Collecting Japanese Cards?

StriatonIsMagic

I'll Never Forget This Day
Member
Not sure if this is the best place for it, but I'm wondering about Japanese cards. I mainly collect Pokémon cards for the Ultra Rare cards, and I want to know if Japanese cards have a higher pull rate/better cards in general. I also want to know if they have better promo cards and stuff.
 

bbninjas

Ready or Not!
Advanced Member
Member
Moved from the TCG Help to the Collector's Showcase as the OP is asking about collecting. ~bbninjas
 

Athena

The Cooler Danchou
Advanced Member
Member
Generally Japanese cards have a higher pull rate, yes, though it's also a more consistent pull rate, which is much more important. Here's a breakdown:

  • C - Common. Same as in English
  • U - Uncommon. Same as in English
  • R - Rare Holo. Unlike English cards, Japanese R cards are always holo.
  • RR - Double Rare. EX, M-EX, and BREAK cards are all RR rarity.
  • SR - Secret Rare. In BW/XY era, this is the rarity assigned to FA cards.
  • UR - Ultra Rare. In the BW/XY era, this rarity is given to all secret cards that are not regular FAs, so things like the gold-bordered trainers, shiny Pokémon, etc.

In the BW/XY era of Pokémon, booster boxes come with 20 packs, and each pack has 5 cards. Each pack has a 50/50 chance of having either 3 C cards and 2 U cards, or 3 C cards, 1 U card, and 1 R/RR/SR/UR card. So, in one box, you get 10 R or better cards, generally 5-6 regular holos and 4-5 R/RR/SR/UR, though you get a maximum of 1 SR or UR per box. Chances of pulling an SR or UR are approximately 1 in 2 boxes.

As such, you get more holos and EXes or better than you do in English on average, and you also end up with less bulk C/U cards because the packs are smaller. And, best of all, NO NON-HOLO RARES. Most of those are U cards in Japanese. The downside is that SR/UR cards are a bit rarer, though, as are trainers (though of course Japanese structured decks are a better source of good trainers than English decks), which means they are more valuable in general. Of course, boxes are also significantly cheaper than English boxes (one booster box on AmiAmi costs about US€25), so you can buy 3-4 Japanese boxes for the cost of a single English booster box.

Another point worth mentioning is that Japanese cards have much higher production values than English cards. You won't see misprints or miscuts, and you won't have to worry about pulling cards right from a pack that already have scratches on them or other issues. In general, the cards are a much higher quality.

In terms of promos, Japanese Pokémon has a lot more promo cards than English. Sometimes Japanese promo cards will get folded into an English set (Example: the recent Surfing Pikachu, Slowbro-EX, and M Slowbro-EX cards are promos in Japan but are getting put into the English Evolutions set), sometimes they will become English promos (Example: the Garchomp/Salamance boxes coming out in November), and sometimes they are never released in English at all (Example: We can be practically certain that [url=http://www.pokebeach.com/news/0916/m-sachiko-ex-2.jpg]this card will never see an English release).

Sometimes these promos are relatively easy to get. The Slowbro promos, for example, are available in packs that are sold on AmiAmi. Other promos can often be purchased on eBay and the like, with prices dependent on how rare and/or difficult to obtain the promo is.[/url]
 

StriatonIsMagic

I'll Never Forget This Day
Member
Generally Japanese cards have a higher pull rate, yes, though it's also a more consistent pull rate, which is much more important. Here's a breakdown:

  • C - Common. Same as in English
  • U - Uncommon. Same as in English
  • R - Rare Holo. Unlike English cards, Japanese R cards are always holo.
  • RR - Double Rare. EX, M-EX, and BREAK cards are all RR rarity.
  • SR - Secret Rare. In BW/XY era, this is the rarity assigned to FA cards.
  • UR - Ultra Rare. In the BW/XY era, this rarity is given to all secret cards that are not regular FAs, so things like the gold-bordered trainers, shiny Pokémon, etc.

In the BW/XY era of Pokémon, booster boxes come with 20 packs, and each pack has 5 cards. Each pack has a 50/50 chance of having either 3 C cards and 2 U cards, or 3 C cards, 1 U card, and 1 R/RR/SR/UR card. So, in one box, you get 10 R or better cards, generally 5-6 regular holos and 4-5 R/RR/SR/UR, though you get a maximum of 1 SR or UR per box. Chances of pulling an SR or UR are approximately 1 in 2 boxes.

