Around ten Pokémon fans set up folding chairs outside the Fnac in Chartres from early on Thursday afternoon, wrapped in scarves against the November cold. According to the local paper L’Écho Républicain, they were ready to spend the night on the pavement. They were waiting for the Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration Ultra-Premium Collection, the flagship box of Pokémon’s 30th anniversary range, which went on sale on Friday 6 November. “J’ai décidé d’arriver beaucoup plus tôt”, one fan told the paper, which translates as “I decided to arrive much earlier”. L’Écho Républicain described the scene as rare enough to be worth telling, although it has become a familiar one across France since the anniversary cards first arrived in September.
The reason for the early start becomes clear once you look inside the box. According to The Pokémon Company, each Ultra-Premium Collection contains 29 booster packs from the 30th Celebration expansion, plus a special pack with three cards from the set’s nostalgic Classic Collection. It also includes a foil Pikachu ex promo illustrated by the Japanese artist YOSHIROTTEN, alongside a playmat, 65 sleeves, a deck box, a metal coin, six damage-counter dice and a Pokémon TCG Live code card. The box comes in two versions: a day-themed edition built around Espeon ex, known in France as Mentali, and a night-themed edition built around Umbreon ex, or Noctali, each with its own foil promo.
Why the French price and dates differ from the US launch
For French collectors, the launch has not been quite as simple as it was in the United States. The Pokémon Company’s American product page lists 6 November for both editions, but the French product page still gives only a fourth-quarter window for the Journée and Soirée boxes. Most French retailers have listed the Soirée box with Noctali for 6 November and the Journée box with Mentali for 27 November, a split that has circulated since late October without an official explanation.
The price gap between the two markets is just as noticeable. Most French shops list the Ultra-Premium Collection at €229.99, and a few at €239.99. In the US, the trade publication ICv2 reported a suggested retail price of $179.99, and American prices are usually quoted before sales tax. The same Friday also brought two smaller anniversary products, the Ditto Premium Collection and a Figure Collection with either Mew or Mewtwo, both of which The Pokémon Company dated to 6 November. French retailers list the Ditto box, called Métamorph in France, at €49.99, while the Mew and Mewtwo sets cost €37.99 each. All three follow the Espeon ex and Umbreon ex Battle Decks, which the US product page dated to 30 October.
France’s 30th anniversary card rush began in September
Chartres is only the latest stop in a frenzy that began when the 30th Celebration expansion went on sale worldwide on 16 September. The anniversary itself fell on 27 February, exactly 30 years after Pocket Monsters Red and Green launched in Japan, and The Pokémon Company has spread its celebration products across the rest of the year. As we reported when the set was first revealed in June, it was the first Pokémon TCG expansion to receive a coordinated global launch. Every card in it is printed in foil, and every pack is guaranteed to contain a Pikachu. That combination of nostalgia and novelty has proved hard to resist for players, collectors and resellers alike.
In Paris, two cousins waited 23 hours outside the Fuji Store, whose stock sold out in under ten minutes after opening, according to the radio station Urban Hit. The shop’s manager, Karim, told the station that demand far exceeded supply, and the station found some customers ready to spend up to €1,000 on cards. La Nouvelle République reported that one customer even camped in a shop car park near Blois, while its report from Châteauroux carried a warning that there would not be enough for everyone.
The resale market explains part of the urgency. Urban Hit reported that the rarest 30th Celebration cards were already selling for several hundred euros on eBay in September, and similar shortages have pushed Dutch prices well above retail. At the very top of the hobby, the stakes are higher still, after a Pikachu Illustrator card sold for a record $16.4 million in February. Closer to home, French collectors still have one more anniversary release day to plan for, with most retailers listing the Journée box and the Mewtwo Figure Collection for 27 November.
