Stocks, index funds, Bitcoin, NFTs… And pokemon cards! While most of the Game Freak and Nintendo pocket monster cards aren't terribly spectacular in value, there are some extremely hard-to-get cards that could save your life if you picked one up or just discovered it by accident. in the back of a closet during a move. In this post we will review the world of pokemon card speculation, explaining how this market originated, what a letter must have to be worth so much money and what are the most expensive cards we know of at the moment of this collectible.
What exactly is Pokémon TCG?
Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) or Pokémon Trading Card Game (JCC) is a card game owned by The Pokémon Company and developed by the Japanese publisher Media Factory. The game was released in Japan in 1996, along with video games, which, after the success in Japan, was also marketed in the United States and Europe.
The Pokémon trading card game has maintained its mechanics from the beginning, and from time to time they are created new expansions that coincide with the release of new generations of Pokémon, expanding the experience with new creatures.
Pokémon TCG recreates battles between two players. Each will have a 60 card deck created to your liking from booster packs or individual card purchases. Cards can be energy, Pokémon, special Pokémon, or trainers. In a shift system, players battle it out for up to 6 opponent's Pokémon being defeated or until one of them has no reserve Pokémon on their bench. exist different game modes, five of them accepted by the official tournaments organized by The Pokémon Company.
What must a Pokémon card have to be worth thousands of dollars?
Although it is not very common, there are lucky people who have been able to buy a car, pay the down payment on a flat or even pay for their studies with their old pokemon cards. However, pocket monsters are no exception. This phenomenon has occurred and continues to occur with games like Magic: The Gathering.
Rarity
As in any card game, there are very limited stocks of some very specific units. Those that every collector expects to find when he opens a new envelope. The rarer a card is, the higher its market value will be after a few years. Rarity is an attribute that is marked on the card itself. However, there are more reasons why a particular card can see its price skyrocket.
Shortage
Many collectors quickly buy up any rare card that comes on the market simply to remove it from circulation. In this way, more cards are concentrated in fewer hands, giving them more control over the prices. Buyers who carry out these practices are often called 'scalpers'. However, this speculative technique is not exclusive to the Pokémon TCG.
State of conservation
If you enjoyed Pokémon TCG in your childhood, we have some bad news for you. A used letter is worth much less money than one that has spent its entire life laminated in a drawer. In order to get the most money out of a Pokémon card, it needs to be in impeccable condition. For this reason, those who are dedicated to this usually protect the cards in sleeves as they come out of the envelope.
A card with marked edges, folds or signs of use is worth much less than an equivalent version in perfect condition.
other attributes
Language of the letter, printing quality of a unit compared to the rest, editions with flaws... there are many reasons why a specific letter (no longer a model, but a specific unit), can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
There are specialized companies that are dedicated to appraise playing cards —not only Pokémon— based on these attributes and give them a score from 0 to 10, influencing their subsequent purchase or auction price. This is what PSA and Heritage Auctions do, among many other companies that we will mention later.
The most expensive and rare Pokémon cards that exist
These are the most expensive Pokémon cards currently in existence.
Umbreon and Espeon Gold Star
Letters Gold Star of Pokémon usually have a fairly high value due to their rarity. They receive this name because a gold star appears on the cards next to the Pokémon's name, right at the top of the card. And, in addition, they offer a different illustration than the standard one. In this case, the images correspond to variocolor Pokémon, the shiny lifelong.
There are only 27 different Gold Star cards, and they were published between 2004 and 2007. According to statistics, you had to open an average of 88 envelopes so you could get one. Within those Gold Star cards, the rarest of all were the eeveelutions, that is, the evolutions of our beloved and unstable (genetically) Eevee. The reason is that they did not come out in envelopes, but were reserved for the Pokemon Players Club of Japan. Club members could spend their points in the official store to get hold of these unique cards.
Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon were relatively affordable for these players, but Espeon and Umbreon required 40.000 and 70.000 points respectively, meaning very few were able to get their hands on this unit. Espeon's most expensive card with a PSA 10 rating sold in 2021 for $22.000. A year earlier, an Umbreon card sold for $20.000, but experts believe the sale was well below its market price. According to PSA, both letters should be worth around $200.000. It will be a matter of time before a collector gets hold of one of these —or both— and let's see what price they are willing to pay for these two unique units in Japanese.
The very rare Venusaur without rarity
Some of the most expensive cards in the Pokémon TCG are from the first edition, because they are the most prone to print errors. As we have said before, some Pokémon cards are rare due to their defects. And this one in particular is unique because during its design, they forgot to print the seal that evaluates the card rarity.
Not having rarity, cards without this attribute are some of the rarest that exist —although it may seem like an oxymoron—, because apparently, it only affected one very limited run of the Bulbasaur edition. They are only known 5 units of this series. Regarding prices, there was a sale in November 2021 for $55.000.
Tropical Mega Battle – Promo Card
Another factor that exponentially multiplies the price of a Pokémon card is how you obtain it. This one in particular was delivered during the Tropical Mega Battle tournament, held in Hawaii on 1999. The card itself is very basic, but there were only 12 units. The PSA rater estimates that the price of one of these letters in good condition can be around $150.000. The same agency auctioned one in 2020 that was closed for $65.000.
Super Secret Battle No. 1 Trainer
It is unlikely that you have ever heard of this card, and it is even more unlikely that you have seen a unit of these in person. When it comes to rare Pokemon cards, few cards are rarer than this.
