Which Pokemon Cards Are Worth Money

Pokemon Ex Deoxys Gold Star Holo Latias

Sold in December, 2020 for $20,100

The eighth expansion of the EX Series, the EX Deoxys checklist contained 108 cards in total, with cards #105 , #106 , and #107 receiving the desirable gold star distinction.

Designed by Masakuza Fukuda, the artwork on the Latias card features eye-catching imagery of the dual-type Dragon/Psychic creature that belongs to a group of incredibly rare Pokemon known as Legendary Pokemon.

First Edition Holographic Gyarados

Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $1,800

This serpentine creature is an extremely temperamental and destructive Pokémon that relies on both its water and flying abilities to unleash its wrath.

Its tough scales are practically impenetrable while its sharp fangs are capable of crushing rocks.

Because it lives in both fresh and saltwater, it’s best to stay clear of water in general if you want to avoid Gyarados.

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.

Recommended Reading: How To Get Strength In Pokemon Diamond

Reasons Not To Invest In Pokemon Cards

Theres a potential upside to investing in Pokemon cards, but as with all unique investments, the cons deserve to be heard:

• Pokemania may end soon. As with any investment, hype, and influencer marketing drive up the price of investments. So, prices may quickly deflate.
• Appraisal is difficult and expensive.If you plan to invest in a card worth $5,000+ one day in the future, youll have to pay PSA $300 just to reappraise it and if the markets hot enough to sell it, theres a chance the company will become overwhelmed again and suspend services, jeopardizing your timing.
• Cards could get lost, stolen, or damaged.Pokemon cards only hold their value if they remain in 100% pristine condition. If a PSA 10 Charizard drops to PSA 9 while its in your possession, it loses 80% of its value.
• Demand for rare collectibles is extremely fickle. Sure, demand for rare Pokemon cards may be high right now, but it could easily disappear overnight as young investors and collectors turn to something else. The same thing happened with Beanie Babies, some of which sold for $10,000 in the late 90s and are worth less than $10 now.

Not All Cards Are Worth Something

Its worth noting that your average Pokémon collection wont make you rich. Most cards in recent sets arent worth more than $1, and even the rare ones often arent worth more than $10. However, there still is value in the older cards the ones that have been sitting around in self storage for years. Base set cards can be surprisingly valuable, and if youre lucky enough to have a first edition holographic card, you could be set up for a pretty penny.

If youre looking to maximize your return, use sites like pokemonprices.com or eBay to do research, checking each individual card of uncommon rarity or higher. Blindly selling your collection without doing the legwork on Pokémon card value could end up selling yourself short and giving a collector a great deal.

Read Also: How To Get The Pokeflute In Pokemon Fire Red

Pokemon First Edition Blastoise

Sold in November, 2020 for $45,100

One of the coolest-looking of all Pokémon with its twin water cannons that retract from the shell on its back, Blastoise received a massive boost in popularity after serving as the cover mascot of the Pokémon Blue video game.

1st Edition Blastoise cards feature a first edition stamp to the lower left of the holographic image and no shadowing effect behind its right and bottom borders.

Out of the 2,070 first edition Blatoise cards submitted to PSA as of this writing, 100 of them have been given the PSA 10 distinction or roughly 4.8% of them.

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 May Like: What Is Good Against Grass

First Edition Holographic Zapdos

Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $1,400

Together with Articuno and Moltres, this electric and flying creature is one of the three Legendary birds of Kanto.

Only seen during thunderstorms, Zapdos will create lighting bolts and loud cracking sounds as it flaps its wings when airborne alerting everyone in the area to its presence.

The yellow and black spiked feathers that surround its body make Zapdos look just like the blasts of electricity it creates.

Gold Star Pikachu Ex Holon Phantoms

As discussed, the Gold Star cards are highly rare and very valuable. The Pikachu has long been regarded as the poster child of the Pokemon brand, since its the one you see most often in promotions. That little guy just oozes cuteness and while there are a great deal of other Pokemon that are stronger, finding one of these cards is extremely rare. Valued at well over $500, this card is not vintage and it is not overly old either, but the Gold Star gives it its value. From the EX Holon Phantoms series, you may have one or two of them laying around without even knowing. So check your collection and look for the little gold star. You might just be sitting on a heap of cash without even realizing.

You May Like: Ultra Sun Soft Reset

What Basic Pokemon Cards Are Worth Money

Valuable Pokemon cards arent always the first edition ones. Every year Pokemon releases cards that are worth something. Normally these arent really basic but they are limited edition cards or cards in high demand.

There are several Pokemon cards that are worth money which include first edition, limited edition, holographic, or GX cards.

