The Pokémon trading card game (TCG) market is red-hot and has evolved—much like the titular monsters—beyond its playground hobby roots into a high-stakes alternative asset. You know what I mean if you’ve ever tried to purchase a set from the Pokémon Center: the long queues are ridiculous. The market potential for these cards has never been higher. On Feb. 16, 2026, Logan Paul broke trading card records by selling his PSA 10-graded Pikachu Illustrator card (and diamond-encrusted slab-holder) for a dizzying $16.49 million. It’s a flip for the record books, and you can join the party by making flips of your own. With Pokémon’s big 30th anniversary in full swing, use this guide as your roadmap to navigate the wild and wonderful world of selling Pokémon cards online. These recommended apps and services will help you price, grade, and sell cards—and swiftly ship them to buyers.
1. Price Your Pokémon Cards With TCGPlayer and Other Apps
Knowing your card’s worth is important before listing it for sale. The popular TCGPlayer app (available for Android and iOS) is a valuable resource. Its handy scanning feature lets you quickly identify cards and view real-time pricing data based on recent sales completed on TCGPlayer. Each listing features market price history, recent sales, the number of cards available, and other useful metrics.
Searching for cards and sales data in the Collectr app (Credit: Collectr/PCMag)
You should gather data from multiple resources to better assess a card’s value. Like TCGPlayer, Collectr is an Android and iOS app that lets you browse card listings and metrics. Alternative apps include Alt and Card Ladder. Alt is a great listing and auction app that focuses heavily on graded cards (more on that in a bit). Card Ladder has listings, too, but offers a subscription for tracking and growing your card collection. Of course, eBay never fails to feature Pokémon card listings, so make it a point to check the prices for sold cards. Note that some services double as platforms for selling your cards, streamlining the selling process.
Armed with this information, you can establish a baseline selling price. But before moving on to that step, you must consider grading your Pokémon cards to amass big bucks.
2. Grade Your Pokémon Cards to Add Value
Say you snag a rare Special Illustration Charizard ex from the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet 151 set, which currently goes for more than $300 raw as of this writing. You’ll want it graded by an authentication company to get the full value from a sale. The most high-profile service is Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). You’ll often see PSA-graded cards for sale online. PSA has Android and iOS apps for scanning cards and submitting grading orders. It also lets you track these orders and even post your listing on eBay for easy selling.
A graded Pokémon card gives it far more legitimacy. Why? The process verifies the card’s authenticity and gives it a quality grade (i.e., Heavily Played, Mint, or Gem Mint), making it more valuable than an ungraded card. The process requires time, so it may take 15 to 90 business days for your Pokémon cards to receive a grade and be returned to you, depending on the submission tier.
Grading isn’t free. PSA charges $32.99 to grade a single card. A PSA Collectors Club subscription (starting at $149 per year) drops this price to $24.99 per card with bulk orders of at least 20 cards. There is also an upcharge if the card is worth more than $500. This means that if you submit a card for $32.99, but it receives a PSA 10 worth more than $1,000, PSA will upcharge you to its highest tier (the $64.99 Value Max) before shipping the now-slabbed card to you. It is very important that you pre-screen your cards with the apps mentioned in the section above, and purchase the appropriate grading tier to avoid any mid-process upcharge.
Registering a card for PSA grading via the mobile app (Credit: PSA/PCMag)
Group submission is a good way to mitigate subscription and pricing fees. PSA dealers run these submissions and aggregate cards from multiple collectors into one batch. You can browse online for local hobby leagues and hobby shops (such as Bleecker Trading in New York City) that offer group submissions. GameStop (yes, the video game store) also offers group card submissions.
If you want to swing a profit, there’s no financial incentive to grade Pokemon cards that sell for less than a grading fee—unless you’re confident the card will increase in value later. Don’t bother sending inexpensive cards for grading; sell these raw or in bulk instead.
You should also consider alternative services that may offer lower-cost grading. Beckett (now owned by PSA’s parent company), Certified Collectibles Group (CGC), and Sportscard Guaranty Corporation (also owned by PSA’s parent company) are other options. Shop around to find a grading service that fits your budget.
That said, if you pull a rare Pokémon card and want cash now, you don’t necessarily need to get it graded, provided you’re OK with not getting full value on the sale. List it with high-quality photos on eBay or social media; someone may take it off your hands.
