What is the current market value for a 1996 Media Factory “Expansion Pack” (Japanese Base Set) No Rarity (1st Edition) Charizard…?
•Condition (PSA/BGS/CGC)
•Price (USD)
PSA 10-$250,000
PSA 9-$38,400
BGS 8.5-$27,500
PSA 8-$27,500
BGS 8-$7,900
BGS 7.5-$7,350
PSA 7-$9,000
PSA 6-$2,650
PSA 5 (10 Autograph)-$11,850
PSA 5-$4,000
BGS 5-$3,500
PSA 4-$3,100
CGC 4-$2,800
CGC “3”-$3,050
PSA 3-$2,650
PSA 2-$1,750
PSA 1.5-$1,850
PSA 1-$1,475
PSA AUTHENTIC-$4,980
RAW-$250 (Poor Condition)
Less than English 1st edition, but more than Shadowless. This is my vague estimation loosely based on general sales of “no rarity” holos and what I am personally willing to pay, so I could be wrong.
Aetsen’s IG post from the other day says that a PSA 6 condition (raw) one sold for $6.3k. Not sure if this helps you but your post reminded me of that.
A PSA 8 just sold on ebay in the last 24-hours for $3800. It was a really nice copy with bad centering but otherwise looked pristine. I think it was a great deal honestly
I don’t know but I’ll just go on the record as saying that I still think No Rarities are underrated in some circles.
Put aside the memes. Put aside the fact that they will always be more niche compared to English 1st edition Base. The No Rarities are still really cool - they are the origin of the Pokemon TCG and they are genuinely rare.
I agree with @jonandek, that $3.8k for a PSA 8 No Rarity Zard given the overall graded population for the card (159 graded by PSA overall, 33 PSA 8s).
Consider the fact that a PSA 10 Basic Japanese Zard sells for $1.7k or so.
One PSA 8 No Rarity Zard or two PSA 10 Basic Japanese Zards… that’s an easy choice IMO.
I wouldnt know the price but since the pop in psa 10 for the no rarity holos is so incredibly low I would guess they would fetch a relatively higher premium than other cards. Even if they are very niche. I would guess the no rarity psa 10 zard will go higher than 1st ed psa 10 zard, but that those odds are turned around in psa 9.
There are only 6 of these in psa 10 so anyone trying to complete a masterset of zards would probably give a big premium for the card.
Hmm, I’m not sure about that one. I’m not saying that your premise is crazy by any means, but I believe a PSA 10 1st edition Base Set Charizard (with no issues) could sell for $65k+ in today’s market (it’s already been sold at that valuation).
Unless I see a confirmed sale for a PSA 10 No Rarity Charizard selling for that much, I’ll say its value is still below PSA 10 1st edition Base Zard.
I know the PSA 10 No Rarity has sold for at least $30k in the past but I’m not aware of any recent sales of the card.
That particular PSA 8 zard that sold was a really nice copy, only a bit of centering separated it from a gem mint 10 as it was clearly pristine from a pack. Japanese cards are very well made in general and the no rarity cards are no exception, but they suffer from terrible centering. I bet ~75% of my PSA 9 no rarities would be gem 10s but for centering.
I personally feel these cards are severely underrated, both for their scarcity in high grade and their significance to the hobby. I have never seen a no rarity PSA 10 zard either up for sale, in person or even in pictures. Honestly, it’s such a treasure to the hobby I don’t know why anyone who has one would ever want to part with it. I put it in the same tier as many trophy cards, and probably above most of them, given the low pop and iconic status. I am trying to complete a full set (holos and non-holos) of no rarities in PSA 10. It has been quite the challenge. It’s a bit like mining… long dry spells then every once in a while I hit a stash where someone will have a small group of cards. But there is not one source where you can hope to get them all. I have found these stashes in Canada, the UK, Australia, and also Japan. I still have a fantasy that there are piles of these sitting in the closets of Japanese collectors. After some time though and much dialogue on the topic, I do not feel that’s the case at all. Collectors have been combing through Japan for these cards for years. Best hope of proving/disproving that is maybe if/when PSA’s Japan office really gets up and running through COVID. I don’t know the status of that. But I’m not holding my breath for a pop explosion. There are about 10 no rarity cards I need that have not come up for sale in the last 6 months IN ANY GRADE. I have cobbled together many raw card copies of these that I will soon be submitting to PSA. Frankly, it’s been a really fun quest. If I can eventually complete the set, even in a mix of 9s and 10s, it will feel quite rewarding.
One of the biggest challenges is the financial aspect… holders of the really scarce no rarity cards don’t tend to put them up for auction. They will dangle them with very high prices and (IMO) have set their expectations way too high. Want to test me out, just pick any of the PSA 10 no rarity holos on ebay and make a reasonable offer. Come back and post your offer here and the seller’s response. If they hit a reasonable offer and you didn’t want to buy the card, PM me. I’m sure we can work something out. I promise I have offered on all of them multiple times and finally gave up 
It puts you in a spot as a collector that forces you to decide whether you are willing to make a financial sacrifice in order to buy the card. Since there’s so few 9/10 cards, especially of the holo and non-holo rares, there’s basically no market, so stretching on price doesn’t feel good. It would be better for no rarity if there were enough of them that a market could be made, ironically, so they suffer a bit from their own scarcity.
i sold my psa 9 in february for 7.5k, which was much higher than the 1st edition psa 9 english that was selling for less than 6k.
