And here the updated graphs, with the amount of Secret Rares for all English and all Japanese sets (open the pictures in a separated tab to actually read the sets/numbers ):
Amount of Secret Rares per English Set:
(NOTE: The Radiant Collections of the Legendary Treasures and Generations set are also counted as āSecret Rareā in the graph above, even though theyāre much easier to pull.)
Amount of Secret Rares per Japanese Set:
I still think the same as four years ago when I posted that thread. And especially with the prices in the current market, I feel bad for set collectors. I also find it ironic that with some of the earliest sets that contained a < 10 Secret Rares, the chance of pulling one of them was in some cases even higher than in modern sets with 25-50 Secret Raresā¦ The amount of Secret Rares have been going up, but the pull rate is roughly the same. (To give an example: I opened an English Vivid Voltage booster box which contained zero Secret Rares last year. )
Anyway, what are your thoughts on the amount of Secret Rares in modern sets? And for anyone who posted four years ago, has your view changed, or is it (just like mine) still exactly the same?
I really liked the pull rates of black and white. The holos were actually good pulls with generally great artwork, while the EXās were truly chase cards (2 regular, 1 full art per box on average.) 4 unique secret rare cards with an approximate pull rate of 2-3 per case seemed to hit the sweet spot for my preferences.
imo thereās too many rarity levels. Your standard holo rares seem lame now compared to UR/SR/RR/V half art/V full art/Vmax blah blah blah
I think that they could fix it by changing what the holo type is per set. Like for one set your holos are all RRs, then the next set theyāre standard rare holos, then the set after that theyāre all half art V cards, etc
I think it makes sense when you look at the demographic of collectors. The average collector nowadays opens more booster packs than ever before. Therefore chase cards have to be harder to pull. For example if you had 1 guaranteed secret rare per booster box and there were only 3 secret rares in the set youād have a 1 in 3 chance to pull your favorite card. Thatās comparable to us in 2000 buying 3 base set packs where each pack contains 5 holo cards.
On the other hand tpci also manages to cater to players and collectors alike with secret rares only being regular cards with different artworks. Whereas before the secret rares were entirely different cards which would make it hard to get a playset of them.
Overall I think itās the right direction theyāre heading, especially with the awesome alternate arts in the newest sets. Imo they could ditch the rainbow rares and recolors, but otherwise its okay, even though Iām not one of those guys opening entire cases of the newest sets. But thatās just how it currently is.
This is a great topic. Secret rares are essentially the reason I decided not to become a set collector of modern. It takes an absurd number of booster boxes to complete a master set, or youāre buying 20 something of the things.
Another complaint I have on S&M and SWSH secret rares is not just quantity, but quality. If Iām going to get maybe one secret rare per booster box, Iām gonna be pissed if itās a gold frying pan. At least put Brock on it and make it a drying pan.
100% this - iām of the mind that these ārareārā rarity categories, which seem to have more added every set, dilutes the value and enjoyment of modern.
An āultra rareā should be what it means, ultra rare. Back in the day that meant an ex or gold star. Now āultra raresā are $3 cards sometimes and are disappointing pulls. I prefer a set that includes only a few chase cards.
I dislike it for many of the obvious reasons, but consider what happened at the end of XY - Pokemon printed evolutions and steam siege en masse to respond to resounding demand. Those inflated print runs continued in S&M, and the significant increase in secret rares helped offset the general amount of cards being printed. If they were planning to print a lot, then making pull rates more difficult for chase cards seems sensible to me. It keeps all parties happy by maintaining a chase element, providing cheap options for players on a budget, and keeping card values elevated for collectors. The varying rarities (normal, full art, alt art, rainbow, etc.) appease players and collectors - players can purchase a cheap regular Crobat V while collectors can can be happy when they can chase the full art.
Iād like a secret rare that isnāt on any officially released set list. Just a handful of copies thrown into a couple random booster packs. Actually secret. Thatād be nice.
Right now, the designations āultraā, āhyperā etc donāt have any meaning at all.
If weāre talking about Secret Rare in the true sense, ie. a card that is numbered beyond the end of the set, then they have meant absolutely nothing since Team Up. Before Team Up, it could at least be argued that Secret Rares were still special (although very oversaturated) as the chase card in a set were still Secret Rares up until that point.
