Yu-Gi-Oh · 2002-2003 originals · 8-12% annual gains · five years or longer
1st Edition Vintage Holos (LOB/MRD), filed under Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Scored on four axes, because a type that gains value but can't be sold quickly is a different proposition from one you can move in a weekend.
Appreciation is 92 but liquidity is only 55, and that combination describes a long project rather than a trade. Something that gains value slowly and takes months to sell ties your money up for the whole ride, which is fine if you planned for it and painful if you didn't.
Accessibility of 8 is the catch. That score tracks whether you can buy near MSRP or you're already paying a premium to someone else, and at 8 you are paying up. A card with real upside bought at double MSRP is a worse purchase than an ordinary one bought at retail.
Set against the 6 Yu-Gi-Oh card types scored here, its appreciation of 92 ranks 1st of 6, liquidity 55 ranks 6th, accessibility 8 ranks 6th, and risk 12 is the 1st-lowest. The closest thing to it on the numbers is Starlight Rare, which scores 90 and 68 on the same two axes — if you're weighing one against the other, the difference is in the reasoning rather than the scores.
Five years or more is a patience bet. Over that span the specific reasoning below matters less than whether the underlying thing stays desirable, and the honest position is that nobody knows what the hobby looks like in 2031. Size it accordingly.
Risk is scored 12, toward the low end of anything in the tool. Low risk in trading cards is still not low risk in any sense your bank would recognise — it means the identifiable ways for this to go wrong are fewer, not that they're absent.
Every entry gets four separate scores instead of one grade, because a single grade hides the thing you needed. Full explanation in the guide: what Kabooms, Downtowns and Color Blasts are worth.
Or browse all card types · how these scores are built