I was browing some recent sold listings and was stunned to see the results.
Vintage japanese non holos are surpassing holos from the same set.
My sample size is small, but i wanted to kick start a discussion on peoples thoughts around this.
Interestingly, japanese non holos are surpassing their english 1st edition counterparts, but when it comes to holos, the english counterparts generally perform a lot better.
Prolly low pop weirdos thinking non holos are somehow harder to grade and or more popular than holos
This would normally surprise me, but given the last 6 months, it feels pretty par for the course
Yeah, people think low pop is all equal. When in reality; Low pop can often mean its just a card no one has really cared for on any kind of scale. I feel alot of new collectors get so many scraps of advice, weird stuff like this happens. Short form content is a curse lol
To this point, I am thinking about sending the most random set card to have it be a pop 1 forever and just be MY card, something fun I guess.
I do enjoy an odd personal collection challenge! Can be really fun.
I recently sent some cards (not Pokemon) out to ARS in Japan and the experience was just an adventure and I ended with some GORGEOUS slabs. Having fun is the whole point. Treat the kid in you to what you wanted when you were young!
At my LCS I held a CGC slab for the first time. IMO, way better, cleaner than PSA. The labels do get a little colorful over the years of change but goodness me. I’m now on the hunt for a prestine 10 and a card that matches the label, idon’t even care what the card is as I don’t have a black / gold / bronzeish color card.
Yeah, I hope more people realize there are so many decent options out there!
Slightly related - yesterday for some reason i decided to buy a bunch of the same card that when graded will take me to owning ~25% of the entire PSA population in existence in one go.
Maybe my 4D chess play will lead to me being called “[X CARD] Man”, perhaps I will be a reddit meme, or worse - maybe no one will even notice.
I mean, it sold in Australia. Of course the three-headed mutant ostritch is going to do well there.
I remember my first time buying low pop commons…
take a look at jp base pika/no rarity pika 
It can take a dozen or more packs to pull certain common/uncommon cards. It makes sense sometimes.
