The MOST Expensive Pokemon Game... Isn't A Game? 

Thanks so much for watching! Do you have a copy of Pokemon Box Ruby & Sapphire or currently on a collecting journey to find one? Let me know your thoughts on it in general!

Pokemon Box is the main reason I'll never achieve my collecting goal of getting every Nintendo-published retail game.

Older Pokemon games have become SUPER expensive in the last decade, not even mentioning that other Nintendo games (especially on GBA, DS and Gamecube) are skyrocketing because they aren't available on anything other then their original system of release. Gee, wouldn't be cool if Nintendo had some sort of online store where you could purchase these games legally for a reasonable price? Oh well.

So glad I got (and kept in perfect condition) Pokémon Colosseum and XD Gale of Darkness at Gamestop, around 2007. Each were only about $20 to $25 lol. It's absolutely insane how much Pokémon games are now. Part of me hopes Nintendo will eventually remaster them, but I highly doubt it.

I never had this software (there ya go, easy thing to call this not-a-game game), but you've reminded me of all the old Pokemon games I had, neglected, and ultimately dint have anymore. Thanks, Jordan. Now I'm gonna go cry.

So here's the other thing about these Pokemon Box games (that really should be kicking the price down but what do I know): Every one of these Pokemon "bonus eggs" you can get in Box are either pointless or worthless. -Swablu with False Swipe: So many Pokemon learn False Swipe, it's not a competitive move at all. Heck, Altaria isn't as good as it wants to be, being a defensive Dragon/Flying type (or Dragon/Fairy in gen 6 and 7 as Mega Altaria). -Zigzagoon with Extremespeed: This has been made one of its egg moves since at least gen 7 in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, so all you need to do is breed a female Zigzagoon with a male Arcanine or Lucario with Extreme Speed and you're golden. -Skitty with Pay Day: This is pointless as, like with False Swipe, Pay Day has no competitive value and instead is a great way to increase in-game currency payout. Usually known by Meowth and Persian, and even worse, it's a TM in the Sword/Shield games. Now, Skitty isn't in Sword & Shield, but it IS available in Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl. But the less I talk about that game, the less my blood pressure skyrockets. -Pichu with Surf: As novel as this is and how much of a legacy the "Surfing Pikachu" is in every generation, therein lies the rub; there are ways to get it in nearly every generation, but not with the Surf HM. In the 4th generation, you could use that Pokewalker to go to Yellow Forest, teeming with Pikachus with Surf and Fly you could occasionally catch. Sadly, any Pokemon with HM moves could not be transferred up without forgetting them through a Move Deleter. But this all changed with Sword & Shield, where they finally said "the heck with it" and let Pikachu use Surf as a TM (TR technically). And yes, this does in fact mean that Pichu can learn Surf in the same way, not just Pikachu.

I remember reading that the reason that it only emulates for ruby and saphire and no other game is that pokemon box actually contains all of the relevant genIII data and all that the gba-gc cable transfered was your save data which it transfered back afterward. also the reason it was specifically RS is that there weren't any other mainline gba game released yet

Got this from the pokemon center NY when my brother and i were kids. Still have the disc and the memory card (which is honestly sorta dope, even if its essentially just half of a ruby/sapphire cart screwed together), but wed thrown out the box bc we didn’t care to have all of our games taking up a ton of space. Kinda regret that now that this and cubivore are worth what they are, but still cool to own those two that are so sought after from when we were kids

Interesting! We were on vacation in NYC and visited the Pokemon Center when Box was released. I picked up a few copies for friends back home at the time. We knew what it was and where it was available, no surprises there. I still have an originally sealed copy of Box R/S in my collection. At the time it was just an extra that nobody wanted. It's amazing to think about what it's worth now!

I actually sold my sealed big box copy when the prices spiked to fund most of my japanese pokemon CIB collection. Nothing like selling Pokemon Box for 3000, only to rebuy the japanese version for 30 haha

Wow. I owned Pokémon box, coliseum, XD GoD, and the Jirachi sapphire/ruby bonus disc... I got rid of all of those in 2009, sold them to GameStop. Never knew I'd be seeing a video about these 13 years later. Haha Still a huge Pokémon fan! Thanks!

