By Brian Hsieh
Booster boxes give you an average amount of rarity between the cards you pull. When one purchases a booster box, they have an idea of what they’ll be getting within the booster box. Although the ratio is similar, the cards won’t necessarily be. Also, although certain booster boxes don’t necessarily come loaded with several ultra rares, the rarity of obtaining the booster box does make it more valuable.
While opening the Skyridge booster box, which is an older set and much harder to find (meaning it wasn’t cheap), I found that 36 packs won’t necessarily include holos such as Moltres or Ledyba. I also found that doubles, even triples, of rare cards are possible. Older booster boxes around the Ex era have included very nice box toppers, which are cards that come in a booster box that can’t be found in booster packs. Skyridge is no different, although their box toppers come in the form of a random, see-through, enlarged crystal card.
My box topper was Charizard. For this particular booster box, I was not looking for any specific cards. Normally, one would open Skyridge packs in search of the ultra-rare crystal cards. I completed the set beforehand, so I mainly wanted to open the Pokemon booster box for the experience. These packs, along with some other older sets, will give you an extra rare if you pull a holographic card. I pulled ten holographic cards as well as ten reverse rare holographic cards.
As for crystal type cards, I pulled two regular crystals and two reverse crystals. One particular regular holo crystal was Charizard, which is the most expensive crystal in the set. If you’re looking to expand your card collection, I suggest buying this booster box. The artwork on these cards is amazing and, in my opinion, trump recent artworks on Pokemon cards (like the Diamond and Pearl series, although I am a fan of the Heart Gold Soul Silver artworks). That could just be because I rarely see cards from the Skyridge set floating around, but I do believe the Ex series (in this case, the E-series) had very nice artwork on their cards. The ratio for getting holographic cards is decent but I wasn’t one to complain due to how rare this box is (my reaction would be different for the most recently released box) If you’re looking to just complete your crystal set, the price might be too steep to actually purchase a whole booster box for only four crystal cards. Whether you buy the actual booster box or not, I suggest Skyridge cards for any collector of the Pokemon TCG.