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What Makes Pokemon Cards Valuable

What Is A Pokmon Card Value Scanner

“FIXING” Expensive Pokémon Cards…

Do you think you may have some valuable cards in your deck, but arent sure how to determine their value? Theres no need to take them to a gaming store or find an expert. All you have to do is download an app so you can price your cards from your phone or iPad. You can download the BigAR Poké Card Scanner or TCGplayer App, which analyzes your cards and tells you their value.

At a glance, if youre trying to find the cards worth scanning, the money makers usually have a star on the bottom right corner. You may also see a circle or diamond in that space. A circle means the card is common, while a diamond means that it is uncommon. A star means that the card is rare, but keep in mind that circle and diamond cards can also be valuable if they were printed in 1999 or 2000.

Pokmon Cards Are Easy To Store

Valuable Pokémon cards do need to be stored properly to prevent fraying and accidental damage, but it takes minimum effort and cost to keep your collection safe.

Purpose-designed storage solutions for Pokémon cards are easily available, in the form of individual pockets or binders. It’s therefore exceedingly simple to keep your cards safe and organized.


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 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.

Base Set: Limited Edition 1st Printing

The Most Expensive Pokemon Cards in the World

These cards are the most valuable and rare of the Base Set print runs. This 1st print run was printed, distributed, and sold before Pokémania fully took root in the United States, making them extremely rare today, particularly in Near Mint condition. Collectors who do own these cards will typically have them authenticated and graded by a grading service such as Beckett Grading Services or Professional Sports Authenticator . These cards, graded or ungraded, if authentic, can carry significant value. For example, the above Charizard card could be worth upwards of $5000 or more to a collector in perfect condition.

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Pokmon Super Secret Battle No 1 Trainer

Another promo card, this Super Secret Battle trainer card was only given to an estimated seven players in 1999 during a country-wide tournament in Japan. The finals of the tournament were a secret. Players could only find out about the location after winning one of these cards in one of seven regional tournaments. This particular version of the card is rated a GEM MINT 10 by the PSA, adding to its value. Part of what makes the card desirable is the strange art, where you can spot not only a galactic Mewtwo, but also the Pokémon Trading Card logo on the front. Not a very common design!

Shiny Secret Rare Charizard V: $500

If you want to get into Pokemon pack opening, but dont want to shell out for the older packs, there are tons of new cards with similar record-setting prices that have come out in just the past two years. One of the recent premium TCG sets in the game was Champions Path, and certain cards in it were especially rare since you could only get packs through special products like Elite Trainer Boxes and Pin Collector packs.


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The absolute highest value cards in this set are both Charizards, one being a rainbow foil V-Max card and the other being a shiny Charizard V with black scales. Both quickly reached prices around $500, and sites like TCGPlayer still remain at the same $500 price tag.

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Pokmon Base Set 1st Edition Shadowless Holo Hitmonchan #7

Back to the 1999 base set, where were looking at one of the greatest fighting Pokémon ever.

A homage to the quick fists of Jackie Chan, this humanoid monster sports a pair of boxing gloves, and even throws a jab as a basic attack.


The rarest card weve seen so far, there are just 56 gem mint copies at the current time of writing.

This has translated to sky-high prices, even when compared to many of the other holos seen above.

In any case, its definitely deserving of a place on the list.

Why Are Pokmon Card Prices Rising

Make The Trickshot, Win Rare Pokemon Cards!

About two weeks ago, 34-year-old Oregon resident Kalvin Foley wanted to buy a rare Pokémon card on eBay. It was a rainbow Vmax card featuring Charizard, one of the most popular Pokémon. He was attempting to win it at the end of an auction, one of the most adrenaline-inducing parts of bidding. The card, which started off at $100, began to steadily increase. It jumped to $250. Then $300. Then $375.

Im just watching it throughout the day, Foley recounted. When the 1-minute countdown began, he entered in his max bid of $425. And as soon as I did that, I think everybody else did, because it went from $375 all the way up to, like $550, he said.


Now, he thought, hed never be able to get the card. Foley said that only a year ago, it might have been worth around $250-$300 roughly half the price.

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Find The Year Your Pokemon Card Was Made

Look at the bottom of the card and find the year it was printed. Thats the first key indicator when identifying your card.