Such a cool piece of history. I actually asked for one for my birthday all those years ago and my copy still works. Just the disc and memory card. Nothing fancy. But I love it

I just love how here in the UK back in 2018 I bought a pre owned copy of Pokemon Colluseum and was surprised they just gave me Pokemon Box with it. I heard it was rare so I thought I was getting a good deal. Turns out it isn't that rare in the UK.

I had no idea this game was so valuable in the US! I'm from the UK, and my older brother bought a copy of Colosseum back when it launched and got a copy of Pokemon Box with it. I remember that none of us had any idea what the game was about and thought that it was entirely useless, it wasn't until about like 10 years ago when I played through Colosseum again and looked up what Pokemon Box was for that I actually ended up buying a GBA to GCN link cable and actually using the game. I remember getting those Pokemon eggs and being so confused; I think I still have that Extremespeed Zigzagoon sitting around on our Pokemon Ruby cartridge somewhere. Yeah, the game here is really nowhere near as expensive as it is in the US; you can get Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon Box together from cex for £70.

god this "game" brings me back, always found it outrageous that they would charge you extra money for more pokemon storage, my first thought was "who has that many pokemon in their games?" and I didn't know it was a rare game, in mexico the videogame retail store "game planet" had it, at least for a while, I remember seeing it whenever I would go to the nintendo section.

I was a MASSIVE Pokémon fan since the dawn of Yellow with Sapphire being my all time favorite. I was always jealous of NY for getting all the coolest stuff like the event Pokémon's and I knew my parents would laugh if I even suggested going to NY just for a specific event (we would have had to fly). But even I didn't know this existed. It really was that obscure.

It's like a Pokemon Home but you actually keep your Pokemon once things die

I recall this game getting mentioned in my old guidebook for Firered and leafgreen. This video is the only time in the over 15 years since I've seen this box game be mentioned

This channel has potential to be even greater than your first channel. I loved Pokémon and had a GameCube but I never heard of this lmao

~8 years ago I was trying to find a cheap version of Pokemon Box while trying to get a pokemon with every ribbon on it. There's an obscure glitch with Pokemon Box's Adventure Mode that lets you bypass the save check at the Ruby/Sapphire battle tower, so if you happen to lose, you could reset the game without having to completely restart the tower from round 0, which would have helped immensily for getting those tower ribbons since my ribbon master pokemon was an unevolved eevee. I've only seen the glitch documented in like 2 places so I kinda wonder if demand for the game would go up even more if more ppl knew about it

I think this title also had a patch for the berry glitch that could be applied to Ruby or Sapphire.

My high school was near Pokemon Center/Nintendo World. I would see this game every day. I never felt I needed it, and I actually didn't know it was limited. If I knew it was, I would have held onto a copy.

So glad I found your gaming channel. Very interesting Pokémon back story. I hope in time you'll give us a proper recap from the very beginning of the series.

Wait Pokemon Box? That game sitting in my closet right now? I opened and played that thing once and didn't care for it. It's practically new sitting in a box with other old gamecube games right now! Damn... Glad I clicked this video lol

I need one of these so badly for actual collection managment. I almost bought one in 2014, but I was 10 years old then and could not afford it. The price never dropped and just grew and grew... Hoping for a miracle

THANK YOU for making this video! There is a HUGE misconception on this item in the community and some people just can't seem to wrap their brains around the fact that it is nothing more than a software application and NOT a game. Awesome video bro!

Back around 2011 or so, I learned about this game, and as a young Pokemon enthusiast, said to my parents it was something I would like. That year for my birthday, they got it for me. Even they don't remember the circumstances of how they got the game, but I'm forever thankful to them.

I remember bringing my son to the Pokémon Center in Rockefeller Center to get Pokémon Box for him when he was like 8 years old. Didn’t it come with a code to download Jirachi into Ruby and Sapphire?

I ended up getting the Japanese version back in 2003 (and an error got me 2). It came with a demo for Viewtiful Joe. The thing's sitting here somewhere in my place with the big box long destroyed.

