The short version
- Typical range: £3 – £400 — see the full pokemon cards value guide
- What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
- Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
- Category: Toys & Games
Before you photograph it
Ten minutes here is worth more than anything else you will do. Buyers are deciding between your listing and someone else’s, and preparation is what visibly separates the two.
- Identify the set symbol, card number and rarity symbol, and note whether the card is holo, reverse holo or a full art.
- Inspect corners, edges, centring and surface, and check the back for the correct blue colouring and print quality.
- Sleeve anything of value immediately and check whether any card is professionally graded.
The photographs that sell pokemon cards
Four photographs do almost all the work. Shoot in daylight, near a window, with the item against something plain — and do not use the flash, which flattens texture and hides exactly what buyers are trying to see.
- The card front straight on with no glare, filling the frame
- The card back, showing colour and print quality
- The corners and edges close up
- The set symbol and card number, plus any grading slab label
Photograph the flaws too. It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover. Buyers who can see the damage stop imagining something worse.
Writing the title and description
Set, card name, number and rarity: “Charizard VMAX, Champion’s Path 074/073, Secret Rare”. Card number and set are precisely how buyers search. State the condition honestly using standard terms and say whether it has been sleeved since pull.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Card name, set, card number and rarity
- Whether holo, reverse holo, full art or secret rare
- Condition across corners, edges, centring and surface
- Whether graded, by whom and at what grade, or raw and sleeved
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about pokemon cards. Answering them in the listing itself removes the back-and-forth, and answering them well when they do arrive is what turns an enquiry into a sale.
Photograph the back, the edges and the texture in good light so the buyer can judge. WishThrift does not authenticate items, so your photographs are the evidence.
Photograph the card straight on and let them measure the borders. Centring is a major grading factor and buyers assess it themselves.
Say whether it came straight from a pack into a sleeve or was used in a deck. Play wear on edges is obvious to collectors.
Pricing it so it actually sells
Start from the honest condition grade rather than the price you hope for. WishThrift listings use five grades — New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts — and what each grade means is worth reading before you choose, because grading up is the most expensive mistake sellers make. It does not raise the price; it produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else.
The pokemon cards value guide prices all five grades for this item. Pick your grade, take the figure, and if you sit between two grades price toward the lower one. Items priced honestly sell faster than items priced hopefully, and on a free platform there is no fee eating the difference anyway.
What you keep, compared
On a £201 sale — roughly the middle of the range for pokemon cards — here is what the commission-charging platforms would take, and what you would keep on each:
| Where you sell it | Fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| WishThrift | £0 | £201 |
| Poshmark | −£40 | £161 |
| eBay | −£27 | £174 |
| Mercari | −£20 | £181 |
| Etsy | −£13 | £188 |
Seller-side rates verified 26 Jul 2026 — Poshmark: 20% commission on sales of $15 and above; eBay: 13.6% final value fee, plus a per-order fee; Mercari: flat 10% selling fee; Etsy: 6.5% transaction fee, plus a listing fee and payment processing. Percentages are applied to the sterling figure above; the fixed per-order and processing charges those platforms add are quoted in their own currency and are not included here, so the real deductions are slightly larger. Full breakdown: marketplace selling fees compared.
Timing and getting it to the buyer
Very active market year round with spikes on new set releases. Scarce and graded cards sell within hours when priced to market; bulk commons sell slowly.
Sleeve, top-load and use a rigid mailer. A card that arrives bent is worth a fraction of one that does not, and this is the most common complaint in the category.
WishThrift does not process payments or arrange delivery — you and the buyer agree both directly — so confirm payment has cleared before the item leaves your hands, and keep the conversation on the site so there is a record of what was agreed.
Ready to list it? It takes about two minutes, costs nothing, and there is no commission when it sells — create a free account or see how selling works.
Frequently asked questions
How can I tell if a Pokemon card is genuine?
Check the back colouring and print sharpness, the texture of the card stock, the edge layer when viewed side on, and the font consistency. Photograph all of these clearly — WishThrift does not verify items, so the buyer relies on what you show them.
What are used Pokemon cards worth?
From pennies for bulk commons to several hundred pounds for scarce holos and graded cards. Always check individual values first. See the Pokemon cards value guide.
Should I sell cards individually or as a bundle?
Check every card first, then list anything of real value individually and bundle the rest. Selling a valuable card inside a bulk lot is the most expensive mistake in this category.
See also: what a used pokemon cards is worth · browse live toys & games listings · condition grades explained.