The Pokémon Trading Card Game has had a modern resurgence, with old cards theoretically being worth some money. While these cards have mostly only held nostalgia value for the last couple of decades, growing interest in Pokémon cards means they might be worth more than just the memories.
If you are in your 40s or 30s, the odds are pretty good that you at one point had a big pile of Pokémon cards. If you’re anything like us, you never threw away or sold those cards, but just stuffed them into a box or binder and then forgot about them as you grew up and moved out of your parents’ house. Those cards might now be worth digging out, as the chances are reasonable that some of those cards are worth a little more than just the nostalgia kick you’ll get from seeing them.
The Pokémon Trading Card Game is seeing a modern-day boom, with old fans, long-time collectors and new fans becoming interested in once again collecting them. While not all the cards are valuable, using a digital card market like cardtrack.com can easily help you discover if any of your old collection are worth money, and help you to sell them to interested modern-day collectors.
Let’s take a look at why Pokémon cards are seeing a resurgence, how digital card markets can help you determine value, and some tips for using those digital markets.
Why On Earth Are Pokémon Cards Popular Again?
They say that fashion is cyclical, and it seems that holds true for other pop-culture trends. Pokémon is one of the most enduringly popular entertainment franchises, with new games, series and movies coming out semi-regularly over the last 3 decades. Not many other franchises can claim that same sort of legacy. Along with all of that, the Pokémon Trading Card Game has been steadily releasing cards all that time as well; who knew?
As to why the Pokémon Trading Card Game is seeing a boom, there are a few factors that might be in play. Younger generations are being exposed to the brand with new games and series, adults are rediscovering the hobby as their children do, and nostalgia is driving many people to seek entertainment and hobbies that speak to a simpler and more innocent time in their lives.
Adults who used to collect cards and have reignited that interest are finding that they now have the disposable income to go out and get those cards that they once dreamed of. Social media and streaming are also helping to disseminate the popularity of the hobby, as booster pack openings and footage of wholesome moments at physical card trading markets drive interest and engagement.
So Pokémon cards are in vogue again, which means that your old stack of cards could be worth moving on, or maybe adding to?
Digital Card Markets Make Card Valuation Easy
If you did much trading back in the day, you might remember that it wasn’t always simple to figure out how much a card was worth. A lot of the time, trades on the playground were based largely on vibe, and if you went to a comic or hobby store, you had to trust that the guy behind the counter was telling you the truth about your cards’ values.
Now, digital markets make it so much easier. These digital card markets have a range of different features that allow you to quickly and easily look up cards and find their values. Typical features include things like:
- Card lookup by number and name.
- Photograph comparisons.
- The ability to view recent market sales.
- Functionality to safely buy and sell cards.
- Price movement monitoring.
All of these features make it so that you don’t have to wonder how much a card is worth; you can simply look it up and know, with a rough approximation, what sort of value you are holding on to. But there is a little more that goes into how much a card is worth than simply what is printed on it.
What Makes Cards Valuable
When we are looking at cards, there are a few things that can dramatically affect their value. What is printed on the card matters, of course, but there have been a variety of different printings of the same cards, and the set it’s from, the condition of the card and the current market demand all skew the price significantly.
When you are looking at the prices on a digital market, it is important that you don’t just check the sale listings and think that those are the values of cards. Just like in any other sort of digital user market, sellers can list something for sale at whatever price they want; that doesn’t mean anyone will actually buy it at that listing. Instead, check for recent completed sales, as this gives you a proper idea of the actual value of a card.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve been looking at the recent social media posts about the Pokémon card boom and thinking to yourself “huh, I had a stack of those somewhere”, then don’t delay! Go fish them out, and spend an evening checking them over to see if any are worth listing for sale. Or just maybe, you might find that nostalgia hits just right, and you’ll feel that old call to collect ’em all.
