In my city at least, nobody knew about Trophy Cards in the 90’s and it was all about Base Set. My parents never bought me any packs so I got a lot of my friends trash ones. My earliest memory of Pokemon is trading my Computer Search for an older kids Doduo because he told me birds are cooler than computers. While he scammed me then, he later went to jail for drug related charges so I think I won out in the end. Enjoy prison Craig.
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I grew up with base set the day it released here in the UK, it is nostalgic for me, trading with neighbours and friends at school. Also watching the cartoon series and playing Pokémon blue. For me it was about the 151 for a very long time, then Gen 2 came, enjoyed that just as much as gen 1 then I lost interest.
Financially, I can’t collect both WOTC and trophies at the moment but this doesn’t mean that I don’t want to have some trophy cards. Majority of the ones I have seen so far, have a pokemon from Gen1 which is what I grew up with so I like that connection. As many have mentioned the art is amazing, for me it has to be the whole design of them, the trainer banner and frame. It is almost like a photo frame with a photo of you and your trophy or medal.
So even though I’m mostly a English Pokémon card collector, I do appreciate the trophy cards and the story/meaning behind them and as time goes on, I feel that I like both equally 
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The “learning” happens with everything. There was once a time you didn’t know charizord existed and now you do. People in sports that don’t know pokemon will crossover to charizord not because of nostalgia or anything inherent about charizord itself but because it’s universally recognized as one of the so-called “rarest” and most desirable cards.
The arbitrariness of charizord being the most expensive base card is as arbitrary as the value of trophies. It’s the exact same thing, just the charizord has more general exposure and there is less availability for something like the illustrator, which explains the price differential.
We are dealing with nonessential assets. Value is almost entirely driven by the perception of what someone else would pay for a card, whether it be now or at some future point
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Dude have you seen the Pikachu trophy cards? They are sweet! I didn’t grow up with them, and I’m priced out beyond my wild dreams, but the artwork is amazing. The topic has been discussed to death—nostalgia tends to bring one into a collecting hobby, but interest in art or collecting keeps you and spreads you in new directions. I can also, as pointed out, feel nostalgic for a card from the era I love without having seen said particular card as a child.
Oh and Parent/Child Kangaskhan is the best card ever made. My dream card, bar none. Never knew that card existed as a child. But Sugimori artwork. The color, the beauty, the pose! I’d give 3 PSA 10 1st zards for them in a hypothetical “same value” scenario, where you can’t get 3 khans.
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My issue with this train of thought it is very oriented for hardcore collectors. At the end of the day, it *almost* always boils down to this debate in every collectible hobby. Even for people outside of the community, in a small country in a far away region in Asia, South America, etc. They won’t recognize a card given to the winners of an “x” contest in Japan “n” years ago, they might recognize the Pikachu in the card tho.
That card is and will only be valuable/treasured by the enthusiasts in the hobby that dig deeper into the history of the tcg and will be valued as the grail of the hobby (debatable) but at the end of the day, tracking down the history it is always the most popular/well known thing by the masses who is bound to be remembered (sometimes this collides with the most rare item). Does it mean that Charizard or more popular cards are more rare? More desirable? Absolutely not, but for a lot of people, the illustrator card is just that “most expensive card” but there’s no real attachment to it.
Of course we are still in early years of the tcg as hobby so one cannot tell for sure what will change or not.
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I love this discussion and debate.
About which one is better well that is subjective.
Regarding which one has been the better ROI over the last five years, well you would have to crunch some numbers and find out!
Neo Destiny and Base set brought me back as a collector this year and its what I was nostalgic with. But growing up in Japan, I was able to get my hands on the original promo magazines, so I had a feel for these as well. Perusing on eBay and watching YouTube videos, I began to discover a heightened version of promos such as tournament cards and trophy cards. In the end, all I want are Japanese promos of said nature
Just stretch it back to 25 years. Trophy cards were free so the ROI is infinity. EZ win 
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Another reason I’m drawn to English WOTC over Japanese exclusives: I have always been both a player and a collector.
Artwork can be amazing, but there’s so much more to appreciate, like battle mechanics. For those who were/are players, it’s fun to think about past metagames, and the role each card had (or didn’t have) in its respective era.
I can’t look at Base Chansey, Hitmonchan, Blastoise, or Electabuzz without immediately thinking about the decks they were used in; the decks I played with and against. I enjoy pointing out to casual collectors that although Base Charizard is the king, it truly never was a top-tier playable card. Metagame-driven collection is the reason I picked up a T17 earlier this year. I want the whole Neo Genesis set eventually, but I was absolutely certain to pick up my favorite playable card from that era before anything else.
