Looking at the silver and gold pikachy victory medal promos from 2005 Bulbapedia says the following:
“This card was first released in Japan as an Unnumbered Promotional card, and was awarded to the winners of regional Gym☆Challenge events held in game shops and store chains across the country between March and early May 2005. This print features artwork by Takumi Akabane, featuring Pikachu and a silver medal. Finalists were given preferential entry into the qualification round for their nearest 2005 Summer Battle Road event, and entry into their nearest Gym☆Final event. The winners of each regional Gym☆Final league were awarded a gold medal version of the same card. The 2005 Gym☆Final events took place at 7 select stores across Japan between May 14 and 27, 2005. Both of these prints are on the PCG Era card template and have a 2005 copyright.”
Later, these cards were rereleased in 2006 and 2006 again through the challenge/final league competitions.
What confuses me is the price of these cards. When I read about these medals, people had to go to stores nearby for a local competition, and only the winners would get these cards. However, these cards go for around 30 dollars on ebay. There must be a tonne of copies out there if they go for this price?
I understand that it’s nothing worth buying. I just want to understand why. How many copies could a prize card like that have for the price to drop so low :s
He was teasing because they are a great value purchase! Some are unbelievably cheap for their release. Unfortunately It’s impossible though to know the exact release numbers.
There were a LOT given out. 3 per tournament with dozens of tournaments in every region for years. However, they are desirable because 1. You had to win in order to originally acquire them, making them a trophy card, and 2. With age comes more scarcity. They’re probably near the lowest tier trophy cards, but the fact that they are trophy cards of any sort will drive interest up over time.
At worlds 2019, they were readily available in large quantities from several Japanese people. I don’t see that going away very soon, but eventually it will.
@palamec1a as @smpratte said, its one of those things where print numbers cant be 100% determined even though their release seems somewhat of an exclusive one. Depending on which medals youre speaking of in particular, some ive seen go for more than others (particularly the pikachu l-p ones in bronze silver and gold) but they are a very niche item thats in that realm of a trophy card, but to a far more lesser extent of that qualification with it having a significantly higher print count.
But, i think theyre great buys personally and underrated for what its worth lol. Im currently trying to obtain all the johto starter evo medal cards psa graded and its been quite the hassle being that they seem quite hard to locate, but theyre pretty cool cards to grab for sure!
The joke eluded me for a bit there haha. Thank you @smpratte, for pointing that out.
I will definitely keep that in mind for any future purchases.
Keep up the great work with the videos! ^^
@dizzle24, I see what you mean. In that case they would serve as excellent placeholders until I’ll be able to afford a proper trophy card one day
I’ll push for the lottery and Masaki promos first, but I’ll be sure to pick up a few of these medals afterward.
For me, im not much of a trophy guy myself, as most aren’t part of my immediate goals, but those specific l-p medals I mentioned just fit being they go with my Johto collection. Plus the way the medal is holofoil and the rest isnt appeals to me as seen here:
I was buying these like candy, they are just way too awesome for how cheap they are. They look amazing in my binder and I just sent a full set off to PSA because they would look great graded imo.
In my opinion these are some of the best bang for your buck purchases you can make currently.
Thanks for sharing! It looks amazing. I had no idea realise they made it a special holofoil like that. Couldn’t really see the holo pattern that well from the pictures. I also like how it says “goods” on top of the card. Other than a couple of the other medal cards, I haven’t seen many other card that have that caption.
If I may ask @Dizzle , did you decide to try and buy the raw cards and send them to PSA, or did you buy it already graded with a PSA 10? Usually I just go for the already graded cards, but since these are so cheap I feel like it might be worth it grading myself
@palamec1a so this one I bought graded, and recently as well being that as far as I know the pop for these is low. Now thats not to say they arent out there or raw copies cant be found that could be graded, but I always look at it like this: the older the card, the less likely the card will grade well if not already done. So with that in mind, I originally bought this same card raw months ago in hopes to grade. It looked perfect via scans on ebay, but upon arriving it had a slight indent in the card itself which I knew would knock a few points on it, so i never went ahead with the grading. So its always a gamble going that route, but regardless either way youre still going to have the card which is ultimately the goal here rather than buying the grade so from there itd be your call to decide which route to take.
@Dizzle , of course, I would never try grading my first unlimited base set, those cards are old and weary, it’d be a nightmare. But I figured since 2006/2007 is not a ‘that’ it might be worth a shot.
It’s too bad it had an indent of course I do recognise its a risk. Perhaps I’ll consider buying a raw copy first. If it turns out I can’t grade it, I can always keep the card in a toploader and get a proper graded copy later.
I remember seeing a sealed pack that contained these cards. It had 2 silver and 1 gold in it, so I think this might be how they were distributed. That would mean 66.6% of them are silver and 33.3% are gold and gold cards would be more desirable.
I think the question is more about the year not the colour of medal. 2007 golds and 2006 silvers of each are very easy to source but the 2005 gold seems to be quite rare.
Oh I see, I think it’s just because significantly less cards were given out in 2005. I just check all of mine, out of about 16 cards mixed gold and silver none of them are from 2005. I had never looked at the year until now.
No idea, I never paid attention to the year of these cards until now. It’s an inconsequential difference in my opinion. I personally wouldn’t pay more. Exact same card with a 5 instead of a 6 or 7 in tiny print at the bottom of the card doesn’t warrant a premium in my eyes.
But of course someone will pay a premium for it lol.
Thats actually quite the markup! and that 4 years ago nontheless. You can grab the PSA10 copies from several other year for roughly half that amount right now
of course I do recognise its a risk. Perhaps I’ll consider buying a raw copy first. If it turns out I can’t grade it, I can always keep the card in a toploader and get a proper graded copy later.
