The Pokémon card boom is being driven by grown-ups buying for themselves. In one survey 19% of American adults had bought cards for themselves in six months, and three in four of them do not play the game. They are willing to pay over the odds: English boxes released in 2025 sold in their first month at 1.52× the list price, where the 2023 sets had sold at 0.64×. The Pokémon Company (TPC) does not collect that premium. It goes to whichever shop or reseller had the stock, and TPC’s answer has been to print more and limit purchases while leaving its list price alone.
The buyer is an adult who collects
Circana asked adults in March 2025 whether they had bought Pokémon cards for themselves in the previous six months. Nearly one in five had. A quarter of them play, which leaves about 14% of all adults buying cards they will never put on a table, against about 5% who buy and play. Circana says most collect or display, and some buy in bulk to resell. Fig. 1 shows the split.
One in five American adults bought Pokémon cards for themselves, and three in four of those do not play
Share of adults who bought Pokémon cards for themselves in the six months to March 2025, split by whether they play. One Circana survey; adults buying for children are left out.
- All adult buyers
- Buyers who do not play
- Buyers who play
Show the numbers
| Adults in the survey | All adult buyers, % of adults | Buyers who do not play, % of adults | Buyers who play, % of adults | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bought cards for themselves | – | – | ||
| Bought and do not play | – | – | ||
| Bought and play | – | – |
All adult buyers. Circana’s omnibus survey of March 2025, published in a US toy-industry release: adults who bought Pokémon cards for themselves in the previous six months. Adults buying for children are not counted.
Buyers who do not play. Three quarters of the buyers, on Circana’s statement that a quarter of them play. The survey says most collect or display and some buy to resell.
Buyers who play. A quarter of the buyers.
The spending fits the survey. Circana counted $2.5bn of Pokémon toy sales at American tills in 2025, cards included, up 87% on the year before and the largest of any toy property. Those who play the paper game are counted on Events.
Sets now open above list and give part of it back
From 2021 to 2024 the median new English booster box opened below its list price. Fig. 2 follows the median box of each year’s sets from release, on TCGplayer’s market price. The 2021–22 sets opened at 0.76× list and the 2024 sets at 0.67×. The 2025 sets opened at about one and a half times list, 2.4× the level of 2023, and the two 2026 sets with prices on record opened at 1.45–1.52× on eBay.
A set that opens above list then falls. The four English sets since 2021 that did so lost a median 36% from their launch peak within three months; sets that opened below list in 2022 and 2024 lost a median 7%. The 2026 products fell 18–26% by late August, inside the range of the earlier four, and the boxes still stood at 1.13–1.24× list. The fall that made headlines in the summer of 2026 was therefore the ordinary path of a set that opens high. What changed in 2025 is the level it opens at.
The median English set opened below list until 2024; since 2025 sets open near one and a half times list, then slip
Booster-box market price as a multiple of list price, by months after release, median of each year’s sets. Dashed pale lines are two 2026 sets on eBay sold prices. 1× is list.
- 2021–22 sets
- 2023 sets
- 2024 sets
- 2025 sets
- Chaos Rising, 2026 (eBay sold prices)
- Pitch Black, 2026 (eBay sold prices)
- Estimate
The 2025 line rests on two sets and the 2026 lines on one each, so read the level and direction and ignore the second decimal.
Built from and .Show the numbers
| Months after release | 2021–22 sets, × list | 2023 sets, × list | 2024 sets, × list | 2025 sets, × list | Chaos Rising, 2026 (eBay sold prices), × list | Pitch Black, 2026 (eBay sold prices), × list | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release | |||||||
| 1 | – | ||||||
| 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 3 | – | – | |||||
| 4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 6 | – | – | – | – |
2021–22 sets. Median of five sets (Evolving Skies, Fusion Strike, Brilliant Stars, Lost Origin, Silver Tempest); four at six months. Month-end TCGplayer market price over the list price of the day. 1× is list price.
2023 sets. Median of four sets; three at one month. No six-month reading.
2024 sets. Median of three sets. They opened below list and were above it by six months.
2025 sets. Median of only two sets (Journey Together, Destined Rivals), with readings at release and one month.
Chaos Rising, 2026 (eBay sold prices). Midpoints of eBay sold ranges reported by ICv2 at release in May 2026 and in late August, over the $161.64 list. A different price basis from the cohort lines, and a launch-week peak.
Pitch Black, 2026 (eBay sold prices). As for Chaos Rising: release in July 2026 and late August.
The premium is collected after TPC has been paid
TPC sells at list in its own Pokémon Center shops. Everything above list is charged further down the chain, as Fig. 3 sets out. A discount hobby site listed a 2026 box at 1.18× list and GameStop shelved boxes at 1.49×. A reseller who bought at list and sold on eBay at the 2026 launches cleared 25% to 32% of list after eBay’s 13.25% fee and before shipping, on our estimate. By late August the same trade made between a loss of 2% and a gain of 8%, and the eBay price had dropped under GameStop’s shelf price.
