Pokémon card index
Take the 5,957 Pokémon cards we track and line them up by price. The one in the middle sells for $7.25 today. A year ago it was $5.11.
Monday 24 August. That is +42% in a year on the plain, ungraded card. 3,787 of the 5,277 cards we price are worth more than they were, which is 72% of them going up in value. Old sets are leading, with Dragon Frontiers up +171% in ninety days.
These are cards worth tracking, not the commons in your bulk box. Half of the 5,957 here sell for under $7.25. The cards the rip sites actually hand out are worth about 58 cents each in the middle, and always have been. An index follows the cards that have a price, the same way a stock index follows a hundred companies rather than every shop on the high street.
Is your card up, or down?
The market is one thing, your card is another. Type a name to see which one you have.
Kabutops 1999-2000 #24$167▲ 4065%
Charizard VMAX #104/S-P$80▼ 96%
Jigglypuff CoroCoro #39$313▲ 2385%
M Mewtwo EX #2015$291▼ 93%
My First Battle Pikachu & Bulbasaur$86▲ 2295%
Rosa's Encouragement #115$69▼ 72%
Hypno 1999-2000 #23$95▲ 1705%
Booster Box Surprise Jumbo$85▼ 70%
Slowpoke 1999-2000 #55$92▲ 1584%
Gym Badge Sabrina #XY-P$36▼ 69%
Mew CoroCoro Southern #151$150▲ 1539%
Oricorio Ex #111$34▼ 69%
Jigglypuff #39$204▲ 1518%
Lillie's Determination #184$60▼ 69%
Moltres 1999-2000 #27$160▲ 1500%
Mega Latias ex #181$85▼ 67%Each point is the price in the middle: half the 5,612 cards we track sold for more that month, half sold for less. These are graded PSA 10 prices, not what the card is worth sitting in a sleeve.
Where these numbers come from. Real completed sales, not asking prices and not opinions. Every night we take the 5,612 cards that had a PSA 10 price in every one of the last 14 months and measure only those. Keeping the list fixed is the point: count every card we hold each month instead and the line also rises whenever we simply add more cards, which would be price trends about our own database rather than about the market.
Which sets are moving
Ninety days, sets with at least 20 priced cards. A set moving is a story; one card moving is noise.
| Dragon Frontiers30 cards priced | +171% |
| Legendary Collection48 cards priced | +96% |
| Base Set 232 cards priced | +91% |
| Legendary Treasures22 cards priced | +53% |
| Team Rocket Returns28 cards priced | +48% |
| Unseen Forces31 cards priced | +41% |
| Go29 cards priced | +39% |
| Japanese Vending48 cards priced | +37% |
| Power Keepers20 cards priced | +36% |
| Expedition47 cards priced | +30% |
| Legend Maker21 cards priced | +25% |
| Generations27 cards priced | +23% |
| Perfect Order48 cards priced | -40% |
| Ascended Heroes113 cards priced | -29% |
| Korean Mega Dream ex30 cards priced | -22% |
| Japanese Mega Dream ex37 cards priced | -17% |
| Japanese Inferno X21 cards priced | -10% |
| Japanese VSTAR Universe53 cards priced | -10% |
| Chaos Rising51 cards priced | -10% |
| Phantasmal Flames49 cards priced | -10% |
| Korean Terastal Festival ex21 cards priced | -9% |
| Japanese VMAX Climax73 cards priced | -9% |
| Mega Evolution83 cards priced | -8% |
| Japanese 25th Anniversary Collection25 cards priced | -8% |
Cards that moved, and what got pulled
The last column is one nobody else can print. Every other card index reads sale prices. We also record every pack opening the rip sites publish, so this says how often each card was actually handed out in the last seven days.
| Card | 1 year | Pulled, 7d | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moltres [1999-2000] #27Fossil | +1500% | $2.2k | 16 |
| Deoxys [Holo] #2POP Series 4 | +768% | $2.8k | 225 |
| Lucky Stadium Hokushin'EtsuJapanese Promo | +494% | $1.1k | — |
| Wobbuffet [Reverse Holo] #45Skyridge | +477% | $335 | 1 |
| Torchic [Reverse Holo] #66Crystal Guardians | +471% | $945 | 74 |
| Starmie #5Japanese Melee Pokemon Scramble | +454% | $1.4k | 42 |
| Onix [Series II] #95Japanese Vending | +448% | $2.0k | 158 |
| Metagross [Reverse Holo] #11Delta Species | +409% | $3.2k | — |
| Pikachu & Others #22Sealdass Fancy Graffiti | +403% | $214 | — |
| Pikachu [Meiji Chocolate] #68/PCG-PJapanese Promo | +401% | $468 | 1,884 |
| Kabuto #140Scarlet & Violet 151 | +391% | $3.2k | 112 |
| Shellder #90Japanese Scarlet & Violet 151 | +382% | $500 | 37 |
| Card | 1 year | Pulled, 7d | |
|---|---|---|---|
| M Mewtwo EX #201525th Anniversary Creatures Deck | -93% | $291 | 2 |
| Pupitar [Cosmos Holo] #111Paldea Evolved | -93% | $107 | 75 |
| Jamming Tower #261Ascended Heroes | -90% | $93 | 1,335 |
| Boss's Orders: Corbeau #256Ascended Heroes | -89% | $88 | 1,224 |
| Galarian Obstagoon #245Ascended Heroes | -89% | $59 | 504 |
| Whimsicott #19Promo | -89% | $111 | 9 |
| Drakloak #248Ascended Heroes | -87% | $57 | 823 |
| Gastly #123Ascended Heroes | -87% | $90 | 203 |
| Marshadow #146Mega Evolution | -87% | $93 | 1,750 |
| Ethan's Magcargo #222Ascended Heroes | -86% | $72 | 183 |
| Surfer #293Ascended Heroes | -86% | $143 | 228 |
| Dreepy #247Ascended Heroes | -85% | $61 | 3,460 |
Questions
Is the Pokémon card market crashing?
Not on this data. The basket of 5,612 cards is up 91% over 14 months, and the rise is broad rather than narrow: 3,787 of the 5,277 cards we price are worth more than a year ago. That is the honest answer today, and it is not a forecast. 1,401 cards did fall, so a crash is not required for your card to lose money.
Are Pokémon cards a good investment?
A 91% year looks like a good investment and also like what a bubble looks like from the inside, and nothing in this data separates the two. What the data does say plainly: the average card rose far faster than the middle card, 232% against 91%, which means the gains are concentrated at the expensive end. If you are buying $30 cards, the index above is not describing your outcome.
What is in the index?
A fixed basket: the 5,612 cards that had a PSA 10 price in every one of the last 14 months. Fixed matters. If you take a median across every card we hold each month instead, it reads $58 to $98, but the number of cards in that median climbs from 6,146 to 8,048 over the same window. That is our collector adding cards, not the market moving.
Why show both a median and an average?
Because they disagree, and the disagreement is the story. The median card is up 91% and the average card is up 232%. When the average pulls away from the median like that, a small number of expensive cards are doing most of the work. The chart rebases both to 100 so you can see the gap open.
Where do these prices come from?
Real completed sales, refreshed daily, not asking prices. The index is computed once a night from the price history we hold for every card, and the page reads that result rather than recomputing it.
Want a price for one card rather than the whole market? Check any card. Want to see what the pack sites are paying back? Every site, counted live.