Summary
Earlier this year, Ipublished a report examining the current state of the Pokemon TCG. It found that between October and January, the price ofSword and Shield’smost expensive cards had increased by, on average, 42 percent, sealed products up by an average of 27 percent, and a selection ofScarlet and Violetcards up by an average of 84 percent. It’s a sordid state of affairs.
The report found a variety of reasons for these increases, including scalpers, investors, and flippers, the rise of the ‘Poke-tuber’, hype around the new sets, and the effect ofPokemon Trading Card Game Pocket.
It’s been a couple of months since that report, and I’m sad to share that things haven’t settled down. Many of those cards I originally looked at have held their higher value, and a bunch of new, seemingly random cards have skyrocketed in price over the last month or two.
Mantyke, Morpeko, And Magby Are Just Some Of The Pokemon Cards To See Huge Price Spikes
This time around, I decided to focus on just three expansions:Twilight Masquerade,Temporal Forces, andParadox Rift, and their prices between December and March 2025. While most major cards from these sets have seen some level of price increase over that period, I found that at least 25 of them had seen significant price increases, as seen below.
£2.93
£21.68
640
£3.60
£12.77
255
£5.11
£16.91
231
£7.95
£23.82
200
£6.63
£19.48
194
£5.08
£14.54
186
£7.94
£21.04
165
£12.22
£28.79
136
£9.77
£22.19
127
£7.31
£15.95
118
£11.05
£23.73
115
Altaria ex
£25.29
£54.15
114
£5.41
£11.58
£6.95
£14.12
103
£23.62
£45.50
93
£9.38
£17.99
92
£43.77
£82.40
88
£6.49
£11.91
84
£11.32
£20.43
80
£27.85
£47.52
71
£6.82
£11.37
67
£17.03
£28.35
66
Golisopod ex
£9.74
£14.39
48
£10.78
£15.13
40
£51.38
£65.31
27
Using data from Collectr, a card tracking app, I found that these 25 cards had risen by an average of 138 percent, or 114 percent, without the Iron Moth outlier.
It’s seemingly a random selection of cards, with Pokemon that are typically unpopular, like Loudred, Cinccino, and Vanillish, all seeing significant price increases. While there’s an argument to be made that many of these cards were undervalued, it’s hard not to figure something more suspicious is going on, given the sharp and sudden climbs. It’s that, or collectors are suffering from serious FOMO.
What’s stranger is that all three of these sets are pretty readily available. On the Pokemon Center UK website, both Paradox Rift and Temporal Forces Booster Boxes are available for purchase, and many LGS' have stock of all three sets in some capacity. I was personally able to pick up some Twilight Masquerade packs over the weekend from a corner shop and my local Tesco supermarket.
WithJourneyTogether on the horizon,Destined Rivalssoon to be released,Mega Evolutionsconfirmed to be returning, and the franchise’s 30th anniversary imminent, I’m concerned about the short-term future of thePokemon TCG.
