack set doesn’t include the SR/SAR Victini ex, or a special deck set later this year, then its chances of ever being released in JP are truly gone
“Get in line” - UPC Charizard VMAX, Premium Tournament FA Klara, Silver Tempest FA Gym Trainer, Van Gogh Pikachu
Thank you for asking; absolutely! It is a bit of a task fighting with light as I am keeping them sealed for now, but hopefully these give an idea. Let me know if you need more!
I know, right! That would seem to be another non-JP exclusive in-the-making…
While that being the case means I need an EN copy for my collection, I am also anticipating it with a combination of excitement and dread. At this point, it would seem they could swing either way between apathy and price-gouging.
Mine
Very nice cards.
I think estimated 2000-3000 like the Charizard vmax . I remember I user here made some calc about how many copies Charizard Vmax were distributed.
Personally, I’ve been toying with the idea of buying this card for a couple of months now or waiting around for the exact reasons you stated. I just fell in love with the artwork pretty much instantaneously. I also remember when the leaks came of this card it got a great reception but the demand seems low. I’ll most likely give it until the new year before I decide on pulling the trigger.
