I've caught Pokemon trading card fever.
In the past 3 weeks I've spent well over 26 hours (I kept track) researching Pokemon and Pokemon cards.
I went from knowing basically nothing about Pokemon and Pokemon cards, to having a solid basic understanding.
I assume many first-time Pokemon collectors/investors will be looking for answers to a lot of the same questions I was... so here's all the information I found condensed into 1 easy-to-consume piece of content.
Keep in mind: more than anything, I'm looking at Pokemon cards for investment purposes, not as collectibles or as a card game (although Ido look at them from those perspectives as well).
Enjoy.
General definitions
First of all, when you start watching videos and reading content online about Pokemon cards, you're going to run into a lot of these terms, so they are worth knowing.
Plus, I wrote the rest of this article assuming you know the meaning of all these terms:
booster pack
noun
A sealed foil packet which usually contains 9-11 Pokemon cards (the number of cards depends on which set it is from).
booster box
noun
A box which usually contains 36 booster packs. They are designed to be put on display at brick-and-motor retailers so that people can buy individual booster packs from them. You can also buy them as a whole, sealed from the factory.
e.g. "I've been saving up to buy a whole booster box for myself."
pull (verb)
verb
To take a card out of a booster pack.
e.g. "Did you hear that Ashley pulled a Charizard GX yesterday?!"
pull (noun)
noun
A card that has been taken out of a booster pack.
e.g. "My best pull to this day is the Etermatus VMax Secret Rare."
set
noun
TCG
acronym
"Trading Card Game"
There are a lot of products in the Pokemon franchise: video games, merchandise, cartoon series, among others... which mean sometimes it may be necessary to refer specifically to the trading card game, and sometimes you will see it abbreviated like this.
e.g. "We're talking about the Pokemon TCG, not the video game."
playable
adjective
A card that is can be used in the official Pokemon Trading Card Game against very good players and actually be considered competitive. When it comes to playing the Pokemon TCG, most cards suck and will make you lose very quickly, a "playable" card is, as the name implies, actually worth playing with.
holo
synonyms: "holofoil", "holographic", "foil", "foil set"
adjective
A card with a holographic effect on the main graphic of the card. Often times rare cards have standard and holo versions, or only reverse-holo and holo versions. Standard, reverse-holo and holo versions of the same card are exactly the same, with the only difference being whether or not and where the card has a holographic effect on it. Holo cards are usually harder to find and more sought-after.
reverse-holo
synonyms: "reverse", "reverse holographic", "parallel", "parallel set"
adjective
A card with a holographic effect on everything except the main graphic of the card. Even common cards have regular and reverse-holo versions. The reverse-holo version is exactly the same as the regular one, except that it has the holographic effect on it. Just as with holo cards, reverse-holo card are usually harder to find and more sought after than standard cards (but not as sought after as holo cards).
rarity
What is the history of Pokemon cards?
October 20, 1996
The first ever Pokemon trading cards are released in Japan. They are only in Japanese.
January 9, 1999
The first ever Pokemon trading cards are released in the English language.
March 24, 2011
The Pokemon trading card game online is launched.
Are Pokemon cards a good investment?
Yes.
In my opinion, Pokemon cards are a great investment.
Just to be clear, this is a hugely subjective question. It's the same as asking if stocks or real estate are a good investment... the real answer is: it depends.
It depends on things like:
- how much research you do
- whether you know what kind of research to do
- whether or not you make smart purchases (do you buy on logic or emotion?)
- how well you tolerate risk (can you sleep well if your investments suddenly drop 20% in value?)
- how long you are willing to wait to make a profit (could you wait 5 years? 10 years? 40 years?)
And, just as with stocks and real estate... theoretically, something could happen tomorrow that could render certain or all Pokemon cards completely worthless.
But... based on historically data, just as with stocks and real estate, there is a "proof of concept" that Pokemon cards can be a good investment. That along with future outlooks and many other external factors strongly indicate to me that Pokemon cards will continue to be a good investment for at least the next 50 years.
