Thought it was interesting to mention how the first pokemon TCG booster box, the japanese base set box from 1996 has quietly disappeared from availability on eBay, Amazon, etc. Last one I saw was about 2 months ago on eBay for $13k. (Seems the last one was sold last month for $15k AUD)
Does anyone know if the box is for sale elsewhere? The individual packs don’t seem to be moving that much…
The Australian one was sold for $7k usd.
A day ago there was still one listed for $10k but it was removed (also was in bad shape).
Lose packs are most likely weight (only half of the 60 packs contain a holo) so that’s not very nice.
There are just not that many out there!
Is Base the only set from the beginning to Neo to not have guaranteed holos in every pack in JP?
I think so (I heard it was 1:2 compared to the English 1:3 ratio), any other set up to Neo had 1 guaranteed holo.
In my opinion, Japanese Base (sealed boxes and graded cards) is among the most underrated sets on the market. They are the original, even before WotC. It makes no sense that PSA 10 base Charizard in any language is above $10k except for the original.
Higher quality and more availability. I would agree with the lack of movement in the card’s price, but I don’t make the market.
@cullers tbh I wouldn’t say that the price hasn’t moved (PSA 10s have doubled in value over the past 3 months), it’s just that the current price is still so far behind other base set Charizards. I’m pretty optimistic that this will change over the coming months.
On another note (and this is just a personal opinion), I would value the original version of a card higher than a niche version of that card (meaning in a niche language), even if the niche version is more scarce and with a lower PSA pop count.
I haven’t been paying attention to the prices in the last 3 months I guess. Forever it seemed they were stagnant in prices. It still remains the same though, when it’s much easier to get the card and it graded easier even if the card is more sought after, and I’d say it is, it has to balance out both factors of supply and demand. This is an example where supply pushes the price down considerably compared to the other languages.
Well there’s naturally more demand for the english language than any other language, even the original japanese…
There you go my dude.
www.ebay.com/itm/373063830376?ul_noapp=true
Condition is messed up, but you could still buy it to open and sell me one booster at a discount 
Seems that was quick to go, and its out of the market again 
Way more than a double. PSA 10 Zards were 300-400 all day last year and now 1500-1700. Higher pop for sure though
@pokecollectoramy , Yes, and I don’t think it will be the end of it. The only reason why the original Base set Charizard is still so far behind any wotc Charizard is because Japanese set cards from the golden era are undervalued as a whole.
People see the higher card quality and higher pull rate of Japanese base and assume that that’s all they have to factor in. What they don’t see is that a growing amount of people will go for Japanese simply because it’s the original and the true first edition, even before 1st Ed wotc.
I also notice a common misconception regarding the pop report of Japanese cards from the golden era. When people see the pop number for a certain Japanese card and that number is higher than the pop number for the English 1st Ed equivalent, they tend to believe that the pop number for Japanese is higher. But you have to consider that early Japanese cards don’t have a first edition and unlimited run (and certainly no shadowless run), so the pop count of the Japanese card shouldn’t be compared to 1st Ed, but to the English pop count of all editions of the card, because the pop count of the Japanese card covers its entire print run for the respective set as well.
Take base Charizard for example. The Japanese card has ~2000 graded copies (including no-rarity cards) and 400 PSA 10s. The English 1st Ed Charizard has 2396 graded copies and 120 PSA 10s, BUT the overall pop count for this card from base set (1st ed, shadowless, unlimited) is ~17000 graded copies. What does that tell us?
There are already more graded English 1st Ed Charizards than all graded Japanese base set Charizards combined.
If you want the first version of Charizard (the Japanese one) graded, you only have 2000 copies to go for, and only 400 cards if you want it in PSA 10.
Compared to the overall pop count of English base set Charizard, the overall pop count of Japanese base set Charizard is ridiculously small.
One argument I sometimes hear is that because Japanese base has no 1st Ed run, it should be worth less than English. I disagree. English Gold Stars also don’t have a 1st Ed print run, and yet they are getting extremely expensive to the point that they dwarf Japanese cards. I am aware that the 1st Editions of Japanese Gold Stars can’t be compared to the 1st Ed wotc stamp, but my point is that a 1st Edition does not automatically constitute high value, and a lack of a stamp does not constitute a low value, as English Gold Stars show.
Lastly, Japanese base set will become an alternative for those who want base set in PSA 10 but can’t afford 1st Ed or shadowless, because in terms of numbers and data, Japanese base set PSA 10 has certainly more to offer than English unlimited base set PSA 10 (most likely lower print run, older, and at the same time higher quality).
In essence, I believe that as the hobby gets more refined and the collectors more knowledgeable, old Japanese set cards will rise in value and adapt to the English market. I’d say Japanese will rise above English base unlimited and settle somewhere between unlimited and shadowless, maybe even higher.
I actually agree completely (I like my Japanese 10s lol) that they will be worth more over time but we do have to take into account that they are easier to grade and were easier to pull just in general and are less popular outside of Japan
Certainly, but I do think that the other factors (Japanese base is older and in terms of overall print run probably rarer than English) are more important than grading capability. And for base set, the 1:2 packs holo pull ratio isn’t that far off from the 1:3 ratio for English packs.
If i got access to these packs for $16 each, should i buy them en masse?
Where can you get them for this price? Asking for a friend…
I mean … are you seriousy asking if you should be buying the original booster packs from 1996 at $16 each?
Like … really?
CP 6 packs look just like the originals, except for the 20th anniversary logo. They could be around 16$ each, so maybe it’s those you found? That would be a good buy anyway though.
Yeah, those are the ones i found. Just noticed they had the 20th logo.
Most I’ve experienced are in similar condition. I have one in storage that looks almost identical condition and lacks the “for sale in Japan” text on the bottom.