I remember going to the local game shop and asked about the game, think the game's release was so obscure that it never had a singular-physical release, to the extent that it's old localized name (Pokemon Memory Magic) wasn't altered, and this was in like 2005 or so. eventually around 2018, i managed to find a loose EU copy at the local flea market for £12 with the GCN link cable. it did have a printed cover of the american box version, still pretty good though. kind of wonder how many of that 10K also includes the copies sold on the old Nintendo VIP Stars Catalogue? some reason i thought they only sold like 1K copies there. 🤔

It was at the moment 10:08 I realized I was not on Jordan main channel and learned he had two channels. What a good day.

I got this pretty cheap back in the day, to transfer my game saves onto my wii, as i lost my save data on my gold/ silver games as the battery died, so i was quite lucky at the time, but I'm still surprised how expensive it is now.

Very insightful video, thanks so much for making this!

I got lucky and unlucky acquiring Pokémon Box. Lucky because the disc for Box was inside of my Pokémon Colosseum box (yeah I had Colosseum inside as well, I wasn’t conned) but I didn’t have the memory card for the game, so I couldn’t even use it.

I always wanted my own copy of Pokemon box because I thought there would be some neat gimmick that would let me have fun playing something when I wasn't organizing my Pokemon but your video answered all I ever wondered about this "game". Good stuff. Also I can't believe I got to see someone else who owns a copy of rocket power beach bandits.

Interesting video. Pokemon never ceases to not be so damn costly due to never ending demand.

I would like to point out that even though the GameCube is region locked, if you have a way to boot the PAL version of the game, it is fully compatible with both US memory cards and US copies of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. If you actually want the Pokemon Box functionality instead of bragging rights, it's under $100 for a PAL copy and it'll be fully compatible with everything as long as you can boot PAL GameCube games somehow (region free Wii/GameCube mod, Swiss, Priiloader, etc).

Bought Pokemon Box for 5€ in a package with Pokemon Colosseum. As a european guy, i must clarify that there was indeed a PAL standalone release of Pokemon Colosseum. The kicker is that those particular copies were only availible as a Club Nintendo reward, and not in retail.

I have had mine since Christmas 2004 the game came out on my 9th birthday. Even more special. I sold games before I started collecting but I always kept Pokémon box.

Man, there was a used Pokemon Box sitting at my gamestop for at least a year or so, and I never could justify the price to buy it back when I was a kid, but I'd kill to have it now.

'You have to empty your bank in order to fill you Pokémon Bank.' 😂 The painful truth. 😂

You should do Crash of the Titans and Mind over Mutant soon. That was a weird era where Crash changes wildly.

I have just the disk, been kicking around sense I bought the GameCube used at a garage sale! the more you know! Thanks for making the video.

I got back into Pokémon in the early 20 teens and started playing my gen 3 games again. I discovered this game and bought it due to wanting the eggs for my collection. I picked up my CIB regular version of the game for $280, and I remember thinking how ridiculous the price was back then lol.

My mom bought this for me from the online store. I got the larger version with the cable. Being the fanatic that I was, I got the Pichu that had Surf.

I held a new copy of this game in my hands back in 2004 when visiting Pokémon Center NY. I remember seeing ads for this somewhere online and really wanting it without really knowing much about it, so I asked my parents if I could get it. They asked my older sister what it was, which she told them that it's not even a game, plus she's the owner of the Gamecube. Needless to say I never got it.

This was a great watch man

After seeing the gamecube collection, with all the same games i have, I would love to play games with Jordan

When I grew up I knew very little about pokemon and games in general, but I did have my own lil gba and copy of pokemon sapphire. Somehow I remember seeing a commercial for pokemon box somewhere out in the world, and for some reason I thought it was like a “database” of pokemon you could just buy to copy any pokemon you'd want to your own game. I was convinced that was the way most people completed their pokedex and always so jealous of people who were lucky enough to have their own endless pokemon box lol

Pokemon Stadium 1 & 2 (2JP and GS) both have ingame Pokemon storage systems of their own called N64 Boxes. There was even item storage.

Getting a copy of Pokemon Box was at least double the price even a year or so after they stopped selling it new. I finally got a copy for around 80 used. It's insane how much it's gone up now and to think I was annoyed I had to pay as much as I did back then.

