Pokemon Cards: Figuring out value?

[clovis97]

We went to a thrift store today, and my daughter bought the largest pile of Pokemon cards that I've ever seen for just $2.

Really. This pile of cards is huge!

We've managed to pull out a few valuable cards...a very short stack is easily worth $75 on ebay when sold individually.

What I am trying to figure out is which ones are worth looking up on ebay without having to research each and every card. One part of the lot is a small Pokeman card book with the clear plastic sleeves, which has in excess of 180 cards. I'd say that she has at least 800 cards, at minimum.

Is there any rhyme or reason to figuring out which ones may be valuable without having to look them all up? If so, is there anyone over the age of 12 that would begin to understand these cards, and how they are played?

Nonetheless, I am pretty excited for her. She is 12, and this is her first ebay 'pick'. When they sell, the profit from these cards is going to help her clinch a new iPad Mini. She's been saving for a new Mini since they were introduced.

I am a pretty proud dad, and this is a big step for her...but I am stilling scratching my head trying to figure out why one card is worth $25, while another card isn't worth the paper it is printed on.

 

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[desertmoons]

I feel your pain. I have about 250 magic cards I bought long ago when i played with the kids. It actually is a great game for kids, it develops thinking skills, but wow my nephew was a 13 year old cut throat. Anyway I don't use them and tired of looking at them but the thought of going through and looking them up is just too tedious. Perhaps you could find an easy to use website and let HER look them up..then alert you to check on the valuable ones.

Otherwise I suppose a card and comic shop could give them a quick look through..perhaps for a small fee. Just have him sort it into possibles and commons.

The other idea is look at sold listings, sort by highest price first and check the first 50 listed to see if you have them in your collection.

Good luck and good for her! She may have enough for a mini and a maxi lol.

 

[mjlalt]

Pokemon is fairly easy to learn and actually involves a lot of strategy. I learned it to play with my little brother back when pokemon first came out,
If your interested in playing get a Pokemon 2-Player Starter Set . It comes with everything you need to learn the game.

As far as value , well some of the First Editions Holographic Graded in high condition can fetch some good money . First Editions will be marked like so:


Also Rare Promos are probably worth some dough.

 

[giniro]

The other thing with pokemon cards and magic cards is rarity. On pokemon cards the rarity is denoted by a symbol in the bottom right corner, circle for common, diamond for uncommon, star for rare(for older cards holographics were always the highest level of rare, but then they started printing foil versions of all cards so that falls apart). In Magic on the right hand side between the picture and the text box there is a set symbol that will either be black(common), Silver/grey(uncommon), gold(rare) or red(mythic). As a general rule most cards of value will be rare or mythic rare and foils are worth more and worth looking up. This falls apart for older magic cards as the first several sets did not have any rarity indication and you kind of just have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the cards. Also some commons and uncommons are worth money as well but without being really into the game it's hard to know.

If you wanted to post some pictures I could point some good stuff out for you, or at least stuff I'd look up if I were you.

 

[indianajoe]

Well, with pokemon cards I know you should always look for a charizard (big red dragon with fire at the tip of its tail).

 

[clovis97]

Wow...thank you for the replies!!!!

One aspect of this, that I learned last night, is that at least ​some of the cards she has are counterfeit. I am disappointed for her!!!!!!

 

[Generic_Lad]

Wow...thank you for the replies!!!!

One aspect of this, that I learned last night, is that at least ​some of the cards she has are counterfeit. I am disappointed for her!!!!!!

Are you sure they're counterfeit? I used to play quite a bit of Pokemon TCG back in elementary/middle school and never found a counterfeit card

As for value you can look at the rarity of a card by looking at the bottom right corner

A circle means such a card is common
A triangle means uncommon
A star means rare
A triple star means ultra-rare (there were no triple star cards for the first couple of generations of TCG cards)
You may have just a number in that corner, a number means that the card is a "promo" card, some promo cards are incredibly scarce while others are extremely common, most promo cards were given away in official Nintendo Power magazines or through the Pokemon movies

As for why some cards are worth more than others when they have the same rarity, some are better cards when you're playing the trading card game while some are more useless. Also, you could buy pre-built decks, some of these had rare cards in them (meaning they had the star) but since what you got in a deck was fixed there were substantially more of them made.

The important things on a Pokemon card besides the rarity is the series and whether it is a first edition or not

The series will be indicated by an icon on the centre-right of the card, ( http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_EqYSOZLTe9s/S8ElXo7gyII/AAAAAAAAAJI/BSCk0k235Rw/s1600/Symbols.jpg is a good list of the icons) certain cards were re-printed for multiple sets, for example you can find Charizard with 120 HP and Fire Spin for its attacks in both the Base Set, Legendary Collection and Base Set 2, they're identical when it comes to playing the game but have different collector values. Of course then you've got multiple pokemon with different attacks and different HPs in different sets (such as Charizard in Pokemon Expedition)

Like mjlalt said, there is also the "first edition" on the centre-left of the card that determines if it is a first edition or not.