With the advent of Alternate Arts and them being included as part of the regular numbered set, not Secret Rares, this is no longer the case.
In Battle Styles, I donāt think there was a single person alive who was hoping to pull A over B.
As for rarity scales though, my brain honestly just cant handle it these days and the logistics as to why so many different things exist. Im sure theres a reason, but to me its just a lot which turns me off to really buying much modern product to open these days. I did that when I started collecting, but after a few bad boxes and seeing how it just wasnt worth it in searching for a single card i just kinda gave up.
But yeah idk, in conclusion im not really a fan of this but it just is what it is.
Iām not a set collector myself, but I definitely have witnessed those close to me express the same issues you have with the Secret Rare boom since S&M. One such popular group of collectors that are out there are the full art trainer collectors. A lot of them have expressed that since mid S&M trying to complete the set or obtain all of the secret/full art variants is more of a chore than anything.
From a business standpoint it makes sense. Customers (if they donāt buy singles) have to buy more product than ever before in order to complete the sets due to the sheer quantity of secret rares they need to obtain. Even if youāre not a set collector, on average, youāll have to open more product to find a particular secret rare that youāre chasing. Itās easy to see why theyāre doing it, even if it doesnāt really sit well with the customers.
However, to play a bit of devils advocate, and even *gasp* give credit to the Pokemon company, there is an upside to the increase in secret rares with modern sets. Secret rares are just rarer versions of full arts/half arts, which mean that an increase in secret rares per set is an increase in full arts/half arts per set. Throughout time, especially with earlier sets, you hear niche collectors wish that certain cards had ultra rare or above printings. Maybe it was their favorite pokemon (Diglett/Dugtrio V/MAX when?) or their favorite trainer (you know a FA of Lt. Surgeās Strategy from UNB was a missed opportunity). By printing more cards at higher rarities per set, thereās a better chance that peopleās favorite pokemon might get a ultra rare printing or favorite trainer gets the full art treatment. With this rarity boom (or dilution), ultra rare prints of non-starter, non-legendary, non-popular pokemon is actually a semi-realistic hope for collectors.
In regards to the current Rainbow Rare vs Alternate Art rarities, an overwhelming majority of people, including myself, prefer the Full Arts/Alternate Arts than the Rainbow Rare stuff that is being released in modern sets. However, I am wary that might just be an opinion of our specific point in timeā¦ If pokemon down the line decides to scrap the rainbow rarity entirely, we might look back at rainbow rares with a different mindset. I understand you should collect and like cards for the card and not the value, but if rainbows were to phase out, their prices would spike and demand and appreciation after the fact would probably be a thing. Something very similar happened in YuGiOh and their Ghost Rarity.
Modern artwork is improving. Its setup, however, remains brutal.
It would be nice if we could return to an EX era type of deal where you have three levels of chase cards (holos/EXs/Gold Stars), but that will almost surely never happen.
If theyāre going to continue releasing sets with large pools of secret rares, they may as well have CHR cards take the place of rainbow HR. Dream League was an experiment done right
I hate rainbow rares. Ruins the artwork, they arenāt that rare, and they arenāt usually that valuable.
When I donāt feel excited for a ārareā pull, something is wrong.
I also dislike rainbow rares. It is too homogenous of a gimmick. The cards become indistinct from one another because theyāre totally made over with these colors. It makes them all look the same to me.
If I could have my pick of any alternate art gimmick, it would be full art with no text. They would be unplayable, but they would be really cool to me.
I donāt mind Rainbow Rares, I have a couple of pages of them in my binder, shiny cardboard looks nice, but pulling those and knowing that youāve missed your chance at an alt-art? Horrible.
The up-side for me with having WAY too many secret rares in every set is that I donāt even feel tempted to complete sets, the cost is just way too much, so I guess that stops me from getting a bunch of expensive secret rares that I donāt like to be a completionist, and I can just get the odd 1 or 2 that really appeal to me now and again.
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The amount of Secret Rares have been going up, but the pull rate is roughly the same. (To give an example: I opened an English Vivid Voltage booster box which contained zero Secret Rares last year. 
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