Hello,
Justo out of curiosity, how to people typically go about obtaining the extremely rare cards like trophy cards without winning the tournaments?
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Simple really, just need a little bit of…
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“Hey kids I’ll give you ten bucks and a booster pack for those cards.”
“COOL!!”
That’s how probably.
This is spot on! xD
FTFY.
First of all I’m also curious how, because I’m still missing some very rare Pikachu cards. When I look at how I acquired some of the rare Art Academy cards, it’s mainly: searching, searching, searching for small pieces of information.
A single facebook post / YouTube video is usually not too hard to find, but sometimes you really have to dig (and I still do have to dig for the remainder of the 9 Art Academy Pikachus).
As for tournament winning Trophy Cards: people are usually present at the tournament and buy them shortly after. Of they talk to the winner and keep in close-contact in case they ever want to sell them, even if it’s years from now.
How to buy them years after they’ve been released is having good contacts. For Trophy cards of which only a handful are made, it’s usually known who owns them. Simply find their contact through your own contacts / searches, and see what you can offer (see picture above 
) to take it over.
That having said, I’m really nowhere near experienced with this. Yes, I’ve bought a few semi-rare Pikachus, but finding the absolute gems and having those private sales are more the expertise of @smpratte and alike. So I’ll leave it to them to perhaps give some general information, or perhaps an example of the journey of how they acquired a certain (extremely rare) card.
Greetz.
Quuador
At worlds, trophy cards are usually obtained by talking to the winners directly about buying them. Buyers should have several thousand dollars in cash on hand.
There’s actually a lot going on socially when this happens. I don’t think everyone would be received the same way.
There are 3 main components for acquiring any collectible: work, money & luck. With trophy cards each one of those components are maxed out.
Certain Trophy cards never appear for sale publicly, if at all. As for the worlds pikas, there are individuals who buy them in person at the tournament. However, even if you are present at the tournament and have the finances, there is no guarantee you will acquire them.
Ultimately there is no secret. For the literal rarest and scarcest items in the hobby, it all comes down to being prepared for that brief opportunity.
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Buying rare trophy cards is like David Attenborough Documentaries.
You see an incredible shot of an Eagle catching it’s prey in the snow. Then you find out the photographer sat in the same spot for 10 hours a day for 2 months to get the shot.
Sure they could have gone on 1 day and had a chance of getting the shot, but the odds are astronomical.
If you are ready all the time then you can take the opportunities when they arise.
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