How To Find Out The Value Of My Pokemon Cards

Top Tips In This Article

Scott Pratte, our expert card trader and collector, provided lots of tips to make money selling Pokemon cards. Here is his best advice:

• First edition or New Edition? All kidding aside, we know that you know New Edition is a boy band from the 70s and 80s. Still, you need to know what you have in that box of Pokemon cards. In other words, which are the rare cards and which are not. Do you have one of the original holographic cards? Cha-ching.
• Whats the condition of your cards? If theyve been under the bed in a box so light didnt fade them or the dog didnt get to them, you may be in good shape. Never taken out of the wrapper? More cha-ching. That is whats called mint. All cards in good condition are likely worth more than what you paid for them.
• The best place to sell Pokemon cards? Its eBay all the way. It would be great to sell one card for oodles of money and eBay has facilitated some of that. But if you want a big audience and buyers willing to shell out $30 a pop for your cards, you can rack up sales.
• Think youve got something valuable? Consult the Professional Sports Authenticator and get an estimate. This will put you in a good position to haggle with a buyer, which you should expect to do.

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.

First Edition Shadowless Holographic Chansey

Its a good thing Chansey likes to care for the sick and injured because you might pass out when you learn how much this card is worth. Several of the 48 recorded PSA 10 copies of this rare first edition Chansey have sold for over $25,000 at auction, with the highest sale sitting at $36,877.

Hes not Charizard, but we still love him.

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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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Video Of Me Looking Up Pokemon Cards Values:

If you get too many results that include cards NOT like yours, use the checkboxes to pick the ones just like yours. Choosing a few comparable items by using the checkboxes gives you a much more accurate estimate of your Pokemon cards value.

What to do next:

Once youve searched mavin.io and figured out the value of your Pokemon cards, you have several options:

If your Pokemon cards are valuable You could hold onto the cards and collect them, as most collectors do, and hope they appreciate in value over time. It may be a good investment to get them professionally graded by PSA, this will dramatically increase their value.

You could sell your Pokemon cards to a local card shop, knowing full well their value . But remember, dealers purchase collections at wholesale prices. They need to make a profit after all, and selling a large collection takes a considerable amount of time and resources so dont expect to get 100% of what youd get online.

Selling your Pokemon cards online will get you the best price, but it can be time consuming: taking pictures, writing descriptions, responding to customers, packing, shipping, returns its a lot of work. If you have the time and patience, selling them online is a great way to make money. Read our guide to selling on eBay.

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Blastoise Holo 1st Edition $4150

Image credit: Jason Koeppel // ONE37pm

Blastoise is the final evolution of Squirtle. The 2nd most valuable card in the set, Blastoise is also the most powerful card in the game. When looking at the price difference between Charizard and Blastoise, and knowing they are both going to be 1 & 2 moving forward, Blastoise will be undervalued until investors decide the 2nd most valuable card is worth much more than 10-15% of the top card, while having a lower graded population.

PSA Pop: 100 – 622

Current Pokemon Card Value: PSA 10$31,334 PSA 9 $4150

Search Ebay Sold Listings

Go to eBay and search the card name, followed by the set number, followed by the condition. For example, Alakazam 1/102 MP. After that, just check the sold listings box.

There are a number of sites that can help you find the value of your cards like tcgplayer.com trollandtoad.com or pokemonprices.com. These sources are great if youre looking for a ballpark number. However, I find that the most reliable and simple way to find values is through eBay. eBay is the largest market for buying and selling Pokémon cards.

Now, dont go looking through listings yet. Just like any buy and sell market, people can set whatever price they want. This often leads to misinformation, as someone will ask a ridiculous amount for a cheap card and mislead the people who see the listing into thinking that its value is high.

People list their cards for crazy prices. This is why we go to the search filters and check the box that says sold listings. What this does is show us only the listing that have been sold. This way, you can see what people are actually paying for your cards.

So, go to eBay and search the card name, followed by the set number, followed by the condition. For example, Alakazam 1/102 MP. After that, just check the sold listings box and youll see exactly what your card is worth and all of the most recent sales.

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Recently Updated Pokemon Card Values

The following is a list of all Pokémon cards that have recently had their price values updated. Clicking on a specific Pokémon card image will take you to that card’s listing. Selecting the card’s name will bring you to the individual Pokemon listing pages which are further broken down by TCG set.

