Valuing

What are my Pokémon cards worth?

How to find what a card actually sells for, why two copies of the same card differ in price, and the mistakes that cost people money.

Most people asking this have a shoebox, a vague memory that Charizard is valuable, and no idea where to start. Here is the honest answer.

A card does not have one price

The same card can be worth £2 or £2,000 depending on four things:

  • The exact printing. First edition, shadowless, unlimited, reverse holo and promo versions of "the same" card are different cards to a collector, and they are priced separately.
  • The condition. A Near Mint copy and a played copy of the same card routinely differ by 60–80%. Whitening on the back edges is the usual culprit.
  • Graded or raw. A slabbed PSA 10 can be worth many times the raw card. A PSA 6 is often worth less than a clean raw copy.
  • The market you sell in. UK, EU and US markets price the same card differently, and that gap is real rather than a currency conversion.

How to look one up properly

  1. 1.Find the set symbol and the card number (bottom of the card, like 4/102). The name alone is not enough — there are dozens of Charizards.
  2. 2.Search that exact set and number, not the name.
  3. 3.Look at sold prices, never asking prices. Anyone can list a card for £5,000; that tells you nothing.
  4. 4.Check the condition of the copies that actually sold, and compare honestly against yours.

Where the numbers on this site come from

Every card page here shows a market estimate aggregated from established price sources, refreshed on a schedule, with the sources and their limits written down on the price data page. Cards we cannot match confidently show no price at all rather than a guess.

To value a whole collection rather than one card, add your cards and the total is kept up to date for you as prices move — that is free, and so is browsing every set list without an account.

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