Pokémon Sleeves - Flying Pikachu & Surfing Pikachu (64 pcs, Japanese)

64 official Japanese Pokémon sleeves featuring Flying Pikachu and Surfing Pikachu, released by the Pokémon Center for the 25th Anniversary Collection in 2021.

Specifications

• Count: 64 sleeves
• Artwork: Flying Pikachu and Surfing Pikachu
• Origin: Pokémon Center Japan, 25th Anniversary Collection (2021)
• Officially licensed Japanese product

Why 64 and not 65

Western sleeve packs contain 65, Japanese packs 64 — a difference that simply comes down to habit in the two markets. A deck holds 60 cards either way, so you'll have a few spares regardless. Do keep in mind that Japanese sleeves are sized for Japanese cards, which are a fraction smaller than Western ones.

Why these two Pikachu in particular

Flying Pikachu and Surfing Pikachu aren't ordinary cards: they're two of the best-known promos from the nineties, handed out at events and now so rare in Japan that they fetch four-figure sums. For Pokémon's twenty-fifth anniversary they were reissued — exactly the two images that anyone who started out in 1998 immediately feels something for.

What sleeves are for

Sleeves protect your cards from fingerprints, moisture and damaged edges, and they make a deck shuffle more smoothly. At tournaments they're effectively mandatory: every card back in your deck has to look identical, so no one can tell which card you're holding from the back.

Everything from the anniversary series

Here are five items from the same series, three of which carry the same Pikachu design:

• the deck box with Flying and Surfing Pikachu
• the playmat with the same design
• the sleeves with the anniversary logo
• the First Design Premium Matte sleeves