So I received 800 cards back from CGC. Here were two returns. I’ll probably keep the 9.5 since I was able to grade the card for $7.5, the CGC 8 is definitely getting cracked and submitted to PSA. I know there are a ton of CGC dong-lickers in the forum just like there are metapoop fanatics so I’m not going to comment on what I think of CGC’s grading at this time. There’s some cool stuff from the sub though that I’ll throw in here down the road as I continue to go through it all.
About the card: So these are probably the most under rated/valued pokemon trophy card you can get your hands on and a lot of it has to do with an uncertainty in numbers as well as the fact that it was a top prize in the Spring (estimation of 87 copies awarded) but there is a lot of muddled and conflicting information about how it was awarded in the Winter (could be a couple hundred awarded. As far as I know, there is no way to differentiate the difference between Spring and Winter - so you can just submit to a grader with the title tournament you want. The golden foil lettering at the bottom says “Pokémon Trading Card official card game tournament award” which you’ll see on several other trophys.
This is one of three trophy cards of the same style/set illustrated by Ryo Ueda with the other two being the Miracle Diamond (extremely rare since the Battle Roads tournament in 2008 was cancelled after the first day, and the Wonder Platinum (extremely rare in how it was awarded - probably around 35ish out there). A different pokemon diety can be seen in the background of each of these three cards.