3. Sell Your Pokémon Cards Online
You’ve researched your Pokémon cards and know their worth, whether graded or not. Now you’re ready to sell. But where should you list them? There are many options. If you’re comfortable working through traditional selling apps, check out Alt, eBay, or TCGPlayer. If you’re big into social media, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatNot let you sell to live viewers.
The selling process is fairly simple. The TCGPlayer app has a scanner to quickly identify cards and pull up market details. Then, you create a detailed listing title that states the card’s name, language, grading, and signature information. Ensure the listing’s description includes the necessary card descriptor language, damage, grading or modifications, and quantity. Publish it to go live and let the community seek it out.
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Selling a card using the TCGPlayer app (Credit: TCGPlayer/PCMag)
If you use social media, remember that interaction and engagement are key. For example, you should post Pokémon cards on an Instagram feed and discuss their grades. Likewise, Facebook has numerous groups packed with buyers, collectors, and sellers. WhatNot, on the other hand, is a unique auction and marketplace that combines live feeds and auctioning with audience engagement. It also lets you run giveaways and raffles, making it a fun alternative to traditional selling platforms. Similarly, TikTok users can create a shop to sell their inventory by leveraging the platform’s robust live-streaming and video features.
As vanilla as it sounds, eBay is often your best tool for selling Pokémon cards. Use the Buy it Now selling option to choose a specific card price. If you have many cards you’d like to sell quickly, use Auctions to let people bid on your stack. You can quickly establish a good reputation by selling honestly and providing accurate card descriptions.
All selling services have commissions and fees to consider. Long story short, eBay, TCGPlayer, and the like all take a cut from your sales. Shipping fees are another factor. You may want to entice buyers with free shipping, but consider the out-of-pocket shipping costs. Be sure to carefully review the seller fees from services like eBay and TCGPlayer to understand the additional fees you might incur.
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4. Pack Your Pokémon Cards
You want the cards you sell to arrive in the best possible condition. Damage during shipping is an easy way to ruin your reputation, so use protection. BCW and UltraPro are the big names in the card-protection space.
Penny sleeves and team bags are the absolute baseline protections. Penny sleeves (roughly $4 for a pack of 100) can hold up to a dozen cards, but these are most commonly used to protect a single card. Team bags (roughly $6 for a pack of 100) can hold between 25 and 75 cards, depending on the size. These coverings prevent surface damage.
(Credit: Amazon/PCMag)
For extra security, tape the penny sleeves or team bags shut with painter’s tape (the blue type) to keep your cards from slipping out of the opening. Painter’s tape is a good choice because its adhesive is neither particularly strong nor particularly sticky, making it easy to remove without potentially damaging anything.
Selling an indvidual card? Slide the sealed penny sleeve into a top loader for extra protection. Top loaders are highly durable plastic cases, and a fantastic choice for safeguarding individual cards. You can pick up a pack of 25 top loaders for roughly $5. As a general rule, pack your cards like you would expect to receive them.
5. Ship Your Pokémon Cards
Depending on the card’s value, you may want to take additional steps to protect it. If the cards are inexpensive (say, under $20), simply slip those top loaders or team bags into a padded envelope for shipping. If they cost more than $20, sandwich the top loaders or team bags between two pieces of cardboard and secure them with painter’s tape or rubber bands. Place the cards into a bubble mailer envelope and ship them via a courier, such as FedEx, UPS, or USPS. If you want additional security (or are shipping cards in something larger than a large envelope), USPS Ground Advantage handles packages and includes $100 in insurance per label.
If you own a printer, you can print labels and prepare the envelope or box at home. This saves you from standing in line at the post office. Simply place your package in the mailbox or a USPS drop-off location. Going the FedEx or UPS routes means you can schedule a pickup time online.
Finally, for more on selling Pokémon cards—or pretty much anything else—check out our guide on how to sell on eBay.
About Our Expert
Gabriel Zamora
Senior Writer, Software
Experience
In 2014, I began my career at PCMag as a freelancer. That blossomed into a full-time position in 2021, and I now review email marketing apps, mobile operating systems, web hosting services, streaming music platforms, and video games as a senior writer. I’m a graduate of Hunter College, a hard-core gamer, and an Apple enthusiast.
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