By RJG
Today’s article is about the comparison of which Pokemon cards are better to collect English or Japanese. There are many collectors out there who think that the English ones are better to collect and vise versa. I personally think that Japanese cards are WAY better to collect for the obvious two reasons first being the rarity of the cards for example the there are many cards that were never released in English such as the Masaki Promos, Trophy cards, Vending series cards, and if they were released in English they weren’t released in the same illustration such as Misty’s Tears.
Second being the price difference between cards as everyone knows Japanese card are by far more expensive then the English ones for example the Japanese Pokemon illustrator being worth at about $10,000 if I am correct and even if they were released in English there is a price difference. Example being the bumble bee Pikachu card, the English one is a promo and the Japanese is a Vending series promo obviously both are promos but a price difference between both none the less.
I first got into Japanese cards shortly after I started collecting Pokemon cards again during November of 2010. I still remember the very first Japanese card that I ever got, it was the Coro Coro Shining Mew, I fell in love with it right away I have never seen such a beautiful card the illustration was remarkable and from that day on I decided to collect Japanese cards. It has now been 8 months and I continue to grow my collection yes I do buy English booster pack such as Black & White, Triumphant, ETC… Because I join trading forums and trade my English cards for Japanese ones. There have been many trades where people think that I am ripping my self off just for one Japanese card but when I trade English for Japanese I think about what the prices will be in the future.
Right now with how the prices are on certain cards a trade of Emboar (With Ability), & Gengar Prime for a Japanese victory medal may seem like a rip off but I will defiantly do this trade because I think about how the prices will be later on because if you guys remember Gengar Prime used to be $40-ish and is now half of that and once the next rotation comes by the Emboar with be worth no more than $5 while the Japanese victory medal will retain or even go up in value. Japanese cards will pretty much always either retail on go higher in price while English cards will always be unbalanced due to playability and demand. Collecting English cards is just as fun as collecting Japanese there are many people who collect pure Pikachu, Eevee evolutions, and many other certain Pokemon trying to collect every card of that Pokemon that ever came out it is a hard but fun task to complete and could not be done if not for the English cards being that every Pokemon is reprinted like crazy in English. Yes There are very rare English cards that came out that are even rarer than some Japanese one for example being the English “Sample” cards which are believe to be only 50 sets ever made and the English versions of the Japanese VS Series which are believe to be EXTREAMLY rare. I personally think that the only downside to collecting Japanese cards other that being expensive is that they are harder to sell then English one do to that there are more English collectors than Japanese so your card may be on EBay a little longer than the English ones.
I hope this article encourages more people to collect Japanese cards it is seriously a fun experience due to the hunt for certain cards being harder than English cards and if you ever decide to retire and quit collecting you will cash in more money selling your old Japanese cards than you will your old English ones.
Tags: Card Collecting