The newest edition of Antiques Roadshow in the United States included Pokémon cards, making us wish we hadn’t thrown away our collection.
Viewers of the show, which airs on PBS in the United States, were astounded to learn how much the trading cards can get at auction over 30 years after they originally appeared on stores.
The collector described how her mother paid only $35 (£27.69) for the entire set of cards in the late 1990s as she suspected her daughter was “taking advantage of” while trading the popular cards with her pals as a kid.
Expert Travis Landry noted that the collection up for sale was the complete set of 102 cards initially produced in the United States in 1999.
He told the collector: ‘You did take really good care of them, they do have some light wear so in the world of trading I’d say they’re in the 8.0, 8.5 [range], you might have a nine in there.’
Giving his expertise on how much he thinks the collector could fetch for the cards, Travis said: ‘The shadowless Metwo, easily in its current shape ungraded is a $800-$1200 (£632-£949) card.’
He continued: ‘We look at your Charizard, not only is it Charizard, it’s also a shadowless Charizard. That card alone in its current condition is going to be in the $2000-$3000 (£1582-£2373) range.’
Yep, for one card.
There was some slight bad news, however, when Travis continued: ‘The Pokémon market is extremely volatile. It is a market that blossomed through the pandemic.
‘I hate giving you the womp-womp news on the backside but your Charizard in this shape less than a year ago was easily a $5000-$8000 (£3956-£6329) card.
‘At the peak of the market, in November 2020 to March, April 2021, we were seeing this card hit as high as $15000 (£11868).’
‘Your Nidoking is shadowless, your Gyarados is shadowless, plus the other mix, you have some excellent jungle holograms, you have a lot of fossil cards in there,’ Travis added as he went through the remainder of the collector’s cards.
‘There’s approximately 150 cards in your binder. Conservatively at auction, we would say that your binder would be in the $5000-$10000 (£3956-£7912) range.’
The collector couldn’t hold back her excitement as she said: ‘Wow, much more than I was expecting.’
She added: ‘My friends told me $50 (£39.56) for the whole binder.’
Viewers took to YouTube to share their own disbelief, with one writing: ‘I sold a binder twice the size of this with only the best cards at a garage sale for $3. Still punching myself.’
A second asked: ‘I have a collection much like this. Where can I sell it?’
