Somehow, many Z cards have retained their value over the years. Some attribute this to the strength of the license, while others speculate the effort of two dedicated superfans with a popular website have triggered a resurgence in value for original cards. Either way, both back then and now, some pretty terrible and mediocre cards have hit values in the hundreds of dollars, sometimes even in the thousands. We know folks aren’t buying these to play with, so for whatever reason these ten cards have (or had) huge values for collectors, since very few players would get much out of them.
10. Majin Vegeta, the Dark Prince
Spopovitch support.
A fairly mediocre character that can really only be effective used as a Main Personality. It debuted in an environment where the only way this card could even be used is if you were running Majin Spopovitch as a Main Personality in a set the inexplicably HATED Majin personalities with numerous tech cards (again only usable against Majin Spopovitch). That didn’t stop this guy from going from crazy amounts on the secondary market, particularly the foil version. As with many sought after Base Set cards, rumors started spreading of this rare somehow being rarer than other rares (usually untrue due to the way cards are printed on sheets). Eventually prices died down after Majins became a thing in the game, but a foil version can still command a bit more than most other rares (especially those from World Games Saga).
9. Gotenks, Super Saiyan
This card annoyed players to no end. Not because it was decent in any way but because it had the “Uber Rare” rating, something that was previously only found on Championship and Judge/Volunteer Rewards cards. Now it seemed like everyone had an “Uber”, even though this card (as well as the other Uber Gotenks) was pretty darn common. That didn’t stop people from trying to assign ridiculous values to the card, just because of the Uber Rare stamp. At it’s best, you were able to get $50+ for this card if you found the right buyer (re: sucker), but that kind of collector has long been extinct and now you’d need to be able to make change for a five dollar bill to sell this card.
8. Kami’s Idea
7. Champion’s Aura
Here’s an Uber Rare that actually deserves to be valuable. Too bad the card has such limited uses, and there’s virtually no way to run this card with any kind of consistency. Some have theorized that was Score’s intent, so that the World Champion that year (and the National Champion the following year) would have no qualms selling it for some additional prize money. I personally think it’s just par for the course at Score.
6. Line Up
This card (as well as Team Work Kamehameha and Warrior’s Preparation) were three random cards that ended up in Limited Edition Androids Saga packs (plus some Championship cards, what a great set). The card was garbage, but that didn’t stop this and the other error cards from fetching $100+ at auction. It was so ridiculous that Score Employees started using these cards as cash. I remember working as a volunteer at one convention and asking if I could get parking reimbursed. Instead they just agreed to give me a Line Up for that, and threw in a Team Work Kamehameha to get them Starbucks. Basically they just gave me $200 for $25 of out-of-pocket expenses (and I still got my volunteer swag too). Ah, the decadent age of Score!
5. Goku the Unbeatable
Probably the worst Ultra Rare Goku. I hear about more people using the Frieza Saga Super Saiyan Goku or even Goku on Namek (who’s not actually on Namek) over this guy. He’s got exactly one thing going for him: he’s an Ultra Rare Goku. Even terrible cards will have value if they have high printed rarity (see Gotenks) and feature popular characters (something we relied on for the Bleach TCG more than I would’ve liked). Regardless of this card, a decent Lv. 4 is something Goku has always seemed to lack. Perhaps it’s because Goku’s adventure was always about the journey rather than the ending? I personally think it’s just par for the course at Score.
4. Regeneration Drill
3. Android 18 ???? Insert
2. Excessive Aggression
1. Ultimate Champion
Later BroZ!
Joshman
Follow me on Twitter at ArguablyTrue
That Majin Vegeta level one is his best one IMO (including the Retro one for my play style) and Champion’s Aura I think is essential for any of the fast 50 card beat down decks (Broly, Buu) to save someone getting a random big hit on you early since the decks are so light on defense.
Going to agree here. I wouldn’t call Majin Vegeta Dark Prince or Champion Aura useless. The actual Majin Vegeta UR level 1, however…
When I first started playing again, I forgot that Dark Prince was the Rare and the other one was Ultra Rare. I had it flip flopped thinking the UR one would have the better power.
