Japanese CD Promo cards

What the Japanese CD Promo cards are

The Japanese CD Promo cards are the 11 promotional cards packaged with Pokémon Song Best Collection, a compilation album of songs from the Pokémon anime released by Pikachu Records under catalogue number TGCS-570. The 13 songs were chosen in a magazine poll and had all appeared on earlier albums, and the CD came with a 32-page illustrated lyrics booklet and the cards, ten Japanese promos plus one English card.

Every card had appeared through another Japanese promotion first. Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise reprint the Base Set artwork with the Pikachu Records logo, following the Trade Please campaign of 1998. Arcanine, Mewtwo, Cool Porygon and the Computer Error Meowth use the artwork of Wizards Black Star Promos, Mew comes from the WHF Special Sheet, Hungry Snorlax from the Nintendo 64 promo and Super Energy Retrieval from a Fan Book. The English Pikachu is the Base Set Pikachu, included to introduce Japanese players to the West's adoption of the game. The hub tracks the ten Pokémon by National Pokédex number.

What makes the Japanese CD Promo cards different

• Glossy Mew and Mewtwo The glossy Mew 151 and Mewtwo 150 are the two most valuable cards of the set in PSA 10, with the Computer Error Meowth 52 and the Pikachu Records Charizard 6 behind them.
• Pikachu Records starters The Charizard 6, Blastoise 9 and Venusaur 3 holos carry the Pikachu Records logo over the Base Set artwork, a mark that separates them from every other print of those three cards.
• An English card in a Japanese CD The set's Pikachu 58 is an English Base Set card, the one English print in a Japanese product, packaged to show Japanese players how the game looked abroad.

How the Japanese CD Promo cards arrived

Pokémon Song Best Collection was released by Pikachu Records in January 1999 with 13 tracks, among them Aim to Be a Pokémon Master, Team Rocket Forever, Can You Name All the Pokémon? and Meowth's Song, and its cards gathered promos from the Trade Please campaign, the Wizards Black Star Promo artwork, the WHF Special Sheet, the Nintendo 64 promo and a Fan Book. The English Pikachu came from the Base Set that had just launched in the West. The hub places the cards between the Japanese Team Rocket and the Japanese Vending Series 1 in the original era.

Japanese CD Promo cards products

The CD Promo cards were never sold in packs. They came only inside the Pokémon Song Best Collection CD, and the sealed table above tracks the sealed album where it trades.

Collecting and grading the Japanese CD Promo cards

The glossy Mew 151 leads the set in PSA 10, with the glossy Mewtwo 150 second, then the Computer Error Meowth 52, Charizard 6, the Snorlax 143, Blastoise 9 and Venusaur 3 holos, the Porygon 137 holo and Arcanine 59, with the English Pikachu 58 tracked without a PSA 10 price. The live chase list above ranks every tracked card by PSA 10 value.

Cards that shipped inside a CD case were handled loosely and often show edge wear and surface scratches, so PSA 10 copies of the glossy Mew and Mewtwo carry a very wide premium over PSA 9. A complete set of 11 is a compact project, and the Pikachu Records logo is what to check when buying the three starters.