Pokemon cards that are given out at tournaments or events are valuable too since there are so few in existence. The main thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to Pokemon cards being valuable, if there is a limited supply that is less than the demand for them they will be more valuable.

So, if a lot of people are looking for and wanting a particular card, its value will shoot up.

Some of the most valuable Pokemon cards are:

• Pikachu Trophy Cards
• Inverted WB Stamp Error Cards
• Crystal Cards

For more rare and valuable Pokemon cards visit, DiceBreaker.

First Edition Holographic Raichu

Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $2,500

Raichu, the rodent-like evolved form of Pikachu, is an electric-type Pokémon that uses its tail to gather electricity from both the ground and atmosphere.

As it charges, the creature stores the electricity in those circular, yellow sacs on its cheeks and once fully charged, Raichu’s ears will point directly upwards.

Raichu also uses its pointed tail as a ground to prevent itself from being electrically shocked.

Read Also: What Is A Reproduction Pokemon Game

Pokemon Korean First Edition Charizard

Sold in March, 2021 for $40,000

Unlike some of the other first edition Pokemon cards distributed in different regions and languages in 1999, the Korean version did not debut until a year later in 2000.

Still, they can fetch colossal price tags on the open market just like the other first edition sets.

Not surprisingly, the Charizard is the most desirable of the Korean first edition series.

St Edition Shadowless Charizard

Controversial YouTuber Logan Paul made headlines in October 2020 when he spent $150,000 on a 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard card. Perhaps surprisingly though, this is not the most expensive copy of the card ever sold. It’s not even close, in fact. The current record holder comes courtesy of Goldin Auctions, who sold a copy of the card for just shy of $400,000 just a few months later, making Shadowless Base Set Charizard the most expensive Pokemon card ever sold by quite some margin.

According to the PSA website, there are just 54 GEM-MT 10 copies of the card in existence, which goes some way to explaining their value. Given that base set Charizard was produced in such high volumes, however, it’s entirely possible that there are hundreds more copies out there just waiting to be discovered if not thousands!

Read Also: How To Randomize Pokemon Omega Ruby

Rarest And Most Expensive Yu

• Tyler, the Great Warrior

Were only looking at the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, the version of the game released to Western audiences in 2002. This is different to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game, which was first released in 1999. Both games differ slightly, with certain unique rules and exclusive cards, among other things.

With one notable exception, weve also stuck to sold cards, rather than ongoing or unsold listings. As such, the stainless steel Black Luster Soldier, a prize card from Yu-Gi-Oh!s first tournament, listed in 2013 for 998 million yen and a 45 million yen Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon spotted for sale in 2018 are off the table, as rare and valuable as they may be.

While you can get common versions of these Yu-Gi-Oh! cards for under $5, its the particular sets they come in and the actual quality of the card that make them so valuable. The rarest and most expensive Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are graded by PSA, a professional company that has assessed their condition and placed a numerical value on their quality.

Pokmon Cards Bought 20 Years Ago For 70 Could Now Sell For 15000

“This box of cards could potentially earn enough money at auction to buy, say, a car, even though the condition is not absolutely perfect.”

• 07:55, 18 OCT 2021

A box of Pokémon cards bought more than 20 years ago for just £70 could sell for £15,000 at auction.

Card collector Geoff Brown, 64, says he was left gobsmacked when he found out the potential value of the cards he purchased at a memorabilia convention in the 90s.

The retired engineer has since kept the Pokémon Base Set Booster Box, Charizard , 1996-99 set in their original Wizards of the Coast cellophane.

The card game memorabilia is now set to go under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers, in Etwall, Derbys., on Tuesday with an estimate of £10,00-£15,000

Geoff, of Peterborough, said: I purchased this item when it was on general release in the late 1990s.

I am an avid trading card collector but not of Pokémon.

My son and daughter were Pokémon collectors and I purchased three boxes at a memorabilia convention at Birminghams NEC.

One box went to my son, one to my daughter and I put the other box into storage with my trading cards. I paid about £70 per box.

I never imagined it would ever be quite so valuable but I always knew it was worth keeping.

My children are now grown up but still own well-kept Pokémon collections, including a number of Japanese Pokémon I purchased while working in Japan.

I decided to sell it now because the current interest in Pokémon is high. Its a great opportunity.

Recommended Reading: How To Evolve Spritzee Sword And Shield

Understand Different Card Buying Strategies

With 1999-2000 Pokémon cards, the long term investing would be towards Mint raw cards and Near Mint graded cards. Graded cards have been on a blistering pace the last 12 months. Lower grades of the most expensive cards or PSA 8 and up for the rest of the 1999-2000 cards are great long-term investments.

