Pokémon · 2004-2007 era · 200-300% potential · five years or longer
Gold Star Cards (Vintage), 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 95, liquidity 60 — a middling, workable profile. Nothing about the shape of it forces a decision, which means the price you pay decides whether it was a good idea.
Accessibility of 10 is the catch. That score tracks whether you can buy near MSRP or you're already paying a premium to someone else, and at 10 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 95 ranks 2nd of 8, liquidity 60 ranks 8th, accessibility 10 ranks 7th, and risk 15 is the 3rd-lowest. The closest thing to it on the numbers is Base Set 1st Edition Holos, which scores 96 and 70 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 15, 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