Why is the 1996 Japanese Charizard PSA 10 worth only $500?
I find it strange as I would of thought it would have been worth more as 1st Ed and Shadowless 10’s go for 20k and 16k respectively.
What is your thoughts on this one guys?
Japanese Charizard is the least rare and least popular of the three. There is nowhere near enough demand to make it worth much.
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I think the better question is why are you comparing the Japanese Charizard to Shadowless and 1st edition? If you said Unlimited English 10 $2,000, Japanese 10 $500, why. I think you would have a more comparable debate.
Ulitimatly @selodin is correct, not enough demand. I’d also add better print quality, so more supply.
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A better comparison would be the no rarity Charizard to shadowless or 1st as the prices are much closer. PSA 9 no rarity Charizard sells for $2500-3000. I haven’t seen a PSA 10 sale myself, but I’m sure others can weigh in and I’m assuming it’s >$5000. These have the lowest population, but the least demand, currently…
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I think a no rarity 10 is worth $15-20k easy, but that’s a totally different topic.
Bad comparison, OP… but even if you compare Unlimited Base to Japanese base, it’s the same for pretty much every card printed in both languages where English wins by a large margin.
I must admit at that price point it seems like a solid investment… It’s not going any cheaper and I’m quite confident it will be worth $1-2k in a couple years. I just have priorities so I probably won’t buy one, but once all these new collectors finish buying up ALL the Gem Mint wotc stuff they might move on to the only affordable Zards available.
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@pokemonsyndicate may be able to fill you in on PSA 10 sale prices
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Lol I want to see Japanese base charizard go up…
I have a psa 10 on auction now from 99 cents doing crap…
It’s sort of low.
Last time I checked base English charizard unlimited has over 5000+ graded.
Compared to about 700 ish Japanese base charizard…
Signs say Japanese should be higher and quite hard to grade.
Price is not being justified because of a few reasons I think…
- Social media drives English cards more-so. There is alot of new ish collectors this year and last year… If I’m a western collector, I want to start with English cards.
So all of these new collectors are buying English, English. English, and prices for English are going crazy.
When these younger guys finish some English sets, and want to move to Japanese afterwards, the prices will go up.
I don’t know about you guys, but for me and many collectors I know, they start out with English, and if they want to get more hardcore start going into Japanese later on.
Japanese cards need a few more years when all these millennials grow up more, and get out of university
- Japanese people don’t collect graded cards.
If Japanese were buying into grading the same way the western audience is. Prices would be alot higher. But they don’t care. I never see psa cards in Japan, as people havent bought into the fact. (apart from some sport tcg collectors)
Western audience wants graded cards
Japanese audience doesn’t
Japanese is nostalgic to Japanese
Western English cards (which has a heavy social.media push on grading cards) are nostalgic to the larger Western audience collectors.
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Not in Japan is the Japanese Charizard “the least rare and least popular.” You know, Japan … that place where Pokemon was created. 
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A PSA 10 Jpn base is too high in my opinion. I’ve graded maybe 2 dozen and have only gotten a couple 9s. All the rest were 10s. My record with Base English Charizard’s was waaaaaay worse.
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From what i remember, a 10 went for 10k.
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I agree. Demand is exceeding supply but Base set packs are still $30. Either the pack price or the Jpn base Charizard price, somethings gotta give.
One just sold for over $1000!
Wow congrats @kkthxbai. Can you confirm it is paid for?
Ka-ching. $$$ lol
and then one went for around 13k after the 1st ed zard went for 13k on pwcc 
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Yeah, makes no sense when you can BIN on ebay for $500.
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This happens all the time… The bids look legit though. We shall see.
why does it say 1st edition when the card is not 1st edition?
It doesn’t, however he has crammed in some key words which will make his listing appear when ‘1st edition’ is searched
To be fair, that is a pretty greasy title. Probably why it earned a higher price, as its slightly misleading.
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