Are My Pokemon Cards Worth Anything

What Condition Is Your Pokemon Card

At first, take a look at the condition of the card youre considering selling.

Even when it comes to the rarest of Pokémons cards, the condition is everything.

Collectors are much less willing to spend money on a card that has creases, stains, or even rips. While a card in Gem Mint is always the sought-after ideal, lightly played cards still have value and can be sold for a respectable amount of money.

This means that if you were a tidy child that took diligent care of their collection, you may be in luck!

If your cards do show traces of gameplay and handling, you may not have to despair immediately.

Generally speaking, the rarer the card your selling, the more obliging potential buyers will be with regards to its condition, but dont expect life-changing offers of cash for cards in poor condition.

Who Buys Pokmon Cards These Days

Celebs arent the only ones interested in becoming the ultimate Pokémon masters. People all over the internet are excited to bid on these valuable pieces of memorabilia. If youre new to selling Pokémon cards, the process might seem a little daunting, but before you give it a hard pass, think about the potential rewards.

The Masked Royal Prize Promo: $18000

This is undoubtedly one of the most recent rare cards, featuring the Masked Royal character from Pokemon Sun & Moon and released as recently as 2017. This is essentially a promotional card that was given out to players in an invitation-only prerelease in Tokyo for the new Shining Legends set, where only 100 copies were made.

Even though this is a relatively normal card by most standards, this short print run means its incredibly hard to get, especially since it was handed out in such a restrictive event. As a result, there are actually preserved tweets of players first opening it in places like Pokeboon, while Japanese trading sites like Miyabi Hobby have past listings of the card at ¥2,000,000, which currently is equal to around $18,000 USD.

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Pokemon Players Club Shiny Espeon: $2000

If you ever wanted proof about how much a Pokemon cards price can change just because of the Pokemon on it, you need to look further than the Pokemon Players Club Shiny Espeon. This card is almost identical in story to the Umbreon card you saw just a moment ago, but required only 40,000 experience points instead of 70,000.

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Despite being more available, Troll and Toad has this card for a slightly higher price of just under $2000. This is likely because Espeons shiny form is more noticeable than Umbreons, since the bright neon-green fur is a lot more distinctive and Espeon has its own unique degree of popularity.

Examples Of Valuable Pokemon Cards

The table below includes the values of some of the rarest Pokemon cards in the world, i.e. ones that were acquired as prizes for winning competitions in the late 90s and early 2000s.

These types of cards were never available to the general public, and they make headlines every so often by selling for six figures at auction. The table also includes some cards that were available publicly as part of the original base set prints. According to Pratte, these are the most commonly sold cards among hobbyists. And if you do have a rare card in your collection, its likely to be of this type. Note how the condition drastically changes the value.

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How To Find The Value Of A Pokemon Card

To determine what a specific Pokemon card is worth, there is an easy process you can follow.

Often, Pokemon card price lists and websites are out of date, so its important to look at what the card is actually selling for right now to see what its really worth.

Below, well show you how to perform a Pokemon card valuation using this Shaymin EX Pokemon card as an example.

First Edition Holographic Raichu

Raichu is an evolved form of Pikachu and is an electric type Pokémon. Raichu has moves like agility and thunder

The thunder move causes 60 damage to its opponents but youll need to flip a coin when performing this move. If the coin lands on tails, Raichu will do 30 damage to himself as well.

A mint condition, first edition holographic Raichu has an estimated value of $2,500.

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Misprinted Fossil Krabby: $2200

Yes, you read that right. Krabby is the star of one of the rarest Pokemon cards of all. By all accounts, this crab-based Water-type isn’t exactly a battling superstar. The fact that one version of its Pokemon card is so rare is a bit of a fluke, as its price comes down to a relatively simple misprint of the card.

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The difference between these multiple miscuts and a normal card is that part of a fossil symbol to the bottom-left of its art is missing. This seemingly minor difference has driven up the price of these cards immensely, and despite going for under two dollars in its normal state, Pokemon Prices has the card record of a misprint selling for over $2200 dollars.

Is Your Pokmon Card A Misprint

It may sound counterintuitive that an error would make something more valuable, but then, it also makes something more unique and therefore rarer.

Keep in mind mention that a misprinting of a card, doesnt automatically make your card worth more money. As mentioned before, a misprint of a card will generally result in a lower score from a professional card grading service.

However, there is a market for misprints, and certain well-known misprints, in particular, can drive up the price of a Pokémon card and sell for a decent amount of money.

One such printing error is the much desired first edition base set Red-cheeked Pikachu, which is currently worth more than $10,000 USD provided that it is in Gem Mint condition.