Although you can't play with numbers as big as you can in stocks and real estate, the barrier to entry is tiny (even a 8-year-old kid can come up with the money to buy some under-valued Pokemon cards) and the potential for profit is huge? Cards have been known to double in value in the span of weeks.*
Let's look as some of the things that back up the "investment" aspect of Pokemon cards.
The value of the Pokemon franchise
The Pokemon franchise as a whole is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, having grossed over $90B in revenue.
For comparison, the Hello Kitty, Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises have grossed $86B, $70B and $32B respectively.
Think of all the Star Wars, Hello Kitty and Harry Potter merchandise, licensed products, movies, etc. that have hit the market...
Pokemon has out-sold them all.
... and keep in mind, Pokemon is not the oldest media franchise — not by a long shot. The first ever Star Wars movie was released about 20 years before anything from the Pokemon franchise ever even hit the consumer market.
Only about 10% of the Pokemon franchise's revenue has come from its trading cards. The Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game was released the same year as the Pokemon trading card game and has grossed roughly the same amount.
The popularity of the Pokemon franchise
Since its origin in 1996, the Pokemon franchise has maintained a steady if not slowly growing popularity. It's had its "explosions" of attention with the releases of e.g. new video games (especially Pokemon GO in 2016), but has never severely declined in popularity.
If Google Search data is anything to go by, on average, Pokemon is about as popular as the NBA.
My opinion
As I said, I think Pokemon cards are a great investment, for the following reasons (among others):
- The Pokemon franchise has a huge fan base, and if anything:it's growing, not shrinking.
- I think the popularity of alternative investments will grow substantially in the next 50 years. Digital assets, private online businesses, trading cards...
- I believe people from newer generations are much more likely to invest in things like trading cards (from trading card games like Pokemon as well as, if not even more, sports trading cards, etc.)
- Things that used to be almost exclusively "nerdy" (like video games, Pokemon, Star Wars, etc.) are becoming "cooler" and cooler by societal standards and are even starting to see interest that could only be seen in the sports world in the past (large-scale sponsored events; paid professional "athletes" with sponsorship deals, etc).
What makes a Pokemon card valuable?
The Pokemon card market is just like any other open market: everything depends on supply and demand.
- Older cards — especially those from the first ever sets — are generally more valuable than newer cards.
- The condition of a card is critically important. A perfect card can be worth 2–10x more than the exact same card with a tiny imperfection that can only be seen with a magnifying glass.
- Generally, how rare any specific Pokemon card is often has a lot of influence on its' market price. I am referring specifically to how rare a card actually is in the world, not its rarity (shown by the symbol on the card).
- Cards that are highly playable are often valuable, but only for a short period of time... when newer, better cards come out they usually lose a lot of their value.
What is the best way to check the value of a pokemon card?
To find the current market price of a Pokemon card, your best bet is to go to ebay and search sold listings (not "for sale" listings):
- Go to ebay.
- Type in the name of a card, including its card number.
- Go to filters and in "show only" turn on the "sold items" filter.
- Aim to find at least 3, but ideally 5 or more cards that sold recently (within the last month), and average their sold prices.
This should give you a good idea of what any given card will sell for right now. Lesser-known cards may be hard to find data on, and in most (not all) cases, that means the card is not really worth anything substantial.
Can you play a game with Pokemon cards or are they just for collecting?
You can play a game with Pokemon cards.
The official game that was designed by The Pokemon Company International is called "The Pokemon Trading Card Game" (A.K.A. "The Pokemon TCG", or even "PTCG").
That said, there are a lot of people that never play the game and just collect the cards.
There is also an official online version of the game. As of writing this, it available for Windows, MacOS, and in the App Store and Play Store, but it cannot be played on smart phones (only on iPads and Android tablets).
What do all the different things on a Pokemon card mean?
