Price Trends: Pokémon Cards Climbing in Price - 01/06/2026
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 ten sales between December 6, 2025 and January 4, 2026.)
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
#4 Garchomp
- Set: POP Series 9
- Increase: +$7.36
- Current Market Price: $24.48
This card’s almost old enough to vote, and in the last couple of months, all its listings under $20 simply dried up. We’re not seeing evidence of a buyout, and the rate of sales has stayed pretty low and steady. The ebb and flow of time have simply washed away the last of the Near Mint listings that aren’t priced at $75.
#4 Psyduck
- Set: Fossil
- Printing: 1st Edition
- Increase: +$10.11
- Current Market Price: $15.30
This card, the first ever Psyduck printed in English, tripled in price over about 10 days due to a series of buyouts on Nov 28, Nov 30, and Dec 7. Its price kept growing even after the sales spike ceased, as the low-cost listing never returned.
All this activity can be traced back to the story of a different card—the same story that inspired people to buy out…
#3 Cubone
- Set: Jungle
- Printing: Normal
- Increase: +$10.31
- Current Market Price: $16.07
Much like with Psyduck, Cubone saw a huge surge in purchases in late November and early December that drove its price to a new all-time high. Why? Blame Kabuto.
Since August, Twitter/X user Kabuto King has been diligently working to collect every single 1st Edition Kabuto card in the world. Around late November, all that work translated into a major price spike for this mostly-forgotten card—and when people started investigating its cause, Kabuto King and their quest went absolutely viral.
Kabuto’s spike proved that it was possible to affect the price of low-rarity 1st Edition cards with just a handful of buyers. As a result, copycats have been targeting every first 1st Edition of a Gen I Pokémon they can think of. If you own any 1st Edition cards from the original TCG Series, chances are they’ve gone up.
- Set: Mega Evolution Promo
- Increase: +$14.98
- Current Market Price: $23.65
This Ceruledge is one of four “Mega Evolution”-stamped promo cards available in Mega Evolution Build & Battle Boxes. It’s also the most valuable of the four by a significant margin (at time of writing, its closest competition Toxtricity is only half its price.)
The demand for this card appears to be mostly organic, with the vast majority of buyers only picking up one copy each, so its standing might just reflect the popularity of Ceruledge among fans of the recent Pokémon games.
#1 Toxtricity (Prerelease) [Staff]
- Set: Mega Evolution Promo
- Increase: +$22.53
- Current Market Price: $39.83
The Mega Evolution Prerelease Toxtricity STAFF promo briefly fell to $12 in mid-November, making it the least expensive of the four STAFF promos from the set. That opportunity prompted a surge in purchases which pushed it back to the $30 range.
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: Triumphant
- Increase: +$38.07
- Current Market Price: $364.70
Many, many Gengar cards have been climbing in price all year as collectors have begun treating Big G like the top-tier Gen I Pokémon that it is. This Gengar is one of them, and while the total number of sales hasn’t been anything to write home about, each one has pushed this card’s price higher and higher. At time of writing, there aren’t any Near Mint copies available for under $599.99.
#4 M Gengar-EX
- Set: Phantom Forces
- Increase: +$38.60
- Current Market Price: $213.19
This Gengar’s also been riding an escalator for a while. Its most recent jump over the $200 threshold could also have to do with the fact that Pokémon Legends: Z-A and the upcoming set Ascended Heroes have brought Mega Gengar back to the top of fans’ minds.
#3 Entei
- Set: WotC Promo
- Increase: +$46.01
- Current Market Price: $66.44
A sizable number of sales in the $70-$90 range in early January bumped this card past the $50 mark for the first time. This could be another casualty of Kabuto’s success, since this promo (first released to theater-goers for Pokémon 3: The Movie) is technically the first Entei card printed in English. But new listings have been quick to undercut that Market Price, so it may correct down shortly.
#2 Magikarp & Wailord GX (Alternate Full Art)
- Set: Team Up
- Increase: +$94.27
- Current Market Price: $965.01
Like many of the alternate-art TAG TEAM cards from the late Sun & Moon era, Magikarp & Wailord have been trending up all year.
These cards have the same full-card alternate-art treatment that has made Illustration Rare and Special Illustration Rare cards so beloved in recent years, but they were printed well before The Pokémon Company International’s massively increased their printing capacity in the wake of the pandemic-era collectibles boom. That’s made them much harder to find, and much more valuable.
That said, most of the Near Mint listings for this card at time of writing undercut its supposed Market Price, so Magikarp might be plummeting back to the sea shortly.
#1 Gengar & Mimikyu GX (Alternate Full Art)
- Set: Team Up
- Increase: +$112.57
- Current Market Price: $1,188.65
Finally, Gengar & Mimikyu-GX has been able to ride both the Gengar wave and the TAG TEAM wave to great success.
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 January 2025 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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