Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG, I share my results from a Korean Booster box opening of Pokemon TCG's Battle Partners set.
English Packs Too Pricey, Japanese Booster Boxes Cheaper But Still Pricey
Since November 2024 with the Surging Sparks set, prices of sealed product and booster boxes for English have shot up in price. An English Booster Box used to be at 150 to 160 CAD in normal times. Now it is at least 300 CAD per English booster box. A single pack used to be around 5 or 6 CAD each but it is now 10 to 15 CAD per pack. Those damn scalpers. The year of 2026 is the 25th anniversary of Pokemon TCG I think. That will be messed up unless the Pokemon Company International gets more printers.
Japanese booster boxes used to be cheap at below 100 CAD per booster box. Now it is at 160 to 180 CAD per booster box. The price increase is not as crazy but it is still bad. The next best thing to get if you want to open packs for cheap is getting Korean Pokemon cards. I got my brother and I a Korean Booster box of Battle Partners for 41 CAD (plus tax). Note that Journey Together is the English version of Battle Partners.
Pulls
Korean booster boxes are different compared to the English booster boxes. A single English Pokemon booster pack has 10 cards with 1 rare holofoil card or better. In a Korean booster pack, there are 5 cards per pack with no guarantee of a rare card.
In an English booster box, you get 36 packs. With a Korean Booster box you get 30 packs with 5 cards per pack in a box. Korean Pokemon cards are now the way to go if you want to open packs at a low price. If you are in South Korea, Pokemon TCG prices in Korean must be even cheaper there than here in the Toronto area.
Korean Booster Box
Here is the outside of the Korean booster box.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Pulls & Results
The rare card pulls starting from the top left were:
- Hop's Dubwool (x2)
- Magmortar
- Tyranitar
- Hop's Snorlax
- N's Reshiram (Bottom left)
- Magearna
- Iono's Kilowattrel
- Meowscarada
In terms of Pokemon ex and illustration art cards, the pulls were:
- Iono's Bellibolt (Row 3, Leftmost card in yellow)
- Mamoswine ex
- N's Zoroark ex
- Lillie's Clefairy ex
- N's Zorua Illustration Rare
- Dondozo Art Card
- Maractus
- Dudunsparce ex Full Art
If you count rare cards as a pull, the total pulls from this booster box was 17 out of 30 packs. In terms of pulls that were Pokemon ex, full arts or illustration rares, the pull count was 8 out of 30 packs. I guess if you want to try your luck in getting some illustration art cards for cheap then Korean Pokemon cards is a good alternative.
Thank you for reading.