Japanese Phone Cards

So, I was looking thorugh my collection of phone cards and came across the japanese section, looking at it I realized they're the nicest cards along with the italian ones
Maybe I will start to collect also japanese phone cards since there are a lot of fantastic themes I'm interested in (videogames, cities, ultraman, animals, j-league, etc.)

I want to know if a comprehensive updated catalog exists (I think yes, because on Yahoo auction the cards are listed with a code) and mostly important where I can find it?

I searched with the term テレホンカードカタログ, so far no luck, I can see catalogs in google images but can't find anything for sale, just one on Yahoo auctions dated 1987 (also found an english-german catalog but it's dated 1994)

just for your reference, look at these amazing pieces

http://retrogamegoods.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/duse_0011.jpg

http://retrogamegoods.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/duse_0032.jpg

http://retrogamegoods.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/duse_0021.jpg

 

I only know of some catalogs for music groups or shows so far, you may have better luck looking for particular companies catalogs as they may have conflicting codes with other ones so there may not be an absolutely comprehensive video game one around.

Though for some of them I know that some of the catalog codes for the cards are on particular releases are included in the little feedback postcards including new merchandise and the like listed on them.

That's about all I've found when looking for the different Drag-on Dragoon phone cards so far.

If you know that some of the companies that have made some of the ones you've been interested in may have had a newsletter/fan magazine or something along those lines, you should have a better chance of finding out all of the different catalog codes for the merchandise as the majority of newsletters I've seen so far have included merchandise listings for the different companies (like HUMAN Entertainment) so that's how I've been able to confirm about a few products that there's been little info on.

Only other option would be ex-retail catalogs for certain years and/or months but those may be hard to come by and may be lacking the actual merchandise codes compared to the retailer's own stock codes.

Not very helpful, I know but that's all I've found so far sadly.

Are there any specific games/anime or companies that you were trying to find phone cards of and/or by/from?

I'm happy to keep an eye out for anything as I sometimes get bundles of phone cards and I only want one out of the bundle most of the time.

Though if you were to find some proper catalogs for them, I'd be interested in seeing some of the other ones myself out of curiosity.

Though the JAN for quite a few game or anime ones depending on the manufacturer is 4955595100115 but they seem to be only organized by content of the image on the face of the phone card OR the year of release.

Such as the Clock Tower 2 one I have - Front, Back .

So far the only other thing that has been helpful in confirming some online have been - My Figure Collection - Telephone Card Catagory and the different Delcame - Japan, Delcampe - Games sections which often include the product codes.

Though Delcampe has other sections which may be of assistance, that's about all I can think of with lack of info regarding any possible hard or digital complete catalogs due to the sheer amount of phone cards with multiple ones sharing the same JAN.

 

:edit:

 

I'm still very new to this japanese cards stuff, it looks a little different from other countries

Before commenting to your post I need to undestand one thing, who issues the cards? for example, your clock tower card is issued by NTT (or any other phone company) or by Human directly?

I was looking for a complete catalog, including ALL the cards (I'm interested also in the normal commercial ones), something like this http://chirindote.exblog.jp/iv/detail/index.asp?s=13383589&i=201108/27/27/a0163227_8524280.jpg

after I made my post yesterday I found this one delcampe http://phone-cards.delcampe.net/ite...ken=sslLogin_8b9322bd3c85423874cd4dcd05f6b873

I asked a few questions to the seller, we'll see (however I doubt it will include ALL the promo cards for games, anime, etc.)

Do you know of any forum/community where I can get more detailed info in this?

 

They can be commissioned by the company that owns the IP, in the Clock Tower 2 one's case - that is HUMAN Group which had a divisional company of HUMAN Entertainment Japan and HUMAN Entertainment USA. HUMAN Entertainment were given permission by HUMAN Group to increase marketing for Clock Tower 2 which had a decent amount of hype for it's release in 1996.

So it was commissioned by HUMAN Entertainment who provided the front art for it to NTT. Only particular companies that may say, have smaller companies or may have merchandise manufacturers MIGHT release some "fake" phone cards - in the shape of a real one but they don't actually work if that makes sense.

I've only seen a couple of "fake" ones which were purely for decorative purposes and were labeled as such as they came in frames that had a sticker on them saying they couldn't be used.

I've not seen any complete catalogs, I've looked around before but haven't had any luck - though you could possibly e-mail the telcos' that manufacture and sell them to see if you can request back catalogs per year or particular series types.

I honestly don't know of any English based phone card communities/forums, so I've been mainly browsing through collection sites to use as references.

Another good one that I know of would be Colnect - I've linked the Japanese Phonecard section as well. They have a good range of NTT cards which are what the majority of phone cards that you have an interest in will most likely be by.

One of the major issues is that NTT reuse catalog codes every few years so my Clock Tower 2 one has the same JAN as this one so there could be a possibility that my Clock Tower 2 one's code is "NT-102" like that one is given the fact that they reuse JANs after a period of time.

It's just that they don't say the NTT product code on them outside of what series it's part of on the majority of the products or their packaging so you'd either have to try and see if you can get a retailer product catalog by year or by a particular series.

 

I have several ones including those King of Fighters AES Phone cards, some obscure hentai doujinshi limited phone cards and a single one of Urotsukidouji III.

 

Hi, I've been collecting japanese phonecards for more than 15 years and I could tell you a little about them if needed.

There're several type of phonecards in Japan, the most common impulse cards were issued by NTT.

At my notice there's no complete japanese phonecard catalogue (about 250'000 can be classified by the type & n° on the back of the card) but more than 1'000'000 different phonecards exist.

Most of these other estimated 750'000 are as we call them "White Cards" these cards were sold by NTT to other companies as white front cards & the printing was not made by NTT, so it's quite impossible to know them all.

The White cards are usually numbered as 110-011, 110-014, 110-015 & 110-016.

My advice would be to visit these websites, it will give you a better idea.

http://colnect.com/en/phonecards/companies/country/108-Japan

If you need any further details about japanese phonecards you can always contact me (same pseudo) via: http://www.telecartophilie.com/index.php?&lang=EN