Have traditional holos gone down the drain?

kfitch06

kfitch06

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It seems like ever since the ex's, primes, legends, super-secret-FBI-access-only-rare holos have come into the picture, the value of a traditional holo is practically zilch, unless it came from a set before all the ridiculous new holos made appearances. Don't get me wrong, I like all forms of holos, but I kind of resent the fact that these "extra rare" and absurdly powerful holos have essentially rendered the standard holo irrelevant...in terms of play, value, and specialness. Now you go "oh, it's just a holo...", in disappointment that it's not a Prime or the like, instead of going "AWESOME! A HOLO!" like the good 'ol days.
 
Well yeah, pretty much. Primes were a bad idea - that's really at the basis of it. I'm not sure what genius at Nintendo thought it was a good idea to make all the playable cards be ultra-rares so that 3rd party vendors could charge 15 dollars plus for them.

Really the only playable non-prime from pre BW is Vileplume (and of course Pachirisu/Shaymin/Jirachi), so things were getting pretty bad. They seem to be fixing it really well with BW though; they're making the EXs not be ultra-rare.
 
I think the entire TCG needs to be revamped, personally. By that, I mean back to basics. No more reverse holos, no more ex's, primes and other ridiculous cards, and go back to making a standard holo the real "rare" card. There's just too much now.
 
Reverse holos are a good idea - they add a card that looks nice, but you don't HAVE to trade for if you want to get it cheap. Sort of like the idea of having FA Dragons as well as Rare (RH? Not really sure; can't remember off the top of my head) ones in the same set.

Super Rares/Uber Rares are nice only if they come as Rares or at most RHs in the normal set. The SR version's for collectors or people who like a pretty deck; otherwise, you can do just as well with playing the RHs.
 
Scizorliscious said:
Super Rares/Uber Rares are nice only if they come as Rares or at most RHs in the normal set. The SR version's for collectors or people who like a pretty deck.
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This. Ever since the Neo era we've had a nice niche for collectors which came in the form of Shining cards. Some SR/UR card blocks are playable, but most are for the collectors.
 
kfitch06 said:
I think the entire TCG needs to be revamped, personally. By that, I mean back to basics. No more reverse holos, no more ex's, primes and other ridiculous cards, and go back to making a standard holo the real "rare" card. There's just too much now.
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Removing ex's and similar mechanics would take way too much from the game. Those mechanics usually add an entirely different dimension to the game.
 
I have a different point of view as a collector, I suppose. The game means absolutely nothing to me...in fact, I tend to forget it's actually a game at all.
 
Celebi23 said:
They seem to be fixing it really well with BW though; they're making the EXs not be ultra-rare.
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I don't see how that's fixing it at all. Most sellers are going to see the "EX" symbol and interpret that as "$$" no matter how common they are unless they're literally in every other pack. It's like Primes were originally meant to be something between regular holos and super rare Legends but most sellers want the same prices for those that they wanted for LV. X and the original ex cards.
 
Primes are really good, IMO. Ussually has the same level of power EX, minus the 2 prize deal. Not mention the really good artwork.

I hated how the old booster packs were. Every pack needs a holo, even if its reverse. I hated buying NG packs just to get Arcade Game/Time Capsule rares that were worthless. It felt like I was taking $3/4 and throwing it out the window.

Although, I still like regular Holographic cards. But I also enjoy the idea of an ultra-rare, it gives you the feeling of great happiness.
 
MarioPikachu said:
I hated how the old booster packs were. Every pack needs a holo, even if its reverse. I hated buying NG packs just to get Arcade Game/Time Capsule rares that were worthless. It felt like I was taking $3/4 and throwing it out the window.
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There's nothing worse than opening a pack of Gym Heroes aand getting a 30 HP Misty's Goldeen and nothing else that is notable.Good thing the TCG has gone a long way.
 
Frost said:
I don't see how that's fixing it at all. Most sellers are going to see the "EX" symbol and interpret that as "$$" no matter how common they are unless they're literally in every other pack. It's like Primes were originally meant to be something between regular holos and super rare Legends but most sellers want the same prices for those that they wanted for LV. X and the original ex cards.
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Well by having the FA version and the normal version of the EX, they're making one more valuable than the other. The non-FA will be as common as a regular holo, and I'll assume they'll sell for the same amount unless they're playable. The reason the Primes and stuff sell for so much are because they're playable, not because they have a special title. There's an average of 5-6 Primes in a booster box, so they're not even that much more rare than the holos. Celebi Prime was going for like 2 dollars on TnT before and it still might be, while Yanmega from the same set was/is going for 45.

Even if they double the prices of the unplayable ones, I'm really doubtful that they'll be able to get away with charging more than 2-3 dollars for them seeing as regular unplayable holos go for 79 cents to a dollar and the only thing that changes it is their value to a collector.
 
Celebi Prime was a special case; it was reprinted in some sort of box thing as a promo and that killed its value. All of the other Primes out right now are at least $3 on T&T, and the ones that are $3 are basically the ones that suck in battle (Electrode, Meganium). And T&T has the lowest prices for a lot of these cards. There are plenty of mass selling sites that see the special holo borders and think that Primes are more valuable than they really are. I searched on pokeorder and professor-oak and cringed at how much they wanted for Primes.

1 in 6 packs for a Prime still makes a Prime twice as rare as a regular holo, which is 1 in 3 packs. And we have no idea what the rarity of the non-FA EX cards will be at this point. Japanese rarity isn't a gauge for American rarity, and especially not now that Japanese sets no longer have non-holo rare cards.
 
I would love to see traditional holo patterns come back, they are the best in my opinion.
As for IF they WILL come back? I have no clue.
 
Frost said:
Celebi Prime was a special case; it was reprinted in some sort of box thing as a promo and that killed its value. All of the other Primes out right now are at least $3 on T&T, and the ones that are $3 are basically the ones that suck in battle (Electrode, Meganium). And T&T has the lowest prices for a lot of these cards. There are plenty of mass selling sites that see the special holo borders and think that Primes are more valuable than they really are. I searched on pokeorder and professor-oak and cringed at how much they wanted for Primes.

1 in 6 packs for a Prime still makes a Prime twice as rare as a regular holo, which is 1 in 3 packs. And we have no idea what the rarity of the non-FA EX cards will be at this point. Japanese rarity isn't a gauge for American rarity, and especially not now that Japanese sets no longer have non-holo rare cards.
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So I was a dollar off of the average, but that doesn't kill my point. And as long as there is a vendor (TnT) that has low prices on the cards and they aren't constantly selling out, then it doesn't really matter what the other vendors sell it for. Besides, the prices are generally the same for the playable ones across most of the sites.
 
I'm still happy no matter what I get when I get a Shiny. Admittedly I get a little bit more excited if it has those sort of rain drop sparkly things on it. They're awesome. I quite the shiny lines too... but not as much as Rain Drops. I absolutely adore the new Rev. Holo's in the Emerging Powers deck, with the energy symbols. They make me so happy. :D
 
Personally, as long as I get at least a holo rare from a pack, I'm good with that.

IMO, The special cards like EX, LV X, FA, etc is what keeps people coming back to buy booster packs and is why people by boxes. Who doesn't get thrilled when they pull an EX or a Full Art?
 
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