The most desirable? Aquapolis
Equally desirable? Legend Maker
Less desirable? DPP
Not desirable at all? BW-
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Hell, the rate at which basic ultra rares are being pulled, those are soon to not matter at all, and basically already donât.
I kind of miss the B&W and early XY era of box pulls. Even pulling a basic ultra rare felt great bc there were usually only 4 in a box.
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This! A flat V âultra rareâ has nothing âultraâ about it.
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TrollandToad doesnât even take basic ultra rares in bulk anymore
If you said era, I would said HGSS. Ask me in 5 years and maybe BW.
But as for a set, I would confidently that the holo Rares were important and significant in Pokemon Go.
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Honestly the product isnât very good. I donât know if thatâs blasphemous to say.
Many new consumers are still caught in the hype cycle, but training your audience to look forward to 4 alternate art cards a set is suicide in the long term.
Them retexturing from Japan is also pointless as they make it worse. Not that I think FAs or RRs will appreciate that much if they had JP texturing but it would not hurt to have it.
The end of WOTC era ( Skyridge ) or ex series ( EX Power Keepers ), hard to make choice between these two.
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Definitely BW. The change in numbering ruined it too.
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Ive sold a decent amount of english and japanese BW holos for $250+ graded 10s, some even $1000. XY ive sold a few but not as many as BW.
Do they look better than English or whatâs the difference do you think?
Yes but SS didnât introduce those pokemon â all of those first had holos in RS
I think the more rarity tiers you introduce, the more holos get pushed down. I think even in the BW and XY era holos still had a lot of character, because you really only had the EX and EX Full Arts above them. You also had really cool holo effects like the Ancient Trait cards in XY. Once the SM era arrived and you had GX/Tag Team GX, Full Art GX/TTGX, Rainbow Rares, and then the Special Arts, there is just too much thatâs more exciting to pull and holos become worthless.
So, last set where holos mattered? XY Evolutions.
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Ahhh I get what youâre saying my bad 
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long time ago
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For me personally, the end of the E-series cards was when I felt regular holos mattered less. This isnât to say there havenât been nice-looking holos with great theming (TRR, Delta Species) but as others have mentioned introducing multiple rarity tiers removes the chase aspect.
We like shiny cardboard but some shiny cardboard is more shiny.
Answer changes drastically as time goes on. I did not care at all about holos in ex-era sets when opening them but now would be happy to pull one in many cases. Same with DP/HGSS era, especially COL but even other sets around there. Not there with BW era yet personally but maybe in 5 years.
This is definitely around the time where holos start mattering less and less, where sets like Rising Rivals have 2 different types of âsecret raresâ even past the big block mechanic ie. LV. X. HGSS introduces LEGEND too, and BW sets start with the Full Arts.
Same for me! I remember really enjoying Secret Wonders. That was a fun set to open when it came out. Honestly felt similar to pulling a WOTC holo.
EX era reverse holos are the best to this day. They felt rewarding when pulled. I honestly think the EX era had one of the best balances of hits.
CP6 was a nice throwback to valuing holo cards. Other than that, most sets HGSS and beyond the holo card is unfortunately just another brick in the wall.
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For me itâs completely tied to the holo-type, the traditional Galaxy/Cosmos and Star foils just had a lot more going for them than anything that came after. Recently WotC used the old holo again for Magic the Gathering, and that just made me realise how much I miss the âauthenticâ holo pattern. The original holo pattern just evokes a lot of nostalgia for me. The re-imagination of the old holo pattern doesnât do it for me, itâs like the holo-pattern-at-home-version.
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it never mattered. nobody is excited to pull a holo when its a dark wheezing or something, but might get excited when they pull a dark jolteon (for example)
it has always matter what the pokemon was more than if it was holo or not.
i suppose one caveat would be jungle and fossil when you had non holo versions of holos and that would sting.
For English it was BW for me. Up until then I had enjoyed collecting every new set. I was playing competitively at the time, and I would keep non playable holo cards in a binder sets. I didnât bother with non - holos beyond WOTC because the BINDERS wouldâve been too expensive. Yes thatâs right, at the time when ex Era un/commons were pennies I didnât want to use the little money I had on so many binders instead of cards. RIP.
Up until BW I still got a kick out of pulling a holo in a booster pack even if it wasnât worth much. In early DP Era you only got one Lv. X per box so the holos had to be something you appreciated if you were gonna buy a box. I remember opening a box of DP when it first came out and being a little bummed I pulled Torterra instead of Infernape lv. X but overall being happy with my holos and pulls.
At the BW prerelease it was hate at first site for the new holo pattern and my opinion has not changed. I collect Japanese BW Full arts and ultra rares and thatâs it, no holos outside of special sets.
Another thing to consider is, many DP-HGSS sets especially Platinum, Stormfront, Rising Rivals, etc had super solid box EVs because of all the playable trainer cards which were uncommons/rares. Instead of the box being a total bust if you didnât get the mega rare hit you wanted, the $20 of trainers or Uxie/Smeargle/Cleffa/Crobat G/Claydol from a $80 box made it not so bad. I was paying $3-4 a booster pack back then and a $2 trainer and $2 holo was a common occurrence. Reverse holo ultra playable uncommons were $5-10. And general bulk prices were way higher. I got 5.5 cents per un/common from Troll n toad at nationals 2011. So there was less risk / stress on the line.
These days nearly all playable trainers and most holos are <25 cents, which as a player makes life much easier, but opening a box has a very different feeling of hoping for a hit instead of savoring every pack.
In terms of the glory days of box EV, the first BW set was basically heaven on Earth because I could sell the codes for $1 each! Effectively turned a booster box from $80 to $44. And then at 5.5 cents and 8 un/commons per pack (disclaimer, I recall the 5.5 cents being a special offer and normal buy price around 4-5 cents) thatâs another $15 from bulk un/commons! So in my mind it was $29 to gamble on a box! Too bad the holos were so ugly!
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