As a master set collector, I’ll notice some minor shifts in lower valued items (under $1000) that I think sometimes gets looked over by community members who don’t chase the small and medium sized fish.
In 2018, @cardpletionist wrote an online article about Collecting “Hidden Gems”, in reference to collecting league cup/challenge placement cards (As I like to call them, trophy/award cards)
“I think that for many collectors, part of the fun of assembling a TCG collection is the challenge of making it a unique expression of their personality and interests. This is a big reason why so many Pokémon card collectors focus on a single Pokémon (e.g., Charizard, Pikachu) for their card collection instead of going after every card from every expansion. Some collectors prefer to differentiate by buying Pokémon cards that are themselves unique, like trophy cards or the Pokémon Snap promos. Others prefer to go after only PSA 10 copies of cards from various expansions. These approaches are fine if you have a few thousand dollars to spend, but for most of us, finding a cost-effective way to differentiate our collections from our peers’ can be difficult, especially now that the game has become so popular.
As an English master set collector who has adjusted goals to work towards 99% completion (to account for not working on world’s trophy cards and a few others) I can’t tell you much about the population report or which collector is in possession of which 6-figure cards. Master set collectors, however, will tell you that they tend to spot different trends, due to the fact that they spend their time finding set variants.
These are cards that don’t get clout like “World Champion Trainer No. 1” cards or Univeristy Magikarp but in reality, some of them appear in the open market once in blue moon. (I waited two years to find my Donald Duck & Friends Dratini & Larvitar Promos pop up on ebay)So full disclosure, I own one of every 1st place league challenge “trophy card” and to be transparent, I own one of about every card so I don’t have any more skin in the game than usual, but take this with a grain of salt if you must. With that being said, league challenge trophy cards tend to be overlooked but fit into a hidden gem category because they stay true to what valuable cards in the hobby look like…but with a more affordable price tag.
Two negatives of league trophy cards are that with the exception of victory cup cards, the artwork is unoriginal. Moreover, the quantity distributed doesn’t compare to national level championship trophy cards.
THe positives: Over the past year, I think that many have seen league challenge trophy cards as a fun and more realistic alternative to owning something niche and somewhat difficult to come by. They check off many of the boxes we use as collectors to predict “good collection additions.” + They have a very limited print run. They are distributed only to stores that run tournaments and are to be handed out to the winner of each month’s tournament. A single copy may be used for more than one month. For example, Scyther was handed out to winners in both October 2013 and December 2013)
- They follow a general principle in Pokémon card collecting that the most expensive cards in the hobby are not purchased from packs, they are won. These cards are awards or as I like to call them, “Trophies”. Unlike Staff or event promos that are given out freely, these cards (in theory) must be won by players.
- The cards are hard to grade. Since all but one are reverse holos, High PSA grades can be appreciated more. Population reports are very low.
- The cards will never be printed again. For all we know, Pokemon may go back and reprint Evolutions, Forbidden Light, Celestial Storm (all of which lend their artwork to these trophy cards). For example, upon reprint, Evolutions Mew 53/108 would see thousands+ copies released into the wild. The Mew 1st -4th place 53/108 variants will never be reprinted. Any copy you find now is all you will ever get.
- The cards simply don’t exist In excess quantity. You can randomly still get some for relatively inexpensive prices but after those last few copies, the supply has really dried up. There are not just pages of them available on tcgplayer.
- I get hot and bothered when people talk about underrated cards and I’m not saying that these are. I think they are somewhat niche but, in a sense, they are the Average Man’s/Woman’s/collector’s trophy cards. I’m considering getting more into the tcg just so that I can win the next one for myself and give the card value of a different sort. Most collectors like variability, many want the 1st edition stamp back on cards. Most collectors would agree that 1st edition cards are desirable because of the card variance due to the stamp ( a non-example would be Base UK print, no stamp, incredibly hard to come by outside of ebay, but really not a huge demand). 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, and 4th place stamps from league challenges communicate a similar message to the 1st edition stamp. Obtaining them, however, isn’t dependent upon waiting in line for hours or jumping onto a website at midnight to get a preorder, it’s about the genesis behind the card collecting, becoming the best player of the tcg and being awarded a card. Full credit to those collectors who own No1, No2, No3 Trophy cards and own a piece of history as well as a retirment plan. While they are different beasts, they stem from the same game and follow a similiar story and history in awarding players for mastering their craft.
