Collectibles 101: What Are Pokemon Cards Worth?

As a big fan of the Pokemon franchise or the Pokemon Trading Card Game (PTCG), you may be wondering if your Pokemon cards could be worth thousands of dollars like it has been reported. Everyone who owns a set of Pokemon cards wants to know: What are Pokemon cards worth? If you want to know how much your Pokemon cards are worth, this article will help you.

What Are Pokemon Cards Worth?

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To appreciate the real value of Pokemon cards, you have to understand what they are and why they are so popular. Pokemon cards are collectible cards developed by Creatures Inc. as part of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. This card game is based on the popular Pokemon franchise, which was published by Media Factory in October 1996 in Japan.

It was later published in the United States by Wizards of the Coast. In 2003, Nintendo moved the publishing rights from Wizards of the Coast to the Pokemon Company. From its initial publication to this day, the PTCG has sold more than 43.2 billion cards globally.

This is a strategy-based card game played by two players on a selected play-mat where the players use Pokemon cards to compete with each other. The players put one Pokemon into play and use it as their Active Pokemon to battle it out with their opponents. When a Pokemon is significantly damaged by the opponent through attacks (that exceed its HP) is commonly referred to as “Knocked Out”.

Every Pokemon card shows one or many Pokemon from the Pokemon video games series. It specifies a name, an essential type, one or more assaults and/or abilities, and a specific amount of HP. There are different types of Pokemon card games, including Grass, Fire, Water, Lightning, Psychic, Fighting, Darkness, Metal, Dragon, Fairy, and Colorless.

With all these cards, it’s easy to get confused when you are trying to figure out which one is more valuable. If you have a bunch of Pokemon cards that you don’t know how much they are worth, here is a breakdown of the value of each Pokemon card.

Master’s Key

Although this card is more recent, it’s very rare. It’s awarded to players in a PTCG match. Currently, there are only 36 original copies of this card available in the whole world. This number is equal to the number of contestants in all age splits of the world tournaments.

Very few copies of the Mater’s key card are now available in the market. A copy of this card can fetch you over $21,000. This just shows how valuable this card is.

Espeon and Umbreon Gold Star Pop Series 5

This is a pair of Gold Star Pokemon cards. This is one of the most expensive Pokemon cards on the market today. Between the years 2004 and 2007, only 27 Gold Star Pokemon cards were released.

This means that only a handful of these cards are available in the market. That’s why it commands such a high value. A copy of this set is currently going for $22,000.

Although every Gold Star Pokemon card is rare, only seen once in every 88 booster packs for specific Pokemon TCG expansions, the rarest Gold Star cards are the Eeveelutions. These are the numerous evolutions into which basic Gen 1 Pokemon Eevee advance. The rarest of Eeveelutions is the original Japanese-language version of these cards given to the members of the Pokemon Players Club.

2002 Pokemon World Championships No.1 Trainer

This is an extremely valuable promo card that’s unique in many ways. It was customized with the name of the winner of the championship, making it very unique. Furthermore, the 2002 No.1 Pokemon card is very rare.

The card was awarded to winners of the regional tournament dubbed the Battle Road Spring, which was held in Japan in early 2002 as qualifiers for the World Championships. Only a limited number of these cards were generated for the tournament winners, making them very rare. Another reason why this card is so valuable is that every No.1 Trainer card was personalized with the name of the tournament winner.

Therefore, each card has the name of the tournament printed on it. So, if you have a copy of this card in its original display folder and the envelope it was shipped in, you can earn a significant amount of money with it. In 2021, this card was sold at an auction for more than $31,000.

2002 First-Edition Mysterious Mountains Crystal Charizard

This is an e-card series with barcodes down its sides that you can scan to verify its authenticity. Use a Game Boy Advance e-Reader to scan the barcodes. This card is part of the final extension of the Japanese e-Card Series and the unique Colorless Crystal Pokemon.

Therefore, it doesn’t have a specific energy type. The last card to 2002 First-Edition Mysterious Mountains Crystal Charizard was sold at PWCC in October 2022 for $48,800. The PSA site suggests that there are only 134 PSA 10s of this card in the market today.

This means that the card isn’t as rare as it was initially thought. However, it is still one of the most valuable Pokemon cards out here.

1996 Pokemon Japanese Base Set No Rarity Symbol Holo Venusaur

The 1996 Pokemon Japanese Base Set No Rarity Symbol Holo Venusaur Pokemon card became popular because of the signature of the legendary Pokemon illustrator, Mutsuhiro Arita.

Although most of the rarest Pokemon cards are identified by their stamps, rare Japanese Pokemon cards are usually identified by their lack of stamps. This is why this 1996 Pokemon Japanese Base Set No Rarity Symbol Holo Venusaur card is one of the rarest Pokemon cards.

The “No Rarity” tag means that the card lacks the common black star symbol at the bottom-right corner. The missing symbol is used to identify the card’s scarcity. This Holo Venusaur Pokemon card comes from the game’s first edition in 1996, which makes it one of the rarest cards.

A copy of this Pokemon card was sold in 2012 at an auction for $55,000, setting a new record for rare Pokemon cards. This card’s value was significantly boosted by Arita’s signature. Arita is a legendary artist who created most of the Pokemon cards that were released over 20 years ago.

1999 Pokemon Japanese 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo Contest Chansey

There are only 15 copies of the 1996 Pokemon Japanese Base Set No Rarity Symbol Holo Venusaur card. As a way of promoting the launch of Pokemon Snap on the Nintendo 64, the creators ran two tournaments where participants submitted their favorite snaps from the game. The contests were aimed at finding snaps that could be turned into official Pokemon cards.

One of the contests was sponsored by the Nintendo Japanese TV show 64 Mario Stadium, and it ran from 1993 to 2000. The five winners of this contest were each rewarded with 15 copies of their winning entries. These were the only copies of this Pokemon card that were ever produced.

This makes the card extremely rare. In December 2022, a copy of the 1996 Pokemon Japanese Base Set No Rarity Symbol Holo Venusaur card sold at an auction for $63,000. Aside from being a rare card, the other reason why this copy sold for much is the fact that it’s believed to be the only existing copy of this Pokemon card.

Black Star Ishihara Signed GX Promo Card

One of the reasons why this Black Star Ishihara Signed GX Promo Card is so valuable is that it features the Pokemon Company’s president. This card made headlines recently when it was sold for close to a quarter of a million at an auction. Its value comes from the fact that it depicts the founder of the Pokemon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara.

In 2017, this Pokemon card was handed to the company’s employees to mark Ishihara’s 60th birthday. This contributed to the rarity and value of the card. Ishihara signed this card to promote its value even further.

Pokémon Blastoise #009/165R Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Hologram

This is a two-of-a-kind Pokemon card that suddenly turned out to be one of the most expensive Pokemon cards of all time. There are only two copies of this card, making it one of the rarest Pokemon cards in existence. The card acquired sudden admiration in 2021 when it was auctioned for a massive $360,000.

Its value is also based on the fact that it was developed in 1998 by Magic: the Gathering maker Wizards of the Coast as an exhibition piece. They intended to persuade Nintendo of Japan executives to permit it to release the TCG in English.

1999 First Edition Shadowless Holographic Charizard #4

In March 2022, a copy of the 1999 First Edition Shadowless Holographic Charizard #4 card sold at an auction for a whopping $420,000. It’s known to be the rarest and most valuable Pokemon card.