Now that I am at a computer I can properly respond.
I objectively cannot think of a card, or card type that is in a bubble or egregiously overpriced at the moment. The last bubble was for sure the gold star market. You had cards released in sets that if graded PSA 10 were easily clearing high hundreds to 1k (excluding pikachu or charizard). I don’t see anything close to that at the moment. Even the graded full arts are not realizing that outlandish of prices.
Speaking of Full Arts, dat 15th Anniversary Pika! I know people lump him in with the rest of the “overpriced” FA cards, but from having a private discussion, I wanted to add a bit of perspective. First, the card is the only proper pikachu full art. The festa pika is nice, but is is comparable to a mini set FA in its artwork and release. The 15th pikachu however is the real deal, the actual full art card. Its release was also less in number and in a sealed promo pack that increases its value.
Moreover, it doesn’t have an english re-print. If you compare the card to a full art released in a set (both english and japanese) then sure, it seems op. However, it is a japanese exclusive promo, the only actual pikachu full art card. Realistically someone paying $150-200 for a psa 10 and slightly less for a sealed copy is not that crazy. If the card had any of the following: more copies printed, was distributed by itself, or had an english re-print, then sure, it would be a bit high.
Oh how i wish I new this when I walked into that Pokemon Centre in Yokohama almost 2 years ago and only bought one pack haha
In relation to the question though, I agree with smpratte in that its such a unique artwork and unlike so many other of the “over priced” cards actually has a release story that is somewhat significant behind it. I have no problem in seeing a graded reaching a high price.
Gary, you’ve mention this “secret hoard” of non-TCG Pokemon cards before. Could you please shed some light on this? Because, frankly, I’ve seen no evidence of such a thing here in Japan. (That’s not to say there weren’t a LOT of these cards produced. For the most part, I don’t disagree with that.)
I believe perhaps he is referring to this video that was posted about a year ago about this guy flipping through these huge binders of nothing but gold stars(?)
Some have shown up already but the sellers controlling them are pretty sharp and are marketing them well so as not to hurt their value too much too soon.
It reminds me of the Birthday Pikachus in the sticker packs and the original Lucky Stadium cards. They were thought to be sooo rare until the flood gates opened and 80% value was lost.
Still they are fun to collect so the attraction is there.
Some have hit. Others will follow but don’t expect a ton to hit at one time. These people aren’t stupid;)
Look at it this way. If there’s 3 of something listed on yjp they figure to go much higher than if there’s 300 of that item listed.
That person with all these Goldstar dogs (Entei, Raikou, Suicune) is from the Netherlands, no?
He’s constantly selling them on auction sites, 60 euro for a set.
The cards were clearly obtained before they were distributed. No business would ever want to buy that much volume of a product. More specifically, the amount of work it would take to properly obtain 4,000 gold stars would be absurd, especially only 3 types of pokemon.
Outside of the fun detective analysis, the guy admitted to obtaining them pre-distribution.
*thousands. He/they had thousands of each card. I don’t know how they acquired them. I didn’t continue the conversation after finding out they obtained them pre-distribution. Here is the quote from the end of that conversation:
"I’ve obtained them before they went in to boosterpacks. That’s about all you’re going to get out of me buddy haha.
So how about you tell me if you’re interested or not"