I just modded my wii and put it in my system for my gen 3 mons. The price is crazy

Always wanted this to play and add to my Pokémon collection. Definitely picking it up at some point.

Those are some amazing Pokémon collection you have there Jordan. I can’t imagine how much it cost you to find every single one of these collectibles.

The only pokemon related peripheral i had was the colosseum bonus disc. I charged $20 to put Jirachi & people's ruby/sapphire games. I made over $500

Dude I am after this game to add to my collection... great video

Wow this is crazy. I just watched a short on this like a week ago. It's cool to get a deeper tive.

I have this complete with a partially ripped box (because I never threw the boxes out). Got it at Pokemon Center in NY. It was okay for playing Ruby on the TV.

I currently own Pokémon Box. Definitely the gem of my collection. I also have the complete NA Ruby/Sapphire E-Reader cards (including the Eon Ticket), the Bonus Jirachi Disk and Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire CIB. Also have Emerald but it’s loose. All I need now is Colosseum, Gale of Darkness, FRLG and a box/manual for Emerald and my Gen 3 collection will be complete.

We have it relatively lucky in the UK with Box. Most copies were sold bundled with Colosseum as a double pack and are around £70 at our main second hand games retailer, but even the much rarer single copy Box versions are going for about £95.

I got this ‘game’ when it was new! My dad took a New York trip for work and picked it up for me at that old Pokemon Center in NY. It still works to this day too. Being able to do a plaything of RSE or FRLG, dump my Pokemon on Box so theyre forever saved and being able to restart if I want to is awesome

Oh god… I had Pokémon box with the cable, given to me by a friend who got it from his grandparents as a gift when they went on holiday to the US… he didn’t want it as it wasn’t an actual game and I didn’t know and I’m guessing he didn’t know what it was worth.. but I ended up throwing it away when we moved house years later! The disc, cable, memory card and box were all in great condition… I had a switch when I ended up throwing it away but I had had many hours of fun playing with it, even getting all the eggs… maybe I should have checked online what it was worth… lol

This is interesting. I just watched the Nontendo Podcast episode where you mentioned buying this. Lol

I owned a copy of this and enjoyed it. It made swapping pokemon between generations a lot easier!

Avid collector here! Super glad to see someone talking about this!!!!

I remember reading about Pokemon Box originally in Nintendo Power back in the day and thinking it sucked that it was so inaccessible. I lived in Texas and definitely wasn't going to NYC anytime soon.

I’m loving this channel man

I actually have two copies that my mom bought for my brother and I. I was shocked to find out they were so rare.

I did not know this game existed, and honestly wouldn't bother forking out the dough to own it. I love pokémon games, but I've only ever been able to play a small handful mostly bought second hand or given as gifts. My pokémon journey started with Yellow when my parents gave me the special Pikachu edition Gameboy color, and after that a friend gifted me SoulSilver (which I never got to play outside an emulator because said "friend" stole it along with my PS2 and ALL of my PS2 games). My parents would also give me Pokémon Stadium for the N64, which I have fond memories of the minigames. A few years ago I picked up a DS, Black2 and Y from a gaming-focused second hand shop. I must say, though... playing Yellow through Stadium was AWESOME, and I absolutely loved the fact that I could turn my TV into a giant Gameboy.

Lol, not long ago I got back into my old Pokemon games and remembered Pokemon Box so I tried to find it and holy cow is it expensive. Same thing goes for XD: Gale of Darkness, as I never got that back then and kinda wanted to play through Colosseum again and then XD

I'm really heavy into the modded Pokémon games. Some people have really creative ideas

In the UK/EU, you could scratch off and redeeming codes found on vouchers found inside Nintendo hardware and software boxes from the GameCube/GBA era all the way until the Wii I believe. You could save the "points" accumulated on these vouchers (which varied in value depending on if you bought a console or a game) via the "Stars Catalogue". It would feature digital things like ringtones and wallpapers mostly but on occasion would post physical trinkets to your home for "Stars". Pokémon Box was such an exclusive item here. The game also came bundled with a free grey memory card, presumably to store the huge file size Pokémon Box actually needs for all the data. I still have my copy from 2004 and while playing Ruby/Sapphire on your TV with the GBA link was fun but if your GBA/GameCube link cable was at all damaged the game would immediately boot back to the main menu.

