Something I’ve thought about before, what’s the appeal of trophy cards ??
It’s a not a “trophy” that I won. I personally don’t want medal or trophy that someone else earned. I get they are rare, but I don’t have a connection to the trophy cards that I do for original base set. I also don’t find the artwork to be that great.
If they are being purchased as an investment, that I understand.
What is the appeal to you if you like trophy cards?
I personally couldn’t care less about them, but the biggest selling point (other than the rarity and value) is certainly the unique artwork that they possess.
I get not wanting a trophy or medal that someone else has earned, but I disagree with the artwork. I love it. Older, rarer, minter better.
Their history! So many cards have amazing back stories on how they came to be and how they’re obtained. That’s something not a lot of cards can say.
I agree with the historical and artistic reasoning; they’re beautiful, unique, and carry awesome stories with them. It’s like collecting a painting or work of art. (& they’re priced relatively comparably to relatively higher end art as well…)
History, unique art, challenge to acquire. I don’t see why rarity should be excluded as an appealing trait. Rarity is a huge part of what makes a great collectible as well.
Not wanting someone else’s prize was my first approach to trophies aswell, but then I found out about the dozens of other promos and “prize cards” ranging from 20 to 1000 $. In order to obtain those, people had to work. Whether that’s gathering fan club points or proving skill in the tcg, it was someone else’s work. Heck, even the Scream Pikachu (which I absolutely love) was only obtainable when visiting an exhibition.
I didn’t earn my copy for what it was intended to be, but I wanted it because of the artwork. Maybe that comparison is somewhat of a stretch, but you get my point.
Now enhance rarity and history by a wide margin and I came to understand why people enjoy trophies 
Did you pull every card in your collection from a pack when you were a kid?
Trophy cards are maxed out in every category, especially vintage trophies. The biggest misnomer is that they “aren’t what I grew up with”. The artwork on every vintage trophy is pure nostalgic hand drawn artwork. Also why Charizard is a legend is because it had some difficulty to acquire. Trophies are simply the pinnacle of that chase. Whether people personally value them is their choice. The market values them regardless.
I personally would not want to buy a card that some other guy won or earned through hard work. On top of that, most of these trophies are japanese, so I care even less for them.
On the other hand, if I was a guy who won a trophy card, I would never sell it.
I was going to give my trophy card collection away to the first person on the forum who’s avatar is a pikachu that I saw. But nevermind since you don’t want something someone else earned or like the artworks…
Lol. Touché!
I am sure there are some good looking cards. For reference, it’s this style of card that doesn’t do anything for me.
I imagine there’s nothing like staring at a Trophy card in your hand and saying to yourself “Pokémon is a mammoth franchise with billions of Pokémon cards printed since its inception, and here is a card with of less than 50 known to exist.”
What’s the appeal of Super Bowl rings? 
I bought my first troohy cards in 2007, aged 15. Why? Definitely not as investment. I did not care about the value. But the combination of their beautiful artworks and extreme rarity did it for me. Owning something you love and knowing not many other copies exist was what I always wanted.
Nothing beats the combination of art and knowing only so many exist. That’s why the Gotta pikachu and Gotta mew cards are 2 of my favorites. Are they crazy valuable? Ehh, not compared to trophies, but I love the art and so few people have them in high grade. I feel privileged to own something like that and a sense of pride that I made it happen. I only wish I started seriously collecting vintage cards sooner.
So you can next level flex on IG
Foreign language cards aren’t my personal cup of tea. If you are collecting a character you may want one.
I personally fell/still fall into the “why pay for a representation of someone else’s achievement” camp. I feel weird about it in some ways. I also feel the same way about autos. I have some of each from my youth (autos and trophy’s) that would mean nothing to anyone else, but mean a lot to me.
It just so happens that Pokemon is a large enough market that there are enough people out there and few enough of these trophies out there that the value on them is quite high, and historically they have seen amazing ROI’s and likely will see good returns in the future as well.
The exclusivity, elusivity, $$$$, and artwork of them cannot be denied.
I’ve never considered purchasing or attempting to purchase a trophy card, but I can very easily see the appeal. Exclusivity is an essential part of serious Pokemon card collecting, I think we can all comfortably say we are here because we wanted to elevate our collecting experience to a higher level. Much of the discussion is about getting the most popular cards in the highest grades. Lots of people can have a holographic Charizard, but only a select few have a PSA 8+ 1st edition base set one. I know the exclusivity angle was a big factor in my getting into professional grading, it’s a way to differentiate oneself from the masses of collectors and have a more difficult but more rewarding goal to achieve.
Trophy cards are the pinnacle of exclusivity. We’ve got the modern trophies with only six handed out per year, and even more widely distributed ones like the trophy Khan are still in a different universe compared to the rarest set cards. I think another thing that comes along with trophy cards that can add to their value is the relative ease of accessing information about them. As we’ve seen lately with cards like Ishihara GX, the “OnLy 100 pRiNtEd” art academy cards, and the Articuno phone card, many limited release cards also have limited information available about their release. Not so with trophy cards, ask the average collector how many No. 1 Trainers are distributed each year and it’s pretty likely that if they know anything about the card they’ll know the number.