How to Sell Pokemon Cards in 2023 – Guide
Interested in learning how to sell Pokemon Cards?
You may have heard about the Pokemon shortage that started a year ago. While still a problem today, it seems to have ebbed a little bit. There are in fact ways to get Pokemon cards nearby at your local store. But it can still be a challenge.
Why is there a Pokemon card shortage?
There are multiple reasons for the Pokemon card shortage, but one of the biggest reasons is because Pokemon cards are worth a lot of money. This is the reason so many people are now learning how to sell Pokemon cards. And for those of us who happened to hold onto those shiny Charizards from eons ago, we might be surprised to find a stash of dollars lying under our beds in the form of binders filled with Pokemon cards.
While it’s easy enough to know that your Pokemon cards have value, it’s another thing to actually turn a profit selling them.
In this handy guide, I’m going to attempt to share everything I know on the subject of selling Pokemon cards and making a ton of money in the process.
Here we go.
How to Sell Pokemon Cards – A Journey
First of all, if you don’t know much about me yet, I’d advise you read a little bit about me in my about section. Now that that’s done, let’s talk about how I got into Pokemon. Well, I got into Pokemon the way most people of my generation got into Pokemon – by trading cards on the playground when I was younger than your kids are now.
Of course, eventually I grew up. I sold my Pokemon games and cards to pay for dates in high school. Like Andy in Toy Story, I forgot about the things of childhood. But, then, I came across news about Pokemon cards once again gaining popularity. I started tearing through my possessions looking for my old cards. Unfortunately, I was surprised to find out that many of the cards that I had sold ten years before were now selling for 10x the price I had sold them for. I couldn’t believe the increase in investment!
I happened to have some extra time on my hands for a few months and I wanted a hobby to keep myself busy with during this time so I figured I’d give flipping Pokemon cards a try.
How to Sell Pokemon Cards – Flipping Cards
Flipping Pokemon cards is similar to flipping houses. It means getting cards for cheap, and then selling them for more.
There are a few ways this can be done. To flip Pokemon cards, you either
Have saved them for a long time and can now sell them.
Bought singles for a low price and then resold them.
Found valuable cards in booster packs and then sell them.
If you are interested in flipping Pokemon cards, I would highly recommend to stay away from the third point on this list. If it were worth more to sell Pokemon cards you get from packs than it was to just sell singles, the Pokemon company wouldn’t be raking in millions if not billions of dollars in Pokemon card sales every year.
The odds that you will turn a profit from buying and opening Pokemon product is very slim if not impossible. It should not be the main source of any sort of income.
It is, however, possible to buy Pokemon cards for cheap and then sell them for a lot more.
Can You Make Money Flipping Cards from Boosters?
From my experience, you would be hard pressed to actually make money off of flipping cards that you got from booster packs. However, there is one big exception to this rule.
I have made some pretty good instant cash from cards I’ve opened during prereleases.
What Are Prereleases?
A Pokemon Prerelease is when a limited number of Pokemon booster packs and sets are made available to the general public. This is meant to give players a chance to experience the newest cards and wet their appetite for more cards to come.
However, what this also does is create an incredible demand for the latest and greatest cards and a very limited supply.
If you are going to look to flip some cards, it is off of these latest sets that you are going to want to do it. There’s a reason that during the height of the pandemic people were raiding the shelves of their local department stores to get these latest sets. During that specific timeframe between the prerelease and the general release, cards are at their greatest price.
When you get those cards, though, you are going to want to sell them fast. With each passing day as more and more packs are opened, cards drop in value. Eventually, they could go up again. But flipping cards is not about waiting for those prices to come up. It’s about making money fast.
How much money can you make from cards you get in prerelease? Well, I’ve sold individual cards, like the Charizard VSTAR Rainbow Rare, for upwards of $350 on prerelease night!
How to Sell Pokemon Cards – Buy Low, Sell High
Another strategy I’ve taken advantage of is to buy low and sell high. While it’s challenging to get really good cards on eBay for cheap, it can be done. For example, I once purchased one card that is worth about 200+ for 90 bucks, and then turned around and sold it for 200+.
Big flips like this, however, are rare. It’s much more likely that you’ll flip cards for a modest amount. Do it frequently enough, however, and those dollars start to add up!
