So like… WHats the Truth and deal behind the Rarity behind the 1st ed japanese Old school ex sets vs the Rarity of the old school english ex cards. I was talking to gary about it, and he said there was too much japanese vs the english. I thought the old school japanese ex are near impossible to get in mint condition, and it seems I never come across them compared to the english cards from that era. The english are literally everywhere on ebay, and you can barely find the japanese ones, and when you do there in shit ass condition. Who knows how everything was printed, and why the japanese ex are so much rarer to find for reals. I got the 1st ever 1st edition Umbreon golden sky silvery ocean in Gem mint 10, and it took nirly a year before someone got the other 1, and there might be a espeon coming soon, but there isn’t one yet. These cards are impossible to find compared to English I tell you… IMPOSSIBLE! BLASPHEMY @garyis2000 BLASPHEMY I SAY! Japanese 1st ed Old school are much rarer than English Old school. You can literally get these english old school ex era cards everywhere, just do a search in ebay and see compared to japanese old school ex, and then do a search in google, you will find the countless stores that have these english cards in great condition. The english are everywhere.
Here’s what I’ve heard.
In the EX series era (both in Japan and America) Pokemon was on a decline. It wasn’t nearly as popular as it had been in the Base-Neo era, or Gen 1-2 for the games. Gen 3 was not nearly as well received as the previous gens, and the initial Pokemon craze had somewhat passed. As there was less interest, fewer cards were printed. Gary should be able to understand this as a businessman 
In Japan especially, interest was very low. As many of the people who were still into Pokemon were players of the TCG, the relatively small number of packs that were printed were all opened. Collecting the cards was much less popular than playing. As such, the cards are generally much harder to find in pack fresh mint condition, as they were mostly used for playing. Plus, it’s been 10+ years since the EX series was printed. Not to mention the print quality (i.e. centering) with some sets was terrible
To summarize:
-Pokemon less popular > fewer packs > fewer cards
-Culture of playing rather than collecting > worse condition cards
-10+ years since cards were originally printed > worse condition cards
I definitely agree with you on this one, the Japanese EX series is significantly harder to find than the English, and when you do find it, it’s in general crap condition.
Huh! I thought so, the most interesting point is the japanese using the cards for play. I understand gary said something about MEDIA Factory not doing right by collectors, and this I can understand would piss him off, and It pisses me off to. That doesn’t change the fact that these Japanese cards are, as you said, Generally Crap condition when you find them… That’s if you find them. I have nirly completed the regular ex’s now, and I just need a few more, and let me tell you everyone I had to annoy alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooootttttttttttttttttttttttt of people, even more so than I have annoyed Gary over the years through ebay messeges and such. I havn’t really worried about the decks accept for Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur whcih I got in Gem 10 in my first ever PSA Submission. I’m going to go after the english old school once I have completed everything from Japanese, because they still are hard to get. I will be getting alot of my stuff in soon, and I will show you all my new cards in gem 10. I tell you it was not easy finding the WCP, they were printed for 2 weeks, and there 500 times harder to find then the english WCP, and that is just the Cold Hard Truth. Compare Flight of Legends to Fire Red Leaf green in rarity and man oh man… You just can’t find dem sexy Japanese Birds.
Here’s my two cents on it coming from the English side of it. I’d say Japanese is harder to complete in a psa 10 because of several factors.
Japanese has both 1st edition and unlimited (not sure if all sets have it). This makes the number of cards both easier and harder to find.
Some of the Japanese sets that are hard to find like flight of legends, TRR 1st ed deoxys and others are much much rarer than the English ones. I know that the sets were opened so not nearly as much sealed stuff is out there. Yahoo Japan is a different beast compared to eBay and other English sites. Getting a hold of cards fr the Japanese sets has many more difficulties than English.
I would argue agaisnt Japanese cards being hard to grade 10. Look at all the psa returns on here or YouTube. What is the % of psa 10s compared to English. Even the psa pop reports show a different story. Japanese cards don’t show wear like the English cards. Japanese cards were made with quality and that’s lasting quality.
English cards have quality issues and centeinr that is our side the 10 range all the time. I’ve opened close to 1000 ex packs (about half from boxes) and its about a 1/4-1/3 psa 10 rate. FRLG has an extremely high PSA 10 rate.
This conversation comes back to the this statement. Japanese have better quality and English cards have quantity. Japanese cards are harder for us here, even with connections and middle men to find.
The thing is when you say Japanese cards are easier to grade I would have to say depends… The Japanese Old school ex cards are Impossible to find in grading condition, there for there not easier to get in 10 than English old school ex. The newer Japanese are like super easy to get in 10 compared to English… I bet my life on it. You should go check out the population numbers of the old school ex’s in 1st ed Japanese… There all in the 1-5 range for the rare stuff. The really rare stuff is more in in the 1-3 range, its not easy at all to grade these 1st ed JP cards in 10. I agree with everything you said though, especially the quantity thing/ Harder to find even with a middle man, because most of the time everything is Played condition on yahoo. This is why I disagree with gary because he said there are far too many cases stored and way to many printed for the Japanese, and I feel this isn’t the case as these boxes are very hard to find, and most people say the print was limited in this era for both sides. If anything the English would have had a lot more printed compared to just the 1st ed Japanese in this era, plus the Competitive side be much higher in Japan, like Fourstar said, which makes it very hard to find unopened shit/ Unplayed shit.
