I am a sucker for trading cards, there's no denying it. I recently explored incredibly rare Pokémon GAME BOY promotional cards, and now, after waiting for over a year for these things to arrive, I can now explore... Dreamcast Trading Cards?
Yeah. Released by Limited Run Games, these are collectable trading cards that celebrate SEGA's most popular video game console.
Featuring over 200 cards to collect, showcasing art and characters from some of the best Dreamcast games such as Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Phantasy Star Online, Shenmue, Phantasy Star Online & more.
I placed my order way back in September 2024, and in classic Limited Run Games fashion, there were multiple delays and no way to easily cancel my order.
So here I am, with a Booster Box featuring 24 packs, inside of a cardboard box that looks like a Dreamcast, alongside a smaller Hobby Box that looks like the controller, featuring 4 packs and an official Dreamcast holographic sticker.
What's surprising is that these are still in stock. Usually, LRG products go out of stock, but these are readily available. A Hobby Box starts at $24.99, and a Booster Box featuring 24 packs starts at $124.99.
The cards themselves are pretty thick, and just about fit in a traditional trading card sleeve. Designs have been taken from an array of popular Dreamcast games, with holofoil versions of each card to collect.
There are also incredibly rare serialised cards to obtain. Each artwork has 15 serialised cards, marked with a number between 1 - 15. I am not sure what the pull rate is on these, but from the 28 packs I opened, I managed to pull two serialised cards.
That means there's only about 3000 serialised cards printed if there's 15 for every 200 cards, probably less, seeing as about 30 of the cards are not from the base set.
To go alongside this hefty set, you can buy a Dreamcast TCG binder to store them in, which I did, and it's a pretty tidy binder, featuring nostalgic visuals with enough space for the entire set.
Outside of the standard "Series 1 Character cards" there are Logo Cards, Title Screen Cards, Graffiti Cards and VMU Cards to collect, each featuring unique artwork, and are inside "mini sets".
This makes it a little overcomplicated I'll admit, but it's nice for those who want to complete master sets of this... that's if they don't sell out, which is a concern of mine.
I would love to finish this entire set, but I feel like I am against the clock because LRG don't tend to remake their products, hence the "limited run" in their name, so will I ever complete this? Probably not, unless I bump into someone who also collects the so i can physically trade them, but what are the chances of that happening?
That said, the artwork on many of these trading cards is incredibly nostalgic. I remember vividly playing on my Dreamcast as a child, so having the chance to mix my hobby of trading cards with that core gaming memory is a pleasure.
The Sonic cards are bright, vibrant and keeps the artistic style of Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, whereas Shenmue's cards have a heavier focus on the characters.
Crazy Taxi's cards feature a range of characters, vehicles and levels, and so does Jet Set Radio. There are even cards exclusively focused on artwork/graffiti from JSR, too.
There are some noticeable shortcuts taken on some cards. You can see in the image below, the two House Of The Dead cards are similar because one is just zoomed into the face of the Zombie, and the other is a full-body shot.
That happens rarely in the entire set to be honest, but as a trading card nerd, it hurts me inside a little when they literally sit next to each other in my binder.
I did notice on Limited Run Game's website that they mention that there are "five booster pack wrappers to collect", but I have only seen 3 designs in my entire booster box and hobby box.
The same goes for "ultra rare insert cards". I am not sure what these are, and out of the 28 packs, I have yet to find one. I presumed these would be insert cards in the booster box?
But to no avail, my booster box did not come with one. So either it's the same as the wrappers, they don't exist, or I have just got extremely unlucky.
Overall, it's been a pleasure to open this nostalgic, yet new trading card set featuring some of my favourite games, on one of my most memorable game consoles growing up.
The quality of the cards and the artwork is respectable, and there's a lot to collect, which does excite me; however, I do believe these may go out of stock before I finish the set.
Hopefully, eBay will be my friend when that happens, but for now, I really like seeing nostalgic things like this come to fruition... even if I have to wait 14 months for them to be delivered.
Limited Run Games also sold "Limited Edition" Trading Card Packs, which I have coming, but again, they're delayed, so I'll likely update this article in 2026 when they arrive, showcasing those limited Sonic Adventure packs! Happy collecting, folks.
