The ones I’m referring to are the competitor copies, with no stamp on the bottom. These were given out to each competitor regardless of their place finished in the tournament.
From my understanding, these are actually more common than the staff variants.
Like this one:
Ah okay! I misunderstood you. I guess people like the Staff copies more because it’s rarer than the participant ones in most years + the extra stamp below.
I think the japanese participant copies look the best though.
Are some of them cool, yes, but as someone who does not go to worlds nor collect stamped cards couldn’t care less about them
These are usually labeled as “English “ in sales/auctions but I agree with porygon that people like the staff stamp more and then come to these if those are not available.
I think the other thing to throw in there is @caughtatpoint ’s idea of how it’s so hard to source specific stamps that doing a complete set of these requires a great deal of dedication to collect all the variants before they are “out of available copies”.
But as a result, your own market activity makes it pricier for everything else so it’s hard to do everything at once publicly.
Just imagine how popular these would be if they made them holo! I would definitely want to collect them even more. I guess I’m pretty simple with my caveman like mentality and I’m naturally drawn to shiny things 
I actually think being non holo works better for these cards. The holo would just drown out the many other details in the background. But hey! That’s just my opinion!
If you are not into the history of Pokemon TCG most likely you never heared of these. They are special.
To add a layer of how difficult they are to get in complete sets.
During 2004, 2005 and later many many of the Japanese promo’s from those sets were traded for English ones between players.
So Japanese players took home a lot of them. Will those appear on the market? Perhaps some.
Also the Tropical Beach promo (2011, 2012) was a very playable card, so many of those went into deck (aka got damaged).
i chose “not flashy enough” because it was closest to the reason i’d assume which is that it is “just” a trainer card. gotta remember that e4 represents a small minority of the collector base. we’re here because we want to learn about the backstory of cards including cards like these. the appeal of something like a champion’s festival is how you obtain it. not the card itself mostly (although they do tend to use amazing art)
This is also “just a trainer card” and id take that any day above a psa 10 1st ed shadowless charizard ty. its like choosing between steak and corn and saying the corn is better
i’ve had some pretty bad steak from high end steakhouses and this is easily one of them
its cause they are tied to worlds and not some mass produced box that sits on every target shelf. Its no wonder that a Charizard promo will be infinitely more popular. There are collectors for everything, but worlds promos are some of the most niche items in the hobby, especially in comparison to any other promo.
i would take the worst steak over the best corn. i would take this trophy card at a psa 1 over 1st ed shadowless charizard.
the market doesnt care and this “just trainer card” is worth more and that is a fact
tbf thats a pretty easy bar to cross since base charizard is also pretty bland. i agree. i’d also take this over that if money is irrelevant.
Because Worlds promos, like trophy/medal cards, are a niche in the hobby and therefore less accessible for the masses.
Whenever I encounter people who tell me set cards are boring, high in pop, etc, I would usually introduce trophy cards and Worlds promos to them.
The concept has also changed multiple times so there may be people only collecting the winds, paths or now the resorts with silver borders.
I’m still waiting for the 2022 set to drop to a decent price, so can you all stop talking about these cards please?
To be honest I’ve never really wanted any of the after WOTC era worlds promos
The new staff worlds promos sell for $700+ day one. The rarer stamps in the thousands. There isn’t a raw modern set card that is anywhere near those numbers.
I’ve been selling worlds promos now for over a decade with ease. In fact one of my biggest early moves was in 2011 buying staff copies at the tournament and selling them online for $150-200 a piece. That price range was higher than almost every Gold Star and 1st Ed base holo. They were even outselling 95% of graded cards. But yeah outside of all that, totally not popular.
Thats kinda what i was thinking lol like idk which worlds promos we are talking about here bc its hard to even find the player packs w no staff/ placement stamps from the most recent worlds for <$900
The art doesn’t do much for me.