I just said Japanese overall is harder to complete due to the points I layed out. Yes, it’s harder find the card and harder to find in gradeable condition. You’re missing the point I mentioned about Japanese cards grade easier OVERALL. Because of the backs on japanese cards having that gold background and border, damage does not appear as prominent as the english cards blue background where the white “shines like a diamond - Rhiana.”
I can find ton of english exs and even ex holos in fact I just sent off 3 submissions with 97, 100 and 117. I opened 3 ex boxes and got nearly 10 complete ex sets as well. I’d say I sent in around 50% of the cards in my possesion. The card I sent in are all PSA 9 mint and at a minimum I’ll have 85-90% PSA 9 mints coming back. You’ve all the seen the scans and i used led lights, sun light and sent in few cards that had any wear at all. Compare this to your returns, Blastoise rules, PokePHD. OF THE CARDS YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE GRADEABLE (IE MINT) What was your perfect of PSA 10s?
I’m not saying either of us is wrong. You skipped over the points I was making which explain the differences in finding and receiving PSA 10 old school exs. As with most things it’s not just a simple yes/no, right/wrong, easier/harder and that’s what I was trying to explain.
Yeah lots of things to consider from both sides. I understand, many of my Cards I considered mint came back Gem mint because I made sure they were mint before I sent them in, that doesn’t mean I didn’t buy those cards before, or they were the first copies I sent in to PSA that were in my possession. It seems the sheer numbers of English are insain, and near impossible to get in 10, but still much easier to find in gradezable condition as we both agree on. All my cards I deemed as mint are perfect, so good point. I just don’t see why gary would think Japanese cards are a FAD, I refuse to believe the cards I worked so hard to get in PSA 10 are worthless compared to english. I think they both have there upsides and I will be coming for the English next. Prepare to be annoyed Hisoka. There is a splinter in my mind now, and I shall remove it in time. In the Future it would be nice if you could hunt me down these mintyness old school ex English, quite a distant future though as I still havn’t got the gold stars for JP yet, which Im working on like crazy lately, and 1st Ed base set English be one of my biggest priorityness.
I would say that English cards that I thought would grade PSA-10’s only about 10%-20% come back as them…
Little misunderstanding there. I wasn’t comparing one to the other.
how dare you have a misunderstanding.
Well this may be true, but my brain needed to get some input from everyone. 
How dare you have an opinion that’s different to mine in 2015! You can’t do that!
I don’t think it is an issue of rarity in my opinion as all Pokemon sets are printed in high volumes, it is that a lot of Japanese don’t like selling their products to foreigners lol. Look at Yahoo Japan, you need a middleman service to hide behind so that they don’t find out you are not Japanese.
I guess eBay is more rooted in ‘western’ countries as the place to sell, it might not be the same way in Japan, where they might look to sell their cards locally to known collectors.
This is simply not the case. There is definitely anti-foreigner sentiment among a few Yahoo Japan sellers, but it just doesn’t apply, as you can buy from a middleman, and the seller doesn’t know you’re a foreigner. You almost have to use Yahoo Japan for these cards, as they rarely come up for sale on eBay.
The anti-foreigner position of some Yahoo Japan sellers doesn’t change the facts of the era as I laid out above. Pokemon cards are subject to supply and demand fluctuations as is anything else.
I agree with you about playing part, pretty much explains why you can’t simply see some ADV/PCG boxes anymore. Flight of Legends = Nidoqueen/Pidgeot and Holon Research Tower = Metagross/Dragonite, super playable combinations which resulted in to mass extinction of sealed items.
Not totally sure of how Golden Sky Silvery Ocean/Offense and Defense of Furthest Ends affected game but they go to same category, practically impossible to find. Almost absurd boxes like Clash of the Blue Sky/Rocket Gang Strikes Back are most common sight on market nowadays. 
This was just one of my points in my first comment.it definitely plays a part into getting these cards. The Japanese culture for selling things is different than US here in North America.
A question for everyone. Where you live (state and country) and if “garage sales” or flea markets where people attempt to get rid of their stuff. How prevelant is it?
I just wana find sealed japanese ex boxes… Oh wait… There isn’t any left…? :s
Where I live (QLD Australia) you can find Pokemon cards sometimes at garage sales but 99.99% will be junk, most people are too smart to sell cheaply at garage sales and rather sell on eBay or Gumtree (free classified site).
In australia here I live in a shithole town that never has anything related to garage sales… Theres no big flee markets where you can pick up unbelievable shit like in America. Australia is shit for dem kind of things, and most of the cards we got here were unlimited from the old days, and that includes YU-Gi-Oh. The big city in Australia called melbourne probably has more of these kind of flee market things though, and I bet I’m missing out on some good shit.
Lol, i’m from only 20mins drive from your area originally, further out in the western suburbs of sydney.
Yeah i know it sucks lol, there are flee markets further out, near fairfield city, and trash and treasure near camden valley way.
But… yeah usually just people clearing there house, pretty tough to find good stuff…
You got to put yourself into general societies shoes… and most people don’t think or care about the pokemon cards they may or may not of used to have… it just gets forgotten… and left for dead in most cases. So it becomes rare if ever to emerge in 2015.
People would even throw it out, or donate to the salvo’s of red cross, you can always look at those stores as well, but it’s always saturated with rubbish…