Pokémon Phone Cards

Japanese telephone cards (terehon kādo, or simply tereka) were prepaid magnetic cards used at public phone booths, the everyday way to place a call in Japan before mobile phones became universal. The face of each card was a blank canvas, so companies printed them as promotional giveaways and collectibles, and Pokémon designs were issued steadily from 1996 into the early 2000s.

Pokémon phone cards were never sold as a single numbered trading-card set. Each one came from its own promotion: a magazine lottery, a Pokémon Center opening, a movie campaign, an airline tie-in with ANA's Pokémon Jet, or a giveaway from a toy maker such as TOMY or BANPRESTO. Print runs ranged from mass-distributed magazine inserts to lottery prizes awarded to only a few dozen winners, which is why surviving prices swing so widely.

About this archive: the 69 cards below are grouped by release year where possible, with movie, airline, magazine, toy-maker, and Pokémon Center promotions gathered into one photo-first checklist.