How to Sell Pokemon Cards on eBay
Although there are plenty of platforms to sell Pokemon cards, I would suggest eBay. It’s free to get started, easy to use, and it has a huge customer base.
Once you’ve created your account, download the mobile app. It’s easier to list cards onto your eBay store if you have the mobile app. Simply take a picture of the card you want to sell, and enter it into the search. eBay will automatically find the card. When you see one like yours, just click “sell one like this”, and a lot of the info will be added for you.
How Much Should You List Your Pokemon Cards For?
It depends. If you are doing auction style selling, you are going to want to list your card for pretty low. I would recommend listening to eBay’s recommendations, but double check to make sure they aren’t off. Although it’s usually not a bad idea to start your bidding really low, if eBay is suggesting a starting bid that is higher than what your card is really worth, you know there’s something wrong and that you should adjust.
Keep in mind, setting up your card for an auction counts as a binding contract, so you have to be okay with whatever the card ends up selling for. There’s some risk involved here. Even though I’ve done countless auctions and think they are usually the way to go for most cards, if you are not willing to let a card go beneath a certain price, listing it as a “buy” now might work better for you.
Pokemon Card Condition Affects Price
One aspect to consider when selling your cards online is what condition they are in. Card condition is one of the biggest impactors of price, along with supply and demand. Cards in prestine condition tend to be rarer than ones in less good condition, so that also has something to do with the value.
In general, ungraded cards fall into a few specific categories, including:
Near Mint: mostly perfect.
Lightly Played: minor imperfections
Moderately Played: moderate imperfections
Heavily Played: heavy imperefections
Damaged: not really playable or collectable.
View our guide on how to assess the condition of your card.
Allow Offers
Allowing people to make offers on your card is a great way to sell your card fast. However, if you are short on time and don’t want to deal with handling multiple offers, you can opt out of having this feature enabled.
Shipping and Handling Fees
One of the reasons I love eBay so much is that it is great about handling shipping and handling fees. One word of advice – if you are selling cards for under $20, use the eBay stamped envelope option. It’s far cheaper than any other option out there, and it includes tracking.
Tracking is important because without it, customers can falsely claim that they never got the card. Not that most people would do that. But there’s always that one guy.
If you are selling cards over $20, you are going to need to go with first class mail.
How to Sell Pokemon Cards and Package Them Safely
One of the reasons that you don’t want to send cards worth more than $20 through eBay stamped envelope is that the eBay stamped envelope only allows for stamped flats. They need to be small enough to be sent through mail slots. The issue with this, however, is that sending mail in regular envelopes makes it easier for those cards to be damaged.
However, there are a few things you can do to help your cards stay safe.
Put them in a top-loader: a good, sturdy top-loader is necessary for shipping any Pokemon card.
Make sure you use a penny-sleeve: you are going to need to put your Pokemon card inside a penny sleeve before putting it in your top loader. This protects it from being nicked or damaged within the toploader.
A team bag then goes over the toploader and seals the card in. This keeps things from getting in there and damaging the card, and prevents it from slipping around.
Some people go the added length of tapping their card inside cardboard. I find this too time consuming for shipping a high volume of cards. I simply wrap it up within one envelope, and then place that envelope within another envelope. And I haven’t had any complaints.
With that done, and your envelope sealed, I like to add some packing tape over the seal to keep it from coming undone.
Print Your Label
I sell a lot of cards so I invested upfront in a label printer. This makes printing labels a cinch. You can also print directly from eBay, which makes the process very quick.
I got the K COMER thermal shipping label printer. It was a little tricky to get started as the instructions were not the best. But after some tinkering, it has worked like a charm!
How to Package Cards Over $20
To ship more valuable cards, you’re going to do the same thing as you did above except you are going to want to send your card within a foam lined mailer. This gives it an added layer of protection.
I’ve not encountered any issues in sending cards within a foam lined mailer, however some people still prefer added protections. As a general rule of thumb, if your card is under $100 in value, it’s probably safe to send in a foam mailer. If you’re nervous about sending a card above $100 this way, maybe wrap it in an added layer of bubble wrap and cardboard, or ask your customer what he or she expects.
And that’s it! That’s everything you need to know about how to sell Pokemon cards in 2023!
If you still have questions about how this is done and I haven’t answered them in this article, feel free to post your questions below! We update this post frequently so you might see your question answered in the blog!
