Cards from Japan

Can the card number tell you how early a Yu-Gi-Oh! card is?

Published September 24, 2026 · By the Cards from Japan editors

Summary

It helps. In the official database, the four 1999 Japanese printings of Blue-Eyes White Dragon (the STARTER BOX theater edition, the STARTER BOX, a V Jump Festa 1999 promo, and EX) carry no number at all, and the first numbered one is LB-01 from May 2000. In English, the first printing is LOB-001, with no language code, while LOB-EN001 is a 2023 printing.

The oldest Japanese printings

The oldest Japanese entries for Blue-Eyes White Dragon are the STARTER BOX theater edition on March 6, 1999, and the regular STARTER BOX on March 18, 1999. Dark Magician goes back further, to Vol.1 on February 4, 1999, also with no number. When numbers arrived around 2000, they lacked today's -JP code, as in LB-01 and LB-05 from Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon (May 18, 2000) and SM-51 from Spell of Mask (April 19, 2001).

LOB-001 versus LOB-EN001

The English database's oldest Blue-Eyes White Dragon entry is LOB-001 in LEGEND OF BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON, dated March 8, 2002. LOB-EN001 belongs to an April 21, 2023, entry labeled "LEGEND OF BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON (LC01 25th Anniversary Edition)," so the same set name appears with two number formats. KONAMI also brought the set back as standalone 9-card packs ($4.49, 126 cards) for the 25th anniversary in 2023. In neither language does the database show whether a printing is 1st Edition.

Sources

Details are as published on these pages on the date above and can change. Check the official page before you buy or submit.

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