So I am a long term fan of the 1999-2000 Base Set UK Print / 4th edition / Australian Print … whatever you would like to call it (I know this can be controversial).
So my question is, just how rare is this set? If you look at PSA population counts (see below) they are by far the rarest of all base set prints with some holo cards having 0 grade 10s and total population counts being in just double digits.
I believe this is partly down to the fact that PSA did not initially recognise this as a seperate print run so a lot of the earlier graded cards slipped through as unlimited base set. That said these numbers are still incredibly low … a lot of people are now aware of the difference and a lot of cards must have been re-submitted for the correct label?
I am particularly interested in this as the 1999-2000 set has become a bit of an obsession for me and I have been hoarding as many as I can get my hands on!
The pop report from PSA isn’t a useful tool in this situation. PSA was grading base set cards without recognizing 1999-2000 for 20 years. There are so many of those 1999-2000 cards in regular unlimited slabs
I think you can safely 10x whatever number you see in the pop report. Like was said above, PSA graded it without the label for 20 years before it got changed and the unlimited pop report is massive
Today, we’re almost at the 8## certs. That is, we’ve doubled the graded cards (more of which proportionally are Pokemon TCG) and are still at those low numbers.
The holo PSA 10 count is likely a bit more corrected, too, because of people reholdering their Gem Mints with the right label, such as below.
I don’t feign to know how many were missed early on, and ultimately I’m going to conclude that I could be totally wrong, but I think the number of PSA 10 4th Prints remains quite, quite low even with the missed early grades (which were, admittedly, more likely to get Gem Mint grades for a host of reasons).
Think about it this way, Blastoise has 24,000 unlimited in the pop and 100 for 4th print. Even at a 10x, that’s still under 5% of the pop. That seems beyond reasonable considering how niche it is.
This isn’t necessarily true. Those could have been reslabbed and kept the same cert number. But by the logic of how many Pokémon cards were graded since they started recognizing 1999-2000, a majority of those are modern cards
Rarity is objective and it’s solely supply side. There are cards that are rare but nobody wants. These are still rare cards. Rare cards does not automatically mean they are expensive.
On the other hand, there are cards out there that are not rare and have huge supply and demand , e.g charizard base set, moonbreon.
Demand and supply comes together to form the market price, not rarity.
This isn’t true. PSA made the label in March 2021. These older certs are relabeled cards. @TCAGaming was the first with a newly labeled PSA 10 1999-2000 Charizard around that time.
If I were you, I would use the word ‘scarce’ instead of ‘rare’.
When we say ‘rare’, it means that something is limited in supply but not necessarily in demand. However, ‘scarce’ indicates that something is not available in sufficient quantity to meet its demand.
Scarcity is a combination of 2 factors which always go hand-in-hand together = supply + demand
You don’t just look at pop (supply) and go, “Too high pop, so it’s not scarce”. Look at demand too. If supply is 24,000 pcs and demand is millions of fans worldwide, then it is scarce because there’s not enough for everyone.
If supply is 1,000 pcs but no/few people wants, then it’s not scarce.
I’ve been working hard to source and grade 1999-2000 Charizards from grade 1-10.
Only 2, 9 and maybe impossibly 10 to go!
The only one i didnt grade myself was the 8, im going to send that for a re-holder soon so that 1999-2000 is recognised in the label. I currently have 4 more at PSA so im hopeful i will get 2 and 9 soon!
I recently managed to pick up the highest grade Beckett 4th print Charizard in the world (BGS 9 with subgrades 9.5/9.5/9.5/8.5). There is one other 9 with lower subgrades and no 9.5s or 10s.
In total I now have over 50 PSA graded 4th print holos and another 50 or so raw holos.
My next goal is a PSA 2 Charizard, PSA 10 Charizard and to complete a PSA 10 non holo set (I recently managed to grade 25 myself as 10’s).
Weirdly I am struggling to find Nidoking, Magneton and Raichu more than the other holos. I don’t know if anyone else has found these 3 cards to be problematic?