For example, the Base Set Pokémon Cards have 4 different print runs while looking almost identical each time. Of those sets, the UK 4th Print Base Set identifies as 1999-2000, which is the key indicator to separate those cards from the rest.

The 10 Most Valuable Expensive Pokmon Cards

Pokémon cards popularity shows no signs of slowing, with collectors prepared to spend thousands on unopened boxes and the rarest of cards.


Interest in Pokémon and the card game, described by Nintendo as one of the most popular childrens entertainment properties in the world, has only increased in recent years, with multiple card sales at auction hitting new highs in recent years.

But which are the most expensive Pokémon cards of them all?

We asked PWCC, a major marketplace for card trading, to round up those that have been sold for the most money, all between 2020 and 2021.

Take a look

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Ex Deoxys Gold Star Rayquaza

Sold in December, 2020 for $45,100

Among the most powerful of any Pokémon, Rayquaza is a large, serpentine creature that gained a considerable boost in notoriety after serving as the box art mascot for the Pokémon Emerald video game.

EX Deoxys was the 24th set in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and its symbol is that of a shooting star.

The set consisted of 108 cards, three of which come with a gold star variant, including the Rayquaza Holo.


You’ll notice that next to the “Rayquaza” name in the upper-left, there is a foil gold star that sets it apart as the gold star variant.

You Can Get To Know The Market Quickly

Top 10 Rarest and Most Expensive Pokemon Cards Of All Time

Investing in Pokémon cards doesn’t involve a lot of in-depth research or specialist knowledge. Unlike stock market, real estate or bonds investments, Pokémon card trading is straight-forward and relatively simple.

All of the information you need to start investing in Pokémon cards is freely available online, so it only takes a small amount of research to understand what to look out for.

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Shining Charizard First Edition

Earlier, we discussed the introduction of shiny Pokemon and how it simply made Charizard cooler. In the 2002 NEO Destiny First Edition set, there was a card titled Shining Charizard that captured the black-scaled iconic Pokemon in all of its elegance and stoicism.


A PSA 10 graded version of the card has sold at its highest for around $22,000. The NEO Destiny set was the last one that the card manufacturer, Wizards of the Coast, used the logo for on any of their Pokemon products an interesting legacy for an equally interesting trading card.

Rarity: Is Your Collection All That Special

In terms of rarity, base-set cards are where the money is for most collectors, and these cards are the most traded ones in the hobby. Set cards are any card you can pull from a pack bought from the store, says Pratte. The base set comprises the original 102 cards printed in 1999 and includes classic Pokemon like Pikachu, Blastoise, Charizard and Venusaur.

A complete first-edition base set in mint condition sold for $100,000 in December 2017. If you have a base-set card in your card collection, there are a few visual indicators of its worth.

  • Holographic cards: These are the most discernable at first glance. The background of the Pokemon illustration is shiny and reflective not the whole card, only the picture of the monster. Theyre typically referred to as holo cards, and only 16 of the original 102 are holo.

  • First-edition cards: Directly next to the left corner of the illustration appears the edition 1 logo. These rare cards were bought up shortly after initial release and remain some of the most sought-after and valuable cards.

  • Shadowless cards: This version is almost identical to the first-edition prints but excludes the first-edition logo. If you dont have a newer card for comparison, this is particularly hard to notice: the illustration box appears 2D. On newer cards, the picture box has a shadow along the right border to give it a 3D appearance.

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    Rayquaza Gold Star Holo Ex Deoxys

    • Release Date: 2005
    • Grading: PSA Gem Mint 10
    • Pokemon card value at auction: $45,100

    An early favorite of Ruby & Sapphire, Rayquaza has seen an uptick in popularity over the last decade. So it makes sense then that its cards would also start to climb up in value over time. In 2005, The Pokemon Company released the Ex Deoxys TCG expansion featuring the Flying / Dragon-type.

    As a gimmick to get Pokemon card collectors interested in the set, the Japanese company introduced Gold Star Pokemon cards into the hobby. As mentioned earlier, the incredibly rare Pokemon cards featured a special symbol next to the name of the mon. Of course, the king of these marked collectibles is the Hoenn Legendary itself.

    In December 2020, a perfectly graded Gold Star Rayquaza sold at auction for $45,100. Given the Legendarys continued popularity in the franchise, and just how little of the gold Pokemon cards were actually produced, we expect this item to increase in value as time goes on.