A lot of the information on Pokemon cards has to do with The Pokemon Trading Card Game. The information includes: the types of attacks, abilities, defenses, hit points, ect. that the Pokemon have/can use during gameplay.
The anatomy of a Pokemon card
There are many different types of Pokemon cards, and their layouts/designs have changed throughout the years, plus their are also one-off and unique Pokemon cards that look completely different from regular cards, so there is no simple, definitive guide for the anatomy of a Pokemon card...
... but since this guide for absolute beginners, here is a very basic anatomy of a basic Pokemon card.
Just keep in mind that as you learn more about Pokemon cards, you will run into cards that look completely different from ones like this and that there is much more to a Pokemon card than just what is shown here.
There are also trainer cards and energy cards, but we won't get into them in this post.
If you want to learn more about the different type of cards and what everything on them means, I highly recommend you download and play the official Pokemon Trading Card Game Online, even if only for research purposes. Their tutorials very quickly teach you everything you need to know.
What is "weighing"? / What does it mean to "weigh" a Pokemon booster pack?
Holo cards are usually more desirable than standard cards.
Also, due to what they're made of... holo cards also usually weigh more than standard cards.
This means that if you weigh booster packs, you can usually tell which ones have holo cards in them.
So you can go to a store, bring a pocket-sized scale with you, weigh all the booster packs they have, and buy only the heavy ones... and you will basically be guaranteed to pull some very good cards.
... that is, you could: but The Pokemon Company claims* to have solved the problem by placing 2 different types of code cards (cards that are basically useless for collectors and players, but can be redeemed in the online game) into booster packs. The different code cards weigh different amounts and are supposed to compensate for the weights of the other cards in the pack... and ideally: make every booster pack weigh the same amount.
The Pokemon Company claims* they solved the problem. But people on online forums, Reddit, etc. claim the system does not work very well, and the weight of booster packs can still tell you whether or not a good card is inside.
I am doing my own research on the topic and plan to report back with a blog post or video in the near future.
Weighing is generally frowned upon
A lot of people say weighing booster packs is bad for collectors, players, and hobbyists because it ruins the "chance" aspect of pulling a good card.
If one person weighs all the packs in a booster box and buys all the good packs, everyone who comes after them will just unknowingly get packs of weak cards.
I support weighing
I may get off on the wrong foot in the community by saying this, but I will stand behind this.
I have nothing against weighing packs.
If you're not doing something illegal or damaging the booster pack in any way, I don't see any problem with taking advantage of an obvious flaw in the system and stacking the odds in your favor.
Plus, weighing is not some big secret. I literally just started learning about Pokemon cards and ran into the topic without knowing it existed many times. Therefore, anyone who has spent any amount of time researching Pokemon cards online should know that if you go to a store and see an open booster box, you should assume all the packs have been weighted and if you want to pull a good card, you should NOT buy any of those packs.
Opening packs is still fun for someone who doesn't know that weighing exists. And something like weighing packs just separates the casual hobbyists from the big-league collectors.
Plus, there's a solution that anyone can use: only buy sealed packages the contain at least 2 booster packs (but ideally much more)... it basically renders weighing worthless and guarantees you get a fair chance of pulling rare cards.
When opening booster packs, why do people move some of the bottom cards to the top?
If you watch "opening" videos on YouTube, you will notice that people usually move a few cards from the bottom of the booster pack to the top.
Fans of opening booster packs call this the "card trick". It is done because Pokemon booster packs are always packed with cards in a specific order, and the rarest card is often the fourth card from the bottom. When you move the less-rare cards from the bottom to the top, the last 2 cards you uncover become the rarest — usually most sought-after — cards from that booster pack.
It's just a psychological thing that makes opening booster packs a more fun experience.
How many Pokemon are there?
As of writing this post, there are 892 unique Pokemon.
That means that counting from the day the first Pokemon cards were ever released on October 20 of 1996, a new Pokemon is invented about every 10 days.