My sentiment is that the No Rarity will eventually get its due. On many levels, the lower grades are already in parity with 1st edition in terms of price. I bought that PSA 7 Alakazam from the last PWCC auction block for basically PSA 7 1st edition base price. No rarity is very difficult to come by, and I think the pop will remain low. this is a huge deal for anyone looking to collect. you should grab them now while they are available, especially at psa 8+.
However, there are three issues working against it. This is just my opinion. First, the no rarity and base Japanese difference is very minimal. People can gloss over the rarity star very easily. It doesn’t even come close to 1st edition and shadowless, where the stamp is much more prominently featured. You see it immediately. No rarity is more similar to shadowless, where they are both kind of an unacknowledged variance of base set. Second, the history and gravity of no rarity is still not known to many people. Third, sales data are still sparse at best. Two and three together create a lower confidence for buyers and the market. However, I am already seeing more interest in the no rarity today than a few years back when i first purchased some of my copies. The prices have already caught up to english 1st edition. In the past, they were much, much lower in comparison. I remember buying a few 9s for barely over 100USD, which I’ve since sold. However, i am not sure about psa 10 prices because i think i’ve only seen 1 single sale of a psa 10 on eBay over the last 3 years. Again, I would recommend buying them NOW before they go into permanent collections.
It’s crazy the 10 Zard is only pop 6, wow.
Regarding sales data, the first PSA card I ever sold was a No Rarity Pikachu PSA 10 in 2018 for 600$ best offer, back when I could find nm copies of that card for under 50$ and it was Pop 6. Last year when the pop was around 12-15, another 10 sold on auction for the same 600$. Now the pop is at 21 and I did not see another copy sell. I think Pikachu is the best example for non-holo cards, because it has the strongest identity as a singular card. I bought around 10 Pikachus in 2 years and the one 10 was the best I ever got.
I didn’t witness any of the controversial no rarity hype or whatever, I just learned about these and liked them. I did stop buying them early 2020 because the risk in higher prices outweighs the low, low chance for good condition and grade.
@yz2428 , I do agree with the lack of distinctiveness of No Rarity compared to the normal Japanese Base cards a factor that goes against it.
With English 1st edition, not only is there a deliberate 1st edition stamp, but the Shadowless cards as a whole have very distinct features compared to the Unlimited English cards, such as very different colors (the most significant differentiator IMO), the thick HP vs thin HP, the lack of a shadow vs the shadow, etc.
In comparison, simply the lack of a rarity symbol isn’t such a great differentiator. (But it’s still enough of a differentiator to know that they were the first cards to be printed, which is the most important thing.)
The other big factor against No Rarities is that the Western market doesn’t have the same nostalgia for these cards compared to the English Base Set cards.
But scarcity counts for a lot.
As I said, I think they’re great cards.
my only sour grapes with no rarity currently is that PSA refuses to grade the Venusaur and Raichu holo and won’t give any reasonable explanation for it. I have a PSA 10 candidate no rarity Venusaur and what are probably 2 PSA 8 Raichus just sitting in card saver 1s, waiting for the day they can be graded. The craziest part is that PSA once graded these cards, so there are handful of each out there for which sellers ask very silly prices for. I am trying to wear PSA down on this, and hope any other no rarity collectors are doing the same.
This is a big aspect, the sellers decide the price, find one owner of the charizard in psa 10 that will sell it. It is a sellers market because of the incredible low pop.
The no rarity set is for sure less notable than the 1st edition set or even the shadowless set, but because of the pop the prices could just skyrocket, or be a bit underwhelming because buyers are not touching the cards because of lack of sales data (which I would find unlikely).
As far as OP’s question, the prices are anyones guess. No way to know, I would guess it is higher than the 1st ed zard. But that opinion is controversial as seen even in this thread.
Honestly I would just try and sneak it past as a regular card, I’m not sure it will work anymore as PSA has tightened up on what they let past, but it’s worth a shot.
As far as pricing goes I said this a long time ago, but I think it’s more true today. There’s high potential for these cards in high grades. The lower grades aren’t as valuable because there are more common than we first thought, but these cards are extremely hard to find in mint condition.
Did they give any (maybe not reasonable but like any) reason for not grading these cards? Or was is just completely random?
Response:
“Hello,
Thank you for your patience.
Our research team provided me with an update regarding your item. Unfortunately, we do not recognize these error cards at this time.
Thank you,
Larissa
PCGS/PSA Customer Service@
They are not grading Venusaur and Raichu because their pokedex numbers are wrong. So by PSA logic Venusaur becomes Machamp since they are both number 68. Cannot have that. There are plenty of these odd errors in the set, like No rarity Charizard that is 20 kg lighter than a regular one.
I went through all the cards, there’s only 4 cards with errors in them. Charizard has it’s weight height box wrong, venusaur/raichu have the wrong numbers, and gastly has its destony bond attack wrong. Everything else is the same with the other base japanese release minus the rarity symbols obviously.
The japanese charizard has a heavy rarity star then haha.
But if they won’t grade the venusaur and the raichu because they are errors, why would they grade the set then? The entire set is an error set