Price Trends: Pokémon Cards Climbing in Price - 9/25/2024
By 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 past 30 days.
(Note: This report only considers Near Mint copies of cards with at least five sales between August 24 and September 22, 2024.)
Here are ten highlights from that report. First, we have the five cards that gained the most value in the past 30 days after starting with a Market Price of $20 or less.
Top 5 Price Increases—PKMN Cards $20 or Less
#5 Warp Point
- Set: Expedition
- Printing: Reverse Holofoil
- Increase: +$5.65
- Current Market Price: $7.99
You don’t need to read much into this price shift, which only applies to Near Mint Reverse Holofoil printings of this Trainer card from 2002. On September 15, a single copy matching those specifications sold for $7.99, which was $5.65 more than the last recorded sale for that printing—back in March. Neither price reflects the floor or the ceiling for this card, which has sold for between $0.99 and $11.49 in the past seven years. Unfortunately, we can’t narrow down the “true” value of this card any further, given how rare and little-in-demand it is.
- Set: Paradox Rift
- Printing: Reverse Holofoil
- Increase: +$7.01
- Current Market Price: $13.67
Like Warp Point, this price shift only applies to the Reverse Holofoil printings of this card. It also warrants your skepticism, though not because of a lack of data.
The nonfoil printing of Earthen Vessel has been trending upward since March, driven by what looks to be organic demand, as the new Trainer card has become a staple in a huge swath of competitive decks. But recent sales of the Reverse Holofoil printing have had prices all over the place. You can see by checking the Sales History Snapshot (by clicking “View More Data” on the product details page) that on September 22, 16 of the 20 copies sold went for between $5.65 and $6.99, but four were priced way higher at $19.99. Given the number of sub-$10 listings for this card still available, I’m inclined to believe that the “real” value of this card is still below $10.
#3 Mimikyu - 075 (Pokemon Center Exclusive)
- Set: Scarlet & Violet Promo Cards
- Increase: +$8.34
- Current Market Price: $14.88
The Market Price of this promo card (which was only available in the Pokémon Center-exclusive version of the Paldean Fates Elite Trainer Box) spiked hard on September 11 when a single copy sold for $120, more than 12x its Market Price at the time. While that one sale might have been an anomaly, the market has accepted the price increase on this relatively rare promo that also happens to feature a popular Pokémon and be quite playable.
- Set: Shrouded Fable
- Increase: +$8.36
- Current Market Price: $23.79
Released in August, Shrouded Fable mostly flopped as a “special” Pokémon set due to its small set size, unexciting theme, and proximity to Stellar Crown. Low interest meant fewer packs were opened, which kept the supply of singles low, and forced the market to make major corrections according to which cards the set’s few fans actually wanted to buy as singles.
While most of the set’s chase cards like Special Illustration Rare Cassiopeia and Fezandipiti lost value during that correction, a small handful of cards won out. One of them was this Hyper Rare version of Pecharunt ex, which is extra hard to pull because of the high number of Hyper Rares in Shrouded Fable. It also helps that the 2nd place deck at the Pokémon World Championships on August 16 ran two copies of Pecharunt ex.
- Set: Shrouded Fable
- Increase: +$10.42
- Current Market Price: $20.71
Like Hyper Rare Pecharunt ex, this Hyper Rare Metal Energy managed to beat the odds and grow in value as the rest of Shrouded Fable fell. Since nearly every Pokémon deck runs basic Energy cards, there’s a decently high floor for the demand from collector-players for high-rarity Energy cards that match the other high-rarity cards in Standard, even when all the other cards in a set are lackluster This explains why Hyper Rare Darkness Energy was one of the few other Shrouded Fable cards that managed to gain value after the set released.
Next, these are the five cards that gained the most value in the past 30 days after starting with a Market Price over $20.
Top 5 Price Increases—PKMN Cards Over $20
- Set: Unified Minds
- Increase: +$20.34
- Current Market Price: $171.30
Rainbow Mewtwo & Mew-GX has peaked twice since it first released in 2019: once in March 2021, around the height of the pandemic collectibles boom, and once in September 2023 after Scarlet & Violet—151 brought another wave of new collectors to the hobby. It has spent most of 2024 creeping upward from its new floor of $140, but it has grown a little faster in the past month from just a handful of purchases, all of which look organic. There just aren’t many copies of the Sun & Moon chase cards, which were printed before the pandemic, so each wave of renewed interest in this era pushes the cards to ever-greater heights.
#4 Latias & Latios-GX (Alternate Full Art)
- Set: Team Up
- Increase: +$26.90
- Current Market Price: $871.83
Like Mewtwo & Mew-GX, Latias & Latios-GX is entering its third wave of price growth, after previously peaking in 2021 and 2023. This is already the most expensive card of the Sun & Moon Series, so it doesn’t have as much room to grow relative to its previous price.
#3 Charizard
- Set: Base Set
- Increase: +$35.26
- Current Market Price: $390.62
Next we have the original chase card, Base Set Charizard. This latest price shift doesn’t appear to belong to any larger pattern, it’s just the natural fluctuations of a valuable and iconic card that has been bouncing between $300 and $400 since March 2022. Charizard peaked at just under $600 in February 2021 during the collectibles boom, and has been unstable ever since.
- Set: Ultra Prism
- Increase: +$38.89
- Current Market Price: $455.56
Lillie is the third Sun & Moon card on this list that is entering its third wave of growth. The spike is quite recent, and the card hasn’t surpassed the height it reached during its last peak ($538.50) so there’s no telling where its new ceiling or floor will end up.
#1 Umbreon VMAX (Alternate Art Secret)
- Set: Evolving Skies
- Increase: +$45.39
- Current Market Price: $902.95
“Moonbreon” broke the $1,000 threshold briefly in May, quickly dropped back to $865, and has been fluctuating unsteadily ever since. A flurry of purchases around September 19th pushed the number of copies per buyer up to 2.7 and the Market Price to over $900 for the first time since that last big spike. Speculators were probably responsible, but it remains to be seen whether their gamble will pay off. Personally, I don’t love their odds, given the number of PSA 9 copies being listed for the same amount as the ungraded copies.
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 September 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.
Download the Pokémon Price Trends Report
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