Then I remembered that the game had a habit of having URs that were either extremely good or incredibly bad.
I stand by everything I wrote for those two cards, which if you reread it is not too far off from what you are saying. I never say this Majin Vegeta is the best, but I never call out the best Lv. 1 for Dodoria either.
Also a huge reason that Dark Prince is on the list is because I pulled this card foiled at the World Games Pre-Release and Sayjin gave me an Ultra Rare (I forget which one, not a great one though) and some cash ($10-20, can’t remember) for this card.
I think it was Goku’s Truce, but instead of cash I thought I just paid for your half of the pizza from the Dominoes across the street?
Oh man that pizza was so good, I wish I was eating it right… now!
I like the article, but you had a habit of repeating yourself. “I personally think it’s just par for the course at Score.” as the end line for multiple cards. Kinda surprised the A-18 Insert went for anything above a nickle. =p
Chippy
Chippy
Which tapes did the Regeneration Drill come with?
It says limit two, but there really was only of those cards. I’m not sure what they must have been thinking.
We were thinking “This would be pretty funny.” I take credit for that one. =)
Chippy
Hardy Har Har
I had the same thought. Why “Limit 2” if you only made 1 for 1 person? Smhlol
To my knowledge there were 3 copies of the card that made it through the print run. 1 was given to Dustin as the winner’s card and the other two were kept at Score. There was supposed theft of one of the copies of the card since it ended up on Ebay for a bit, which lead Score giving it the Dustin only clause. The other one also got a couple holes punched through it so that wouldn’t happen again.
The other copy without the holes punched belongs to Mirko in Germany and the hole punched one belongs to Trent in in Australia.
I believe that number to be higher, since there was already a hole-punched WC out when I sold mine.
So originally, this card was meant to be somewhat of a mass printing? Like for the yearly championship winner? Hmm… Coulda made previous winners OP in future tourneys lol
Id go with, that’s how you print things. You dont get a company to just print one copy. This would have printed multiple times along with all the other cards on the same print run (Id suspect it to be printed with Champ Punch and Let the Games Begin). And had Dustin won another event, he would have earned another copy of the card with the foil deck.
Not necc. See, we can’t JUST print one of a card. Waaaaaay too costly due to how printing works. So, we have to put it on one of the foil sheets and then have them cut off before cards are put into packs. So even though we may only want X copies of the card, we get Y copies where Y = number of foil sheets printed and cut.
This is how all those promo cards got out in the Android Saga packs – Some tard forgot to cut the promos off the foils before all the cards got put into their respective feeders to be put into booster packs.
Eventually, most were destroyed, but not before a few slipped out the cracks. When the first World Champion cards got out, we had to put the “Dustin Morabito only” clause on and shred the rest we could find in the office. *stares at his shredded Champion Card*
Chippy
Limit 2 Per Deck
I always thought Line Up would be playable if you searched for all the characters in the picture, instead of just one of those crappy allies. Like a poor man’s, Hero only (in effect) Z Warrior’s Gather.
If it still allowed you to grab their level 3 versions at level 1, then it’d be potentially far more powerful than ZWG. As it is, it’s obvious what they were going for (play high level allies!), but unfortunately no one cared about that one-shot card that let you do so when it meant they’d be useless any other time.
Wait, then how does line up work? Shouldn’t you be able to grab the level 3 as long and you are running a level 5? It doesn’t specify what level and states regardless of your MPs current level.
I’d disagree with Majin Vegeta. IMO I still prefer the Dark Prince over any of the other level one including the virtual set.
For the longest time I ran the Dark Prince over the Grinch in my lockdown. The physical attack (rather than energy) offered more damage and could sweep the field of allies vs only ditching one. If you compare the two power to power, it’s a hard choice.
It becomes sold to me when you realize the Grinch hits the D bracket. Not only that, his energy helps you stay up there. You output way more damage overall by using the Grinch and his ally tech is comparable.