As iconic and legendary as the Illustrator is, it never was used in a deck. That was obviously never its purpose. Of course it is still appreciated, but it isn’t going to scratch a metagame nostalgia itch. That won’t prevent it from continuing to shatter price records now and in the future. For every person like me there’s surely ten others who could care less about whether a card was actually intended to be used in a deck. Anyway, if nothing else this is just another example of how absolutely diverse collectors are. We all are here collecting what we love for different reasons.
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No one grew up with Pokemon cards slabbed in PSA plastic, therefore no one is nostalgic for them, thus we should not desire them.
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If I had the opportunity to trade my 1st Ed zard for a miracle diamond or trophy khan I probably would, for the rarity and unique art alone.
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The slab protects the card I was nostalgic for. The slab tells me the condition of the card.
I don’t want the slab. I want the card within. And I wanted the added benefits of the slab.
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Yep. X100. It’s truly a combination of the history behind the cards, scarcity, and being more investable. Set cards are great. Trophy cards are better. No rarity is the 1st edition. That is all.
Sorry if this is a duplicate response. I meant to say this earlier and didn’t think I hit create.
I knew you were gonna say that. I also second this notion
For me the attraction of a trophy card is the completely unique art that the majority have, allied with the same format and art style of the early WOTC releases.
I can get an English unlimited set of Base to Gym relatively easily, then the full WOTC Black Star Promos.
This then naturally leads onto ‘what else has these qualities’, and for English that solely becomes condition qualifiers/stamps.
Alternatively, I can browse the ‘unnumbered promotional cards’ page on Bulbapedia and find amazing cards like Grand Party, Trophy Kangaskhan etc., that fit the mould but never crossed over. Beautiful artwork, early Sugimori watercolour and understated.
And people don’t have these cards, or don’t have played childhood versions. I can then see how some start to chase those that aren’t unique, like Computer Error, much like how I can see how some want a 1st Edition, then a PSA 10 as a natural progression from their initial nostalgia.
While I understand your perspective @fresco, in the end when it comes to these high end cards, people are either looking at them as collectable pieces or investments (or both). I recently read this book and it discusses how high end art paintings have risen and fallen over time and how they have also soared to immense prices in these past 20 years.
One of the interesting themes that I found from it is that the market depends on collectors as a whole and thus even collectors who are “dealers” in the Pokemon art world are still providing cards to people who will end up holding them for a while. These rare aspects going to @pfm,'s point adds to the desirability and thus makes the prices increase dramatically but nobody wants to be the first to start a jump unless they themselves are a collector and receive value from the item itself too.
This is also a conversation I have been having with multiple people who are part of the higher end sports card community who have been buying decently strong trophy card equivilants and with the idea of fractional shares starting there (and I believe a no rarity charizard funding round is closing soon), it seems obvious to me and other sports dealers that the gap between trophy cards and set cards will only continue to widen.
A question for everyone the community here tho: Would phone cards be considered a lower tier trophy since they were awarded at a specific event and are quite a rare item or would you argue they fall under the promo mix where its in between high end set cards and trophies? 
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For me, 90% of my purchases in the last few months have been Trophy cards
The chase is just so exhilarating - and they look absolutely beautiful
The unique story of each one just make them so much cooler than set cards to me
They feel like a truly prized possession
But, I completely understand if it’s not someone’s cup of tea, although i do recommend anyone to buy one before criticizing them … I didn’t like them, until I bit the bullet and bought one
I do not see most going down in price either, so the chance is still there to get many for relatively cheap
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Nostalgic sentiment isn’t a perfect link to the past. Your relationship with past experiences at this moment is mediated (and partially created) by your present state of mind/life circumstances (along with all that occurred between the two points in time).
Nostalgia can drive one to exclusively buy what they once possessed while it causes another to collect as much as they can from a particular era. Why? The answer is different for everyone.
A large quantity of variables engenders a great variety of collecting styles. Some, of course, aren’t even primarily motivated by nostalgia. In any case, the hobby and market are clearly big enough to accommodate all of our different preferences, many of which change as we grow and adapt as collectors (and/or business owners).
Id rather have 10,000 $10 cards in a psa slab which i can spend days just to look at meanwhile forget the first ones and cycle back, opposed to any single $100,000 card (not that either trophy or zard are 100k)
This idea that most of you here have that the barrier to entry for trophy cards is money is laughable to say the least.
The difficulty in the journey for acquisition is where it’s at, the value of the trophies I own is tied to these memories.
When these absurdly rare cards (100~ copies) get caught by established people who will never NEED to sell, they are gone for good.
The only way to get me off my trophies would be to offer me other trophies I desire more, no amount of money would move me unless it’s enough to BIN whatever else I’m hunting for literally on the spot because the second I let em go they’re gone forever, there may never be another opportunity to acquire them in the future. Now more than ever.
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