Thoughts on this Japanese Rayquaza Gold Star

General
1

So ive seen a fantastic card up for sale to start my collection of the EX era.
Firstly does it look legit? And how would you rate it condition wise based on the pics?

2

3

At quick first glance looks clean, I’d plan for a PSA 9, maybe 8 depending on how they take the back edge wear and corners.

4

So it definitely doesn’t look like it could be fake?

5

Beautiful card. Doesn’t look fake to me. Has a great swirl near the tail.

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6

Looks good to me.

7

Definitely looks real! Japanese gold starts are great value, especially ones like rayquaza.

8

Looks real, I would say 7-8 but expect a seven. The edge wear although harder to see on japanese is definitely fairly significant on the card and centering looks a bit off right to left. Scratches and bends can be hard to see from a picture so I would ask for more pictures and ask him directly if it has any significant damage. Best of luck on starting your collection you definitely picked one of my favorite card arts and I actually always preferred this one with the white border in Japanese.

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9

I’d say psa 10.

Psa sucks at grading Japanese gold stars.

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10

Thanks for the feedback!

It’s still ungraded so very subjective to what it may score condition wise, I don’t have any close ups of the edges on the reverse unfortunately.

What do you think it’s worth all things considered?
I dont want to be overpaying for something.

11

Ebay sold listings can be your best friend for this. Just filter search results for Sold Listings. Then find the sold cards that have similar condition to yours. I see a lot of them sold with more wear for at least $200 at a very quick glance.

12

Snapped it up for €600 in the end. Looking at previous sales it’s fair price based on what others of a similar condition went for.

Whilst I was searching I had a look at other PSA graded Japanese Gold Star Rayquazas. I wanted to see how much back/edge wear the higher grades, 8-10 had.

So this is the back of a PSA 8

And this is the back of PSA 10

Gives me a little bit of hope for mine ha!

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13

@jimmy PSA’s ability to grade new-back Japanese cards is hilarious. Even with the 4x vs 2x cert debate, I still see some high valued 4x new backs get terribly misgraded (ahem, master scroll PSA 10)

Yikes

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14

It arrived
Looks pretty mint in the flesh though I did see 2 tiny tiny puncture marks on the top right on the reverse of the card.

15

How would these two marks affect the overall grade?

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I figured the marks/pin pricks were difficult to see on the previous photo.

I’ve zoomed right in so you can see.

Are these likely to knock the card right down a few grades?

17

@jimmy, yes, it’s an instant 6 now. Unless the grader misses it which is unlikely.

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18

Thanks for the reply Kingboo!
I really appreciate the feedback from everybody, many thanks!

I’m going to send the card in for grading anyway, if it gets a 6, so be it I can live with a couple of tiny dimples on the back.
The rest of the card is fantastic otherwise, especially on the front which does look mint.

In all honesty they look a lot worse in the photos - I’ve had to angle the card in the light to create the shadow to show them as just looking at the card straight on you don’t notice them.

From what I understand these dimples are usually caused by tiny specks of debris/particles on the dies when the cards are being manufactured.
There a few examples of it happening to sports cards on the net though I guess it’s rarer for pokemon cards.

I came across this whilst searching which I found interesting. Again looks like a similar dent/dimple issue.

www.elitefourum.com/t/psa-10-with-tiny-indentation/23599/1