Dragonball Z Trading Cards Series 2 – Artbox

Series: Dragonball Z

Company: Artbox

Year: 1998

Main distribution: United States / Europe

Barcode: 601139123709

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These are trading cards from Dragonball Z by Artbox. This is Series 2. The series exists out of 72 cards, with 10 Hologram cards in silver and gold versions and 4 transparant chaser cards, creating 96 cards total. The images are based on the end of the Saiyan Saga, Namek Saga and Ginyu Saga.

Artbox (also known as DBA Artbox Entertainment or Japan Printing Products USA Inc.) was an American publisher of trading cards and Collectable Card Games. Their headquarters was in San Clemente, California, USA. A subsidiary of Ensky (Formerly Amada Printing MFG. Co., Ltd), Artbox Entertainment was established in 1995 as a United States based company to manufacture and market popular licensed products by specialising in the category of printed toys and collectables. Founded over 65 years ago, Ensky is Japan’s leading manufacture, marketer and distributor of licensed products. With strong support from Japan’s leading manufacturers, Artbox Entertainment was well equipped as a leader of printed toys and collectables for licensed products.

They gained many licenses, including Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Pokémon, Sailormoon and many more.

Here I’ll show my Dragonball Z Trading Cards Series 2.

The cards are recognisable as having along the bottom a black bar with Dragonball Z on it with the text “Is it Defeat or Victory that Waits in the Dark?”.
The backs have Dragonball Z on the sides in black borders, and an image of Vegeta VS Krillin and Gohan with text on it. The Hologram cards have Dragonball Z on one side with an image of Goku arriving on Namek, with some text below it.

They came in packs of 6; 5 normal cards and 1 Hologram card.

Although I always got silver Hologram cards, I also found golden ones. I think they are from the American packs.

I got 96/96, the complete set.

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These are the first Dragonball Z cards I collected. They were also everywhere. After Series 1, I had to complete Series 2 too of course! I was still trying to get all of Series 1 at the time, as well as the new Series 3, while also trying to get Series 2, so there was a lot of swaps going on.

For some reason, I cut the artwork of the packaging out instead of just keeping the full pack. I think I wanted to remember what the packs looked like, but not keep packaging? Luckily I stopped doing that but my older sets like this one will just have fronts sadly.

My uncle worked at the NATO, an American base, which had an American shop that imported stuff from America for the Americans based here. Occasionally my uncle brought me along and I would buy tons of cards there. I would also ask him to buy me some every time he went. Although I usually stuck to the cards that I couldn’t get anywhere else, I also bought some of these there.

I traded these everywhere in an attempt to get a full set. On school, on markets, with friends etc. Luckily my uncle is a collector and gambler as well and knew the importance of getting the full set! He traded some with his American co-workers kids as well for me. Not all cards are super minty, but I was happy to have gotten the full set. This is when the Golden G cards started to appear. I think Americans got different ones than Europeans, as all my friends had Silver G cards. Americans also seemed to get these illusive C cards. Now I suddenly had more cards to get while I thought I was complete! I had to trade for all the Gold G cards. In the end I ended up buying the last one on eBay. I also had traded for C1. I found C2 only recently by coincidence on a Vintage Dragonball FB Group, and bought it. It came all the way from America. I thought I was only missing C3 now, but then I find out there’s another C4 card as well! Thanks JC for pointing that out. And thanks for finding them on eBay for me to buy as well. I have now the full complete set! Childhood dream come true!

I still have a few doubles left as well if anyone wants to trade for other series or buy (G6 (silver), G9 (silver), 1, 10, 22, 25, 27, 39, 39, 49, 52 and 70)?

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Got any more details / information you think I should add? Or did I get something wrong? Do you own any of these cards? Or do you have the full set? Would you like to trade any? Do you agree or disagree with my findings? Let me know in the comments below!