Price Trends: Pokémon Cards Climbing in Price - 7/16/24
Peter Day
We want you to have the best information available when you price cards on the TCGplayer Marketplace. So to help you get the most from your inventory, we’ve put together a downloadable CSV report of Pokémon cards that have dramatically increased in Market Price in the second half of June 2024.
(Note: This report only considers Near Mint copies of cards with at least five sales between June 13 and July 11, 2024.)
Here are ten highlights from that report. First, we have the five cards that gained the most value in the second half of June 2024 after starting with a Market Price of $20 or less.
Top 5 Price Increases—PKMN Cards $20 or Less
#5 Umbreon V
- Set: Prize Pack Series Cards
- Increase: +$5.58
- Current Market Price: $19.15
This spike appears to be the delayed result of a buyout back in late February. At time of writing, there are only two copies of this card left on the Marketplace, both listed for over $90.
Organized Play cards from Prize Pack Series 1 have been much more vulnerable to speculation than cards from later Series. They’re older, they feature cards from the height of the pandemic-era Pokémon boom like Charizard V and the Pokémon V Eeveelutions, and fewer of them were opened because the player base was smaller in 2022 than it is today.
- Set: Twilight Masquerade
- Increase: +$5.65
- Current Market Price: $16.35
Chansey released in May was hit by a buyout in late June. We saw a similar buyout on a just-released card with Morty’s Conviction, which spiked to absurd heights in April and dropped back to its release weekend price over the following months. Chansey’s spike isn’t as extreme, and its current price isn’t as unreasonable, but it still remains to be seen whether the gains from this buyout will last.
#3 Pokégear 3.0 - 182a/214 (League Cup)
- Set: League & Championship Cards
- Increase: +$6.05
- Current Market Price: $21.45
Every version of Pokégear 3.0 has risen in price recently, as the card has caught on with competitive players seeking to play key Supporters like Professor Sada’s Vitality, Colress’s Experiment, and Arven as many times as possible each game. Yellow-A Pokégear 3.0 is an organized play promo from 2019, so it’s one of the rarer versions of the card and especially susceptible to this general price growth.
- Set: Paradox Rift
- Increase: +$8.41
- Current Market Price: $16.66
Many beautiful low-value Illustration Rares from the Scarlet & Violet Series like Magikarp, Groudon, and Raichu were all purchased in huge quantities during TCGplayer’s Mayhem promotion on May 17. Yveltal was another of these cards, but unlike the others, it didn’t spike in response to those purchases until much later. In mid-June, the number of low-cost listings on the marketplace finally dried up, and the card doubled in price to where it is today.
- Set: Prize Pack Series Cards
- Increase: +$9.44
- Current Market Price: $14.96
Every version of Regidrago VSTAR spiked after a rogue Regidrago deck managed to place 14th at NAIC 2024 (the largest international Pokémon tournament ever held) in early June. This organized play prize version spiked a little later than the others, after the earlier spikes temporarily made this the cheapest printing of Regidrago VSTAR available.
Next, these are the five cards that gained the most value in the second half of June 2024 after starting with a Market Price over $20.
Top 5 Price Increases—PKMN Cards Over $20
#5 Charizard-GX
- Set: Hidden Fates: Shiny Vault
- Increase: +$20.83
- Current Market Price: $456.53
This Charizard-GX has been trending up slowly but surely since January. It’s the ultimate chase card of Hidden Fates, one of the most popular sets of the Sun & Moon Series, which has seen a general uptick in interest in the past year as collectors who joined the hobby with Scarlet & Violet—151 have begun exploring pre-pandemic Pokémon sets.
#4 Umbreon VMAX (Alternate Art Secret)
- Set: Evolving Skies
- Increase: +$24.02
- Current Market Price: $874.13
“Moonbreon” is still trying to find its equilibrium after some soft buyouts caused it to break the $1000 barrier in early May. Nobody knows for sure whether the most expensive card of the Sword & Shield Series is going to fall back down to earth—the final casualty of the pandemic-era Pokémon bubble—or whether it’s a true modern classic that will only be more beloved 10 years from now.
- Set: Twilight Masquerade
- Increase: +$30.45
- Current Market Price: $72.78
A big sales day on July 9th sent Illustration Rare Eevee’s price up like a rocket. The sales appear mostly organic, with an average of 2.0 copies per buyer, but the reason for the surge isn’t clear.
Twilight Masquerade just released in May, so there’s no shortage of product available. Many of the set’s singles have been setting massive prices, especially considering this is normally the time in a set’s lifecycle when prices begin to slump as the market floods with leftover singles and interest wanes. One explanation is that Twilight Masquerade’s relative unpopularity (compared to other Scarlet & Violet sets) has led to fewer packs being opened and fewer singles in circulation. If that’s the case, the market should start to correct itself as sellers and fans realize how much money there is to be made from cracking boxes.
#2 Latias & Latios-GX (Alternate Full Art)
- Set: Team Up
- Increase: +$52.89
- Current Market Price: $823.14
Like Charizard-GX, Latias & Latios-GX is one of the biggest chase cards from the Sun & Moon Series. It has trended up all year without any evidence of being bought out, surpassing the heights it reached the last time it spiked back in August 2023, and proving that its earlier spike wasn’t a fluke.
- Set: Twilight Masquerade
- Increase: +$126.07
- Current Market Price: $250.94
It’s hard to explain why so many fans are spending over $200 on a card that just released in May, especially a card featuring a later-generation Pokémon that sees no competitive play. But every time this card’s price has dropped, sales have risen to meet it, sending its price ever higher. Greninja ex is currently the most expensive card of the Scarlet & Violet Series, and only time will tell if we’re looking at a price bubble or the origin of another modern classic.
By selling these cards online, you can reach a broad audience of customers who are willing to pay what these cards are truly worth. Download the July 2024 Price Trends Report to review every Pokémon card that went up in value this month. Then list those cards on TCGplayer so your inventory can do more for your business.
Your feedback is important to us. Let us know how we can improve this report or provide more value to you.