Even lower graded version of this card can be seen to be sold for several hundreds of dollars.

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Which Pokmon Cards Are Worth Money

You might not own any trophy-edition pieces unless you were an avid tournament participant. Still, your regular Pokémon cards can make you a fair amount of money if they have specific characteristics. Some collectors have earned hundreds of dollars if not thousands on a single Pokémon card exchange.

The first step toward making your little fortune is dusting off your old Pokémon cards and picking out the right ones to sell. Here are the most valuable Pokémon cards you might actually have:

Some Pokémon cards have special value, including:

• Holographic cards: They have reflective and shimmery backgrounds.
• Shining Pokémon cards: They are inverse holographic cards.
• Full-art cards: Their illustrations extend over the entire front of the card.
• First-edition cards: They are among the first to be printed and display the edition 1 logo on the bottom left corner of the Pokémon illustration.

How Much Are Old Japanese Pokemon Cards Worth

The Japanese Base Set was released in 1996, a solid three years before the English version.

Commended in the Pokemon community for their quality, old Japanese Pokemon cards are sought after items for any collector.

However, their value is affected by a couple of factors.

Unlike the English version where booster boxes contained 36 packs and roughly 12 holographic cards. Japanese Base set booster boxes contained 60 packs and the pull rates on holos are known to be as high as 50%.

As youd expect, this drives the value down compared to their English counterparts.

However, there is also a well-known printing error with Japanese base set, where they missed off the rarity symbol from the bottom right corner of the cards.

If youre lucky enough to own these cards, then they are extremely valuable and command a premium.

Pokemon then decided to print future vintage Japanese sets like Jungle, Fossil and Team Rocket with a holographic card in every pack.

Although these were fun to open, it also took away some of the excitement, rarity and value.

The main thing that combats this though, as mentioned above is the quality of the cards.

Card centering, print lines, and edge-wear is less common, therefore its easier to obtain a high score when getting Japanese cards graded. The higher the grade, the higher its value of course.

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Black Star Ishihara Signed Gx Promo Card

A card featuring the Pokémon Company’s President himself.

Sold for $247,230 in April 2021

The most recent card to make headlines for pure value, this card sold for nearly a quarter of a million dollars at auction on April 26th 2021. You can find the full details at our story here, but this card depicts Pokémon Company founder and current president Tsunekazu Ishihara, and was given to the company staff as a celebration of the man’s 60th birthday in 2017.

That makes the card rare, but this specific version is even rarer, as Ishihara actually signed this near-mint card to boost its price even further. The “2017 P.M. SM Black Star #TPCi01 Tsunekazu Ishihara Signed Pokémon GX Promo Card”, to use its full title, is a testament to the raw power apparently held by the Pokémon president. The ability “Red Chanchanko” is in reference to the red vest traditionally worn on 60th birthdays in Japan, and prevents the effect of any attack, ability or trainer card against Ishihara. Meanwhile, its GX move “60 Congratulations”, tells you to flip 60 coins, and take a present for each one. A truly legendary card.

Holographic Shadowless Mewtwo: $20000

While the other Kanto starters dont come close to Charizard in the realm of First Edition cards, its hard to ignore the second-place winner off of its fame in the series. Most Pokemon fans are plenty aware of Mewtwo from the original Pokemon movie, and as a result cards featuring the character will often go for record-high prices in any set.

Much like the First Edition Charizard mentioned earlier, Mewtwo has its own Holographic and Shadowless version that PSA Collector has seen sold for at least $20,000, putting it far above Venusaur and Blastoise but still far below everyones favorite Fire-type tyrant of the skies.

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Holographic Shadowless Blastoise: $2475

Out of the three final-evolution Kanto starters, it’s Blastoise who has the least valuable Shadowless holographic card, reaching heights of $2475 on Pokemon Prices. We say “least valuable”, but that’s still a lot of money for just the one card, and its hardly far behind its sibling Venusaur.

That’s if Blastoise is still in mint condition, of course, which is a big ask considering these cards are over 20 years old. Carrying the powerful Water-type move Hydro Pump, this version of Blastoise was a pretty impressive card to carry in your deck back in the day, but at this point its still a solid collectible card.

Condition: Did You Take Good Care Of Your Cards

The second important factor in a cards value is the condition. If you do happen to have a first-edition, holographic base-set Charizard, youre not guaranteed thousands of dollars. The selling price depends on how well the card has been taken care of.

If you have a card that you expect is worth more than $100, Pratte recommends getting it graded by Professional Sports Authenticator .

Despite its name, the PSA grades all kinds of trading cards, including non-sports cards like Pokemon. PSAs 10-point grading scale is accepted as the industry standard, and the company also publishes price guides to help you determine a cards worth.

