Hey fellow collectors, I’ve been mostly collecting English cards and just recently decided to step in the vast Japanese world. I was wondering if there’s a pattern or a rule of thumb for the price difference between Japanese ex era 1st edition cards and their unlimited counterparts. In English WotC, we usually see the 1st ed at least doubles the unlimited price at the same grade. Does this hold true for the Japanese? Thanks for your insights:)
Interested in this as well! We do know some unlimited variants are rarer (some day this is true of Clash/Deoxys, for example?) in certain sets. Does anyone have good intel on which?
2 Likes
Clash of the blue sky is harder to find in 1st edition but there are sets where it’s the opposite as you said, like dragon frontiers for exemple.
1 Like
Japanese ex series is pretty similar to most of the subsequent Japanese releases in that there really isn’t a big price difference between 1st ed and unlimited. In many cases the 1st ed print run is the most significant and the majority of cards are 1ed. There are some sets where the difference is significant, Clash of the Blue Sky has a much more significant unlimited run and Offense and Defense of the Furthest Ends (Dragon Frontiers) has it about split in my experience. I think there’s a couple more sprinkled in there, Undone Seal 1ed is sometimes a pain to come by but most of the Rocket Gang Strikes Back cards I’ve seen are 1ed.
In terms of price difference, it is usually negligible. The only price differences between 1ed and unlimited are likely due to issues outside of the stamp, for example Japanese Dragon Frontiers has abhorrent centering and print line issues making 10s very hard to achieve compared to regular Japanese cards. The unlimited run has better (although still very bad) centering. As such I’d expect to pay a premium for the few 1st edition 10s that do exist out there.
5 Likes
Wow, super informative! Thanks a lot @fourthstartcg. In this case, can we say japanese cards collectors usually don’t care too much about that 1st ed stamp unlike the English world (at least for ex era)? This is really interesting.
2 Likes
I can’t speak for all Japanese collectors but in my experience that is correct. It’s mainly driven by the lack of exclusivity with the 1ed stamp. I have a complete collection of set-based Japanese ex cards and I don’t distinguish between 1st ed and unlimited at all.
1 Like
Gotcha, my question’s perfectly resolved:)
I also don’t care about 1st ed vs unlimited- but I’ve noticed that there is a price difference although very slight.
For me personally, it has nothing to do with print runs or rarity- it’s simply the fact that the stamp is so small and in the bottom left corner that it’s barely noticeable compared to english. This is especially true with a card like charizard star- where I have to actually struggle to even see the stamp so I just don’t really care at that point.
2 Likes
Wow I thought I was slow or something I was looking everywhere for the first edition stamp on Japanese cards haha. I didn’t know it was bottom left corner I was looking where they are on wotc cards lmfao this thread has already taught me a few things. I’ve been debating Japanese gold stars but it seems like they arnt much cheaper than English and harder to track down without middleman services
I can only speak for ex Dragon Frontiers JP and the price difference for raw cards is almost non-existant. Though I can say that 1st edition has horrible centering. So my guess is that the price difference wil mostly lie in the condition of the card and not the stamp or no stamp.
Basically what fourthstar said 
2 Likes