World Championships Sprint Battle Road 2002 No 1 Trainer Promo: $31000

No. 1 Trainer promo cards are almost always valuable, thanks to them only being printed in limited quantities and being awarded to finalists in World Championships. What makes the Battle Road Spring 2002 promo special, though, is that every card is unique.

Each one has the name of its owner, and the region they were the champion of, printed in the cards text. As there were seven regions for the tournament, it can be assumed that there were at least seven produced.

Its so rare that PSA doesnt have an appraised value for it, however it has sold at auction in the past for $31,000.

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First Edition Shadowless Holographic Charizard

Ranking the rarest Pokémon cards without covering shiny Charizard is harder than choosing your starter Pokémon. Collectors have always coveted rare Charizard cards, but this one is the undisputed king!

Like many of the most valuable Pokémon cards, this 1st edition Charizard is cherished for being the victim of an early printing error that resulted in the absence of a drop shadow on the character art . As such, this card is incredibly hard to find in mint condition .

In recent years, this hot property has become the face of Pokémon card collecting, with high-profile sales to Logan Paul and Logic in 2020. Two other copies of the card were sold the same year for $350,100 and $369,000.

Another shiny Charizard was recently sold for an eye-watering $420,000 in March 2022, making it the third most expensive Pokémon card ever sold at auction.

Are Your Pokmon Cards Rare: Valuable Pokmon Cards

With regards to most Pokémon cards, there are 4 levels of standard rarity that are worth mentioning for now.

Its also important to note here, when we are talking about Rarity or how Rare a card is, I am not referring to the actual scarcity of the card or hard it is to fine.

Pokémon cards have different rarity classifications that are assigned by the Pokémon company themselves and can often be identified by the symbol printed on the card.

This can be somewhat confusing to those new to the trading card scene as most people will use the term rare interchangeably between the Classification rare and Monetary value rare.

This isnt something you should worry too much about as often a card that is Monetary value rare will also have the classification of Rare, hence why many players will use the term interchangeably.

You can figure what classification level a card has by looking for a small symbol in one of the bottom corners of your card:

• Common: A small black circle

• Uncommon: A diamond shape

• Rare: A tiny star

Promotional: A black start with the word PROMO written across it

As a general rule, the rarer the Pokémon card classification the more money it will be worth. However, this isnt always the case, so its best to be vigilant when evaluating your Pokémon collection.

There are certainly some Uncommons, and possibly even commons, that exist from much older Pokémon sets that might be considered more valuable than modern-day Rares.

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How Do I Know What My Pokemon Cards Are Worth

There is a lot that goes into determining whether you have valuable pokémon cards. Even if you have some of the rarest Pokémon cards sitting in your collection, it takes more than just Pokémon card rarity to know the expected value of your pokemon TCG cards.

Lets go through some of the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to figuring out Pokemon card prices.

In general, Pokémon cards from the original Pokemon base set printing are worth more money than cards printed in recent sets. This is due to supply and demand economics as obtaining older cards no longer in print is much harder. However, the condition of a card is key in determining its value.

A card that is still in print is not likely to rise to an extremely high value soon. On the other hand, older cards that are not being printed anymore, especially limited editions or promo cards, generally have a higher value.

This can be a great place to start when trying to decide which of your Pokémon cards may have some value Check your oldest cards first.

However, you will need to know more than the cards age if you are truly hoping to find out if there might be gold stashed in your card binder collection.

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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How Much Are The Original Pokemon Cards Worth

When we discuss the original, first generation of Pokemon cards, for the sake of this article were going to specifically be talking about cards from 1999-2000.

These sets include:

These are the sets that many collectors grew up with.

It was their first introduction to Pokemon cards, and therefore they hold great nostalgic value.

Because of this, these are often the cards that people getting back into the hobby want to start collecting first. As you can imagine, this drives prices up.

The most popular entry point for new collectors is the original Base Set.

These were the cards flooding school playgrounds in 99, and these are the ones people want to own again.

Dont get me wrong, if you can get 1st Edition or Shadowless variants of these cards, theyre worth A LOT more!

