Title says it all. I’m guessing its something in the EX era or maybe Call of Legends but I’d be interested to hear what you guys think the answer is.
Wotc or the Pokemon company in general never disclosed how much was being printed. But a lot of us that are heavily engaged in the hobby have a good idea of what sets have the lowest print runs.
Where do people even get the numbers for print run, is this public information, estimation, or insider Pokemon company print run figures? I am as well interested in these figures.
For the most part just strictly estimation based on experience in the hobby and availability over time. It’s all private information kept under lock and key by the Poke gods. Many assume that Skyridge may be the lowest printed WOTC set due to being cut short when the Pokemon company went separate ways from WOTC.
Hope somebody on this forum is some Nintendo insider to tell us all the juicy figures. How would the public knowledge of these figures influence the price of this market? The more information a consumer has on the product, the more accurate the price of a card would be.
By simply collecting and being engaged. Usually if there is a serious lack of availability for any given card that’s a good sign that might be a somewhat low print run set compared to others. Besides that there is the PSA database, and pop reports etc. Just simply do your homework.
Here’s another good rule of thumb. The least popular sets tend to also be the least printed.
For wotc sets I would say any E-series set
1 Like
Skyridge into early-mid ex is considered the lowest. No way to know for sure but a hell of a lot fewer of these boxes come up than any other set.
2 Likes
In no order these are in my opinion the rarest sets.
Aquapolis
Skyridge
EX Sandstorm
EX Dragon
EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua
EX Team Rocket Returns
EX Deoxys
So pretty much early 2003 - early 2005.
I excluded Ex ruby and sapphire despite being pretty much in the middle of all of this, it was nintendo’s first set and they may have over estimated demand at the time and printed it too high. But at the same time early printings of this set could have 12 EX per box which inflated the PSA pop report and this is possibly why it seems more common? Later printings they dropped it to 6 ex per box. I can’t decide how rare I think it is at this time.
5 Likes
I agree with your reasoning on Ruby & Sapphire. I graded a lot of E-series cards and a ton of ex series. Obviously I was chasing down boxes & packs. I recall their being a ton of sealed cases of Skyridge online. A local friend opened up 2 cases, Blowout cards had multiple cases of skyride and I’m sure there were others. The reason they could have been in cases is because it was the last set, and it never got the support it needed to take off. That could be why so many were still n cases. Aquapolis wasn’t hard box or set to come across either. I recall only one seller that had multiple TRR boxes in Singapore. Apart from that one location where I bought 3 TRR boxes (they also had cases of FRLG); I don’t recall any other person having such large quantities of TRR. There was a store that had TONS of boxes of WOTC and ex series called The Warlord’s Den in Lebanon Pennsylvania. I was able to get multiple 1st ed Neo boxes off them, and lots of ex series boxes. I got a box of Aquapolis and expedition in one order and in another order they had multiple boxes of ex emerald, TMTA and Dragon available. From my experience, Deoxys is the rarest english set based on boxes and complete sets I’ve seen available. TRR would be next and then as follows on the list below.
Ex Dragon and Ex Deoxys were among the hardest boxes to find during my initial 5 years of collecting (once I had 3 boxes of TRR and a complete PSA 10 set I stopped looking). Ex Deoxys was the most scare box in my opinion. I believe several of the cards from deoxys were very playable and that could be a reason why there are few boxes left (in addition to the print run being very low). Ex series also wasn’t very popular and that may have been a reason why they were listed online for sale. PSA population is hard to use because deoxys and TRR had very bad print quality. Ex Dragon and TMTA had much better quality.
Rarity
Ex Deoxys
Ex Team Rocket Returns
Skyridge
Aquapolis
Ex Dragon
8 Likes
@hisoka107, Great summary! Nice to hear information from someone who was actively buying and searching for these sets. Also good to know your experiences line up with my assumptions very accurately.
2 Likes
Awesome stuff. Does anybody know about the Japanese variants for the EX Era such as Rulers of the Heavens, Miracle of the Desert, Undone Seal, and Silvery Skies and Golden Ocean.
1999-2000 Fossil
Or if you want to get really technical, English VS.
2 Likes
I would definitely add legendary collection somewhere in there
Jamboree
2 Likes
I agree with the ©1999-2000 Fossil. Hands down the English set with the lowest print run. 
As for the English VS cards: they never released the entire set. The English VS cards that have been distributed were in a theme deck given to tournament winners, so I would sooner deem them as Trophy cards than set cards. Just my 2c, though. 
Greetz,
Quuador
2 Likes
I would talk to fourth star TCG
you’re definitely right on that one.
I was thinking of the sets in general and not variants of sets.
It’s definitely a shame they didn’t make the rest of the vs series into English cards. So many amazing pokemon and they didn’t go with any I’m that special set.
1 Like
If I had to take just a blind guess I would say Team Rocket Returns
1 Like
I agree about 3rd print Fossil.
Strictly in terms of market availability, all of my personal experience point towards EX Deoxys.
Sealed product has been impossible to find since before 2010. Nothing even comes close, I remember a time when people were giving away 3rd print fossil, Legendary Collection and Skyridge at wholesale prices (and in high volumes). EX Deoxys was almost as hard to find then as it is now.
Unless an absurd amount of product was opened at initial release or is stored away, Deoxys has to be exceedingly low print.
1 Like