August 2025 Pokémon Market Report
Ebeus33 | August 2025 Pokémon Market Report
Hey Trainers - Welcome to the very first Ebeus33 Monthly Pokémon Market Report!
I'm Josh - collector since before I could spell Charizard, seller for the past few years. I started my shop when I got tired of overpriced listings, flaky shipping issues, and unclear guidance within the community. Now I'm here with my own business to help you snag great cards at fair prices, find buyers for cards you're ready to part with, and provide guidance on grading.
Every month, I'm bringing you the inside scoop on the Pokémon card world - the real trends, the sets worth chasing or chilling with, my favorite acquisitions, and investment plays I'm eyeballing.
Market Trends & Hot Takes
Grading is on absolute overdrive right now.
In the first half of 2025, Pokémon cards made up 97 of PSA's top 100 most-submitted cards. The non-sports category overall is up year-over-year. Translation? Everyone and their Snorlax are sending their cards in to get slabbed.
The prices? They're not just creeping up, they're sprinting! On average, Pokémon card prices are up almost 46% in 2025 so far. That's faster growth than some of the hottest tech stocks, and way better returns than most traditional investments.
What does that mean for you as a collector? Well, the market's hot - maybe too hot. When grading spikes this hard and prices shoot up this fast, we start hearing whispers about a "bubble". That's when prices are inflated by hype and FOMO rather than long-term demand.
But here's the thing: Pokémon has weathered spikes before, and the truly iconic cards (think vintage grails or unique art promos) tend to hold value.
The trick is knowing whether you're buying a forever-card or just catching a hype wave.
Main Takeaways:
- Lots of "hype" in the market right now -- some cards are inflated or even being shilled!
- Long-term, truly iconic cards will correct, and then recover.
- Evidence: PSA 10 SWSH Alts recovering from early 2025 dip
Set Radar
Black Bolt & White Flare
Let's talk about the Scarlet Violet curtain call.
These aren't your standard expansion sets. They're twin mini-sets built on pure Unova nostalgia, pulling directly from the Black and White era that dropped in 2011. If you collected back then, these designs hit
hard:
sharp monochrome borders, artwork that feels like high-contrast storyboards, and full art variants that are
basically frameable.
I got my hands on the Black & White cards from this set earlier this month, and let me tell you - the texture, the color work, they way they pop in hand? Chef's kiss!
As for the market side:
- Right now, singles from these sets are floating between $8-$30 for standard arts and $40-$80+ for the more desirable full arts.
- The chase cards - especially the Black Zekrom EX & White Reshiram EX alternate arts - have dropped from $170 to $130 raw, while their BWR rarity counterparts have settled around $250 (for the Japanese B&W sets) from an astonishing $500 release-day price on the BWR Zekrom raw card.
- English, on the other hand, is brand new, so prices are still settling. Expect a slight dip as more supply hits the market over the next month or two, but long-term, I see these as a collector's set with strong staying power. They're not just another expansion -- they're a love letter to a specific era and Pokémon doesn't do that often.
If you're a sealed collector, a Black Bolt/White Flare box might be one to stash. If you're a singles hunter, grab your favorites now while the market's still soft from release hype.
Main Takeaways:
- Japanese B&W alternate art & BWR singles are a BUY
- English B&W alternate art & BWR singles -> Can wait a couple weeks, but still a good time to get in (if you don't mind a minor, temporary dip)
- Sealed B&W ETBs are a BUY (especially Pokémon Center exclusive ETBs!)
Mega Evolutions Are Back and Trending Up
The Pokémon TCG is seeing a resurgence of Mega Evolutions. In Japan, the dual sets Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia just released on August 1, 2025, marking the first return of the Mega Evolution mechanic in TCG since 2016. This pair of sets launches a new "MEGA" block (concluding the Scarlet Violet era) - notably, all ten Pokémon EX in these sets are Mega Evolution cards, each giving up three prize cards when defeated.
The renewed focus on Megas has caused a spike in interest (and prices) for older Mega cards. For example, the Celebrations reprint of M Rayquaza-EX saw a price jump and continued climbing, likely thanks to hype for Mega Evolution's imminent return.
An English "Mega Evolution" expansion is also officially slated for release on September 26, 2025, bringing the Mega mechanic back to the West with 10 Mega Evolution EX cards.
Do you think the old Mega Evolution cards will continue to climb in value as this new era unfolds?
Main Takeaways:
- Japanese Mega sets dropped on 8/1/25
- English Mega set due to drop 9/26/25
My Recent Pick Ups & Highlights
Mewtwo & Mew GX (Alternate Art, 2019): I recently picked up this tag team in CGC 9.5 condition, which I decided to crack out of its slab and submit to PSA in hopes of a PSA 10.
The reasoning is clear: PSA 10 examples of this card command a significantly higher prices than a CGC 9.5. In fact, recent sales show PSA 10s fetching around $1,000, whereas new-label CGC 9.5 copies tend to sell around $400. The value gap is substantial, so if the card crosses to a PSA 10, it could dramatically increase its market value.
I bought a PSA 10 for $650 back in early May, and I paid $650 for this old blue label CGC 9.5 a couple of weeks ago. Factoring in taxes and grading costs, if this card gets a PSA Gem Mint 10, I will be in at $700 for BOTH of these cards, today worth $1,000 each!
It was a little sad to crack an old blue label, but but PSA's gem mint grade often carries a premium in the current market, even over other companies' 9.5/10 grades.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that PSA 10!
Luigi Pikachu "Poncho" Promo (2016): Another exciting addition is a Luigi Pikachu Special Box promo - the adorable Pikachu-in-Luigi-costume card. I acquired a BGS 10 Pristine copy of this card, which comes with some wild population stats.
The PSA 10 population is 2,036 copies. For context, the companion Mario Pikachu promo has a PSA 10 pop of 1,957, so Luigi is in the same ballpark. However, only 31 of the Luigi Pikachu cards have ever attained a BGS 10 Pristine grade (with just 2 of those receiving the coveted Black Label!)
The price disparity underscores how special those top grades are: A PSA 10 Luigi Pikachu is valued around $8.8k, a BGS 10 around $11.5k, but a Black Label 10 shoots into the stratosphere — with a recent auction finishing at $30,600 back on May 26th of 2025 — one more recent estimate valued it at around $57k!
And that's only if you can convince one of the two people who own one to part with it!
That premium reflects the extreme rarity of a perfect "quad 10" card. The one I picked up is only 0.5 subgrade points shy of a Black Label (one 9.5 subgrade and all others 10). It's crazy that a mere half-point in one subcategory is the difference between thousands and tens of thousands of dollars in value. Regardless of the half point, this Luigi Pikachu is nearly perfect, and a true centerpiece for my collection.
Other Notable Pickups: Rounding out the haul are a few smaller (but still awesome) grabs: a 2016 XY Black Star Promo Gengar EX Holo (graded PSA 9), a 2019 Japanese Sun & Moon Espeon & Deoxys GX Tag Team (PSA 10), and a 2022 Japanese Umbreon McDonald's promo (PSA 9).
These additions span multiple eras and regions, adding some nice variety to the collection. Each of these might not be headline stealers on their own, but they're great pickups that bolster the collection's depth and offer future upside.
COMING SOON
Stay tuned for a fun new tool I'm cooking up - a handy flowchart to help decide whether or not you should grade a card. If you've ever been on the fence about sending in a card for grading, our flowchart will walk you through the decision process in an easy, visual way. Keep an eye on my socials for the full reveal soon!