Is every pokemon in every set?
No.
Brand new Pokemon are released in new sets, others
I wish I had a more in-depth answer to this question, but I have not found one yet.
What are "generations" of pokemon?
What types of Pokemon cards are there (holo / reverse holo?)
Generally, there are only 3 types of Pokemon cards:
- standard
- reverse-holo
- holo
But there are many subcategories that we won't dive into in this post, including but not limited to:
- full art
- rainbow rare
- shining
- etc.
Is there a holo /reverse holo version of every card?
No.
Common-rarity cards only exist in standard and reverse-holo versions*.
Some rare-rarity cards only exist in reverse-holo and holo versions, others only exist in standard and reverse-holo.
Full art, EX, GX, V, VMAX, etc. cards are all holo cards*.
Beyond that, there is no rhyme or reason to which cards exist in which versions*.4
Are EX, GX, V, etc. cards considered holo or reverse holo or what?
They are considered holo cards.
What is a graded card and what is grading?
A graded card is a card that has been sent to a grading company, assigned a grade and sealed in a tamper-resistant plastic case. The grade reflects how good of a condition the card is in. Below is a picture of a perfect Charizard card graded a 10 by PSA.
Most grading companies usually grade cards from 1 to 10. A 1 meaning it is in very poor condition (creases, stains, water damage, etc.) and a 10 being absolutely perfect.
Getting a card graded a 10 is notoriously hard to do. Just because you pull a card directly from a pristine booster pack, handle it gently, sleeve and protect it right away, pack it very well and with extreme care... doesn't mean it will be a grade 10.
Cards often come straight from the factory with minor imperfections that cause their grades to be less than 10.
Some more things to note about grading:
- The most popular and widely trusted grading companies today are Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) and Beckett (BGS). Keep in mind this may change in the future.
- Cards graded 9 or 10 are almost always worth more than ungraded cards in any condition.
- There is a huge difference in market value of a grade 9 vs a grade 10. Grade 10 cards often sell for 2–10 times more than grade 9s.
What are the most important things to look out for?
The condition of cards. Condition is everything.
Do not buy cards that are in poor condition, and do everything in your power to preserve the condition of the cards you buy.
There is a reason that a card graded a 10 is worth 2–10 times more than the same card graded a 9: people care about condition... and that is something that probably won't change now or ever.
How to preserve the condition of your cards
I plan on releasing a more in-depth guide in the future, but these are the biggest things to do, in order of priority:
- Handle cards with care. Always have clean hands before touching a card and treat it as though it were a live grenade that will blow up with the slightest agitation.
- Put cards in sleeves (a card should NEVER, not even for 1 second, be "naked"!)
- Double-sleeve your cards (first put them in tight-fitting sleeves, then put them in a slightly bigger sleeves).
- Store cards in a box (ideally a box that is made specifically for storing cards and has a soft lining).
- Store cards in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.
What are the biggest scams to look out for?
I won't go too deep into these topics right now, but these are the biggest things to look out for if you want to get into buying Pokemon cards.
Loose booster packs
This is not really a scam, but as mentioned in the section about weighing booster packs: buy individual booster packs at your own risk. You should assume they were weighed or measured in some way and that means there is a good chance there are no special cards in them.
Booster boxes that are not sealed
Something that really could be a scam is an unsealed booster box. Original booster boxes come sealed in see-through plastic wrap.
If you buy what should be a brand new, unopened booster box but it isn't wrapped in clear plastic wrap, it should be a huge red flag. Somebody could have weighed all the packs, taken out the good ones and replaced them with other dud packs.
Fake cards
As inevitably happens with things that are as popular and valuable as Pokemon cards... there are a lot of fakes on the market.
The safest way to get real cards, booster packs, booster boxes etc. from the latest sets is to buy directly from the official Pokemon store. If you don't live in the US, you will have to find a trusted reseller.
