Gold Stars: English or Japanese?

Hey all! Happy weekend,

I got this card earlier last year around February for a great price, and it’s currently the only gold star I own. Im curious how people feel about japanese gold stars vs english? I know English is more expensive and harder to get good grades with, just interested in everyone’s opinion on the two! If I had my choice I’d prefer English over Japanese for this specific card, but none the less I’m still incredibly thankful to own it.

Thoughts?

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In general I prefer Japanese (it looks cleaner imo), though I think Charizard, Alakazam, Mewtwo, and Celebi maybe look a little bit better with the yellow border.

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I prefer the English versions mainly. It’s what I grew up seeing and I think the yellow borders look really nice on the cards.

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The silver border on the Japanese versions looks much better to me

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Yea I totally agree. If I do at some point buy the charizard imma go for English and pay that premium

I buy a lot of promo cards from Japan & Pokémon is the only tcg where I don’t mind the change in language. It feels super authentic and has a collectibility I feel sometimes lacks on the English side.

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I prefer japanese :blush: way cheaper for the same card.

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It varies. Cards like Torchic and Charizard I feel just pop better with the yellow English border. But same goes for Rayquaza, Mew, Metagross, Suicune, and a bunch of others in Japanese. Overall I think the Japanese look a lot cleaner and nicer, but then again most Japanese cards do look better with the silver border.

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I only collect Japanese cards when the art isn’t available in English. I’m a purist in that way. And I think that’s the reality of most of the Western Pokemon card market. I would never consider collecting Japanese gold stars simply because they wouldn’t match my sets. It doesn’t matter how much more inexpensive they are.

That said, I do like how they look. I think they look equally nice as the English ones. And by collecting Japanese, you get to avoid the hilariously shitty print quality that English TRR and Deoxys have. From what I can tell, the Japanese equivalents of those sets don’t have the same quality issues.

If you don’t have the same purist collecting habits as me, then Japanese gold stars seem like a great thing to collect. Regardless of what language they’re in, gold stars are among the most beautiful cards in the hobby.

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It’s funny because I’m the exact opposite. I only collect a select few Japanese Pokemon cards, but I’m a huge fan of Japanese MTG cards – to the point where I had an Unlimited Timetwister, Candelabra, FTV Mox Diamond, Power Artifact, Transmute Artifact etc. altered to have Japanese text so they matched the rest of my EDH deck. For MTG, Japanese is the traditional ‘pimp’ language. Older Japanese MTG cards (anything pre-ISD) are much rarer than English versions, so building decks of them adds an additional element of difficulty that I enjoy.

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You might be one of the first people ever who had a Japanese Timetwister hahaha. That’s really dope! I never cared for non-English MTG cards, especially with high-end cards. All my power 9 is english, as well as all my dual lands & Mox diamond. Pokémon is the one thing I collect where I’m okay with the base language! Would love to see your MTG collection sometime!

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Here’s my Azami deck (before I had the Twister and MPS Lotus Petal altered, before I upgraded Beta Copy Artifact to Alpha, as well as before a few other minor card changes).

For me, Japanese MTG is just for eternal formats – I do my MTG set collecting in English!

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That Japanese Mana Crypt is HOT. What a great collection

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Japanese text is way sexier.

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For some reason, I prefer English gold stars. Something about the silver borders skeeves me out… Maybe it’s because they remind me of World Championships cards. Then again, I think regular Japanese holos from the ex era look super cool, so maybe not.

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I prefer English too if it’s a standard set

Every gold star looks much cleaner in Japanese IMO

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I prefer English over Japanese but they both look incredible and if you cant afford the english than the Japanese is a nice lower price card with the same amazing art work! Though those Espeon and umbreon gold stars in Japanese look amazing! Wish we got holo ones

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Both of them look awesome! I only collect English however

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Japanese it is. And at this point it’s not like Japanese Gold Stars are cheap anymore, English Gold Stars are just over-the-top expensive.

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