It’s quite nuts when you compare it you can even buy a Shadowless PSA 9 Venusaur for 1,000 USD or an evolutions box, just makes no sense to me.
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Exactly. I can’t imagine buying a Shadowless PSA 9 Venusaur when I could buy an Evolutions box instead!
Evolutions as a whole doesn’t make sense to me one bit. There’s a PSA 10 Evolutions Charizard on this month’s PWCC auction block and it’s already at $6100. That’s more than the most recent 1996 Japanese base set Charizards have been sold at. This defies both “older minter rarer better” and “vintage over modern”. I don’t get it.
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Hard to grade? I dunno man nothing makes sense
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@kingboo64, no doubt it’s hard to grade, but the Evolutions card is a modern reprint of the base set card. Something’s amiss when the reprint gets sold for more than the original.
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Makes no damn sense to me
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Japan Charizard is pop 1000 PSA 10
Evolutions much much much harder to grade.
And people like English cards more than Japanese because they can actually read them and have more nostalgia.
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@admiral , last time I checked Japanese base set Charizard PSA 10 was pop 465, not 1000. If you add no rarity PSA 10s, it’s 471. That’s than the English base set Charizard PSA 10s (1st+shadowless+unlimited print run), just as a side-fact.
And just because a modern reprint is hard to grade, it shouldn’t automatically be more valuable than the original. Nostalgia in the context of this reprint also doesn’t make much sense to me. Not only is it not a card from their childhood, it even looks different than the original.
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It makes no sense to me for a reprint to be even remotely close to as valuable. In other collectibles markets, reprints retain little to no value. Look at the 90s reprints of iconic early comics; they’re worth 1/10,000 as much as the originals. Long-term, the value will be in the originals.
Unless Pokemon cards are a complete and utter anomaly among all collectibles ever, then the value of the originals and the value of Evolutions will drift further and further apart as time moves on. I’ve seen the same thing happen in MTG, and having studied other collectibles markets, the same thing happens in those, too. Collector bases tend to become more purist over time, and prefer the original releases. Re-releases rarely, if ever, become organically collectable because things are only re-released once they’ve attained “classic” status – meaning that adult collectors flock to the item and perfectly preserve it.
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So you guys think LC Holos and Base 2 Holos should be in the low hundreds of $?
Sell them to me at that price please.
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People should also be aware of the possibility that the Evo Zard will not be the last Base Set Zard reprint. It’s an entirely new discussion of original vs reprint, when the Evo is the first, but one of multiple modern reprints. Especially with the 25th set almost in reach - if they reprint the card in the foreseeable future, it’s likely then. Until we find out, I’d be even more cautious.
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One thing to note, of course, is that the value of Evolutions boxes isn’t entirely rooted in the value of the cards. If opening Evolutions boxes gives people a truly nostalgic and valuable experience, then it’s possible the sealed product will hold some value for that reason. The individual cards, however…
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I think that, over the long-term, I’d much rather be holding 1st Ed. Base or No Rarity than LC/Base 2. If the Pokemon market behaves similar to other collectibles markets, then the value gap will widen over time.
There are innumerable, very similar examples in MTG. One example among many: foil RTR/GTC shocks (which were reprints of RAV-block shocks) were ~$25-$50 each when they were released. At that time, foil RAV-block shocks (the original printings) were $35-$60 each. Nowadays, foil RTR/GTC shocks are worth $10-$30 each and foil RAV-block shocks are worth $60-$300 each. When I was heavily into collecting/trading MTG, I always immediately liquidated reprints and moved that money into the originals. In every single instance I can think of, the originals maintained their value better over time. If I had been less wise, my collection would probably be a mere fraction of its current value.
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I know lol, a mint condition rare ‘Shadowless’ Starter Venusaur Holographic card with a few hundred copies vs an item with ? millions of boxes lol
Evolutions PSA 10 Charizard which has increased in population by more then 50 from like 153 to 209 in the last 4 months despite being hard to grade. Or a cheaper Shadowless PSA 10 Venusaur lol which has increased from Pop 88 to Pop 89 by 1! in the same time period
I wounder if we will be able to see a BGS 10 evo Zard or maybe even black label one? There’s a ton of boxes/packs out there, so maybe there is a chance? And if we let’s just say get a black label evo zard - would it beat a base set psa 10 zard? Would it base shadowless base set psa 10? How close it would get to 1st ed base set zard?
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IDK about you, but when I go on Facebook, all I see are posts where people are showing off stacks of mint Shadowless holos. Plus, it’s not like Shadowless was an early, scarce print run of the first English Pokemon TCG release ever. And it’s not like Evolutions was a mass-market reprint that was in-print for 3.5 years and that was near-worthless until a year ago.
In all seriousness, I completely agree with you.
At least they’re still vintage and wotc which somewhat justifies the price. 2016 Evolutions Charizard doesn’t have that, it’s simply a (more or less faithful) modern era reprint of an old card, which I respect, but personally don’t see at the value it is right now. Far from it.
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Some of the value for Evolutions boxes is surely tied to the opening experience. However, as Scott pointed out in his video on the matter, the EV for Evolutions is very good. I don’t know if you guys are paying attention to the Evolutions PSA 9 and 10 markets, but there is a high volume of (relatively) high dollar transactions occurring every day. A PSA 10 reverse Pikachu sold for $350 a few weeks ago. The Flying and Surfing Pikachus are in the $200+ range. They are even getting close to the prices of the original promos. The reverse Charizard is a $1000+ card. I could go on and on. Even a regular PSA 10 Charmander sold for $140.
I’m not saying these cards should be at these levels or that they’ll stay there, but they certainly are there right now. That obviously helps keep the sealed prices up.
It’s easy for us to forget that E4 is not representative of the entire market. I really do think we are biased more towards vintage compared to the younger blood entering the hobby. A lot of people just really love Evolutions, and they don’t care as much about the vintage counterparts. Watch some of Speeed’s videos on YouTube and you’ll see that perspective.
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