Well, after finally seeing a spoiler list of this set, I can honestly say that I'm hugely disappointed and may not even open my pre-orders up and try to resell them and get my money back.
Spoiler, with a rant to follow:
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Gold Series (2008.04.02) [GLD1-EN]
45 cards total/45 unique (27 common, 18 Gold Rare)
Gold Rare Cards:
GLD1-EN003 Jinzo
GLD1-EN012 Don Zaloog
GLD1-EN014 Breaker the Magical Warrior
GLD1-EN015 D.D. Warrior Lady
GLD1-EN016 Dark Magician of Chaos
GLD1-EN022 Cyber Dragon
GLD1-EN024 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
GLD1-EN026 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
GLD1-EN027 Prometheus, King of Shadows
GLD1-EN028 Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon
GLD1-EN029 Chimeratech Overdragon
GLD1-EN030 Swords of Revealing Light
GLD1-EN031 Heavy Storm
GLD1-EN032 Reinforcement of the Army
GLD1-EN033 Brain Control
GLD1-EN038 Crush Card Virus
GLD1-EN039 Mirror Force
GLD1-EN040 Torrential Tribute
Common Cards:
GLD1-EN001 7 Colored Fish
GLD1-EN002 Sonic Bird
GLD1-EN004 Summoner Of Illusions
GLD1-EN005 Fire Princess
GLD1-EN006 Needle Worm
GLD1-EN007 8-Claws Scorpion
GLD1-EN008 Swarm Of Scarabs
GLD1-EN009 Swarm Of Locusts
GLD1-EN010 Des Lacooda
GLD1-EN011 Newdoria
GLD1-EN013 Old Vindictive Magician
GLD1-EN017 Stealth Bird
GLD1-EN018 Regenerating Mummy
GLD1-EN019 Solar Flare Dragon
GLD1-EN020 Rare Metal Dragon
GLD1-EN021 Nightmare Penguin
GLD1-EN023 Sillva, Warlord Of Dark World
GLD1-EN025 Doom Dozer
GLD1-EN034 Offerings To The Doomed
GLD1-EN035 Non-Spellcasting Area
GLD1-EN036 Mist Body
GLD1-EN037 Pandemonium
GLD1-EN041 Needle Ceiling
GLD1-EN042 Royal Command
GLD1-EN043 Rivalry Of Warlords
GLD1-EN044 Skill Drain
GLD1-EN045 Spell Shield Type-8
Begin wall of text warning.
This is not a flame, or a blame, but I feel it needs said, especially if the UDE rep is still out there listening, I'd definitely like to go on record as a concerned consumer. What I'm really disappointed in the most, is the screwed up rarities vs. overall pack value lately.
All general packs listed contained 9 cards per normal set (8 common, 1 rare) and 12 per reprint not counting tip cards (10-11 common, 1-2 rare), and cost suggested retail of about $4 each.
Going by PTDN numbers:
48 total commons for the set. 52 total rares for the set, 10 of those not even being mentioned on the pack itself.
In contrast, Legend of Blue-Eyes:
82 total commons for the set. 44 total rares for the set, 2 of those not being mentioned on the pack itself. The big thing to note as well, was this set was an effective combination of TWO OCG sets.
In contrast, Ancient Sanctuary, and then Soul of the Duelist, the first non-combined sets:
AST: 73 total commons. 39 total rares for the set, 2 of those not being mentioned on the pack itself.
SOD: 35 total commons. 25 total rares for the set. The closer to 50-50 ratio started here, but overall you still weren't swamped with commons.
Then the reprint sets:
DB1 and DB2: 185 commons, 65 rares.
DR1: 202 commons, 65 rares.
DR3: 142 commons, 98 rares.
DR4: 131 commons, 99 rares.
Even on the reprint sets, the ratios have been slowly getting worse, however now we have Gold Series:
Packs of 25 cards. Nearly the equivalent of 3 normal packs or 2 reprint packs. Gold series is a reprint set, albeit a much smaller one, therefor choices /should/ be better.
45 card set. You get 22 commons and 3 rares per pack. The set has 27 commons and 18 rares. Suddenly the pack value is already very skewed. You get nearly an entire set of commons in every pack, making their value almost nothing at all, and you know you won't be searching for any after just a couple packs barring very bad luck. With high playability, this could be a good thing, sure, but for generalization, it's very bad to always pull the same commons over and over. Then you have 18 total rares, and you get 3 per pack. This looks to average out to being closer to the amount of commons you receive in 2 reprint packs, and the amount of rares you receive from 3 normal packs. this should put the cost of the pack somewhere between $8-12, so $10 average seems reasonable to assume, being a reprint set.
Then, you look at the MSRP of the Gold Series packs, and see that it's $20. This, I would like to point out, is where the major problem lies, with us, the consumer. With money getting tighter thanks to a terrible economy, with secondary market values of many cards becoming outrageous, for close to double what we would expect to pay for the number of reprint cards we are receiving, many of us feel alienated, and do not feel the "shininess" of the "gold rares" is worth the general price of the packs. Some out there may, but I and many other don't.
I think it's fair to say, if many, many more of the cards in the Gold Series weren't foil cards that have already had at least 2 foil versions in the past, then the set might look better to a lot of us. Those foils /should/ have been part of the commons in the set. This, and the general fact of the pack price, are why many of us feel this Gold Series is an absolute flop. Yes, there are good cards in it, and yes, most of the "foil" cards are playable, but for general value of the packs, it's an absolute failure.
I don't blame UDE or Konami specifically, but somewhere down the line, someone really dropped the ball somewhere.
End wall of text warning.
