The 10 Most Valuable Useless Cards

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.

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

P3Here’s a situational card that either does nothing or next to nothing, depending on game state. The reason for its value was understandable: it was one of the very first volunteer exclusive cards ever released. The problem was Score was using a point system to value their volunteer redemption promos, and this card was one of their higher tiered prizes. Meanwhile there were slightly more useful cards on the rewards list, like the previously difficult to find Confrontation (before the Trunks Reforged re-release) available for much less points. Obviously people weren’t spending time and money running events and going to tournaments just for Kami’s Idea, especially since even when this card was valuable it never brought in Ultra Rare money after the first few were sold.

7. Champion’s Aura

SZ6 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

L2 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

159 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

F6 Regeneration DrillBelieve it or not, this dumb card still sells for a stupid amount of money. It’s so rare, the only pic we have of it on this site is from ebay. It was one of several cards that came in VHS tapes of Dragon Ball Z. Just put that in perspective for how old this game is: promo cards for it once came in VHS tapes. Of course, even at this time VHS was rapidly on the decline and just take it from me and Garrett that anime never really sells many copies of anything on home media. So long story short, the method of distribution for this card was extremely limited. Oh, and did I mention that there were three different foiling patterns for this card? Yeah, that was a thing for the VHS promos, they came in non-foil, foil (sometimes called silver foil) and gold foil. Ironically I think the non-foil version commands the most money these days, but any would be a decent payday if you caught the attention of a few collectors.

3. Android 18 ???? Insert

A18WTF, this isn’t even a real card! It’s just a piece of marketing inserted into Trunks Saga Packs. It didn’t even really offer you anything in terms of spoilers. It was just Android 18 and a bunch of question marks. Again, this is another card I heard the old “It’s a rarer insert than the other inserts” line, which for some reason made it valuable. This wasn’t even a card in the game, had no actual value or even a power chart on the back, yet still sold for $20-50 until the release of Androids Saga. The image was eventually recycled onto a rare (by occurrence standards) alt art card in Androids Saga and the whole “Change the Future” line would not only be reused as a marketing tag line but also as the basis for a personality power that dominated the game for a time.

2. Excessive Aggression

J3 Excessive AggressionAnother rare Judge Card that become valuable for many of the same reasons as Kami’s Idea. Except this one was much harder to come by and featured more popular characters. It’s hard to believe that even with this crappy power, this card once brought in upwards of $300 per pop. Their price started to decline during GT after an unknown Score employee released several hundred into the market. You can own one for about $10 these days.

1. Ultimate Champion

SZ9 Dragon Ball Z Ultimate ChampionDid you win the 2003 DBZ World Championships? Then this card is useless to you.

 

Later BroZ!

Joshman

Follow me on Twitter at ArguablyTrue

 

 

 

 

Latest Comments

  1. shannon September 19, 2013
    • Sayjin September 19, 2013
      • shannon September 19, 2013
    • Joshman September 19, 2013
      • Sayjin September 20, 2013
        • Joshman September 22, 2013
  2. Chipmunk September 19, 2013
  3. strmtrprx September 19, 2013
  4. allan September 19, 2013
    • Chipmunk September 19, 2013
    • SaiyanWithStyle September 19, 2013
      • Brandon Maupin September 19, 2013
        • deltree5 September 19, 2013
        • Joshman September 20, 2013
        • SaiyanWithStyle September 20, 2013
          • Fresko September 21, 2013
          • Chipmunk September 25, 2013
  5. shannon September 19, 2013
    • Sayjin September 19, 2013
      • Andrew September 19, 2013
  6. TuffEnuff September 19, 2013
    • Didier Greenleaf September 20, 2013
  7. Brandon Maupin September 19, 2013
    • Didier Greenleaf September 20, 2013
    • Sayjin September 20, 2013
    • Joshman September 22, 2013
  8. Leo September 19, 2013
    • NeoSeth September 19, 2013
      • Fresko September 21, 2013
      • wnderjif October 4, 2013
  9. tailtactics September 19, 2013
  10. shannon September 20, 2013
  11. mcq26 September 22, 2013
  12. mcq26 September 22, 2013
  13. Kolzi September 22, 2013
  14. S. Dashy September 27, 2013
  15. Played pokemon with 2 world champions last weekend October 15, 2013
    • Joshman October 15, 2013
  16. gregory the cricket May 23, 2017

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.