As such, you get more holos and EXes or better than you do in English on average, and you also end up with less bulk C/U cards because the packs are smaller. And, best of all, NO NON-HOLO RARES. Most of those are U cards in Japanese. The downside is that SR/UR cards are a bit rarer, though, as are trainers (though of course Japanese structured decks are a better source of good trainers than English decks), which means they are more valuable in general. Of course, boxes are also significantly cheaper than English boxes (one booster box on AmiAmi costs about US€25), so you can buy 3-4 Japanese boxes for the cost of a single English booster box.

Another point worth mentioning is that Japanese cards have much higher production values than English cards. You won't see misprints or miscuts, and you won't have to worry about pulling cards right from a pack that already have scratches on them or other issues. In general, the cards are a much higher quality.

In terms of promos, Japanese Pokémon has a lot more promo cards than English. Sometimes Japanese promo cards will get folded into an English set (Example: the recent Surfing Pikachu, Slowbro-EX, and M Slowbro-EX cards are promos in Japan but are getting put into the English Evolutions set), sometimes they will become English promos (Example: the Garchomp/Salamance boxes coming out in November), and sometimes they are never released in English at all (Example: We can be practically certain that this card will never see an English release).

Sometimes these promos are relatively easy to get. The Slowbro promos, for example, are available in packs that are sold on AmiAmi. Other promos can often be purchased on eBay and the like, with prices dependent on how rare and/or difficult to obtain the promo is.
Thanks! Is Amazon a good source for Japanese packs and the like? (Also, it helps a lot that the booster boxes are 20-35 dollars as opposed to the hundred dollars for an English one.)
 

Athena

The Cooler Danchou
Advanced Member
Member
Thanks! Is Amazon a good source for Japanese packs and the like? (Also, it helps a lot that the booster boxes are 20-35 dollars as opposed to the hundred dollars for an English one.)

This thread's sole purpose to is list places for people to buy Japanese cards and merch from. I strongly recommend AmiAmi as the best retailer. If what you want isn't available on AmiAmi, then you'll probably want to shop around for the best price; eBay or Amazon will probably be your best bet in that instance, but it's always good to compare prices.
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Thanks! Is Amazon a good source for Japanese packs and the like? (Also, it helps a lot that the booster boxes are 20-35 dollars as opposed to the hundred dollars for an English one.)
No. I have gone on amazon for various purposes, and I rarely come across Japanese cards.
 

Athena

The Cooler Danchou
Advanced Member
Member
Yeah, Amazon sells a decent amount of imported Japanese TCG products, but they're usually more expensive than other sources since they're primarily sold by resellers.
 

StriatonIsMagic

I'll Never Forget This Day
Member
Yeah, Amazon sells a decent amount of imported Japanese TCG products, but they're usually more expensive than other sources since they're primarily sold by resellers.
With AmiAmi, do you need an account to buy cards there?
 

StriatonIsMagic

I'll Never Forget This Day
Member
Yes, you do. Your account is used to keep track of your pre-orders and other purchases as well as to store address information.
Ah, okay. I'll first actually check out the site, then I'll ask my mom about it.
 
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StriatonIsMagic

I'll Never Forget This Day
Member
Yes, you do. Your account is used to keep track of your pre-orders and other purchases as well as to store address information.
One more thing. How can you pay in US dollars if the card prices are in yen? And how do you search for cards? I looked up "Pokemon cards" and nothing came up.
 

Athena

The Cooler Danchou
Advanced Member
Member
One more thing.

That looks more like 2 more things to me. :p

How can you pay in US dollars if the card prices are in yen?

Currency conversion is done upon payment. If you use PayPal to pay, for example, PayPal will convert the currency for you. If you use a credit card, the card's bank/company will do the conversion.

If you want to know how much something will cost in US dollars before you purchase it, you can use Google to easily translate currencies. Simply type "X jpy in usd" into Google (where X is the amount of yen you wish to convert), and it will convert for you using current values. You can also get a very rough estimate by simply assuming that ¥100 is about US$1.

And how do you search for cards? I looked up "Pokemon cards" and nothing came up.

The search function is a bit goofy if you're not used to it, and sometimes breaks entirely, so you're best off looking through categories (or using specific names of product, if you know them). This page here is their Pokémon TCG category. Recently released product is at the front, with new pre-orders listed next, then other product roughly in chronological order.

Because the English site is a direct translation of Japanese, some things may not be the easiest to figure out. Anything that is listed as a 30Pack BOX (Sun/Moon Era) or a 20Pack BOX (XY/BW era) is almost certainly a booster box, Deck Shield are sleeves, etc. Sometimes names will be translated, sometimes not. Use images and/or release dates to figure out product if you're not sure.
 
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