Japanese Game Boy Promos Card List
The two Pokémon Card GB games came with cards, and so did their guidebooks and the companion Trainers magazine — eight in all. Dragonite was sealed inside the 1998 game box; Great Rocket's Mewtwo and Lugia came together in every copy of the 2001 sequel; Venusaur (Promo 13) came with the first game's guidebook and Dark Venusaur and Dark Ivysaur with volume 10 of the Trainers magazine. Every one prints a small GB symbol where an expansion symbol would go, which is the fast way to identify the family — with one exception: the Meowth here is a CoroCoro insert with no GB symbol, grouped in because the same card appears inside the game. Dark Fearow, the eighth card, came with the GB2 guidebook but is not listed by any price source we use, so it is stated as a gap rather than given a page with an invented figure. This page lists every card with its printings priced separately — 7 printing records — and every one opens its own record with the prices, the printing notes and where to buy.
Card List
Japanese Game Boy Promos At a Glance
How many cards are in the Japanese Game Boy Promos?
The set holds 7 cards, released December 18, 1998. This site tracks 7 printings of them (GB Promo 7), each with its own record and price.
What printings does it have?
Game, guidebook and magazine inserts, so there is no 1st Edition and no Unlimited run; one printing each. Only Venusaur prints a number of its own (Promo 13); elsewhere the number shown is the Pokédex number the price source files the card by. Dark Venusaur was later reprinted in Best of Game and Pokémon Web, and Dark Ivysaur had a gold-stamped “Winner” version at 2003 BattleZone events — different printings, not on this page. Sources: tcgscreener's CD & Game Boy promo guide; Bulbapedia's per-card articles; price-source product naming and descriptions.
What is the most valuable card in the set?
Lugia [Game Boy] #249 at $1,010 raw, about $7,587 in PSA 10. One raw copy of every printing here totals $3,213.
How do these cards relate to the English printing?
No English version of these cards exists. None Japanese game inserts with no English counterpart, so these are the only printings of these cards that were ever made. They are one of just two Japanese releases of the era with no English counterpart at all.
How do I tell a Japanese Game Boy Promos card apart from the English printing?
Turn it over, which is the quickest tell there is: this set predates July 2001, when Japanese cards carried the Pocket Monsters Card Game back — a design no English card ever had, against the blue Pokémon back. The back changed once, with Pokémon VS in July 2001, so the back alone dates a card to this era.
Either way, the symbol beside the number is the Japanese set's own, not the English set's.
Prices are PriceCharting sold comps read 2026-11-07 and are per printing. This set is not in TCGdex, and no structured fact source covers it, so rarity, type and illustrator are omitted rather than guessed. One raw copy of every printing on this page totals $3,213.