According to its current valuations, first-edition cards in perfect condition are valued at a minimum of $40. Those arent rarer, holographic cards either. A first-edition holo in mint condition can rake in between $1,000 and $24,000.

So why Prattes $100 limit? Well, the number isnt a hard-and-fast rule, but the card-grading services offered by PSA will cost $20 or more per card, meaning a lower-value card doesnt always merit the cost to get it authenticated.

Its a process, says PSA spokesperson Terry Melia. But its something that could reap big rewards in the end.

In addition to grading the condition of the card, PSA ensures the card isnt a forgery by using high-powered lights and magnifying equipment to check for tampering.

There are a lot of forgeries and bogus merchandise out there, says Melia.

Especially so online.

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How Do I Know If My Pokemon Cards Are Worth Anything

Now that you know Pokémon cards can be worth quite a bit of money, you probably want to know how to find out how much money your cards are worth. Before you try to sell any of your Pokémon cards you need to first value them.

Once you know what youre looking for, Pokémon cards are pretty easy to value.

The first thing you want to look for is the rarity level. In the bottom right-hand corner of every Pokémon card is the rarity level.

Common cards will have a little black circle. Uncommon Pokémon cards will have a small black diamond.

Both of these types of cards are fairly easy to find unless the card was printed in 1999 or 2000.

A black star in the bottom right-hand corner means that that Pokémon card is rare. If it has a star H or three stars it is a special, extra-rare card. These cards are the ones that are probably going to be worth the most money.

You will want to set these cards aside so that they can be preserved.

Any first edition card has the potential to be worth money, even if it is a common card. These cards will have been printed in 1999 or 2000.

Any card that says Wizard of the Coast will have been printed in 1999 or 2000, these cards deserve some extra attention.

Many first edition cards can be sold for $5, even the common ones but a Wizard of the Coast card that is rare can go for as little as $100.

These cards could be worth anywhere from $5 or $10 to several hundred.

Look At The Condition Of The Pokemon Card

Using the Pokemon card grading definitions we discussed above, try to gauge the condition of your card.

As long as the card has nothing more than some minor whiting around the edges in small areas when viewed from the back, then you should be safe to assume that the card is near mint or better.

This Shaymin card is in near mint condition, so we dont have to worry about the condition too much. Well discuss what to do if your card is damaged in step 5.

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Charmander 1st Edition $330

Charmander’s value has been all over the place in the last 12 months. After the 2020 summer of record sale after record sale, baby Zard’s value has taken a dip recently, but don’t be surprised if Charmander rebounds due to the power Charizard yields on the market.

PSA Pop: 1521 – 652 – 661

Current Value: PSA 10 $1186 PSA 9 $330

How To Spot Rare Pokemon Cards

In this section, Im going to focus on cards printed from 1996 to 2000 for two reasons. Not only are the rarest cards from this era the most valuable, but theyre also the trickiest to identify.

So whether youre looking to sell your old collection or simply invest in the right cards, lets cover Rare Pokemon Cards 101.

The Base Set of Pokemon cards, or the OG cards from 1996 to 1999 that we all know and love, actually came in three flavors: 1st Edition, Shadowless, and Unlimited.

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What Are Pokemon Cards

For the uninitiated, Pokemon Cards are part of the Pokemon Card Trading Card Game that originally launched in 1996. Back then, the original set contained just 151 cards one for each OG Pokemon.

In simplest terms, Pokemon cards are baseball cards but for adorable Japanese Pocket Monsters.

Since then, Pokemon has exploded into the worlds most valuable media franchise, valued at over $100 billion worldwide. For comparison, thats more than Star Wars, Spongebob, and James Bond combined.

Fueling two decades of meteoric growth was a steady stream of new Pokemon creatures and thus new cards to collect. There are around 898 total Pokemon and over 9,100 Pokemon cards to collect in the English market.

Not all 9,100 cards are available on store shelves at once, of course. The Pokemon Company International, the folks who make Pokemon cards, publish and release cards one generation at a time, with each generation lasting about two years.

In total, there have been eight generations of Pokemon cards since 1996. And as the next generation of cards begins appearing on store shelves, the previous generation tends to sell out. At that point, its no surprise that certain cards begin shooting up in value!

Find The Set The Card Belongs To

If there is no logo on the right side, its Base. Every other set has an indicator.

When looking into what set a card belongs to, make sure to see if there is any logo on the right side, just underneath and to the right of the illustration. If there is no symbol, the likelihood is that its a Base set card.

There have been error cards that do not have a symbol, so make sure the year matches with the set.

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