Pokémon · The OG grails · five years or longer
Base Set 1st Edition Holos, filed under Pokémon 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 96 with liquidity 70 is the combination worth looking for: room left to run, and a market deep enough that you could act on a change of mind. It's also the combination that attracts the most competition, which is usually why accessibility is the score that suffers.
Accessibility of 3 is the catch. That score tracks whether you can buy near MSRP or you're already paying a premium to someone else, and at 3 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 8 Pokémon card types scored here, its appreciation of 96 ranks 1st of 8, liquidity 70 ranks 6th, accessibility 3 ranks 8th, and risk 10 is the 1st-lowest. The closest thing to it on the numbers is Gold Star Cards (Vintage), which scores 95 and 60 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.
At 10, this is one of the calmer entries in here. Read that as relative: the floor under any card is whatever the next person will pay, and that number can move a long way in a month.
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