Card value depends on rarity, condition, and demand. Look for the rarity symbol (star = rare) and check if it’s a holo, reverse holo, or something more special like full art, special art rare, or secret rare (usually with a number higher than the set total). Popular Pokémon like Charizard, Pikachu, or Eeveelutions tend to hold more value, especially in these special versions. Sleeving any holo or textured card is smart for protection. To check values, search the card’s name and set number on TCGPlayer or eBay. Even if you’re just collecting for fun, it’s nice to know if you pulled something rare!

You can keep just not worrying about the card values and enjoying the cards for what they are.

If you do want to check card prices, enter the card name and number into TCGPlayer, like "Pikachu 238":

https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/590027/pokemon-sv08-surging-sparks-pikachu-ex-238-191?Language=English

There are multiple sources you can use to determine what a card is worth. I’m new to the hobby myself but the two biggest sources that I believe most people would check are: TCGplayer and PriceCharting. They are two websites that look at what cards have actually sold for and determine a “market price”. Fortunately you can also download apps to help. These are a few apps I use: Rare Candy, Price Charting, Collectr, and ALT

Lots of collectors, fond memories and a great book of business behind it. Baseball cards were super common as one of the most important American sports for a long while, and the collectors are less common now, but are trading on their long, fond history with the sport or they came into it as a business later on as it evolved.

Pokemon collectors, although some are young professionals who got into it, are mostly of the age where they are passionate about the subject matter and collect now. Plus, Millennials are a generation gaining a lot of wealth, and almost all of us have fond memories of Pokemon (cards, Go, games, etc.).

It's a mix of nostalgia and real scarcity wrapped in a giant still-growing brand really.

Early prints were small, mint copies are rare, grading makes "perfect" ones even rarer and a global fanbase keeps demand replenishing as new players age into money.

Hype waves spike prices but markets cycle, and most cards won't fund retirement. Iconic truly scarce pieces tend to hold up best, but it's best to treat it like collecting first and investing second.

They hold value to people who have nostalgic feelings over Pokemon

Baseball cards, movie props, autographs...none of these things have much actual real world value

The value they hold is to the person who is buying it

Most are valued under $1. It's only the super rare stuff that people pay big bucks for to complete a collection. 

Some cards they only make a certain amount of, and people like to collect things they perceive as rare. Some people are willing to pay a lot for them

None of these are worth sending from a financial gain perspective. Maybe the Chansey but I wouldn’t grade any of them. Chansey is the best card there and only worth like $100 max in a PSA 10

Grade through GameStop with pro membership. It’ll be a good lesson in patience and diligence for both of you, as turn around times exceed 60 days.

The cards you posted, while cool, do not offer much financial upside for grading. If you got all 10s (you won’t) you wouldn’t even cover your costs for grading.

TBH, if I was getting into the hobby with my kids, I’d focus on binder collecting over slabs and grading. I’d go to shows and look for singles and open a couple packs for fun. I’d give my kid a budget of $25-$50 and say they can spend it however they want. I’d also show them that it’s ok to just look too.

No matter what opinion anyone tells you. Grade whatever it is you enjoy and want to protect. Either as mementos with your son, cool cards you like to look at, ect. If trying to do from a value standpoint, would suggest only grading the higher raw value cards. Not to mention even if the quality of the card is worth grading (ie centering, whitening, damage). With that being said the chansey and espeon wouldnt be bad choices imo if you like them

Some of your oldest cards look heavily damaged they aren't really going to be worth much if anything worthwhile

Tcgplayer.com for estimated values

Either TCGPlayer or eBay sold listings. Both should give you a good idea of the current market values of certain cards.

Really go to eBay and look at recently sold and if you are gonna sell it will give you an idea for what to sell it for

That feraligatr looks fake af, so does Elekid and Nidorino

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1. value here will refer to history of past transactions, eg, if a card has last sold for $5k, it's worth $5k. You can also look for available transactions, such as the same card being listed for $5.5k but not selling, vs the last sale price. This is neater when it comes to exchanges (where stocks, among other things, are traded) where there's an explicit bid-ask spread, but the principle is the same, the value is where the transactions are taking place.

2. There are multiple reasons why someone might purchase expensive Pokemon cards. Genuine interest/value is certainly a reason, and one that economics doesn't really tend to nitpick, economics just asks that utility functions be mathematically coherent and convenient, not that they make sense to other people. So is investment, there are certainly people who think they'll be worth more later. There are also people interested in what are called Veblen or positional goods, where the value comes from the status that comes with it- for the same reason as someone may get a Rolex to flaunt wealth, someone else might get a fancy Charizard or whatever (I had a couple cards in middle school, this may be a bad example) for the same reason. These goods may at first glance appear to violate supply and demand, but they don't when you explicitly separate value and price- for example, would someone looking to flaunt wealth be more likely to buy a Porsche when it's cheaper if the sale price is secret and everyone still thinks it's worth the original cost?

That makes sense then why I can’t I find them.

A lot of those cards look fake

Sort by eBay sold (slabbed by PSA/Beckett) are the two best companies for grading.

You can pm, I can help you value your cards. The slip you're talking is called grading, theres 3 main services, bgs psa and cgc.

the value on these cards don’t go up much unless they score a PSA 7-10, therefore you’d be losing money on the cost of grading. in this light it looks like the holo on the vulpix is quite scratched so it wouldn’t score that high.

some people get their sentimental cards graded just to protect them but if you just want to sell, i would sell them raw. close-ups of each card would help to gauge their condition.

very cute cards though! emolga is one of my favorite pokemon

Use the sites under rule 3 ;) >>>>

But yes Ebay/tcgplayer (if you are US)

Try to buy the card and see how much it is ������‍♂️

mavin.io

I didn’t know this type of question wasn’t allowed, my bad but thank you!!

You go on eBay and filter your search results for “sold listings” that will at least give you the prices consumers / ppl are actually paying.

I think PSA has a auction price page too for graded cards, but idk where they get that data from.