Its the same weirdness with Misty’s Tears, a japanese common that nobody in their right mind has ever cared about but is now the most valuable PSA 10 card from Gym 1.
I have an idea of whats going on but Im just not going to say it outloud since its just rude and people will probably be offended.
BANNED cards have always been more desirable than other commons/trainers. Team Rocket Grimer, Koga’s Ninja Trick, Sabrina’s Gaze, etc. are definitely more desirable than similar cards in their sets. Misty’s Tears or Naked Misty is by far the most notorious banned card. There were rumors of a card where Misty was naked in Japanese when I was a kid and I never thought it existed until I finally saw it when I got back to collecting in highschool. I couldn’t believe it was real. It has always had a premium compared to similar cards. I think it’s a lot different than the waifu craze we have seen this year.
Im not really too sure why you would want a copy of a naked card. Thats why I think the whole concept seems silly. They arent even holos but massly produced commons. Mistys Tears was even in the misty starter deck (2 copies no less) so its not even rare.
Also theres tons of non banned Pokemon cards that will never be reprinted due to lack of demand so people getting crazy about a few cards being “banned” seems to make no sense if you just think about it for a few seconds.
Banned refers to the card art being changed in English due to being too risqué, offensive, or any other reason. It’s not about a card being reprinted or not.
Rarity is cool and all but for 99% of Pokemon cards it doesn’t matter. Popularity does. English Moonbreon has 8,000 PSA 10 copies and the price is over $750. It’s not rare at all, but people love the card which drives the price to where it is now. Same thing with Misty’s Tears. It has over 800 PSA 10s, but its notoriety and nostalgia from playground rumors when we were kids makes it popular and worth around $300 to $400.
I think your underestimating the rarity of Moonbreon. Its still a hard to pull secret rare. Takes a few cases to find one. Its not like it comes in every other booster pack like a Mistys Tears did. Also not all Umbreons pulled will be 10s, you could end up one with centering issues even though most are fine but theres still a chance you could open one and it can only be a 9.
And lol “playground rumors”, I dont know what playground you lived on but everyone I know mostly just wanted a charizard. I think the whole “banned” cards stuff is very overhyped and overrated and just is a trend that wont last. No I dont want some card of a naked girl that will probably get me on some government watch list or a card with a swastika on it nor do I think this is something that should even be encouraged.
Seems your pretty set in your ways, but I think you misunderstand what rarity is and the difference between rarity and scarcity. You also seem to suggest Moonbreon has conditional rarity which is definitely not the case. If you don’t care about banned cards or didn’t have the same experiences as a kid that’s fine, but it doesn’t discount the tens of thousands of people that did have the same experience and want these cards because of it. If mods want to move these posts into a separate, more appropiate thread, then I’ll continue discussion, but this probably isn’t the best place for it.
I mean have you tried to pull a moonbreon yourself? I opened cases of evolving skies when it came out and you can easily go a case or two without pulling one. Theres a reason why its a few hundred dollars since its still a rare card. The same cannot be said for misty’s tears. You just need 1 misty starter deck and you get 2. I cant imagine how many you would open if you cracked open a box of gym 1.
And yeah im not going to hijack this poor chaps thread but just merely explaining that the whole “banned” card stuff is just some trendy stuff that probably wont last. For the longest time nobody cared about banned cards but because it got popular on the internet people care more than actually rare holos. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
We talking about the card that is so popular its nickname is more established than the cards name?! Naked Misty has always been a popular card. This isn’t just recent “hype”. I remember selling them for hundreds of dollars 10 years ago.
Sure for Misty’s Tears but the other “banned” cards not so much. Like looking back at Sabrina’s Gaze or Koga’s Trap those cards didnt sell for as much as they do today. But even Misty’s Tears seems grossly overvalued to where its worth more than holos. Like 300-400 dollars for a common? I just dont even. I know Gym 1 isnt a great set but that being the most valuable card it doesnt make much sense to me.
I hate the break it to you but I was selling them PSA 10 for those prices years ago. This isn’t anything recent or hype. In fact I remember being at worlds 2017, now 6 years ago, and someone was flipping jp gym 1 packs. I remember telling them one of the best hits is naked misty. You get a holo in every jp gym pack, but not a naked misty.
Im not seeing how when I just take a quick look at PSA comps and it was half the price a few years ago. Alot of these current prices in the entire market are way higher than they were years ago. I remember when 1st ed zards were as low as 4 figures and now its 6. All the printed money during the last few years has made cards shoot up way higher than they historically ever were.
I will concede that Misty’s Tears has held value but the others, just looking at previous price points not so much, which just makes me believe that yes the “banned” cards are mostly hype. Not to mention that I personally wouldnt touch them since I have alot of reasons why but out of respect for the average user on here I will not go into them since people will not like what I have to say.
Talking about hype being bad but promoting moonbreon at the same time, interesting.
Sure, but I think you were getting hung up on the term “common”, which I think needs a bit of context. This card art doesn’t exist at all in English. Also every Japanese gym pack guarantees a holo hit. A holo that was also released in English.
Regardless, the price/value has always been baked into product. Misty decks have always been one of the more valuable gym decks, entirely because of naked misty.
Pull rates do not equal rarity. Just because a card is hard to pull does not make it rare. There are over 10000 Moonbreons graded at PSA. It is not rare. It’s a popular card. That’s why there are so many graded.
Also, Naked Misty has come down in price over the past few years. Not increased. It increased quite a bit in the 2020 boom and has come down ever since.
The banned artwork cards are so soft compared to the reason they were banned. I collect them all, I would love a higher grade copy of Misty’s tears.
Ah I see I didnt know that those sets you would always get a holo. Still your getting a good amount of commons in a box and some holos your probably going to get less than others. It does seem like Misty’s Tears is an outlier from the others though. I cant see the price holding though like alot of other cards since again you had these crazy price spikes in such a short period of time all across the board in general.
Totally not one of those blue data points paying 350 for a 9 near the peak… no way not me. 
I mean thats literally what rarity is, how many packs it takes to get a certain card. It can take anywhere from 400-500 packs to pull an umbreon vmax alt art. Compared to Misty’s Tears that came out of a starter deck. You just bought 1 starter deck and you got 2. The only reason Misty’s Tears has any value now a days is because its old and those starter decks arent easy to find anymore. Im sure whenever evolving skies becomes rare that moonbreon will also be very expensive which by that logic it should be since due to the pull rates, give it 20 years and will indeed be expensive.
Rarity is the total amount of cards that exist. Some cards like illustration Zorua’s have only 100 to 200 copies in existence. Those are rare cards. Set cards like Misty’s Tears and Moonbreon have tens of thousands of copies or even more. These cards are not rare.
Rarity means that the item is extremely difficult to source. Scarcity means that the item is not available in sufficient quantities to meet demand. Moonbreon is not rare. It is scarce due to current demand.
(Though I wouldn’t even call it scarce, as dozens of PSA 10s alone sell each week.)