I remember my friend had this when I was a kid. I always thought it was stupid that it could only play Ruby and Sapphire on the TV. Game boy player did everything. I didn't realize it was also a expensive storage.

...makes me kinda glad I picked up a Japanese copy of this at a Retro Game Market

very grateful I got Colosseum and XD when they were new and still have them, not paying the ridiculous amounts they cost online

Wow didn't know pokemon box has risen so much in value. Lucklily I got colosseum, XD and box a couple of years ago and they were all pretty reasonable in price.

The main thing with the ability to play Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire with Pokemon Box is that you can Play the game and use the organizer without unplugging the console.

I honestly don’t remember how I got my copy as a kid since I live no where near New York, yet I still have it. Case and everything. I would play my copy of ruby on it all the time as a kid with my friends so that they could watch on the screen. It was always fun playing Pokémon on the tv.

Ordered mine in middle school for around 50$, big box and I discarded the cardboard. Might have to turn it into a mortgage payment someday.

I actually still have my copy of Pokémon Box that I got for my 10th birthday along with my GameCube, Pokémon Colosseum, and the Game Boy Player.

I sold Pokémon xd, coliseum, crystal,and fire emblem path of radiance(at diff times) for some weed when I was 17-18 🙈 I’m 25 now but they were still getting expensive back then. I was to lazy to sell it online to so I sold them to GameStop

I seriously need to check the quality of my disk now! I’ve had mine untouched for years now. I hope it works. Yes, I have the included save cartridge thingy (that’s a technical term), too.

interesting vid, looking forward to more ^ - ^

Have 2 original copies - one for me and one for my husband. We got them through ordering on the website when they released....Used them quite a bit.

I guess I'm lucky having gotten the PAL UK version when it came out via the Pokemon Colloseum Mega Pak - it's in the dual disc case which contains information for both Colloseum and Box.

Absolutely fantastic video 😎

Man I remember when I bought Ruby back then and I heard about that gamecube game. I wanted it but had no idea where to get it or where I'd get the money for it. Great memories. =

I remember one of my friends had this and we all would dump our Pokemon in it to try and fill it up.

I got it in the late 2000’s for a good price before prices skyrocketed. Plus glad I also have a Japanese version.

When you said poke-uh-mon instead of poke-ee-mon I knew you were legit😂

I literally have this but the case messed up from flood damage, disc still works tho idk if its worth selling at that point

(Around 4:51) I really need to find my Wii... My My Pokemon Ranch save file contains my "First Ever Pokemon" a Level 100 Infernape from Pokemon Diamond, sadly it's forever sealed there as you need the original trainer profile to withdraw it which I've since reset several times...

Cool video (: I learned something new!

I was one of the ones who got their copy near launch second hand..So I've got the Uk/European/Pal version as part of the Colosseum Double pack. I may do a video on it..

Every time I hear about the value of this game I freak out a bit it's sat on my shelf for almost 20 years now complete in box without much thought about it. I got it at the Pokemon Center by chance I wasn't even looking for it. I booted it up a few times to transfer Pokemon between FRLG and ruby and sapphire and maybe to play them on the TV but haven't touched it since. Maybe I should look to see if any Pokemon are sitting on the memory card.

I love this channel!

Is there a smooth way of using dolphin to transfer pokemon between cartridges with a box rom? My 2nd sp broke & my link cable got lost & besides I'd love the ability to transfer pokemon without the trade animation & trade fodder

I got a sealed Japanese copy from a Hawaii seller last year, came with the memory card and demo disc obviously, I assume they found old store stock or something

Kinda makes me wanna shiny hunt all 5 eggs if possible... but that would require more money than I'm willing to spend lmao.

I had this game growing up, though I have no idea why or how we got it (I was 4 when it was released). I am almost certain I still have it, though between the belongings of myself and my brothers, it's probably in a box (hehe) somewhere, so I cannot confirm at this time that it is still in my possession. Learning about its value has made me interested in finding it, but I probably won't worry about it for the foreseeable future.