The first Secret Rare was the Dark Raichu in the Team Rocket set, which was released on April 24th, 2000. This was only the case for the English Team Rocket set. The first Japanese Set with a Secret Rare were probably the Triple-Rares and Shining Magikarp/Gyarados from Neo Destiny/Darkness, and to Light… (March 9th, 2001). Most sets contain 0-5 Secret Rares, with sometimes a set with little over 10 Secret Rares.
And then Sun & Moon comes in… I think this graph someone made on reddit speaks for itself:
source (not sure how accurate it is, but it sets the message regarding too many SR in S&M sets)
Personally I think Secret Rares lost their meaning in the Sun & Moon sets. Now they are just regular holos like any other set, except more expensive… Not sure where they are going with this, but I think they are extremely exaggerating.
Set collectors certainly don’t like it, I personally don’t like it even though I don’t even collect nor open boosters. Does anyone besides the Pokemon company themselves getting the money like this at all? Except maybe people casually opening boosters now getting more epic pulls.
Yep they abused it so now secret rares lost their magic.
As for early japanese secrets, weren’t white diamond chansey, imakuni’s doduo, and white star team rocket secret rares?
Yeah I agree that the secret rare has lost that element of elusiveness, but also the fact that a majority of secret rares now are energy and trainer cards is so strange… I know some people like them but I just don’t understand it. That is like making the holo rainbow energy in TR the secret rare instead of the Dark Raichu.
I was a lock for buying into Guardians Rising (managed to complete a Master Set of S&M base for a pretty reasonable price) but once I saw that TCPI wasn’t slowing down with the insane number of secret rares now or in future expansions, I outright just decided the S&M era just isn’t worth completing anymore…I can think of a vast number of older cards/sets to throw thousands of $$$ into that are virtual locks to maintain/increase in value than cards from this era that are still being printed en masse…
They need to slow it down because the ‘serious’ collectors with the cash that drive the market for these secret rares and the like are becoming annoyed that TCPI is watering down their uniqueness/collectability.
On the flipside, TCPI are doing me a favor by keeping my wallet closed…for now, at least, until I save up enough for some other cards i’ve been targeting.
Some people like a card almost solely because of it’s rarity. Would the Snap pokemon cards still have as much appeal if they were secret rare in a pack? What if they were secret rare in a set with 10 secret rares? I suspect they’d be much less appealing to most people. Having 10+ secret rares per set makes the cards fewer in circulation, which at least to a degree helps with the oversaturation of today’s sets. This is the only redeeming thing S/M has going for it from an investment perspective. I’d still invest in WOTC over S/M though. Every card that’s not secret rare in S/M sets will dip significantly.
I think the point of the secret rare is to make opening a booster box feel more like opening a booster pack. The perfect ratio for secret rares was back in BW/XY, where you got one in every 2-3 boxes. Now if you don’t get at least one in a box it feels like you’ve been shafted.
I like the idea of the Rainbow Rares, but making versions of every single card just makes the sets so bloated. If I was in charge, I’d have maybe 1 SR gold trainer and choose 2-3 Pokemon to get secret rares. The BREAK era secret rares were really sweet, and the shiny Pokemon in BW were awesome too.
Imagine if for Burning Shadows Pokemon made all-new, shiny artwork of Ho-Oh, Charizard, and Darkrai GX? How epic would that be?? Way better than the Rainbow Rares imo.
classic case of a company cashing in on what the people want. thing is they have the chance of bursting the bubble, but in the case of Pokemon, no. Human psychology is a very weird anomaly.
I think the Hyper Rares / Rainbow Rares are a great addition to the TCG.
I don’t agree with how many there are though, it’s almost overwhelming.
I would have much preferred them to keep it to 1-3 per set maximum (that would mean set mascots) and have the artwork more similar to the XY BREAK UR’s like @fourthstartcg has already stated.
I feel a little robbed that the HR/RR have the same artwork as the SR cards, being that it’s just a CGI pose of the Pokemon.
I think the term “secret rare” lost its meaning way back in the EX era. Most are box toppers (wow, such secret), yet gold stars technically aren’t secret rares despite being the hardest cards to pull at the time. Then you have the SL and SH shinies, Unseen Forces Unowns, Arceus ARs, etc. that aren’t secret rares, yet the crappy 50 cent ones in Evolutions are. At this point, all it means is that the card’s numerator is greater than the denominator.
I will say, for me personally I still think pulling a secret rare is exciting-- that is, I’d rather keep trying to pull the card instead of buying it outright, even if the cost doesn’t match up.
Locked this thread, please note that posting in a thread with a last post of over two months ago (without new or relevant information) is against the rules.