    Are Pokemon Cards A Good Investment

    How to Tell if Your Pokémon Cards Are Rare or Expensive!

    The market for alternative investments has been a really exciting field in recent years as investors are actively searching for high returns outside the boring old stock market. Similar to sneakers and domain names, Pokemon cards can be considered a form of investment. Many of these cards are being sold for thousands of dollars at various auctions every day. For example, the First Edition Holographic Charizard -thats the name of the Pokemon card in case youre not familiar- was sold in 2017 for over $50 thousand. So why would anyone pay this much for a card that doesnt really do anything more than a card you could probably buy for a dollar? And are Pokemon cards considered a good investment?

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    System For Ranking Pokmon Trading Cards

    The Pokémon trading cards quickly became coveted collectors items, especially for diehard fans. The cards are marked with one of three symbols in the bottom-right corner:

    • Common cards have a black circle
    • Uncommon cards have a black diamond
    • Rare cards have a black star

    But the ranking system doesnt stop there. There are also unique card designs.

    Backless Blastoise 1998 Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Holo 009/165r Cgc 85

    https://media.techeblog.com/

    The Backless Blastoise may appear to look a lot like the Blastoise from the original Base Set, and that is because it is a Wizards of the Coast prototype from when they were tasked with producing the first-ever English language Pokémon set. This card was printed in 1998, one year before the Base Set hit the United States, and was printed without any artwork or logo on the back of the card, hence the name, Backless Blastoise. The card was never meant for the public, but no one could predict in 1998 that Pokémon would take off in the way that it has. In January 2021 this rare Pokémon card sold for $360,000 making it the third most expensive Pokémon card ever.

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    How Do You Know If You Have A Rare Pokmon Card

    The info in the corner of the card can only tell you what the creators of the game knew when they put the card to print, but the hobby of collecting gives objects lives and stories far beyond anything their creators may have intended. Just like with finding the value of baseball cards, age is one of the most significant factors in determining Pokémon card rarity: simply by the nature of cards deteriorating or being lost over time, older cards tend to be rarer.

    While people of all ages collect Pokémon cards now, most of the oldest cards were once owned by young kids who didnt put much thought into keeping them in pristine physical condition. Bent corners, scuff marks, and other signs of wear are very common old cards that are still in great physical condition are much rarer than their worn-and-torn counterparts. Check out our guide to finding out how much Pokémon cards are worthfor more in-depth info on Pokémon card condition grading.

    The age of a card, a casual assessment of its condition, and the aforementioned official rarity designations will give you a general idea of how rare a particular card may be. From there, you can punch its name into the PSA Price Guide, find its entry, then click over to the Population tab to find out how many officially graded copies of that card are in circulation. Looking for eBay listings will give you a look at the broader market since you cant count on every last card being formally graded.

    How To Cash In On Your Pokemon Cards

    Most Expensive Pokemon Card

    Now that youve gone through your cards and identified which may have value, its time to see how much theyre actually worth and put them up for sale.

    As you might expect, one of the easiest ways to check the value of a card is to look it up on an auction site like eBay. Make sure to look at completed listings to see how much the card actually sold for.

    Other useful sites are ones like TCGPlayer and TrollAndToad, which act as digital storefronts for game shops and individuals selling cards. Once you look up a card, you can check the Market Price for an idea of how much its currently worth. Like eBay, these sites allow you to sell your cards for a fee.

    A snapshot of Charizard cards on TCGPlayer.

    Once you know how much your cards are worth, you can either make a listing on one of these sites to sell them, or you could visit a card shop or flea market to haggle in person, whatever it takes to get the very best price for your Pokemon cards.

    Joshua is a Senior Editor and Producer of Features at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Star Wars are frequently used words in your vocabulary, youll want to follow him on and IGN.

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    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 itâs 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 Â¥2,000,000, which currently is equal to around $18,000 USD.

    How To Get A Pokemon Card Appraisal

    If you would like a Pokemon card appraisal to determine the true valuation of your Pokemon cards, feel free to get in touch with us by email enquiriesthecardbazaar.com.au or by our contact form.

    Please provide more details about the Pokemon cards you would like to appraise, what country you are located, and any questions you might have about selling your Pokemon cards.

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