Eif Baby Pokémon: The Cutest Modern Bootlegs I Have Ever Seen

I began getting back into collecting Pokémon trading cards with a quest: to collect every Mew ever.

I figured it would be an undertaking of sorts, all of the Mew cards I could find, all of the strange, the official, the unofficial, the custom ones, the non-tcg cards. All of the Mews.

Of course I began to attend local card shows, hoping to fulfill my Mew fantasies (which I did somewhat). 

One particular vendor I had visited had a fun derpy shining mew parody card, a custom one with star-foiling, not a bootleg, but fun either way. Of course it had to go into the collection. That same vendor had a little cardboard box filled with these glittery, extremely thick and somewhat small cards - maybe not necessarily small, but I guess more square than a regular (standard size) card. 

Of course I immediately began to look at all of them hoping to find my beloved Mew.

Each one I browsed past, cute baby-ified pocket monsters, small, chibi, most likely stolen art, but adorable regardless - and the foiling... the foiling was awesome!

I did not catch what the vendor had called them at the time, but now I know. These little baby Pokémon are somewhat currently trendy, and are referred to as Eif-Baby (Eif-Babies? Elf? I don't know) cards.

I went home that day and Googled "Baby Mew Card", bewildered by the numerous listings selling the card for anywhere between $6 and $9. Surely this was not a legitimate card, so why would it demand so much?

I browsed a bit more and finally discovered that whole series of cards, the ones the vendor had been selling, and found that they were available in sealed boxes for about the price that people were asking for only the Mew. It was a no-brainer really, or maybe not, I'm sure probably a waste of money.

I love wasting money though apparently, as you can see. I mean, come on, look at those boxes. They're begging to be purchased. Pikachu... and Piplup... and all the COOLEST Eeveelutions? They know their audience.

Sure It Has A Pikachu On It, But What's In It?

Short answer here, Mew, that was enough to justify my $7 on one box. If I could hit Mew on the one box, then it would justify that expense, and the other two? Well, bootleg collection stowaway? 

My fiancé and I opened half of the box each, I forget the exact pack count, but I think it was about twelve packs a piece.

The wrappers felt like average card pack wrappers, kinda gritty on the outside? Dry maybe? My expectations were pretty neutral going into it.

We both did our typical pack ritual, almost a cheers of sorts, dinking the packs together, and we ripped.

(Note as well, Eif-Baby packs are only three cards each, and about the thickness of a regular TCG pack... they're very strange indeed.)

I discarded the wrapper to reveal a textured foil finish, a trainer or something - I was too distracted, as my next card was revealed, and it was my chase in its full bootleg eif-baby glory. Mew.

$7 well spent (ignore that I spent $30 something in total when shipping and the other two boxes are accounted for).

In my eyes, Eif-Babies were it right from the start... I mean, come on. Look at how cute it is. So, brownie points there for the first pack chase luck.

Anyway, let me get back on topic here... we ripped and ripped, dinking our packs together, rummaging through a treasure trove of interesting shiny squares of thick cut cardboard (some of which left a strange greasy feeling on our fingers) ogling at the baby-ified wonders within, until we hit the end.

Seemingly the packs held one card from each 'rarity' - 

• QR (Baby cards)
• SR (Regular Pokémon, most likely stolen art)
• SSR (Baby cards, like my Mew here, not sure what makes them any different from QR cards)
• HR (Trainer Cards)
• GR (Not sure the theme exactly, but they appeared to be regular art Pokémon, evolved forms maybe?)
  

I'm not posting a picture of every single card I pulled, but here's a shot of some of the cutest ones... peep the original Kanto trio...

So Were They Worth It?

Ultimately, for a quick $7 purchase, I'd say not bad at all honestly. They're definitely kinda niche, but also popular in the mainstream right now, as a few YouTube personalities have documented their existence.

They make for a fun and quick opening experience, especially in a time where cards are at an all time high in elusiveness, and offer a fun little break from the hectic TCG collecting scene. 

Nobody is stiff-arming a toddler out of the way at Walmart for this one. 

So what started with a love for mew, has now kicked off my new passion for baby Pokémon that I apparently never knew I had until that fateful day at the card show. Look at me now. 

A proud owner of Eif-Babies.