Hey Guys, I’m keen to start a discussion on the Hyper Rares in the new Sun & Moon sets in order to see what peoples views are.
Cards seem to be listed at some crazy prices on ebay. Does anyone think that they are worthwhile as an investment? Do we have any ideas as to how actually rare they are, or what their pull rates are?
To me it seems a bit of a throwback to many years ago, when we had the gold stars and shining pokemon. However these HR cards today just dont cut it for me to be honest. They may be ‘hyper’ rare but they just dont have the appeal or the special feel as the super rare cards of old. Are these HR’s even on the same level of rarity as the old gold stars etc? The cards have changed so much now compared to years ago.
Should i invest my money in some HR’s, or should instead put it towards a few extra boxes of the ‘Best of XY set’?
My two favorite words when looking at ebay prices: “Ebay Sold”.
There are few people in the market that were able to open early boxes, pull hypers, and list before release at those crazy $90+ prices however its all dropped significantly passed the point of inflated prices IMO. I just saw a lot of 6 cards, one being an ultra ball and a solgaleo gx hyper that sold at auction for around $92. The only way those higher prices could be maintained is with low quantity and high demand and yet its very much inverted. In my opinion it couldn’t farther from the Gold Star era as there are so many more out there.
Unless there is a very small print run of a specific item, for instance something like a trophy card that still will contain high values, there is no opportunity for growth in specific cards. Not until cards go out of rotation, and out of print, mainly forgotten about due to all the boxes being opened, then I could see them gaining traction. However, with the amount of supply and how quickly the new sets are being released, its a scary forecast as to if these sets will ever increase in value in the next 5 years. I would almost put money down to the fact that between evolution’s and sun/moon, there was more produced between those two sets then all of the E-series sets back in the day. The new sets are great, they are staple sets with a whole new atmosphere which is awesome. However, investing now versus investing in 2 years when they might finally go out of print will be the same cost basis. The singles will only drop however due to product being opened and more printed every day, there is not any incentive to buy now as in a couple months, more will be on the market and prices will have been slashed to keep up with low demand.
Production needs to trail behind the number of consumers joining the market each day, which I believe its very much opposite. If I was to invest now, I would find a part of the market that is in a lull and is not showing signs of reprints. Even Ancient Origins that was building some steam, some distributors are now getting in new stock. Its a very odd market to be investing in.
It would be a TERRIBLE investment, especially now as S&M just got released and is in print. As smpratte mentioned in one of his videos, the hyper rares are just a variant of the full art, with rainbow coloring and the same artwork. Gold stars and shinings were one of a kind items, with uniquue artwork. The printruns nowadays are also way higher than in the gold star era. At least wait and see if the hype calms instead of tying up capital right now.
For the US release I’ve been referring to all cards outside of the regular set number as Secret Rare with a subset of those Secret Rares being Rainbow Rares which are the GX cards.
So why exactly is the Secret Rare Ultra Ball so valuable? I know its playable, but the regular Uncommon Ultra Ball is only worth pocket change. Do competitive players just like blinging out their decks?
Rarities are tiered as follows (low to high) as of SM:
Common
Uncommon
Rare
Holo Rare
Ultra Rare (These are your EX’s and Full Arts)
Hyper Rare (These are your “Rainbow Rares”)
Other:
Secret Rares: Secret rares are cards numbered AFTER the standard set issue (Example: 103/102). A secret rare can occupy any other rarity’s slot in packs. We’ve seen them less than one a box and several per box. It just depends. The term itself is a descriptor pertaining only to the numbering on the card. It does not indicate frequency in any way. This is set-specific.
Shinies: This describes the coloration of the pokemon in the artwork. Like the Secret Rare, there is no set frequency for a shiny. The term is only a descriptor based on the information on the card and not a predictor of rarity/scarcity.
This is exactly it. The playability of the card is the most significant factor in its value. Other cards of the same exact rarity and appeal do not generate these prices. For example, the old gold ultra ball peaked at over $150 a copy with the same availability and pricing for its standard trainer equivalent. Meanwhile, Rocky Helmets were a few bucks each. Ultra Ball is not only a desirable bling card, it’s played as a 3-4 of in every single standard meta deck. The consistent usefulness of the card drives its price upward because people can invest in them without having to worry about their usefulness if they change decks. The consistent reprinting of Ultra Ball means it is also a safe investment. It’s not the kind of card that loses its meta relevance, so people are willing to pay more. They’ll get more total use out of it.
I honestly have mixed feelings on Hyper Rares/Rainbow Rares/whatever you wanna call them. They’re pretty cards, and add a new niche to collecting, but I also see them as an unnecessary new rarity layer. I’m gonna be a little whiny with this sentence, but as a set collector, it’s kinda annoying to have to track down/make account for fourteen, FOURTEEN, secret rare cards. Can we go back to the days of box toppers??? Please??? Maybe??? Dang! Calm down Pokemon!
