Gem Pack is the volume that most Simplified Chinese-exclusive artwork comes from — and it is the one collectors search by name without quite knowing what is inside. Here is what each volume is, what it contains, and how to tell them apart.
Six Gem Pack volumes exist. Every one of them is a Simplified Chinese product: an all-foil mini set built for the mainland China market, with artwork commissioned for that release and no English or Japanese equivalent. If you have seen a Chinese-exclusive card doing unusual numbers, there is a good chance it came out of one of these six boxes.
The volumes are not interchangeable, and the differences matter when you are deciding which single card to buy. One volume is built around a four-card picture that only reads correctly as a set. One is a night-themed volume with five exclusives in a single tier. Two of them turn on the same cast of characters, a few years apart. Below is the whole series, volume by volume.
What a Gem Pack volume actually is
Start with the format, because it is different from anything in the English or Japanese line. A Gem Pack volume is an all-foil mini set: every card in the product carries a foil treatment, and the checklist is organised by Pokémon rather than by a single running set number. Published checklists put Gem Pack Vol. 2 at 140 foil treatments. [1]
The sealed product is small. A Vol. 2 booster box holds 15 packs of four foil cards. [1] That is a fraction of a standard English booster box, and it is the reason the per-box yield of high-rarity cards matters more here than in a main expansion.
Rarity inside a Gem Pack volume is marked with a star scale rather than the familiar circle, diamond and star. Each Pokémon in Vol. 2 has a run of treatments climbing from commons through to a three-star top card — usually a VMAX plus one illustration rare, both printed at the ★★★ tier. [1] The three-star slots are what the volumes are chased for.
None of it is a reprint of another language. The artwork in each volume was commissioned for the Chinese release, in a limited print run, and no reprint has been confirmed for any of them. That combination — commissioned art, small print run, no English or Japanese version — is what separates a Gem Pack exclusive from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
The six volumes, and the code for each
Every volume carries a set code of the form CBB1C through CBB6C, where the digit is the volume. The codes are printed on the products themselves, and they are how you identify a card in a listing that omits the set name.
| Volume | Set code | Released | Cards we currently list from it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gem Pack Vol. 1 | CBB1C | 2025 | Captain Pikachu & Friede · Sprigatito & Liko · Fuecoco & Roy · Quaxly & Dot |
| Gem Pack Vol. 2 | CBB2C | 16 May 2025 | Umbreon · Sylveon · Leafeon · Eevee |
| Gem Pack Vol. 3 | CBB3C | 26 September 2025 | Gengar · Meowth · Cubone · Chandelure · Ceruledge |
| Gem Pack Vol. 4 | CBB4C | 2026 | Ponyta |
| Gem Pack Vol. 5 | CBB5C | 2026 | Captain Pikachu & Friede · Floragato & Liko · Crocalor & Roy · Quaxwell & Dot |
| Gem Pack Vol. 6 | CBB6C | 2026 | Applin |
The list above is what we currently hold graded, not the full contents of each volume. Every volume contains far more than one or four chase cards — Vol. 2 alone carries 140 foil treatments. The full 10-card ranking of the most-chased Simplified Chinese exclusives, with seven of the ten coming out of these volumes, is in our top 10 list.
How the numbering works
A Gem Pack card is identified by a group number and a treatment number, not by a single set position. A Vol. 2 connected-art card prints as CBB2C 07 15/15: group 07, the fifteenth treatment out of fifteen. Vol. 2 groups run from 01 for Eevee through 09 for Sylveon, with the Legendary birds and the trainers filling the groups after that — which is how 140 treatments fit on one checklist without a 140-card numbering run. [1]
The trap is the fraction. All four of Vol. 2’s connected-art cards end in 15/15, so the fraction alone cannot tell you which card you are looking at. Eevee is 01 15/15, Umbreon is 06 15/15, Leafeon is 07 15/15 and Sylveon is 09 15/15. Keep the leading group number with the card or your checklist will not be able to tell them apart. [2]
Different volumes use different treatment counts, which is why the number after the slash changes between them. Vol. 3 runs to seven treatments in a group, so its cards print as NN 07/07. The pattern is consistent across the series even though the totals are not.