Flippers will buy a card with the goal to make a profit on it ASAP. Education is what sets the flipper from the casual collector. They know the sales, population reports and what cards are coveted by monitoring the market. If a card takes off, flippers often look to capitalize. If you only know the main Pokémon characters and not much else about the cards, flipping is probably not for you. You have to study sets, know errors, sales, population reports and have a deep understanding of why cards/sets get hot. All of this is covered here.

Black Star Ishihara Gx Promo Card

Sold in April, 2021 for $247,230

As a gift to top-level employees, Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokémon Company, gave out an estimated thirty copies of this card during his 60th birthday party at the 2018 Pokémon World Championship.

As of this writing, only eight copies have ever been submitted to PSA for grading, making this one of the rarest Pokemon cards in existence.

Making this particular example even rarer is the fact that Ishihara personally signed it as well.

The artwork on the card is fantastic and the “60 Congratulations!” and GX attack of 1060 damage are nice touches to help commemorate his 60th birthday.

Ishihara has been instrumental, to say the least, in building the Pokémon brand by contributing to the development of multiple video games and even initiating the creation of the Pokémon Trading Card Game itself.

You May Like: When Does Pokemon Journeys Part 5 Come Out

Shonen Jump Championship Series Doomcaliber Knight #en006

Your bank balance is doomed

Sold for $15,300 in March 2021

Image: coretcgcollectibles/eBay

After seeing the rapid rise of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, Shonen Jump decided to create the Shonen Jump Championships. The SJCs were a series of North American tournaments held between 2004 and 2010 with prize cards being distributed to worthy winners across the region. A total of seven different card types were handed out at 75 different tournaments. As only two or three cards were handed out at most tournaments, these particular Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are very rare and very expensive.

Doomcaliber Knight #EN006 was the sixth such card to be handed out, with only 68 copies being given away between March 2008s Costa Mesa tournament and the Houston tournament in January 2009. Its one of the best monsters you can normal summon immediately from your hand – something you can only do for level 1 to 4 monsters – as it has a fierce 1900 attack and 1800 defence points.

Doomcaliber Knight also has a neat quick effect that negates the effect of and destroys one of your opponents monsters.

A PSA Near-Mint 7 2008 Shonen Jump Championship Series Doomcaliber Knight #EN006 fetched a substantial five-figure sum at auction in March 2021, selling for over $15,000. We can only imagine what higher grades of this highly valuable Yu-Gi-Oh! card would be worth.

Are Your Pokmon Cards Rare

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.

Don’t Miss: How To Reset Pokemon Black 2

Tropical Mega Battle Tropical Wind Promo

• Release Date: 1999
• Grading: PSA Gem Mint 10
• Pokemon card value at auction: $65,100

While not the most flashy Pokemon card on the list, the Tropical Mega Battle promo is an absolute holy grail for Psyduck fans. It doesnt get more adorable than seeing the Water-type mon playing the ukulele while chilling in a hammock with Jigglypuff.

Long before The Pokemon Company solidified the TCG competitive scene into the World Championships in 2004, one of Japans earlier iterations of the contest was known as the Tropical Mega Battle. In 1999, the tournament was held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Only 50 players from various countries around the world were invited to compete against one another. Because various Trophy Pokemon cards were given out at the event, the Tropical Wind iteration is incredibly unique. The collectible resurfaced in a PWCC auction in October 2020 and sold for a mouth-watering $65,100.

Espeon And Umbreon Gold Star Pop Series 5

A pair of Gold Star Pokémon cards from one of the most valuable Pokémon sets of all time

Sold for $22,000 in February 2021

Gold Star Pokémon cards are among the most valuable sets of Pokémon cards in existence and command an incredibly high value as a result. The cards are named after the gold star that appears next to the Pokémons name at the top of the card, which signifies that the card features alternative-colour artwork different from the common version. Only 27 Gold Star cards were released from 2004 to 2007, making them some of the rarest Pokémon cards available.

While all of the Gold Star Pokémon cards are rare, only appearing once in approximately every 88 booster packs for certain Pokémon TCG expansions, the very rarest are the Eeveelutions – the many evolutions into which basic Gen 1 Pokémon Eevee can evolve. And the rarest of the rarest are the original Japanese-language versions of the cards offered to members of the Pokémon Players Club, who could spend points earned by participating in official organised play and tournaments to obtain exclusive cards.

While Eeveelutions Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon could be acquired in the EX Power Keepers set released in 2007 via the Pokémon online store, their psychic and dark elemental siblings Espeon and Umbreon could only be picked up by players who collected enough Pokémon Players Club points. The Espeon 025/PLAY card required 40,000 EXP points earned, while Umbreon 026/PLAY was even most pricey at 70,000 points.

Don’t Miss: When Do You Get The Water Bike In Pokemon Sword