After looking at the 10 cards here I feel I should leave my personal opinions on each one:
10: There is nothing I can really add in. I remember my friend pulling a foiled version of this card and selling it to a collector in our area for I want to say $60…needless to say this collector was stupid.
9: This got under my skin like none other. I was one of the only people in my town who had Ultra Rares and Uber rares, then everyone got their “Uber rare” by having what I would guess be 40% odds of pulling either a version of Gotenks. There was one idiot in particular who wouldn’t stop bugging me to trade my Fatherly Advice for his Gotenks Level 1 AND Level 2. I talked to a few friends and got about 12 copies of Gotenks and showed them to this guy and told him that there is no way they could be rare if I have that many in my binder.
8: While a cool card, definitely not worth what people were asking for it.
7: I actually really liked this World Champion \ “Certain Score Employee” National Championship card. I liked the fact that it gave you 2 cards, perfect for suicide aggro decks.
6: Line Up was my first UR quality card that wasn’t from Saiyan Saga. Something that I never got to use, but it was awesome, because it was for a long time “Unreleased”. Though as someone who thought he had seen it all was foiled Warrior’s Preparation actually leaked into AS Limited packs or is it a Score legend that will never be proven or disproved?
5: Oh lord, this card…I never got to use it like most the URs I had, but this one did get me most the cards I ever wanted.
4: Honestly I never even knew this card existed until a few years ago when it was posted on ebay.
3: ahh the pack insert Android 18. This brings a couple harsh memories to me only because one of my best friends was a huge Android 18 fan. I remember giving him a set of her along with the alt art running version for something or another. The harsh memory is that he is no longer with us due to PSTD and unable to beat his demons. I made sure to place a set of Android 18 into the coffin during his showing. I really hope that no one removed it before the burial.
2: This card sorry to say was a $300 piece of trash, because how many people are going to have a combat, physical attack and energy attack and this card ready to go during a single turn. The clause ” your opponent discards the top 9 cards of his deck ” should have been replaced with ” you win the game “. Maybe then it might have been played by a few people.
1: The one card that could destroy an entire deck. How many people can say that they actually got Ultimate Championed? I can say that I did at Worlds 2004, but it was pretty much for shits and giggles since Dustin and I were using the same deck, just different personality. Though it was worth it to see everyone sitting around us in shock because they got to see Ultimate Champion actually being used.
Right there with you on #4 lol
I can say I managed to maneuver around Ultimate Champion for two games in the finals of PA Regionals 2004 with Orange Yajirobe. Was tense.
Thank you for sharing #3.
whats wrong with ultimate champion?
Only the current world champ can use it. Dustin Moriarty or whatever.
Morabito
Yes, that dreaded archnemesis of Steven Holmes.
“change the future” huh .. sounds like FF XIII-2
I’ve seen Blue Back Breaker go for $80 on eBay and it is bad. It should be on this list.
can i please share a pissing contest story? okay…back when dda and i were volunteering at score back in the days of jamese and elissa he was using all his volunteer points to get yu-yu boxes and sell em for cash…not a silly idea…i was saving them all to buy 1 thing > broly’s legendary ki explosion…they were something rediculous, like over 100 volunteer points or something…i had to save up my points for like 2 years and when the first print of ki explosions came out will harper *said* there were only 9 in the initial print run…bondi got 4 of em and i snagged the other 5…it definitely made me walk a little taller for a few months knowing i had 5 of only 9 cards out there…i actually ran 4 in my expanded broly saiyan deck really just to piss people off and show off…once i heard that bondi sold a couple of his i ended up selling my 5th when i was in college for beer $ for $200 knowing i was still the only one in the world who had a full playset…i still have my original 4 that i earned but know i have over a hundred because they dropped to like $2 a piece…its a shame but i did get em while the getting was good…
edit: do i have the same ‘unnamed score employee’ to thank for the market flooding with those josh, lol?