Volume 2: the four-card forest
Gem Pack Vol. 2 is the most discussed Simplified Chinese volume of 2025, and the reason is a single commission. Illustrator HYOGONOSUKE drew four Eeveelutions as one continuous scene, and the four cards only resolve into their intended picture when they sit in the right order. [2][3]
| Position | Card | Printed identifier | What carries the eye |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — far left | Leafeon | CBB2C 07 15/15 | A branch holding the panorama’s horizontal line |
| 2 | Sylveon | CBB2C 09 15/15 | Ribbons and drifting petals moving into the clearing |
| 3 | Umbreon | CBB2C 06 15/15 | A dark silhouette anchored against a sunlit trunk |
| 4 — far right | Eevee | CBB2C 01 15/15 | A front-facing pose that looks out of the picture |
All four sit at the ★★★ tier and all four carry the same illustrator credit. Umbreon is the panel that leads the volume commercially — it is the only Simplified Chinese-exclusive Umbreon illustration that exists, and Umbreon alternate arts already sit at the top of Eeveelution pricing in every language. The four also impose a display constraint that a normal collection does not: a nine-pocket binder page gives you three positions per row, so the sequence breaks at the page boundary. Four across, or a purpose-built four-card display, keeps it whole. [3]
Four graded copies of the panorama, each in a PSA 10 slab, are in our Chinese Exclusive catalogue: Umbreon, Sylveon, Leafeon and Eevee.
Volume 3: the night volume
Vol. 3 landed on 26 September 2025 and took the opposite approach to Vol. 2. Where the forest panorama is daylight and open, Vol. 3 is lantern-lit and enclosed, and its five Chinese-exclusive illustration rares all sit in one tier rather than one of them leading the group. [4][5]
Meowth is the clearest case of a Simplified Chinese exclusive using imagery that would not read the same way elsewhere: a drift of glowing lanterns above a town after dark. Gengar is the character the volume leads with across its packaging, drawn mid-prank at a tea table. Cubone, Chandelure and Ceruledge complete the set of five. [5]
The consequence for buyers is that Vol. 3 has no single flagship. Its five exclusives trade within a band of each other rather than around one standout, so the choice between them is an artwork decision rather than a ranking decision.
Volumes 1 and 5: the same cast, twice
The first and fifth volumes are a matched pair, and the relationship is easy to miss if you only look at one of them. Vol. 1 puts four Pokémon Horizons characters on card as a group: Captain Pikachu with Friede, and the three starters with their partners — Sprigatito with Liko, Fuecoco with Roy, Quaxly with Dot. Vol. 5 returns to the same four pairings with the starters in their evolved forms: Floragato & Liko, Crocalor & Roy and Quaxwell & Dot, with Captain Pikachu & Friede returning unchanged.
That structure makes the two volumes a natural pair to buy together rather than a redundant one to choose between. The Vol. 1 set is in our catalogue as Captain Pikachu & Friede, Sprigatito & Liko, Fuecoco & Roy and Quaxly & Dot.
Volumes 4 and 6
The fourth and sixth volumes are the two we currently hold a single graded card from each. Ponyta comes from Vol. 4 and Applin from Vol. 6. Both are commissioned Chinese artwork, which is the point of interest in them: the graded population for a card like this is among the smallest in the Chinese range, because the artwork exists in no other language and the volume was never reprinted.
We list what we can source and grade, so this section will grow as more Vol. 4 and Vol. 6 cards come through the pipeline. If a specific card from either volume is not showing, the sourcing route is described at the end of this guide.