For individual cards and older booster packs and boxes, you will just have to gain a lot of experience and learn the nuances of real Pokemon products and then make educated purchases, ideally with a means of recourse if it turns out you were scammed (some kind of buyer protection program, etc).
Some information about my current collection of Pokemon Cards
So far I've spent about $400 on Pokemon cards, card sleeves, and card storage containers. I've purchased about 300 Pokemon cards, most of them are from the newest sets (in the Sword and Shield and Sun and Moon series). Most of them I pulled from booster packs.
The most expensive card Ihave in my possession is a 192/189 Eternatus VMAX secret rare, currently selling on ebay for around $30. It came out of a booster pack from a Darkness Ablaze Elite Trainer Box.
I'm looking forward to doing more research and buying some more specific, older cards that are graded 9 or 10 or getting them raw and grading them myself. I think that held for long enough, just about any Pokemon card will go up in value... but there is much more money in picking specific cards and reselling them on a high in the cycle of market price.
I hope you found this guide helpful!
Check out my Pokemon Trading Cards for beginners playlist on YouTube, I got a lot of the information in this post from those videos.
Thanks so much for reading this post and being here. Have an amazing day, friend!
* I am pretty sure about this, but Ihave not fact-checked it 100%.
FAQs
How do you play Pokemon cards for beginners? ›
And getting the edge over the opposing. Player. Just like the pokemon. Video games both players take
What do the numbers in the bottom right corner of Pokemon cards mean? ›Every Pokémon card has a collector card number. It's usually formatted as XXX/YYY, where XXX is the card's number and YYY is the advertised number of cards in the set.
What does the C and U mean in Pokemon cards? ›Basic rarities:
R = Rare (レア - Rea) - This is a Holo card. U = Uncommon (アンコモン - Ankomon) C = Common (コモン - Komon)
[G] ChloroScythe GX (50x) This attack does 50 damage times the number of Grass Energy attached to this Pokemon. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game.)
What Pokemon cards should I start with? ›The best way to learn to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) is with a Theme Deck. Theme Decks come with a ready-to-play 60-card deck, flip coin and damage counters for play, a two-player paper mat with details on card placement, and a guide to playing Pokémon.
What Pokemon cards are basic? ›Basic Pokémon are Pokémon that have not evolved and thus can be played directly onto the Bench. Each player may have up to six Pokémon on the playing field at a time: one in the Active Pokémon post and up to five on the bench.
What does a black star mean on a Pokémon card? ›There should be a shape that indicates what rarity the card is. What is this? Report Ad. Common cards are marked with a black circle, uncommon cards have a black diamond, and rare cards always have a black star. This is the basic way to tell the rarity of a card.
What does a white star mean on a Pokémon card? ›A tiny symbol on the bottom right-hand corner will let you know the rarity of a card. A circle on your card means it's common, a diamond indicates that your card is uncommon, and a star means it's rare.
Which is more rare Holo or reverse holo? ›I supose Holo rare are more rare because reverse can be just all the cards but in reverse holo, wich it made it more rare, but in rare type cards I don't know if its less rare than the Holo rare. I've seen prices for instance in Sun & moon and in some cards they are the same in both cases.
What does F on a Pokémon card mean? ›F: Fighting Energy symbol. C: Colorless Energy symbol. D: Darkness Energy symbol. M: Metal Energy symbol. To prevent confusion, within card text itself, the symbols will be contained within brackets.
What is a secret rare Pokémon? ›
Secret Rare, which are cards with set numbers outside the printed size of the set (for example, a card numbered 101/100), marked with , and have a unique artwork scheme such as a Rainbow Holofoil print.
Is there a Pokemon card worth 50000? ›Thanks to its popularity and rarity, the Pokémon card also fetches a very high price at auction. A first-edition Neo Genesis Lugia graded at PSA 10 reportedly sold in October 2020 for $50,000, with a BGS 10 Pristine copy selling in May 2021 for over $144,000.
