Are Pokémon Cards Rare?

Let’s face it: Pokémon cards are expensive.

Popular chase chards, like the Moonbreon from Evolving Skies, are regularly achieving prices of more than $2,000 USD for a PSA 10 example. An enormous price considering there are more than 16,000 PSA 10 examples on the pop report!

Compared to other collectibles categories: you simply don’t see prices like this for items with this many known copies.

For example: Hot Wheels cars.

Although not a category I’ve ever had an interest in, I found myself watching a YouTube video produced by Business Insider that profiled the rise of toys as collectibles. In particular, it featured a gentlemen known to have the world’s largest Hot Wheels collection, valued at several million dollars and requiring it him to establish a “Museum” to store it all, since his wife would no longer tolerate his passion cluttering their home (relateable, to be honest…)

Later on, the video followed him to a trade show, and showed him chatting up the different vendors, and exploring what they had for sale. One of them had set something special aside just for him: a rare, sealed Hot Wheels car.

We watch the two discuss this rare car, and trade offers back and forth, navigating the tricky realm of what an object of this rarity is worth.

After closing the deal, our Hot Wheels collector expresses his excitement with the find:

The price he paid: $1,500.

Meanwhile, our Moonbreon, with more than 16,000 PSA 10 copies, is selling for more than $2,000. A card you can find at just about any vendor’s booth anywhere in America achieving the price of a once-a-decade find in another collectibles hobby.

It really makes you think…

So, is this a bad sign for Pokémon? Does it mean the market is nothing more than a huge bubble?

I’m not so sure… At the end of the day, Pokémon is extremely popular, and the massive demand drives massive prices for the top cards. I can make the argument that these prices are justified.

But, it’s also important to study other collectibles categories to try to improve our understanding of the Pokémon market.

And my conclusion so far: Pokémon is in uncharted territory when it comes to the prices we pay relative to the supply of cards.

Earlier on, in that same video, the collector displayed his grail collection item: a rare prototype car of which there were only 2 known examples in the world. Although he wouldn’t specify the exact price he paid, he said it was between $50,000 and $100,000, and that he wouldn’t sell it for less than $1,000,000.

So, these are different markets: one extremely rare sealed product, of which there may be no other examples, is only a $1,500 purchase.

But the true grail of the hobby is still a six-figure item, not unlike many top Pokémon cards.

And hopefully this was as interesting to you as it was to me.

As usual, thanks so much for reading the TCG Buyers Club newsletter. My name’s Grey, I buy cardboard, and I’m on a mission to making collecting and investing in Pokémon simple.

Cheers 🍻