Hi, I’m fairly new to this forum, and I have seen quite a few users here searching for specific Korean cards.
Which led me to this question:
What, in your opinion or experience, are the rarest Korean cards to obtain?
- Basically, I am just asking to learn what cards are considered rare and sought after amongst international collectors. I want to compare them to the rare cards that Korean collectors argue as the hardest to obtain.
- But, if you do want to know the longer story, here is the full story:
Why do I ask?
Throughout the years I’ve been a Japanese collector only, mainly because it’s generally in higher quality than korean cards, and older cards are easier to get in japanese.
But, recently in my endeavor to complete the grand pokedex (which include all forms, including variants in shape). I came across the vivillon from XY.
And learned that there are at least 7 different forms exist. When I found out how much the Russian card goes for.. it bummed me out big time.
Anyways, it turns out, that Korean ones exist as well, so I searched Ebay listings.
TWO LISTING exist, with one with $550, and one with $1,000. Obviously, because these aren’t sold, the prices aren’t justified.
But, since they are listed at such high prices, I figured that there is a decent demand for them.
So, I searched them on my own here on the forums and websites locally, and managed to get two, korean exclusive vivillons for 30 USD (50,000 won) each.
Turns out, they may be hard to find internationally, but here in Korea, these cards are just.. random cards. Nobody kinda knew they were exclusives or special.
This led me down a rabbit hole of rare korean exclusives. Just because I was fascinated about the discrepancy of demand in certain cards.
I found that some are quite easy to find here in Korea, which surprised me when I found out how difficult it was for people internationally to find these cards.
- For example, unlimited base korean cards, thought to be the smallest print run. With some quick searches, I’ve seen many search for it’s variants
- One of the cards, Staryu, graded in BRG 9 (a korean based grading company) just sold last week for about 15 USD, or 21,000 won.
- I’ve found many more in korean forums.
- EDIT - I found out that most of the unlimited found recently are from the starter decks. The true unlimited cards are much much more harder to find.
This, I believe is because MOST of the buy/sell of Korean cards are handled in two websites.
- Bunjang - which is a korean Mercari, or FB market place. Sold data here is often deleted, making it difficult for google searches.
- NAVER Cafe “MVC” - think of this like a pokemon tcg subreddit or e4 of Korea. MVC cafe, is a forum, that currently holds about 70,000 koreans. Most sales of Korean cards are records here. They even hold online auctions in this forum. Most of the sales are very difficult to find through google search.
I believe that the prevalence of these two services are what makes it difficult to find Korean Cards online.
Since Ebay is not prevalent here, there just is no need to list collections on Ebay.
The Korean trading community is fairly young, there aren’t that many serious Korean collectors.
Only a few serious collectors, know the existence of super rare Korean exclusive cards, often promo cards from the BW ~ XY era. Many here just focus on modern japanese or korean, or psa graded.
This, I believe is the reason behind the difference in interest in Korean exclusives.
Most just don’t know, their existence or their demand internationally.
Which led me to this question. What are some cards in Korean that you consider as rare? I want to know, and compare them to the cards that Korean’s consider as rare.
- Some Korean cards that many Korean collectors view as rare are:
What are some korean cards that Korean collectors view as rare?
- Most BW era cards, especially the UR, shiny variants
- Among which, the rayquaza, and charizard is the most expensive and sought after.
- Most, are damaged, or HP, it is very hard to find a mint copy.
- BW “Barcode” Promos Rayquaza ex and Giratina ex
- These are from the 2013 “cut the barcode” campaign here in South Korea. Only 1,000 copies exist. These are the direct counterparts to the 2012 japanese promos from the ‘Super Rare Card Set Get!’ campaign that have the same art.
- Last month, a COMPLETELY sealed copy was sold in auction here on the MVC forum.
- The bid ended at around $6,833 USD, around 10,100,000 won
- Base set cards, and base set unlimited
Base set cards, especially first edition. have been quite easier to find recently. With the boom of Pokemon TCG, many youtubers here have found them to be excellent for content.
- So far in the past year, I’ve seen three boxes opened so far, each with their own Charizards.
- However, I have never seen an unlimited base box so far.
- Early Movie Promo - Mewtwo - 2000
- Korean version of the movie promo, Mewtwo strikes back, given around 2000.
- I may be wrong. This, is surprisingly hard to find, but, it is very affordable.
- A brg 9, sold for around 130 USD last month.
-
NeNe Chicken Promo cards - BW
- These are also very rare, given to those who order the special chicken set.
- Singles go for around 10USD
- Trick Coin (Non-holo) - 2014
-
The non-holo trick coin, these were given in 2014, only to those who reported fake cards being sold in korea to PCK (Pokemon Company Korea)
-
The reverse holo, is eaiser to find since they were given in Korean League promo packs
- Toothbrush Eveelution Promos BW - 2008
- These, I believe are not as rare as the others, but they are high in demand, since they are eveelutions.
- Sealed I believe are more hard to come across.
Anyways, any answers would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance. 
ps. a small appreciation for my boy swampert. hehe
still one of the most iconic threads on here.