Laughed at the inclusion of ultimate champion. Good job! I don’t know if it’s fair to put the majin vegeta on there though, it was pretty garb when it got released, but once he was playable as an MP it became a pretty solid power I always thought.
ok, so, i am not trying to start any fights/arguments here; or to create bad blood… (so please understand this after reading what i’m about to write), but i believe that one of the main reasons this game (this includes the GT derivative as well) died is because, at some point, players became too “friendly” with SCORE employees. as a result, SCORE employees degenerated into this unprofessional buddy-buddy system where they’d give certain players cards that they shouldn’t have. i used to see it all the time at events i went to, and it explained why certain players had many copies of certain cards that they either didn’t earn (technically) or shouldn’t have had. i remember when You’re Invited / World Champ Punch / World Champ Belt came out, certain “named players” had 3+ copies already when there hadn’t been enough events yet (at the time) for them to earn 3+ copies – the same can be said for Victorious Drill, Farewell Drill, Champion’s Aura, Broly’s Legendary Ki Explosion, etc. My story is bolstered by events like the 3 Ultimate Champion fiasco, when only “one” was released publicly. SCORE apparently did have a reputation for very unprofessional employees.
MAYBE i am wrong, MAYBE i was seeing things; but when i look back at it, i remember the “named players” receiving playsets or more than one copy of cards they shouldn’t have had. i remember SCORE employees giving out cards that had gigantic market value to people they liked; i remember players cherry-picking through Aik’s promo “bag” to get what they wanted (instead of blind selection, like they were supposed to). i remember Rich Bondi sold me a Farewell Drill and had told me he had several others – how did he get these?? he refused to answer. it was this kind of BS which angered me and ruined the game, because the “named players” always had the best cards (and as a result, the best decks) and consistently made top tables because how else are you going to beat someone in SWISS with 3 You’re Invited, Farewell Drill, Vic Drill, SA17’s Ki Intensity, etc??? i am trying not to sound like a whiny bitch, but i am hoping at least one person out there reading this feels the same way i do about what happened back then. i hope i didn’t just imagine it. ultimately, perhaps, the game should never have given out super overpowered cards for top placers – they should’ve done alt art reprints or alt foil stuff… that way it would’ve still had huge $$$ value and wouldn’t have collapsed the meta.
For what it’s worth, the only top cut card that that really applies to is You’re Invited thanks to some tibwad.
Vic Drill was only owned by the 02 T64 until regionals next year when they became a top cut card (a span of about 4 months)
Farewell Drill was never leaked at all while the game was still relevant (and we could sit here all day and argue if it was ever leaked at all or merely counterfeited.) A few smart people like Bondi went around buying them from the less experienced of the T32 04 worlds
SA17KI- Ditto only halved.
Favoritism did tend to happen, but it was usually for less blatant things like giving josh Line Ups for fetching pizza or whatevs. Cards with market value but little game value.
I even remember how Freddie *somehow* had a playset of Gen. Rilldo’s Metal Lightnings at Focused Worlds and Aik forbid him from using them because the card wasn’t supposed to even be out yet. I also remember Rob Halucha having Releasing the Sword and Long Journey at 02 worlds and offering to let someone use them for $100 (it might have been worth it!)
The reason you constantly went up against people with all the good cards is that by the time FD/KI were out in 2005 there weren’t that many people even left playing the game, and a solid core of them were great players who went to a lot of events.
Also, Josh had to have been drunk or high or something when he trashed the BLKI market. You could have sold one of those every 10 days for $100 for the rest of your life!
Not drunk or high, just educated in business. I had thousands of BLKE and the market had dipped to about $30 a piece. The pool of people willing to shell out stupid amounts of money for DBZ were dwindling, and knowing what happens to prices of cards (or anything) when supply far exceeds demand is day one economics. I chose to cash out while the card still had perceived value, before I would’ve just wrecked the market by piecemeal anyway.
Pretty lame . No comments, no nothing, since 2013??? You guys are dorks.