Shops and resellers charge more than list, and a shop’s price can end up above the resale price
Price of an English booster box as a multiple of list price, by where it is bought, late 2025 and 2026. Shop asking prices and eBay sold prices.
- TPC’s own store
- Shops
- Resale, range
Show the numbers
| Where it is bought | TPC’s own store, × list | Shops, × list | Resale, range, × list | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon Center (TPC’s own) | – | – | ||
| A discount online hobby shop | – | – | ||
| GameStop shelf, 2025–26 | – | – | ||
| eBay, 2026 sets at launch | – | – | (1.45–1.52) | |
| eBay, 2026 sets by late August | – | – | (1.13–1.24) |
TPC’s own store. TPC sells at list in its own Pokémon Center stores and online.
Shops. Asking prices against the $161.64 list: GameStop’s booster display in November 2025 and March 2026; Miniature Market’s Pitch Black preorder in October 2026. Shops set these themselves.
Resale, range. Booster boxes of Chaos Rising and Pitch Black: eBay sold prices reported by ICv2, against the $161.64 list.
We put all Pokémon card resale at $1.3–4.1bn a year, or ¥194–613bn. The benchmark is what shoppers pay for new cards at list, ¥493–680bn, and what TPC’s group books from cards, ¥223–370bn. Resale is therefore worth 29–124% of what the shelf takes. Whatever its size, it is the same cards sold a second time, and none of it is TPC’s revenue.
Japan runs on its own clock
Japanese boxes carry a larger premium and lose it on a different schedule. Fig. 4 plots flea-market price estimates for the median box of each year. The 2023 sets opened at 2.31× list and were at 0.60× a year later. The 2024 sets opened lower, at 1.30×, sank to 0.74× at three months and recovered to 1.20× by twelve. The 2025 sets opened at 2.23× and still stood at 1.81× after six months. The median English set opened below list in two of those three years.
The first set at the higher pack price of May 2026 (the price ladder is on Trading cards) was Abyss Eye. It opened at 2.42× list, was at 1.43× after three months and at 1.37× after five. The second, Storm Emeralda, went out on 31 July by lottery at Pokémon Center and with a ten-pack limit at Lawson. Its three-month mark passed at the end of October 2026 and we have no price reading for it yet.
Japanese boxes from 2023 and 2025 both opened above twice list; only the 2025 sets held most of it
Japanese box price as a multiple of list price, by months after release, median of each year’s sets. Flea-market estimates from one tracker. Dashed: Abyss Eye, a single 2026 set.
- 2023 sets
- 2024 sets
- 2025 sets
- Abyss Eye, 2026 (a single set, estimate)
- Estimate
Show the numbers
| Months after release | 2023 sets, × list | 2024 sets, × list | 2025 sets, × list | Abyss Eye, 2026 (a single set, estimate), × list | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release | |||||
| 1 | |||||
| 2 | – | – | – | ||
| 3 | |||||
| 4 | – | – | – | ||
| 5 | – | – | – | ||
| 6 | – | ||||
| 7 | – | – | – | – | |
| 8 | – | – | – | – | |
| 9 | – | – | – | – | |
| 10 | – | – | – | – | |
| 11 | – | – | – | – | |
| 12 | – | – |
2023 sets. Median of six sets. Box prices are flea-market estimates from PRICE BASE, not observed sales. 1× is list price.
2024 sets. Median of five sets; they rose again by twelve months.
2025 sets. Median of six sets. The twelve-month reading is left out because it falls inside the April 2026 price jump.
Abyss Eye, 2026 (a single set, estimate). The first ¥200-a-pack set, against its ¥6,000 list price, May to October 2026.
TPC answers with print and purchase rules, and leaves list price alone
A seller facing buyers who pay double could raise its price. TPC has chosen otherwise, and its own notices show it. Of 12 shortage notices on its Japanese card site between April 2023 and June 2026, 8 promised more production or made-to-order runs, two warned against resale and two tied lotteries to identity checks. None changed a price. Fig. 5 counts them. In 2026 it said it was considering My Number card checks for priority lotteries, and it reserved most of the winning places in its thirtieth-anniversary lottery for verified applicants.
Twelve shortage notices in Japan since 2023 promised reprints or buying rules, and none raised the price
Shortage notices on TPC’s Japanese card site, April 2023 to June 2026, by what they announced. The count is a minimum.
Show the numbers
| What the notice announced | Shortage notices on the company’s Japan site, 2023–2026, notices | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Supply: more production, reships | ||
| Warnings against resale | ||
| ID-verified allocation | ||
| List-price changes |
Shortage notices on the company’s Japan site, 2023–2026. Twelve notices, April 2023 to June 2026. The count is a minimum: only pages that were fetched. The two list-price rises of 2022–2026 came in separate notices that cited costs, not shortages.
The one recent price rise makes the same point. The Japanese pack went from ¥180 to ¥200 for sets from May 2026, an 11% step that TPC attributed to raw-material costs, on a product whose first box then resold at well over twice list. The purchase limits on record at other companies’ shops were set by those shops. GameStop allows one new product per customer, Bic Camera asks for a My Number card, and GEO makes lottery winners accept a one-year resale ban.