But with 1st Edition Base Set booster boxes selling for north of £250k, they are quite unobtainable for most people at this point.

However! This further enhances the demand/value of the original Base set cards, as people snap them up, fearing the price will also continue to rise.

Its almost a vicious, yet brilliant cycle all at the same time

As an investment piece, old Pokemon cards show great growth potential for the future. But for the keen newbie simply trying to rebuild their old sets, its going to requite a fair amount of capital to get going.

Like with any pokemon card valuations, specific prices are entirely dependent on the four key factors we mentioned earlier .

What’s Ahead For Pokemon

Image credit: Pokemon / NetFlix

The current Pokémon sets available at your local stores are Sword & Shield Brilliant Stars and The Pokémon Go Set. The Brilliant stars set boasts top VStar Holos Arceus and Charizard. The Pokémon Go set has Radiant Charizard, Venusaur & Blastoise along with Dragonite VStar and Mewtwo VStar.

Coming mid September is Pokémon Sword & Shield – Lost Origin. The Pokémon Center Elite trainer boxes contain 10 booster packs plus 10 booster packs, 65 card sleeves with Giratina on the back, 45 energy cards, players guide, dice and more. The top pulls are VSTAR Giratina & Aerodactyl.

The next Trading card set to be released is Sword & Shield – Silver Tempest. The Elite trainer boxes will be available in mid-November for around $50.00. You will able to pull VStar holograms such as Lugia, Alolan Vulpix and many more. Each Trainer Box comes with 10 booster packs, 130 card sleeves with Lugia or Alolan Vulpix on the back, 45 energy cards, players guide, dice and much more.

For the avid gamer, Pokémon Scarlett & Violet hits shelves on November 18th, 2022. Both games are available on Nintendo Switch for $60 each.

There is also a new Netflix show coming out on September 23rd, Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles. It is set to premier at the 2022 Pokemon World Championships in London, and will be available to stream shortly afterwards.

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Get A Friend Who’s Into Pokmon To Look Through Your Collection

All this may seem a little overwhelming, especially if you have a bulk of Pokémon cards and no idea where to start. In this scenario, the best thing to do is get someone else to look through your collection for you. Usually, they’ll be able to help you identify cards that are valuable and give you an accurate valuation.

Special Cards To Keep An Eye Out For

Aside from the various rares mentioned above, there are a few unique traits worth looking out for that can mean a Pokemon card has high value. These are often printing errors or limited distribution that led to a card becoming extremely precious to collectors. Sometimes these cards look no different than others of the same kind at first glance and require special attention to identify, so look carefully!

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Selling Your Pokemon Cards At Auction

If you have Pokemon cards that you’d like to sell at auction, get in touch and we can help you with a valuation. You can join us at one of our valuation days every Tuesday, email us for an appointment on or call us on Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm.

If you can’t come in and see us in person but would like to submit items for auction or valuation, send us an email to with details and a photograph and one of our experts will provide information and auction estimates. Alternatively, give us a call on to arrange an appointment.

Pokmon Neo Genesis 1st Edition Holo Lugia #9

A legendary Pokémon on a legendarily rare Pokémon card

Sold for $144,300 in May 2021

Lugia is one of the most iconic and popular Pokémon in the entire series, having starred on the front of early Game Boy game Pokémon Silver and its Nintendo DS remake SoulSilver. A legendary bird Pokémon from Gen II, Lugia is one of the most powerful and hard-to-find Pokémon that players can catch in the video games – so its only fitting that its Pokémon card is also extremely rare.

The Neo Genesis 1st Edition Holo Lugia #9 Pokémon card is described by auction house PWCC as one of the most difficult Pokémon cards to grade, as the result of a number of errors and misprints that were included in the early runs of the Neo Genesis set for the Pokémon TCG. Later print runs were corrected, but many of the cards from the expansion remain more common in their earlier uncorrected forms.

As of May 2021, PWCC claims that only 41 Gem Mint 10 condition Neo Genesis 1st Edition Holo Lugia #9 cards have ever been graded by PSA, with just three earning the maximum BGS 10 Pristine rating from grading company Beckett Grading Services. The Lugias rarity means that it ranks almost as highly as the legendary first-edition Charizard when it comes to the most valuable Pokémon cards.

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