Buying a Gem Pack card, graded
Two things decide what you are actually buying. The first is the grade: every card we list is a PSA 10 (Gem Mint), the highest grade PSA awards — a virtually flawless card, centred within PSA’s strict tolerance, with sharp corners, clean edges and a clean surface. If you want the mechanics of that scale, our grading guide covers how to read a PSA, BGS or CGC label.
The second is the labelling question that trips people up more often than grading does. A Chinese-exclusive card is not the same as a Chinese card, and the difference is not the language — it is whether the illustration has appeared in any other language. All six Gem Pack volumes sit on the exclusive side of that line. The three branches explained walks through the test we apply.
Every volume in this guide is in our Chinese Exclusive catalogue. If the card you want is not listed, tell us the volume, the card and the printed identifier — CBB2C 07 15/15 is enough — and we will come back with a price and a lead time before you pay anything.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Gem Pack in the Pokémon TCG?
Gem Pack is a series of Simplified Chinese all-foil mini sets released for the mainland China market. Each volume carries its own set code — CBB1C through CBB6C — and contains artwork commissioned for the Chinese release only, with no English or Japanese equivalent. Six volumes have been released, from Gem Pack Vol. 1 through Gem Pack Vol. 6.
How many cards are in Gem Pack Vol. 2?
Published checklists list 140 foil treatments for Gem Pack Vol. 2 (CBB2C). The volume is organised by Pokémon rather than by one running set number, so each species has its own group of treatments — Eevee runs from 01 to 15 in group 01, and the four connected-art cards all sit at treatment 15/15 of their respective groups. A sealed Vol. 2 booster box holds 15 packs of four foil cards.
Are Gem Pack cards exclusive to Simplified Chinese?
The artwork is. Every Gem Pack volume has included original artwork commissioned for the Chinese release only, in limited print runs, and no reprint has been confirmed for any volume. That is why a Gem Pack card is classified as Chinese Exclusive rather than simply as a Chinese printing.
Which Gem Pack volume has the Umbreon?
Umbreon is in Gem Pack Vol. 2 (CBB2C), printed as CBB2C 06 15/15 at the three-star tier. It is one of four connected-art cards drawn as a single scene by illustrator HYOGONOSUKE, and it is the only Simplified Chinese-exclusive Umbreon illustration that exists.
Can you source a specific Gem Pack card for me?
Yes. We source and grade to order, so a card does not have to be in the catalogue for us to find it. Tell us the card, the volume and the printed identifier, and we will confirm a price and a lead time before you pay anything. Pre-order items are dispatched within 30 days of order confirmation, and most ship in 7 to 14 days.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- Red Cat Collectibles — Pokémon Gem Pack Vol. 2 Guide: Simplified Chinese Card List & Sylveon Chase. CBB2C release date of 16 May 2025, the 140-treatment checklist, the 15 packs × 4 foil cards box configuration, and the full star-rarity checklist. redcatcollectibles.com
- PokéAri — Four Cards, One Forest: The Eevee Art of Gem Pack Vol. 2. The four cards’ printed identifiers and their correct left-to-right order (Leafeon → Sylveon → Umbreon → Eevee), and the note that all four end in 15/15. pokeari.com
- Bulbapedia — HYOGONOSUKE. Illustrator credit for all four connected-art panels in Gem Pack Vol. 2. bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net
- PlayVault — Gem Pack Vol. 3 Booster Box (Simplified Chinese). CBB3C released 26 September 2025 in mainland China. playvault.ae
- Red Cat Collectibles — Pokémon Gem Pack Vol. 3 Guide: Simplified Chinese Card List. CBB3C card identifiers, including Meowth 02-07 and Gengar 03-07, and the five exclusive three-star cards. redcatcollectibles.com
- Collector Station — Top 15 Chinese Exclusive Pokémon Cards. Cross-reference for the Gem Pack-exclusive artworks. collectorstation.com
Set codes, release dates and checklist figures are cited to the sources above as published. Card membership is as listed in our own catalogue, and the cards named in each volume are the ones we currently hold graded — not the full contents of the set. No price in this guide is a forecast.