I’m really thinking of moving over to the Japanese side of things for modern product. As everyone knows, the quality of English right now is ridiculous and it’s driving me nuts. Everything I’ve pulled is either off centered, dinged up, has noticeable scratches or has creases running through it. The only Japanese box I’ve opened was the CP6 (20th Anniversary) set awhile back but the difference was night and day. So, I really want to start collecting sets in Japanese.
For the Japanese collectors, what made you switch over? Anything you don’t like about Japanese product?
I’ve stopped collecting sets myself, but the Japanese Switch I did around Primal Clash (Gaia Volcano / Tidal Storm) was one of my best decisions as a collector.
The only issue you’ll have is that the SR/UR/HR in Japanese are significantly harder to pull. SR are one in every box (could be replaced by UR/HR) and the UR/HR are between 1:6 and 1:12 boxes.
It’s cheaper to buy a few boxes, then buy singles.
I collect both still but japanese has so much more unique vareity, there is toys, figures, and so many nice accessories and products which have been made.
Japanese gets deeps if you get into it, but im still happy chasing and finding new things after 11 years+
I like the unique artworks and products made in Japan only.
I’ve always liked Japanese cards and I still collect both Japanese and English but Japanese is my main focus these days. I made my first Japanese box purchase when XY6 (Japanese Roaring Skies) was out. I was hyped for the set because of Rayquaza and I really enjoyed opening the Japanese box. I felt like I got so much more from it than when opening English product, it felt like worth of the price I paid. I haven’t felt that way with English for a long time. Also the Japanese card quality is amazing compared to English and that also makes Japanese cards more worth of the money I think.
With Japanese sets you often pull the whole common - uncommon - rareholo range from one box which is something I like a lot. The only problem I have is that you only have one Full Art / Secret Rare pull per box usually, so if you really want to collect the whole set including all the Ultra Rares it’s going to be bit expensive.
But in conclusion - I’ve been buying Japanese boxes for couple of years now and I really enjoy it. With English I don’t really buy booster boxes but I still buy a few packs when a new set comes out. The Japanese exclusive Promos and products are always better than the English ones as well. I think English needs to step up it’s game with various things.
I was going to make this exact thread, but decided to bump this (hope that’s OK). How do people feel about this now in 2022? I’ve been collecting some pre-2020 Japanese singles lately, and I am enjoying them a lot more than modern English. Personally, I think a lot of them look so much better on the Japanese side. The silver borders, better card quality, unique holos, etc.
In addition, some sets have the Japanese exclusive cards that are really nice. Interestingly, a lot of the modern Pokemon stuff I have next to no attachment or experience with, yet I am starting to enjoy a lot of the cards in some of these sets.
Another thing I notice is a lot of the cards seem more rare on average. My guess is because more people speculate on the English side than Japanese, so maybe there is simply less supply? In fact, a couple of the sets I’m building right now I’m lucky if I find even 1 or 2 booster boxes for sale at a time. At the same time, a lot of the single cards seem cheap compared to the sealed box prices.
Anyway, I’m still just learning about this stuff more the past while but would love to hear more views/opinions on it.
For me it comes down to look when it comes to modern. For example full art cards have distinct texture from English to Japanese and frankly I’m still deciding which I like more. Character rares having the yellow border really knock them down pegs for me while they look slick and clean on the Japanese side. Commons its a tossup and I usually just get English for convenience sake. Some newer rarity cards like Radiants and Amazing rares I also think look slicker in Japanese so I would go with that when buying them. Japanese sets today also have way more cohesion and identity compared to the throw together English counterparts so for binders thats a much better path to take imo.
Point is it really just comes down to for me how aesthetically pleasing the card is to look at and today many rarity options in Japanese appeal to me more.
I personally feel that the DP-era was when the disparity between english and japanese quality started, and then it got successively greater after that.
In DP it was some of the ultra rares, in BW it was all of the ultra rares, by XY even the booster boxes and overall sealed product looked much better and now everything looks better. In the promo world the difference is even greater.
I made the switch not just for cards, but for basically everything at this point (and by everything, I mean merch since im very big into that as most would already know). For me, it was a multitude of reasons that switched me over but in the end the main one is probably the most meaningful which is because Japan HONORS their goods. Plain and Simple. Every release in Japan seems so well thought out, well done, well made, and well cared for by those buying it that its completely turned me off to the international market as a whole. I got sick of not just bad quality cards, but also bad attitude and super shitty products, packaging, and even the people involved with things here that my eyes have only been set in Japan and ive had a blast since. Sure youll get some bad cards here and there of course, but nothing will beat peace of mind which is what I get now im buying right from japan and not having to deal with any of the bullshit that comes from the US market.
Just as a bonus, heres a fun tale that may also cause some to think about making the switch: I remember when I was buying my 400+ copies of Shiny V Dedenne to do a full binder of it. I was buying from various japanese shops at the time, and i would carefully inspect each and every one for my binder as i wanted full mint copies. Out of the 400+ ordered, I had a small pile of maybe 10-15 that had some sort of an issue (single scratch, maybe a dot or two of whitening, etc…). Now I did this on release as well so maybe that played a role, but I also decided to buy a few of the english when that dropped as well. I think I bought 30 copies and out of the 30 there was maybe 1-2 that were in decent condition while the rest all had issues. Just something to note.
But what are your thoughts on print lines? They are so common in Japanese and that directly affects the art unlike back centering and even centering in general unless it’s really, really obvious.
I treat them the same as any other issue and honestly I didnt get a single one with that issue to my knowledge. That being said, I dont think printlines are as common as youre referencing here. In more modern sets I have noticed them to be more prevalent with a higher uptick of them around, but in the greater picture of things I havent seen that to be the case at all.
At the end of the day, its always going to just be up to preference too for what issues people are willing to tolerate more, and thats fine. The tale i told was just to scale the idea of qc here vs qc in japan and how english is just treated far more poorly as a whole. Youll always encounter issues when mass production is in place, but i consider less issues in general and less frequent to be better than more issues and more frequent.
but japanese has so much more unique vareity, there is toys, figures, and so many nice accessories and products which have been made.