On the bottom next to the rarity legend you've got numbers which tells you what number the card is in the set. For example if you have a Beedrill from base set 2, it says that its 21/130, this is a quick way to reference the card and look it up.

As for pricing, the market has certainly changed since I collected the cards! Different rule changes to the game made previously excellent cards be unplayable in tournament play and what was once considered an excellent Pokemon has been outclassed by newer cards. There certainly -is- a market (especially for unopened booster packs!) its just one that you have to search eBay and see. I really don't think there are any common or uncommon cards that are worth all that much and so I'd focus on searching the rare, ultra-rare and promo cards.

Also, keep in mind that there were many different languages that the cards were made in, certain Japanese cards are extremely rare and fetch very high prices. Other times, the Japanese card is much more common than the English card. Not quite sure about other languages but they made them in other languages like Spanish, French and German.

 

[clorox]

In Magic on the right hand side between the picture and the text box there is a set symbol that will either be black(common), Silver/grey(uncommon), gold(rare) or red(mythic).

On MTG cards before 2002 or so the symbols are black on all cards, regardless of rarity.

 

[indianajoe]

Early magic cards from the first few sets have no rarity symbol and have to be looked up for the rarity, some cards such as the original duals, the mox's, and the black lotus arehowever valuable enough that rarity game wise doesnt matter these days because all of them are major money from fifty dollars for mint up to a couple thousand for mint versions

 

[clovis97]

Are you sure they're counterfeit?

I'm not 100% sure that they are counterfeit, but a couple of these sure are different than the other genuine cards found on ebay. I've been reading some on counterfeit Pokemon cards that I found via a Google search.

For instance, the two cards that I thought were worth $30 as a pair are printed on thinner paper than the others that I know are genuine. The other big kicker is that all the other examples on ebay has a HP power of 120, but the cards I have are 750. When you look at the real cards, the printing is absolutely perfect, but these particular cards I have are a tad blurry and the colors are more muted.

There are numerous vendors at a local flea market that sell Pokemon cards for $1 a pack, right next to the rack of fake Duracell batteries (also a $1), and the 12 pack of counterfeit Sharpie markers.

Nonetheless, thank you for your help!!!!! You are helping me learn this!!!!

 

[Generic_Lad]

I'm not 100% sure that they are counterfeit, but a couple of these sure are different than the other genuine cards found on ebay. I've been reading some on counterfeit Pokemon cards that I found via a Google search.

For instance, the two cards that I thought were worth $30 as a pair are printed on thinner paper than the others that I know are genuine. The other big kicker is that all the other examples on ebay has a HP power of 120, but the cards I have are 750. When you look at the real cards, the printing is absolutely perfect, but these particular cards I have are a tad blurry and the colors are more muted.

There are numerous vendors at a local flea market that sell Pokemon cards for $1 a pack, right next to the rack of fake Duracell batteries (also a $1), and the 12 pack of counterfeit Sharpie markers.

Nonetheless, thank you for your help!!!!! You are helping me learn this!!!!

Ok, yeah, if the HP doesn't match up that's a pretty big indicator that its fake

 

[Hunter612]

I'm not 100% sure that they are counterfeit, but a couple of these sure are different than the other genuine cards found on ebay. I've been reading some on counterfeit Pokemon cards that I found via a Google search.

For instance, the two cards that I thought were worth $30 as a pair are printed on thinner paper than the others that I know are genuine. The other big kicker is that all the other examples on ebay has a HP power of 120, but the cards I have are 750. When you look at the real cards, the printing is absolutely perfect, but these particular cards I have are a tad blurry and the colors are more muted.

There are numerous vendors at a local flea market that sell Pokemon cards for $1 a pack, right next to the rack of fake Duracell batteries (also a $1), and the 12 pack of counterfeit Sharpie markers.

Nonetheless, thank you for your help!!!!! You are helping me learn this!!!!

I have been collecting pokemon cards for years and I have started to find cards like that at sales. I look for holographic mostly because at the flea market people are getting $1- $2 a piece. Just recently I bought a big bag of cards at a sale for 50 cents and they were mostly holographic. You should look for these three cards they can be worth a little

 

[clovis97]

Thank you again for the help and advice!!!!

I appreciate it!!!!

 

[Baltimore]

Keep us posted if you find anything good, I'm really curious to see if there's any gems in the bunch!