A new clip from Antiques Roadshow shows off an impressive collection of original Pokemon TCG base set cards from a seller who doesn't seem to know what she has. The appraisal she winds up getting is impressive, to say the least, and may send other viewers through their closets looking for old Pokemon TCG binders.
It's no secret that Pokemon TCG values have soared in recent years. 2020 saw the worth of many cards go to record highs that had never been seen before, and the market is still very alive and active despite prices not quite being as high as they once were, although Japan is still having issues keeping Pokemon cards in stock. Much of the base set, the original 102 cards released for the trading card game, has naturally become highly coveted and increasingly rare over the years. That's what makes the binder brought in by an unsuspecting seller on Antiques Roadshow equal parts nostalgic and lucrative.
The clip shows appraiser Travis Landry detailing exactly what makes certain cards in the binder of the seller so valuable, as well as how the value may be affected by things like minting and wear. Overall, the seller has a fairly impressive collection with a number of shadowless cards along with the notoriously expensive holographic Charizard Pokemon card and multiple Mewtwos. The seller is fairly surprised when Landry appraises her binder at anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000, even stating that her friends told her it would only be worth around $50.
Pokemon card scalping became a pandemic of its own between 2020 and 2021. Stores couldn't keep new booster packs on the shelves as resellers flooded in to buy all the stock in hopes of finding one of the cards that reached obscene values during the market boom. The surge in prices has been terrible for hobbyists, but great for anyone, like the seller in the Antiques Roadshow clip, who might have an old collection lying around that they can part ways with. Prices have fallen a bit, though, as noted by the appraiser who notes that in late 2020 the seller could have gotten $5,000 to $8,000 just for the Charizard card.
Things have been calming down for the North American TCG market, but in Japan, the demand for new booster packs is still at an all-time high. Resellers have been such a problem for stores that some have actually implemented bans against adults buying Pokemon cards. The new booster packs, Clay Burst and Snow Hazard, have yet to reach shelves in the West, but there may be another influx in demand when they do.