Thought you all might enjoy seeing this old buylist order from 2012. These were strong prices for NM ungraded at the time! 
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Looks about right! Most gold stars were $25ish for longest time. Also funny to see that they haven’t changed anything about their buy listing process in 6 years.
What exactly caused the Gold Star bubble?
The significant rise in popularity of gold star cards. Also as of now it’s not correct to call the price increase a bubble – it’s an appreciation of the value due to factors that are not grounded in speculation for the most part. A bubble implies that market value >>> intrinsic value (and market value will always attempt to reach intrinsic value in the long run), which I don’t believe is the case for gold stars.
I thought Scott referred to it as a bubble in one of his videos. I think he mentioned it as something that already “burst” and prices have settled now where they should be. Was it social media that propelled their popularity? I just find it fascinating and wonder if anyone saw it coming. Makes you wonder what today’s equivalent would be. Now that everything is printed to death, we may never have one.
I would be hesitant to say that the price correction the past few months are a bursting bubble. A bubble suggests that the value of the cards has reached a peak that most likely will never be reached again, which I don’t believe is the case.
From what I remember (and hopefully some of the more older collectors can chime in), I think gold star cards have always been more popular relative to other pokemon cards – back in 2012, those were still some of the most valuable cards. It’s just that once more people started collecting again, prices drastically rose across the board.