I opened more than £100 of Pokémon cards and I more than doubled my money

I’VE been a huge fan of Pokémon over the years, collecting and playing the games in almost every form they are available.

That’s why when Pokémon offered to send over some free TCG packs, I knew I had a great opportunity to see what I could pull.

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Of 300 cards only a few were worth more than a few quid.[/caption]

The Pokémon Company sent over 19 packs of TCG cards from Scarlet & Violet, Paldea Evolved, Obsidian Flames, 151, and Paradox Rift.

I rounded this out to 30 packs from the same sets, meaning I pulled 300 cards with a value of £120.

The fun in pulling Pokémon cards is finding those super rare cards that could be worth a lot of money.

And within the 300 cards I pulled, I found 15 that were worth more than £4 – the original cost of the pack.

Here’s all my best pulls from the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet TCG and how much they’re worth.

15. Vespiquen EX – Obsidian Flames Ultra Rare – £4.33

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Vespiquen is Ultra Rare but not a fan favourite.[/caption]

While this card is ‘Ultra Rare’, Vespiquen isn’t a fan-favourite, and this card doesn’t have much use on the competitive scene.

The Psychic-typing and impressive moves seem like they would come in handy but we haven’t seen it in any decks yet, leading to this low price.

14. Banette EX – Scarlet & Violet Ultra Rare – £5.15

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Pulling Banette gives me enough money for another pack.[/caption]

This Banette EX is a full art card, which raises its price, and it does come with one handy move.

Poltergeist can let you see your opponent’s hand, which can be very helpful for disruption.

13. Norman – Paradox Rift Ultra Rare – £5.26

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Full art trainer cards are worth more than you think.[/caption]

People underestimate the value of trainer cards like Norman, but if you pull a full art trainer card, it’s probably worth a bit of money.

Norman allows you to draw four cards, which is a lot in the Pokémon TCG, if your opponent is using an EX card – which let’s face it, they probably are.

12. Quaxwell – Paldea Evolved Illustration Rare – £5.54

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Full art cards are always worth something.[/caption]

The first Illustration Rare on our list, these full art cards are usually worth more than the pack they came in.

Quaxwell might not be worth much, but it beat out the full art Larvitar and Glimmora EX which didn’t pass the £4 mark.

11. Giacomo – Paldea Evolved Special Illustration Rare – £7.74

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Giacomo is full art and meta relevant.[/caption]

This Giacomo card has two benefits over our Norman card, the first is that this card art is obviously a lot cooler.

Giacomo is also very good at disrupting opponents, particularly Urshifu decks that use a lot of special energy.

10. Gimmighoul – Paradox Rift Illustration Rare – £8.14

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It’s useless in competition but still a cute card.[/caption]

Gimmighoul is cute but essentially a useless card. However, this doesn’t stop it from bringing in the big bucks.

A lot of people collect cards based on the art alone, and this card is a very pretty one.

9. Tropius – Paldea Evolved Illustration Rare – £8.30

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Beautiful art for a pretty standard Pokémon.[/caption]

Tropius is another card like Gimmighoul which has been blessed with lovely art but is useless to play with. 

Luckily, it still brings a higher-than-average price.

8. Garchomp EX – Paradox Rift Ultra Rare – £9.63

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Check out this water-type Garchomp.[/caption]

This is only the third best-selling Garchomp from the set, with the Special Illustration Rare selling for £32!

However, it can still be a useful card. For just one energy Garchomp deals 160 damage and lets you attach three fighting energy to your other ‘mons.

7. Super Rod – Paldea Evolved Hyper Rare – £10.55

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Super Rod is one of the more useful trainer cards.[/caption]

Hyper Rare is the rarest style of Pokémon card available, and means that it comes with this flashy gold background.

Super Rod might not be exciting to kid collectors, but it sets the competitive players’ hearts aflame.

6. Iron Hands EX – Paradox Rift Ultra Rare – £15.05

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Iron Hands EX is changing the whole meta.[/caption]

The rarest Iron Hands EX sells for more than twice this, but most importantly, both cards have the move Amp You Very Much.

This is a meta-defining card that can technically allow you to win the game in two turns.

5. Roaring Moon EX – Paradox Rift Double Rare – £15.25

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Even though it’s only a Double Rare, Roaring Moon is still worth a lot.[/caption]

I pulled the most common Roaring Moon EX, and the Special Illustration Rare is worth a shocking £87.

Its move Frenzied Gouging will let you instantly take out any one Pokémon giving it this high value.

4. Koraidon EX – Scarlet & Violet Hyper Rare – £15.44

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Koraidon is one of the box art legendaries for Scarlet and Violet.[/caption]

Hyper Rares will always be worth money, however, Fighting-type decks haven’t really taken off so Koraidon EX suffers the same issue as Garchomp.

These could both be very useful in the right deck, but we haven’t seen one on the big stage yet.

3. Chi-Yu EX – Paldea Evolved Special Illustration Rare  – £19.09

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One of the most beautiful cards ever drawn.[/caption]

This is one of the most beautifully illustrated cards of all time, hence why it’s going for such a high price.

People want this one just for the art, as the card isn’t quite as powerful as its video game counterpart.

2. Gholdengo EX – Paradox Rift Special Illustration Rare  – £37.67

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Full art cards prove their worth once more.[/caption]

It was nice pulling this card after pulling our little Gimmighoul, and I was frankly shocked to see it was so highly-priced.

However, with this steep price increase from the Chi-Yu EX I’ll take what I can get.

1. Charizard EX – 151 Special Illustration Rare – £93.33

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Here’s the best, most beautiful baby.[/caption]

Whenever there is a question in the Pokémon fandom the answer is always Charizard.

The Pokémon Company loves Charizard so much there are four different types of them, and about 30 different Charizard EXs.

It wasn’t shocking to find out that the Charizard card was worth the most, but it was shocking to see this within just the two 151 packs we opened.

Maths nerds will have figured out that these 15 cards are technically worth over £260 combined, and then there are the other 285 cards that I didn’t price up.

Some of these will be worth £1 or £2 but more than likely they are worth literally pennies.

Saying I doubled or even tripled my money however isn’t really correct as I still have all of these in my collection.

Making money from cards means a lot of time spent packaging them, taking care of them, and ultimately finding buyers who’ll pay the price.

That of course isn’t to mention all of the heavy lifting that Charizard did to even turn a profit.

If you are interested in Pokémon cards then check out our trip to The London Card Show.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.