I say unnecessary because we already have a full art level of rarity, and it feels like a cash grab by Pokemon, trying to target deck blingers and collectors in one go. I’ve def seen Pokemon’s theory work on Instagram. (Yes, I know how much everyone hates Instagram. I just like to post pics, OK?) I’ve seen so so so many of the people I follow jump onto the Rainbow Rare bandwagon and make a crazy effort to track down all 8 + all the new ones in the future.
My opinion? I think there are so so so so SO many rainbow rares its gonna be awhile (a LONG while) before they actually become valuable. IDK if my predictions are right, but give them maybe 5 or 10 years? They need to become old/nostalgic before they can be profitable. I don’t really think in investments, as I don’t plan to sell anything from my collection, but this is a trend I see. Every set has its turn around point where it suddenly becomes super hot and EVERYONE wants it. Starting to happen with Call of Legends. Everyone is discovering the SL subset, so that set is suddenly becoming a big deal. I remember during the prerelease how everyone (especially competitive players) had no interest in this set. Oh how times have changed. It took Call of Legends (came out in Feb 2011) 6 years, but I think it’s gonna take Sun and Moon longer, cause there’s SO MUCH of it.
(Didn’t SMPratte cover this in one of his recent vids?)
Watching TCG Player for deals, as I enjoy doing, I’ve seen every Rainbow Rares drop in price, and they might continue to go down as new SuMo expansions are released and the old Rainbow Rares go out of style. Gumshoes Rainbow Rare is $8 if you want it. $8! Even when Gold Star cards were released (forgive me if I have a foggy memory), I don’t remember ANY of the Gold Star cards ever being priced THAT low. Even Solgaleo’s $23-$27 seems really low compared to GS prices when they were first released. Maybe MAYBE Alakazam, but that’s all I can possibly think of. If you wanna invest, you’re gonna have to sit on these, and I mean SIT.
No no no! You’ve got it all wrong! Rainbow Rares??? RR. It’s actually a SECRET acronym for Rump Rest! In order to make 1000% profit on these cards you MUST sit on them, which can be accomplished in these easy steps!
Take cards out of binder, place in top loader or other protective case. Set this on the floor. For better results, make a nest-like arrangement of pillows and blankets and place the card in the center.
Sit on the card. You must do this for 2 weeks.
The metallic look of rainbow rares isn’t actually shiny cardboard, but ACTUALLY fragmented egg shells! By sitting on these cards, an egg shell from the rainbow rare holofoil pattern will form into a RAINBOW RARE EGG. Sadly, this turns the original Rainbow Rare into a Full Art during this process, but it’s all worth it for the final result.
We all know Pokemon packs usually come with 10 cards, correct? Well, your Rainbow Rare egg has 10 copies of the rainbow rare you incubated. CONGRATS. The catch? This egg takes a long time to hatch. According to Pokesoap’s very credible Pokescience, this egg will ONLY hatch when Rainbow Rares become THE MOST NOSTALGIC. Nostalgia = Profit. So, when your egg hatches, you will have 10 copies of your Rainbow Rare card, AT ITS MAXIMUM PROFIT POINT.
CONGRATS. Enjoy your piles of Rainbow Rare money, if you feel like selling off your hard earned cardboard children. Remember, they’re only minty fresh and new to this world, and don’t understand the horrible heavily played realities of it yet.
Disclaimer: This process is not recommended with Gumshoes. Try Eeveelutions or Legendaries for better results.
(I really need to be writing a film essay right now)
PSA 9s or 10s of the Umbreon and Espeon hyper rares would be worth the grade imo just because they’re iconic pokemon that will be sought after. That’s not really something to hold though, you’d just flip them the minute you got them back from PSA.
Soooooo much worrying about value and little talk about how cool they are.
I don’t really care for how much their value will rise or fall, for me they represent something pretty cool; the ability to have a uniform set of cards spread across multiple sets.
I think they’ve made too many of them, the amount of HR in SM1+ was ridiculous, but their pull rates seem quite low on the Japanese side.
These cards just pop so much with their artwork. It’s hard to describe, but they work so well!
I really like the Hyper Rare addition as well. Perhaps why value is in the forefront is due to the exorbitant amount of product on the market. Also, not sure how collectible they will be long term if they are overly available. Basically why we have hyper rares today is because of the rarity/scarcity and long term collectibility of Shinnings, gold stars and cards of comparable pull rates to HR.
As oz said, I do think that they look nice in person. Before I actually held a copy, I wasn’t sure where I stood. In person they really work for me.
Making the pull rates low with 7 different hyper rares and 5 different secret rares for new sets feels necessary considering how much product has been opened.
Pokemon need to create value for the box if they want people to keep buying sealed product. If the pull rates were high people would just stick to singles, everything in the set has tanked except for the ultra ball.
When they get around to making the Kanto starter trio GXs hopefully the charizard will make up for the disappointing FA flashfire zard.
When they were first announced I thought the market price would be about 30-50% higher than what they are now, but I’m glad they aren’t.
As it stands I think there are too many rainbow rares per set, and I think they will become stale in the marketplace as they are not an art variant. Maybe in 10 years these will become relevant in a rarity perspective.
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