Found this little guy in a lot I bought from Japan. Anyone have more information on it? I am assuming its from 1998 or so and maybe a promotional item given to stores for employees to wear or something?
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It was first distributed at the Japanese 9th Next Generation World Hobby Fair to promote the English release of the TCG. I believe some other events gave it out later as well.
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I know they sold English tcg products at the event didn’t know this badge was handed out as well but makes sense, do you have a source on the badge?
Thanks for the info! I Figured it was promotional, just had no idea where it was distributed.
That’s really neat! Hit me up if you might want to sell it. I love this sort of stuff. 
Here’s a guy who built a “museum” of various early era memorabilia, featuring this particular badge:
While I can’t verify this particular item description as 100% accurate without a first-party source, his other descriptions for things like badges, coins, sleeves, etc all line up with distributions mentioned in the Trainer’s Magazines, which are about as official as you can get for that time frame.
There might be some info in the CoroCoro comic cited here, but I don’t have a copy:
pokeboon.com/jp/promo_event/the-9th-world-hobby-fair/
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This is the official source for the pin being from the World Hobby Fair.
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