New to collecting Pokémon cards? This is the place to start: how to buy without overpaying, how to check a card’s condition, what each grading company looks for, and the free tools that help you decide what to buy, open, hold or grade.
Start here
How to buy Pokémon cardsWhere to buy at retail and online, how to spot fakes and scams, and raw vs graded.
How to pre-grade your cardsCheck centering, corners, edges and surface yourself before you pay to grade, with pictures of each flaw.
Grading standards comparedWhat PSA, Beckett (BGS), CGC and TAG need for each top grade, what they cost and how long they take.
Is it worth grading?Our grading calculator: fees, shipping and selling costs against the graded price.
Release calendarEvery upcoming set and product, with dates and MSRP.
Restocks & dealsWhere to buy at retail right now, updated every 6 hours.
Card listsEvery card in every recent set, with prices and a master set tracker.
Card pricesDaily prices for thousands of cards, raw and graded.
Five rules for new collectors
1
Know the MSRP. Sealed product has a set retail price (an Elite Trainer Box is usually about $50–60). Paying far over it on day one is how most new collectors lose money. Check our release calendar for MSRPs and the restock tracker for retail drops.
2
Buy the card, not the pack, if you want a specific card. Opening packs is fun, but buying the single you want almost always costs less than chasing it.
3
Check the price before you buy. Look up any card on our card price pages: today’s price, the 30-day trend and the graded prices.
4
Protect cards right away. Penny sleeve, then a top loader or semi-rigid holder. Most condition damage happens in the first five minutes out of the pack.
5
Only grade cards that pay for it. Grading costs money and time. Pre-grade first, then run the numbers in the grading calculator.
Words you’ll see
- Raw
- An ungraded card, not in a grading company’s slab.
- Slab / graded
- A card sealed in a hard plastic case by a grading company, with a label showing its grade (for example PSA 10).
- NM (Near Mint)
- The condition most raw prices assume: clean, with at most tiny wear.
- Pop report (population)
- How many copies a grading company has graded at each grade. Low pop at a high grade usually means a higher price.
- SIR, IR, UR, Hyper Rare
- Rarity names in modern sets: Special Illustration Rare and Illustration Rare are the full-art chase cards most collectors want.
- ETB, Booster Bundle, Booster Box
- Common sealed products: an Elite Trainer Box has 8–9 packs plus accessories, a Booster Bundle 6 packs, a Booster Box 36 packs.
- EV (expected value)
- The average value of the cards you’d pull from a product. Our Open or Hold? tool compares it to the sealed price.
- Centering
- How evenly the picture sits inside the borders, written as left/right, for example 55/45. It’s the most common reason a card misses a 10.