In the same year 1999, at the height of its pokemaniac boom, 7 letters at the Japan national tournament, one for each winner in each region. The card itself, with the figure of Mewtwo, has an inscription that recognizes its owner as the champion. A single exchange is known in July 2020 for $90.000.
The text of the letter translates as: “Here the champion of the Official Tournament of the Pokémon Card Game is recognized, and this honor is praised. By presenting this card, you can get priority entry into the Secret Super Battle.”
Pokémon World Championships Promo No. 2 Trainer
And we continue with the event cards. On this occasion, it is one of the most difficult to find that exists. HE they delivered only 3 s ethe world tournament of Pokémon held in California in 2006. At the beginning of 2021, one of them was located, auctioned by PWCC for a whopping $100.000.
Neo Genesis Lugia Holo First Edition
According to PWCC, this card is rare due to the number of errata it contains. In the rest of the runs, the errors were fixed. Only 3 units they have the maximum score from the qualifiers. Two sales are known for 50.000 and $144.000 in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Kangaskhan-Holo from Japan Family Tournament 1998
This letter showed Kangaskhan because it was delivered in a tournament only involving parents and children in Japan, back in the year 1998. The unit in best condition that has been sold has reached the $150.000, five times the price of another unit with a rating of 7 out of 10.
The signed letter of the president
Not all valuable Pokémon cards are from the 90s. This one is very recent, and was made for the Tsunekazu Ishihara's 60th birthday, the president of The Pokémon Company in 2017, and was given only to Insider very select. The function of the letter is somewhat peculiar, because it can make you win the game. However, one of them is signed by Ishihara himself, and sold for a quarter million dollars in April of 2021.
The real crazy Blastoise
On one side, you have Blastoise, and on the other, nothing at all. Only two cards were affected by this bug. Some child sure that, seeing the letter, would have been angry to see such rubbish printing. However, in January 2021 one of the two was sold for $360.000.
These types of cards with printing errors are very valuable because they are conspicuous by their absence on the market. The printing process of this product is so monitored that failures only occur very occasionally. In this case, this Blastoise card has such an exaggerated failure that collectors want to get hold of them.
First Edition Charizard Holo
The first generation Charizard's holographic cards are very valuable, but this particular unit has a small tare in shading that makes it unique. The most expensive sale by far was completed by $325.000. However, a 9/10 unit sold for 10 times less money.
The state of a card can significantly affect its price. There are some cards that are known to be at least a dozen in circulation. The price differences between the units that are in perfect state and others that are somewhat less cared for are very remarkable. The explanation is that if there is a choice, speculation will always go to the round product.
Pikachu illustrator
This letter was delivered to Pokémon drawing tournaments in Japan, where participants were asked to create their own Pokémon cards. The winners received their printed creation, as well as a card unique and exclusive created by Atsuko Nishida, the designer behind the original pikachu design. They existed apparently 40 units. In February 2021, one of them was exchanged for $375.000. A year later, in February 2022, a different unit was sold for $900.000.
However, the true record for Pikachu Illustrator is held by youtuber Logan Paul, which in April 2022 was made with one of these unique letters for the sum of 5.275.000 dollars, multiplying the price of the previous transaction by more than five times and even winning a Guinness Record. The exchange was not made entirely in cash. Paul chipped in $4 million and his previous card Pikachu Illustrator PSA 9, valued at $1.27 million.
The 25th Anniversary Unique Cards
When the Pokémon franchise turned 25 years, The Pokémon Company commissioned three video clips from three artists we all know: Katy Perry, Post Malone and J Balvin. Everything could have ended in that, in a nice music video with Pokémon animations, but the company wanted to reward the three artists shortly after, with a unique letter.
As they published, only one unit of each letter was manufactured, which was given to each of the artists. Much has been said about the value of these three cards, and the truth is that determining their price is very complex.
In order to put a price on these cards, one of these artists would have to put their card up for sale. And most likely they won't, since it was a gift and they don't need the money, as far as we know. Also, Post Malone is a big fan of Pokémon cards, so he won't ever get rid of her. The conclusion we reached is that we are dealing with three very valuable cards (also due to their playability, which is very high), although their price, today, is incalculable.
Is it going to poke the Pokémon TCG bubble?
As we usually say in these cases, you should not invest money in these types of collectibles if you are not willing to lose your money. And, in relation to Pokémon TCG, there are experts who assure that the fever for these cards should be nearing its end. Or, at least, the prices of these cards should start to slow down, since no increase is unlimited. And if not, tell any other asset that has been the result of speculation in recent years.
Why have Pokémon Cards increased in price so much in recent years?
If you've read everything we've written above, you'll have already gotten an idea that the most expensive cards in this popular game are from the 90s. However, modern cards experienced a crazy price increase starting in 2020, Due to the scarcity and lack of production.
With the economy completely at a standstill and with many people with savings not knowing what to spend their money on, many were the assets that received heavy investments during the pandemic. Collectibles, cryptocurrencies, the famous NFT fever… even the stock markets of the main countries of the world experienced a massive arrival of money. And that ends up increasing prices.
Taking advantage of the situation and the beginning of the end of the pandemic, at the end of 2021, The Pokémon Company increased the production of your collectible cards. For this reason, the current envelopes are not going to continue their price rise. Will the same happen with old cards? It all depends on how the second-hand market evolves. Cards that are unique will remain so. However, whether these exaggerated prices are maintained will depend on whether or not there are people willing to pay for such a product. It is still too early to tell if this will continue for a few years like this or if it will stop dead. For now, unique cards are still experiencing a lot of speculation.