Isn’t that just because of where the question is being asked?
And implicit in the Reddit question is value and prices. I don’t think they think about collectability when they can’t even define alt art.
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We already have Greninja gold star few years ago, and I’m hoping they would continue (maybe after rebooting ex) as some Pokemons lack a gold star like…
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If Alt Arts are the new Gold Stars, then why do I like them?
I’m KIDDING! I think Gold Stars have a special place in the hobby, but their appeal is because of a totally different reason than the appeal of alt arts. Considering just the cardboard and ink - ignoring population, price, etc.
This may be an unpopular opinion. I mostly side in the no camp on this one. @Dyl
I see alt arts as not the new Gold Stars but the new set cards. Modern sets are so large they are difficult to complete, at least for me. This subset of cards in each set allows me the opportunity to collect cool cards from different artist and styles. Each set of alt arts have a different identity similar to OG sets,. Collecting the alt art of each set has become my new thing.
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I voted no and I obviously agree with all the motivations above, like scarcity, pull rate, overall cohesion and so on.
Idk if someone already stated this, and It’s something based on how they irrationally feel.
Without socials or internet back then, for a kid, shinings, crystals, gold stars had literally a mysterious and mythical aura.
I’ve personally never seen such cards when I was in school, but I remember rumors of cousins pulling shining Charizard or people claiming some local game shops had gold star mewtwo or whatever. They actually feel epic chase cards.
This nostalgic bias and original magic is not easy to exclude, it would be fun to ask to some little kid today (if they aren’t too exposed to social media)
It’s interesting that this topic keeps being brought up!
As I mentioned in the other thread, each generation has its own unique set of ultra rare cards that can’t really be compared to another set. The fact that gold stars have become the standard comparison point illustrates their position relative to these newer rarities.
More interesting to me is the disparity between more serious collectors here on E4 and those on reddit, who do seem to believe that alt arts are the new gold stars. As @pfm points out, this discussion quickly moves away from the idea of making direct comparisons between the two classes of cards and into the realm of “will it go stonk.” And this is the main difference between the gold star era and today. People today are much more focused on investing/future value, grading, and catching the next boom. If demand continues to be at the sky-high levels we’re seeing now, maybe things will continue on the moon trajectory. I’m not the first to make this point, but the reality of scarcity within the gold star era is what has made these cards so popular today. In no way is that replicable now.
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I don’t think so. Supply is way too high I think and they’re coming off a very high point in the hobby overall. Unless the demand is just through the roof at some point, the supply should be readily available for most of them. I feel on the Japanese side there might be a slight edge because of pullrates or other factors on some of them, but it’s still very high pop in high grades across the board in English & Japanese. Pre-2020 cards though I think there’s still good room for opportunity, but so much changed after 2020/2021 in the market I feel.
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The thing is, even if pokemon did people would move on from them pretty quickly because they wont have the same scarcity and demand as old gold stars. Remember when they did shinings again in shinings legends? How often do you see people talk about those? The most expensive shining from that set excluding promos is the mew at 30 bucks in mint condition in english.
The gold stars have no modern equivalent.
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One thing I’ll say from the opposite perspective is that there is not really a vintage equivalent to alt arts. They are a novel concept! A new thing! People love them! What more would you want? They are so refreshing, they don’t need to be carried by being comparable to something old because they stand on their own.
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That’s because Shinings and Gold Stars mainly have rarity going for them.
The only good Shining is Gyarados and that’s because it’s the most anti-Shining template.
The E4 poll on Gold Stars I think only had Rayquaza above 9 on a 10 point scale.
Thats the exact point I was making
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This.
Right-minded and fairest comment. Can I give 10 hearts instead of 1?
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This Lugia hurts to look at. Put him back on the GB promo.
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By this logic, specifically this part,
then alt arts are also the modern base set holos, neo shinings, crystals, exs, lvl Xs, dp shiny reverses, legend cards, primes, break cards, BW full arts, XY full arts, tag team alt arts, etc.
Of course the alt arts are the most desirable modern cards. That’s not even a mildly controversial statement. It’s almost a non-statement because of how self-evident it is. But it makes the comparison to gold stars meaningless, if gold star is just a replacement for “desirable card”.
So while I don’t disagree with the perspective on the question, I think it is a completely uninteresting to interpret what is being asked as “are alt arts are desirable?”
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Going by rarity, Alt Arts are much higher to pull. For example, Rayquaza vmax AA is 1 in 2,333 packs (about 65 booster boxes). Source: Reddit - Dive into anything
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It’s harder to pull, but are Alt Arts actually rarer relative to Gold Stars? Just by flat numbers alone, are there 100,000 Rayquaza AAs in existence? What about Rayquaza Gold Stars? 10,000?
Considering how many cards are being printed today compared to back then, it appears to be quite a stark difference.
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We are in different era and situation now. People who insist that for Alt Arts to be modern equivalent to Gold Stars, it must be low print run and be minted during a time when Pokemon TCG was in low demand is just being illogical.
It’s like telling me for carbonara pasta to be authentic, we must use the original cooking method, copper pots and ingredients from hundreds years ago which is not possible.
According to this source:
A GS in EX Deoxys was 1 in every 2 booster boxes. There are 3 GS in EX Deoxys. So Rayquaza GS would be 1 in 6 boxes.
For there to be 10,000 Ray GS, EX Deoxys would only have a 60,000 booster box print run which would be equivalent to 19.44m cards printed. Is that too high? Too low? Scale up or down accordingly.
edit: Rayquaza V alt art should be more than 120k less than 180k with a 1.2-1.8bn print run.
For Ray GS to be 120-180k then print run would be: edit wrong math - thanks @pfm
233.28m-349.92m
I don’t know the print runs back then but 350m seems way too high. Even 200m seems high, so I’d say that there are more than likely more Rayquaza V alt arts than Gold Stars ever printed - that’s even before attrition. I would say it’s more comparable to the VMAX alt arts/rainbow rare cards.
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Nope. Referring to this:
