It’s holiday shopping season, which means it’s time to help parents decide what Pokemon cards they should buy for the holidays. If you know a kid between the ages of 7 and 15, there’s a very good chance that kid has asked for Pokemon cards for Christmas, Hanukkah, or another year-end holiday. But unlike a popular video game or toy, shopping for Pokemon cards can be a bit more difficult because there’s just so many products to choose from. Should you buy a kid an Elite Trainer’s Box, a booster pack, or one of the many gift boxes with names like “Evolving Powers ex Box” or “Meowscarada ex Tin” that sit on shelves? Luckily, we’re here to help you figure out the perfect Pokemon card product to get for kids.
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The Easy Answer: Buy Them Anything
Before we dive into specific products, let’s get the easy disclaimer out of the way first. Unless your kid is a hardcore Pokemon card collector, it’s likely that they’ll be happy with whatever you get them. And even if they’re a hardcore collector, there’s a very good chance that they’ll still be happy with whatever you buy them because no kid is going to have every card that comes in a specific Pokemon card set unless you’ve already been buying them hundreds of dollars of Pokemon cards….which probably means that you don’t actually need our help.
However, if you want to hedge your bets to make sure that you get your kid the perfect Pokemon card gift….ask them exactly what they want. Do they have a favorite Pokemon? Are they looking for a specific card for their deck? Are they looking to actually play the Pokemon Trading Card Game? Or do they just want the thrill of opening booster packs and show off whatever shiny card they end up with? All of these can help inform your decision on what to buy them…and will likely make your actual card buying a lot less stressful.
How Pokemon Card Sets “Work”
Before we dive into specific products, let’s assume that you know very little about Pokemon cards and want to understand what you’re about to buy. Pokemon cards, like baseball cards, Magic: The Gathering cards, or those Upper Deck Marvel cards you bought back in the early 1990s, come in booster packs. Each booster pack comes with a set number of cards, with each pack containing at least one card with a “rare” rarity or better. Yes, there are multiple rarities of Pokemon cards beyond “rare,” and you’re not guaranteed to get a “Hyper Rare” card (the highest rarity) even if you buy an entire box of booster cards.
The Pokemon Company releases between four to six sets of Pokemon cards per year, each of which add around 200 new cards to the Pokemon Trading Card Game. In addition to individual sets, the Pokemon Trading Card Game is divided into series of cards, which mostly affects how the cards are branded but also provide the opportunity for The Pokemon Company to update card designs, mechanics, and make other small changes. This year, the Pokemon Trading Card Game actually started a new series of cards, called “Scarlet & Violet” (the card series are typically named after the most recent Pokemon video games). So, cards containing the “Scarlet & Violet” branding were first published in 2023, while cards containing the “Sword & Shield” branding were originally published in 2022 or earlier. This mostly matters if you’re actually playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game (because older cards are eventually deemed ineligible to use in decks) but you may want to avoid “Sword & Shield” cards if you know that a kid has been collecting for a while, because that kid likely has a lot of those cards already.
I Just Want to Make Sure My Kid Has a Foil Pokemon Card
When parents ask me about Pokemon cards, the second question I’ll get asked after “What should I get my kid?” is “How do I guarantee that my kid gets a cool card?” After all, the best Pokemon cards all have a foil treatment, whether they’re normal foil cards, a Full Art foil card, or something even rarer. Prior to this year, the only way to “guarantee” getting a foil card prior to this year was to buy one of the boxed sets that specifically had foil cards included as promos, which is certainly a valid option but lacks the cool factor of opening a booster pack and getting a really cool card at random.
This year, The Pokemon Company made things a little bit easier for parents. Any booster pack with “Scarlet & Violet” branding is guaranteed to have a minimum of one foil card. Additionally, any “Scarlet & Violet” branded booster pack will also contain two “reverse foil” cards, with the possibility that one or more of those cards could be swapped out with a rarer kind of card (which will also have a foil treatment.) So, if you want to make sure that your kid gets a foil card, buy cards from the “Scarlet & Violet” series. It’s that easy.
How Do I Know If a Pokemon Card is Expensive?
Okay, we’re almost to the part where I just start recommending Pokemon card products, but before I do, I’m going to preemptively answer the third most common question I get asked when parents ask me about Pokemon cards, which is “How do I know if my kid gets an expensive Pokemon card?” After all, we’ve all heard the story about $100,000 Charizard cards, and most parents would probably have an ulcer about letting their kid put their dirty fingers on something that’s worth even a fraction of that.
The easy answer is that any card that your kid pulls from a booster pack you bought at a store is not going to be worth more than $100. There are very few modern cards that sell for more than $15-$20, and it’s rare for a modern card to jump to more than $50 or $60 once demand has settled down. If you want to make sure that your kid takes care of their Pokemon cards, be sure to buy either a binder or some sleeves for them to keep their cards in. A lot of kids love card binders and sleeving their cards anyways, so it’s a good investment for that blossoming collector.
If that’s not enough to dissuade you, here are the most expensive cards from each “Scarlet & Violet” set released this year. If they get one of these cards, make sure your kid takes care of it!
Scarlet & Violet: Miriam (251/198) – $25
Paldea Evolved: Iono (269/193) – $80
Obsidian Flames: Charizard ex (223/197) – $42
151: Charizard ex (199/165) – $124
Paradox Rift: Roaring Moon ex (251/182) – $110
Pokemon TCG Products for Those Who Want to Learn
Okay, now to the actual Pokemon card recommendations. If you have someone who wants to learn how to actually play the Pokemon Trading Card Game, there are two easy products that you can buy. For younger players, there is the My First Battle Deck, which comes with two simplified pre-constructed Pokemon decks. There are two options of which decks to buy, but keep in mind that the decks are specifically meant as an introduction and lack some of the more complicated mechanics found in normal Pokemon TCG products. The other is the Pokemon Battle Academy, a boxed set that contains three pre-made decks along with a detailed tutorial on how to play the game.
Pokemon TCG Products for the Collector
If you’re looking to make a big splash with your kid, we’ll suggest the 151 – Ultra Premium Collection. While most Pokemon card sets come with individual booster packs, the 151 set is a special set that only comes in boxed sets such as the Premium Collection. So, it’s much more likely that your little Pokemon fan doesn’t have most of the cards in this set, simply because it’s harder to get booster packs. This particular box comes with several promo cards that aren’t available anywhere else (except the secondary market) so if you want to hedge your bets, this is a great product to buy.
Pokemon TCG Products for the General Fan
If you need a quick solution and you’re stuck even after reading through this entire article, look for Paradox Rift products. Scarlet & Violet – Paradox Rift is the newest card set and introduces a lot of cool Pokemon cards to the game. Not only is the first set to include many of the Paradox Pokemon seen in the newest Pokemon card games, it’s also brand new so there’s a better chance that a booster pack contains cards that your kid doesn’t already have. An Elite Trainer Box is your best bet but the Booster Bundle is also a more affordable option.
