Okay, let’s talk about figuring out Pokemon card rarity. It wasn’t something I knew right off the bat when I started collecting again.
I remember grabbing my first few packs, tearing them open, you know, the usual excitement. I looked at the cards, mostly the Pokemon I recognized. Didn’t pay much attention to anything else at first. Just enjoyed the art and the characters.
After opening a few more packs over time, I started noticing these little symbols in the bottom corner of the cards. Some had circles, some had diamonds, and a few had stars. I didn’t get it initially. I just sorted my cards by Pokemon type back then.
Sorting It Out
I eventually figured out, mostly just by comparing a whole bunch of cards I’d accumulated, what those symbols meant. It clicked that:
- Circle: These were everywhere. Seemed like the most basic cards. Found out they call these ‘Common’.
- Diamond: Less frequent than the circles, but still popped up pretty often. These turned out to be ‘Uncommon’.
- Star: These felt a bit more special. Didn’t get nearly as many of these. Naturally, these were the ‘Rare’ cards.
That made sense for a while. Commons, Uncommons, Rares. Easy enough, right?
Then Came the Shine
But then, I pulled a card with a star, but the picture part was all shiny, holographic. Looked way cooler than the regular star cards. That was my first ‘Holo Rare’. Big moment, felt like I’d found something properly good. It wasn’t just a star, it was a shiny star.
Around the same time, I noticed some cards where the picture wasn’t shiny, but the rest of the card, the border and text area, was. Took me a bit to realize these were ‘Reverse Holos’. You could apparently get a reverse holo version of commons, uncommons, and rares. Added another layer to sorting things out.
Going Further Down the Rabbit Hole
Just when I thought I had a handle on it, things got wilder. I started seeing cards with ‘EX’, ‘GX’, ‘V’, or ‘VMAX’ after the Pokemon name. These looked totally different. Often the whole card was artwork (‘Full Art’), sometimes they even had a texture you could feel. These were clearly way harder to find than the regular rares or even the holo rares. People called these ‘Ultra Rares’, and pulling one felt like hitting a mini jackpot.
And the craziest ones? The ‘Secret Rares’. I remember the first time I saw one. The card number in the corner was higher than the actual set number, like 115/114 or something. Mind blown. These often had gold outlines, or were full rainbow colors, or just looked completely over the top. Finding one of those is a proper buzz, still is. They really are secret, you don’t expect them.
So yeah, that’s basically how I stumbled through understanding rarity. Started simple with symbols, then the shiny cards threw me, then the crazy EX and V stuff, and finally the secret rares. It definitely makes opening packs more interesting when you know what you’re looking for, beyond just the Pokemon itself. It’s part of the fun, the chase for those harder-to-find cards.
