Buying, holding and selling: vintage against modern, fees, and what drives a price.
+23%sealed product, median over a year after costsOver the stretch our price data covers, sealed Pokémon product did beat singles, and by a clear margin after costs. Here's how big the gap was, how solid it looks, and the limits that keep it from proving sealed always goes up.
42%the rise a $100 card needs to break even onlineOnline both ways, a $100 card has to rise 42% in a year before you make a cent, while one bought at a show and sold to another collector at market can slip a little and still break even. We priced eight ways to buy and sell across 44,224 card-months to show which costs least, and where the show math falls apart.
+26%Wizards-era cards, median over two years after costsVintage Pokémon cards were the steadiest era in our price data, not the most profitable one, and cards from 2007 to 2016 did better over two years. Below are the typical returns after costs for six eras, how widely each one swung, and what the numbers can't tell you.
33%the Pokémon's share of the price gaps we can explainScarcity is part of what makes a Pokémon card expensive, but the Pokémon on it and its set matter more. Using September 2026 prices for 12,423 cards, here's how much each thing explains and what the data can't show.
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