A dark timber wall hung salon-style with framed painted artworks, one frame near the centre burning brighter than the rest.

TRADING CARDS · ONE PIECE — COURSE 03 · THE CHASE

Chase the Comic

Three ways to draw one character.

Most card games ask you to chase a shinier version of a picture you already have. This one sometimes hands you a page out of the comic instead.

· ILLUSTRATION TYPE ·

Only one of them is a page from the comic.

The official card list does not sort by how pretty a card is. It sorts by who drew it and why: animation art lifted from the screen, original illustration commissioned for the card, and comic — the manga itself, panels and all, sitting behind the figure.

ANIMATIONFlat cel colour, lifted straight off the screen.

ORIGINALPainted for this card and printed nowhere else.

COMICThe manga itself, panels and all, behind the figure.

A small star above the rarity letter marks an alternate art. A Secret Rare carries a gold border and a textured finish. The manga-panel cards are the ones people actually queue for, and they are the ones worth checking twice before you pay.

· HOW THE MARKS READ ·

Six letters in the corner, and one small star.

CCommonThe body of the pack. Most of what you open.

UCUncommonSlightly thinner on the ground. Still not the reason you opened it.

RRareWhere the cards people actually build around start showing up.

SRSuper RareThe card the pack art is selling you.

SECSecret RareGold border, textured finish, roughly one to a box.

LLeaderNot a chase at all — it is the card the other fifty answer to.

A single card under museum glass, its face built from stacked black-and-white ink panels, a foil shimmer raking across it.

Sources disagree on the exact pull rates, and they change set to set. Treat a Secret Rare as roughly a box and an alternate art as a good deal more common than that — then check a real price before you believe either.

A collector’s desk at night: cotton gloves, a brass loupe, an open ledger and a stack of sleeved cards.

· FROM THE ARCHIVIST · IAN ·

“Learn the marks before you learn the prices. Half of what gets sold as a chase card is an ordinary card that someone photographed under a good lamp.”

READ: HOW TO SPOT A FAKE HOLO IN TEN SECONDS →

· STEP-BY-STEP ·

Know what it is before you pay for it.

How to Tell a Manga Rare From an Alt ArtSOON

How to Tell Which Sets Are Worth OpeningSOON

How to Spot an Alternate Art in a BinderSOON

How to Value a Chase Card Without GuessingSOON

· WRITTEN AND ADDED AS THIS COURSE GROWS ·

Chase the Comic

Only one of them is a page from the comic.

Six letters in the corner, and one small star.

Chase the card you would put on a wall. It is the only reason that still holds in a year.

Know what it is before you pay for it.