I was recently looking to buying some 1st edition PSA graded cards from Neo Genesis, and when looking into them more I found that the pop of the 1st editions are over twice as high as unlimited in many cases. So shouldn’t the unlimited versions be more sought after as it seems the unlimited runs were actually shorter? Unless it’s because people are far more likely to send 1st editions to PSA, which I could definitely see, but there’s quite a big difference especially considering 1st edition is “suppose” to be more limited too.
I’ve already asked a similar question a while back about Japanese sets, but they were more extreme examples and I thought it was exclusive to just a few Japanese sets. Plus I also want to understand why I should value 1st editions over unlimited. Not just why one is more common than the other. My nostalgic side is telling me 1st editions are cooler, but my logical side is telling me unlimited are rarer. So why not pay less and get the rarer card?
1st edition are more desired. Unlimited are graded much less frequently because they are less desired and getting an 8/9 grade gives you a net loss on the grading many times. Most if not all English sets should have unlimited print runs vastly outweighing the 1st edition print runs.
The same line of thinking that leads you to this question could also lead you to asking if a PSA 9 was worth more than a 10 when the pop of PSA 10’s vastly outnumbers the 9’s and the answer is just no. (People have asked this question FYI).
There are however some very rare exceptions such as extremely low pop or 0 pop cards in PSA 10 unlimited. Competitionists will pay high premiums on those just for the label. Rule: 1st edition are worth more than unlimited. Every good rule will have a few exceptions naturally though.
All things considered buy whatever fits your budget and whatever you prefer. Just don’t reason it with bad logic and know what you are going into.
@gottaketchumall Thanks. I wouldn’t say the PSA 9/10 comparison is a 1:1 comparison though. The reason you pay more for a higher grade card is because the cards in better condition and looks better. Whereas when I think of paying a premium for 1st edition cards it’s because I’m assuming the 1st editions are more limited/rare. So with that logic it wouldn’t make sense to pay more for the, actually less limited, 1st edition cards. But I’ll take your word for it that the unlimited print runs outweigh the 1st edition runs. I was just surprised by how much 1st edition outweighs unlimited in terms of pop purely due to people being hesitant to send in unlimited cards.
I found that Base Set bends the trend of higher pop unlimited cards. I assume that’s because they didn’t know how successful the TCG would be so they were prudent with the 1st print run; then it blew up, so they made an absolute ton of unlimited cards to meet the demand. So the sheer amount of unlimited cards in circulation plus the fact unlimited Base set cards are still very much worth grading overrides the fact people are more likely to send in 1st editions to PSA in this case?
Only a few sets actually had lower printed unlimited sets than 1st editions and all of them are exclusively japanese sets. As far as english WOTC goes, 1st editions always have lower print numbers.
Unlimited is objectively rarer if you use the PSA pop report as an indicator. However in reality, there should be more unlimited than 1st edition. Demand is far greater as well.
When I joined this forum 2 years ago, I was the one that asked ‘will PSA 9 outpriced PSA 10 if the pop is lower and if you are psa 9 collector’. Looking back, that was not an intelligent question to ask. But we all learn through mistakes and questions. So today we learned that unlimited in english cards is always printed more than 1st editions. Only a few sets had unlimited more than 1st edition but those sets are only in japanese.
People also tend to regrade 1st editions a lot, as the difference between 9 and 10 can be thousands. This inflates 9 populations.
This is less common with unlimited
