Hi Leo,
My exact sentiments for Wotc base, which is why I gave up chasing base cards like Charizard or Mewtwo base whether 1st edition or not. The pop is overwhelmed in thousands and every time it hits an astronomical high price in some ABCC auctions, my stomach turns. People are just blatantly profiteering from Wotc base cards. Base set’s chase cards are also not rare to pull.
So I turned to ex, shining and gold stars instead for vintage where the pop is still considered low pop - truly scarce!
I personally believe that no set card is scarce, they’ve been printed to the ground but obviously not as much in comparison to SwSh era print runs. Pop Reports are fake too because a lot of stuff just isn’t graded
Gold stars, shining, ex and crystals are very scarce enough for most people.
Those astronomically scarce cards, like Pikachu Illustrator with only total 39 copies in the world, come with astronomical price tags, are far beyond our reach.
Some might but there are a lot of people who appreciate vintage without ever being born in that era or having history with it. Most of the product I own are things I have no nostalgic connection to, didn’t know existed when I was a kid but still value it highly.
You do realize that there’s not even a complete PSA 10 e-Reader era holo + reverse set in existence, right? Still a number of cards without a single PSA 10 in the pop. It’s a very scarce era in mint condition and the sealed supply is unimaginably dry. There’s so much to collect from the 2003-2004 era that there’s really no way to “complete” it. Even if we’re just talking about mint condition holo sets + sealed product, how many people on this forum do you think have complete mint holo sets of Expedition through TMTA? And how many people do you think have a sealed box of each of the 7 sets from the era? I’d wager that almost no one in the world has truly “conquered” the e-Reader era (with some exceptions like Dave Persin, obviously). I’ve made more progress on it than most and I’m still nowhere near finished.
I like other eras too but not as much. Ik all the new kids on the block claim nostolgia isnt that important but ill be interested to see if theyre here in even 2 years. Tons of people on this forum and ig that i used to talk to during the 2020 boom are gone.
I just clicked on his stream to check it out and the next pack he opened he got it. That is indeed one expensive Moonbreon. Makes $600 raw really seem reasonable.