Is ex stronger than GX? ›A lot of EX cards are viable in Expanded, but they are generally slightly less powerful than the new GXs. GX cards are like EX cards except they have a powerful 'GX attack' - you can only use one GX attack all game.
Does GX count as ex? ›But it's important to note that Pokémon-GX are not Pokémon-EX. Things that specifically call out Pokémon-EX, such as Carbink's Safeguard Ability, do not apply to Pokémon-GX.
What is the 1 strongest Pokemon card? ›In the Pokémon anime series, Mewtwo is known to be one of the strongest Pokémon, so it's no surprise that it is also the strongest card in the TCG. The Mega Mewtwo EX card has 10+ Physic Infinity, meaning that this attack does 30 more damage times the amount of energy attached to both active Pokémon.
What is the 1 best Pokemon card? ›1) Base Set Shadowless Charizard
The last Charizard on our list, as well as the ultimate jewel of all Pokémon card collectors in the world. This Shiny Charizard became so popular with fans when it was released in 1999, especially with its 100 damage from Fire Spin.
So it's no surprise that an entire illicit industry has grown up around printing fake copies of Pokémon cards, the franchise's most enduring collectible. While scammers sometimes try to counterfeit cards from other trading card games like Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh!, the world of fake Pokémon cards is on a whole other level.
How much is a Charizard worth? ›Old Charizard Pokemon cards can be worth anywhere between $25 to $100,000 depending on its condition, current market demand, and which set it came from. As shown in our guide, some Charizard cards can be worth a lot more.
Is there a card for every Pokémon? ›Nobody has every Pokémon card ever made and for good reason. There's a lot of cards including different variants of the same card that make this task very difficult, many cards that aren't for sale no matter how much money you offer, and even cards that were produced but never released to the public.
How rare is a secret rare Pokémon card? ›Secret Rare is the highest category of Pokémon card rarity, and Secret Rare cards differ in several ways from lower-rarity cards. First, they have a collector card number that's higher than the advertised set number — hence the "secret" in their name.
How do I check the value of my Pokemon cards? ›
Every Pokémon card is stamped with a small symbol in the bottom right corner that identifies its rarity. As is the case with most collectibles, scarcity is a major factor in determining the item's value. So the rarer the card's marker, the higher value it'll likely command at auction.
Are Japanese Pokemon cards worth more? ›Pokemon cards are not any different. While Japanese collectables are not as easy to damage, English ones come in a better condition. Therefore, English collectables are worth more than Japanese ones.
What does the V Star card mean? ›When you get a V STAR card instead of energy card this VSTAR card is specifically used in the Pokemon Trading Card Game. VSTAR Pokemon cards are very powerful with unique attacks and abilities, called a VSTAR power. This VSTAR move can only be used once by each player in a game.
How rare is a Pokémon V card? ›V Pokemon cards are some of the strongest in the game. They are all Ultra Rare, which make them difficult to pull out of any random booster pack.
How can you tell if a Pokémon is ultra rare? ›Ultra Rare cards have the star symbol, but they also have some extra powers or unique game mechanic. The following are considered Ultra Rare: Pokemon GX – These cards will have the capital letters “GX” after their name. They were introduced in the Sun & Moon sets.
How do you tell if a Pokémon card is shiny? ›All cards in the Shiny Vault are marked with the Yellow A Alternate symbol (see callout A in the above diagram), meaning that each one is an existing card reprinted with a new illustration. Instead of the Hidden Fates expansion symbol, each card carries the symbol of its original expansion (callout B).
How do you know if Pokémon cards are first edition? ›Three main elements can help one identify a 1st Edition Base Set Pokémon card: the unique 1st Edition stamp, the lack of a shadow on the right of the frame, and copyright dates 1995, '96, '98, and '99. Other Base Set editions include Shadowless and Unlimited, which are also very valuable.
