So I know I’m gonna get some crap for saying this but…yesterday I received my first English Hyper Rare/Rainbow Rare in the mail (got an awesome deal on eBay). Although I am keeping up with the Japanese ones I haven’t gotten them graded yet and all I gotta say is Wow!
Are they the next gold stars? Probably not.
Are the gonna be worth thousands? Probably not.
Are they being printed by the millions? Probably yes.
But one thing caught my attention; they really are beautiful and pictures don’t do them justice. There is something about scanners and regular pics that really doesn’t let you appreciate them their true colors.
There is something about the way the light reflects inside the PSA case that makes the card pop even more. I am telling you, I have never stared at the ones in my binder the way I stared at this one in the PSA case. I know they are controversial but I tried to take a decent pic and let you see for yourself. Am I the only one who has noticed how much better HR/RRs look in the PSA case?
they are very pretty cards. I can’t wait to send in a few of the good ones I have
I am not sure about just in the PSA case, but they do look great at the right angle. I will be able to comment later in the year. I thought a lot of cards just look better in the case, it’s just nice presentation. It will be interesting to see if the HR’s look better in the case from normal viewing, as in the light will have to reflect well to get the cards to pop, which it appears it does due to your post. Maybe PSA has some light reflection technology we don’t know about
I plan on starting to grade cards this year and plan on grading some HR’s for my collection. I think they are currently underrated by a lot of people. I think a key point here is people collecting current cards seem to like them. My plan is to get cards for Pokemon I really like and cards I think really pop graded. Ho-oh and I hope Houndoom in the future, oh, and 2 Shiny Ho-oh’s, what a good year, can’t wait to see them in person as they might be a great mini set to collect. I will also probably get a Tauros since I am a Taurus.
I also don’t think they will be the best investment compared to original era cards or finding out what article Scott will write for PSA next but I think collectors are missing out when not picking up cards that are current when they are collecting. IMO the cards from Sun and Moon are great. The GX almost look like full arts and so many cards are colourful. I think the thing that will hurt the HR’s is they were too cheap to get original art for them and just re-used the SR art.
Your post, “I’m gonna get some carp for saying this” I think is a great thread topic. I will just comment a little on the Japanese Pokemon side. Pokemon is made as a friends game, very Japanese style, “we are all friends”.
Pokemon is the ultimate collect what you want collectible. When I start PSA collecting I am getting Ho-oh’s and Houndooms graded, pretty sure I could do a lot better than that with little time invested in the market. But, buying cards just for an increase in value is investing and turns Pokemon cards into stocks. If there is no emotional attachment why leave base set, while it can get overpriced vs other sets it is the safest area to invest in.
Final comments- collect what you want, invest in what you think will make the most money. Don’t care about what others think about what you collect. Make sure you know what others want in the cards you invest in.
I hate how over-printed RRs/HRs are, but definitely can’t argue that they are nothing short of beautiful cards…everything about them just “pops,” even if they are variants of the FAs…I think it will take a good 5-10 years before we can all stop and appreciate how fresh these cards were in relation to most of the FA designs that had been done before them. They are a nice change overall. Also, being consistent across the sets like Gold Stars were in the R/S era is awesome.
What I will complain about, though, is how inconsistent PSA has been grading their RR/HR English PSA 10s…i’ve seen a LOT of 10s that are horribly off-centered, and I don’t know if it’s PSA just overlooking things or if they’re willingly giving some centering leeway with SM Base just due to how god-awful the centering is in general across the whole print run (Guardians Rising is definitely better).
Other than that, love everything about these rainbow rares and I can see some hype being built up around acquiring the whole RR set when the English Charizard RR is released…
Well… I still have to see an HR in person, but… Idk… I normally think that the normal GX’s look so much better than the HR
Like the Charizard from Burning Shadows… I like the GX version more than the rainbow. And the coming Mewtwo GX from Shining Legends looks so much better than the full art one (although maybe they’ll change the artwork for the HR, I’ve heard).
I guess this really depends on individual opinions.
I’ll definitely give HR’s a chance in person, at least once, but right now… I’m liking GX’s better.
I think this is a great point, and to be honest, I think this is part of the reason why RRs/HRs stand out more…they are just different. The normal FA GX cards are very traditional…they are what you would expect from a full-colored full-art card.
Sure, rainbow rares use the same art, but their pull rates are still insanely low relative to the set they’re in (though there’s really too many RR Pokemon that are represented), and they completely stand out because they are…well…“unnecessary,” so to speak.
RRs give collectors something to aim for being the “highest” rarity level, whilst players and more casual collectors can “settle” for the normal FA GX and have essentially the same card or a card that is, to them, better looking because you get the full color spectrum of the specific Pokemon as originally intended…and some will prefer the uniformity of the RRs that run across multiple sets.
Ultimately, I don’t think the RRs will carry a ton of value down the road besides PSA 10 graded ones since there’s just too much product out there and those collectors who don’t want or need a PSA 10 set of RRs (which are the vast majority of collectors rather than us here on these boards, etc) will likely already have NM-M ungraded copies that they are perfectly happy with.
I actually think the regular GXs look WAY better than the rainbow rares and Full Arts.
One thing I REALLY can’t stand about them is that when I’m playing a match against someone and they’re using RR it’s hard to tell what it is, since from across the table they are so hard to distinguish from one another.
Aside from that, I still collect all the Eeveelutions versions. Can’t wait for the alternate arts to hit stores later this month.
That’s exactly how I felt when I got my first return back with the Gym Heroes/Gym Challenge cards. They just popped once in the case. I also felt that away about the Reverse Holo Evolutions cards. Before seeing them in person I wasn’t into them at all but seeing them in a glass display case made me want one. I might have to open some new packs for the experience of the full arts. It sure will be a lot cheaper!
Are you sure it doesn’t have to do with the rainbow colors?
You have to move them to see how they really pop!
Just as a general discussion related to print numbers etc.
I think a lot of the time people confuse rarity with abundance. It sounds like an Oxymoron but a card can technically be rare, but have A LOT of copies of the card.
A card can be rare to pull from a booster box (say 1/3 or 1/5) but these days people are opening booster boxes en mass, especially the Japanese versions of the cards and whilst realistically the cards are more common than chase cards from sets of days gone by, technically I don’t think there is much difference in the rarity of the cards.