Pokémon Sleeves - First Design Premium Matte (64 pcs, Japanese)

64 official Japanese Pokémon sleeves featuring the very first card design from 1996, in the Premium Matte finish from the Pokémon Center, released for the 25th Anniversary Collection.

Specifications

• Count: 64 sleeves
• Design: the original 1996 card back
• Finish: Premium Matte
• Origin: Pokémon Center Japan, 25th Anniversary Collection (2021)

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 an old card back is special

These sleeves carry the design that appeared on the back of the very first Japanese Pokémon cards. Slip them onto a modern deck and your stack looks, from behind, like it's straight out of 1996 — even though it's full of last year's cards. That's the whole joke, and exactly why this design comes back for every anniversary.

What makes Premium Matte different

The Premium Matte finish has a matte, non-glossy outer surface. That means less glare under fluorescent lighting and cameras, and the sleeves glide past each other more easily when shuffling than the glossy version.

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.

From the same anniversary series, we also carry the sleeves with the anniversary logo and the ones with Flying Pikachu and Surfing Pikachu.