How does playing Pokemon cards work? ›The most common path to victory is to knock out six of your opponent's Pokémon and collect prize cards. Every time you defeat a Pokémon controlled by your rival, you claim one of the six prize cards you set aside at the start of the game and add it to your hand. When you pick up your sixth and final card, you win!
Do you start with 6 or 7 cards Pokemon? ›At the beginning of each game, you draw 7 cards. This is known as your starting hand. From your starting hand, you'll put a basic Pokemon into your active Pokemon spot and up to five onto your bench. Note, all of these Pokemon are placed face down.
What do I need to know before buying Pokemon cards? ›The first thing to check on a Pokémon card is its rarity. There are symbols at the bottom right corner of every card that designates its rarity. A black circle indicates a common card. These are the ones you'll run into the most, and will likely have multiple copies of the same common card in your deck.
How do you play card game? ›
How to play Spades - YouTube
How do you explain Pokémon to someone? ›The original Pokémon is a role-playing game based around building a small team of monsters to battle other monsters in a quest to become the best. Pokémon are divided into types, such as water and fire, each with different strengths. Battles between them can be likened to the simple hand game rock-paper-scissors.
What is the rarest Pokémon card? ›There is only one known PSA grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card in the world, according to Guinness. In June 2021, Paul purchased a PSA grade 9 Pikachu Illustrator card for $1.275 million.
What happens if you don't draw a basic Pokémon? ›If you still don't have any Basic Pokémon, repeat. Each time your opponent shuffles their hand back into their deck because they had no Basic Pokémon, you may draw an extra card! Put up to 5 more Basic Pokémon face down on your Bench.
What does F mean on a Pokémon card? ›F: Fighting Energy symbol. C: Colorless Energy symbol. D: Darkness Energy symbol. M: Metal Energy symbol. To prevent confusion, within card text itself, the symbols will be contained within brackets.
How can you tell a fake Pokémon card? ›Real Pokémon cards are made of two thin pieces of cardboard glued together, with a black layer in between. By ripping the card, you can reveal this layer—if there is no layer, the card is fake.
How many of each Pokémon card should I keep? ›Although you can include any number of any type of card - Pokémon, trainer and energy - in your deck other than the rule above, it's often recommended that beginners aim to have an even split of Pokémon cards, energy cards and trainer cards: 20 of each.
Is it worth to keep Pokemon cards? ›Most common and uncommon cards are worth less than $1, and even rare cards are usually worth less than $5. However, holographic rare Pokémon cards often go for $15 and up—especially for older cards that have been sitting in your self storage unit for years.
Are Pokemon cards still worth buying? ›Collectors tend to value Base Set 2 cards at or slightly below Base Set Unlimited cards. For better or worse, over 90% of the Pokémon cards from the 90s aren't worth much. So if you're panicking over your lost collection, fret no longer — it's probably worth little more than a few good memories.
What is the most reliable place to buy Pokemon cards? ›- Gamenerdz. ...
- Card Cavern Trading Cards. ...
- Full Grip Games. ...
- TCGPlayer. ...
- Troll and Toad. ...
- Untapped Games. ...
- Cool Stuff Inc. ...
- CCGCastle.
What are the 4 types of cards? ›
Today's 52-card deck preserves the four original French suits of centuries ago: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), and spades (♠).
What is a bomb in 13? ›A four of a kind and a double sequence of three cards are called bombs. Bombs can beat a single 2. A double sequence of four cards can beat a pair of 2s and a double sequence of five cards can beat three 2s. If a player has four 2s or a sequence of 3 to Ace, they immediately win the game.
Why are there 52 cards in a deck? ›52 cards represent 52 weeks in a year. Red and Black symbolize night and day. The four suits represent the four seasons; there are 13 cards in a suit to match the number of lunar cycles and 12 court cards that represent the 12 months of the year. If you add up all the symbols in a deck they add up to 365.