Price Trends: Pokémon Cards Climbing in Price - 12/17/2024

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 November 16 and December 15, 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 M Gallade EX (100 Full Art)

• Set: Roaring Skies
• Increase: +$11.14
• Current Market Price: $27.43

The two themes this month are that 1) Cyber Weekend drove sales, and 2) it doesn’t take many sales to make a card spike if it’s old, obscure, or popular.

Roaring Skies released almost a full decade ago, and while the CG-illustrated Full Art cards of the XY Series aren’t as beloved with collectors as the more detailed and stylistically diverse alternate-art cards of the past five years, the buyers who do feel a connection to them often have trouble finding them in Near Mint quality. The Pokémon Company wasn’t printing as many cards in 2015 as they do today, and the march of time has whittled down the number of M Gallade-EX copies in pristine condition. At time of writing, there are only three Near Mint copies of this card on TCGplayer, all of them $30. It only took a few sales to wipe out all the listings below that threshold.

#4 Marill - 204/193

• Set: Paldea Evolved
• Increase: +$11.67
• Current Market Price: $25.79

Speaking of beloved modern alternate-art cards, Illustration Rare Marrill has grown at an impressive clip through what appear to be organic sales. This follows a general trend we’ve seen with (non-Special) Illustration Rares: while they tend to start low in price when their set first releases, they often rise once the set has aged a year or two, sometimes even eclipsing higher-rarity cards. Their unique art seems to help them hold value better over time than mid-rarity cards from earlier Series, especially if they feature highly nostalgic Pokémon that haven’t gotten the full-art treatment before. That’s how Marill has ascended to become the 5th most valuable card in Paldea Evolved, ahead of cards like Special Illustration Rare Skeledirge ex and Meowscarada ex.

#3  Iron Valiant ex - 249/182

• Set: Paradox Rift
• Increase: +$13.11
• Current Market Price: $32.60

Iron Valiant ex spiked over Cyber Weekend for the same reason as the other Special Illustration Rares from Paradox Rift: it reached its once-year anniversary just in time for the biggest weekend of the year. I can’t say with confidence why Iron Valiant grew more than cards like Garchomp ex or Altaria ex, but there might be some significance to the fact that M Gallade-EX spiked this month too?

#2 Underground Expedition

• Set: Skyridge
• Increase: +$13.90
• Current Market Price: $28.45

As you’d expect for a card over two decades old, there aren’t many Near Mint copies left of the original printing of Underground Expedition. Cyber Weekend prompted buyers to pick up a few more copies of this slow-selling former competitive card than they do most weekends, which was enough to cause its price to nearly double. 

#1 Double Colorless Energy - 90/108 (North America Championships)

• Set: League & Championship Cards
• Increase: +$15.26
• Current Market Price: $35.16

Distributed to players at the 2017 North American Championships, this version of Double Colorless Energy is old and obscure like Underground Expedition, so it didn’t take many sales over Cyber Weekend to clean out all of its listings on TCGplayer.

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

#5 Gengar VMAX (Alternate Art Secret)

• Set: Fusion Strike
• Increase: +$85.88
• Current Market Price: $470.46

Back for a second month of growth, Alternate Art Gengar VMAX has surpassed its previous all-time Market Price high of $400, which it reached briefly back in May. Cyber Weekend is once again to blame: sales of this card on November 29th surpassed anything we’ve seen for it since it was bought out on May 2. The wave of sales over the past two months looks organic by contrast, and has pushed Alternate Art Gengar VMAX ahead of Alternate Art Giratina V, making it now the third-most expensive card of the Sword & Shield Series.

#4 Gengar & Mimikyu GX (Alternate Full Art)

• Set: Team Up
• Increase: +$119.24
• Current Market Price: $450.54

Speaking of Gengar, we have another card featuring the second-most popular Pokémon in the franchise (and a third one coming later). The rarest Gengar card of the Sun & Moon Series didn’t see particularly high sales on Cyber Weekend, but the buyers who did order the card were willing to stomach much higher prices than folks had paid just a month prior. They were getting store credit back after all, and there weren’t any less-expensive copies left. At time of writing, there are only six English Near Mint copies of this card left on TCGplayer, all of them $500 or more.

#3 M Charizard EX (X) (Secret)

• Set: Flashfire
• Increase: +$134.64
• Current Market Price: $488.26

Following the pattern of the rest of this list, it didn’t take many sales for the most expensive card of the XY Series to add another $100 to its price in November. Flashfire turned 10 years old in May, which helps explain why at time of writing, there’s only a single Near Mint copy of this card listed on TCGplayer.

#2 Gengar EX (114 Full Art)

• Set: Phantom Forces
• Increase: +$219.92
• Current Market Price: $386.10

Just like with Alternate Art Gengar & Mimikyu-GX, buyers on Cyber Weekend didn’t purchase Gengar-EX at a higher volume than other weekends—they just accepted higher prices, because that’s all that was available.

#1 Latias & Latios GX (Alternate Full Art)

• Set: Team Up
• Increase: +$263.94
• Current Market Price: $1,216.06

The top card of the Sun & Moon Series broke $1K for the first time over Cyber Weekend, once again helped along by the promise of store credit and the lack of lower-cost listings. At time of writing, there’s only one Near Mint copy of this card on TCGplayer, which is listed for $1,500.

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 December 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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