Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: battle styles, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, tyranitar
Pokémon TCG Value Watch: Battle Styles In October 2022
The Pokémon TCG is an ever-changing and unpredictable market. Over the past two years, we've seen renewed interest in the hobby due to a number of factors, including the 25th Anniversary, strong Sword & Shield-era sets featuring stunning Alternate Arts, influencers, box breaks, COVID-19 lockdown pushing people to find hobbies, and more. For a time, sets and cards that were readily available quickly became difficult to find. Now that the hype is settling down, let's see where modern sets stand. Every month, I will do an installment of this series, Pokémon TCG Value Watch. This series is not financial advice but is rather a way to help collectors know the trajectory of a card's availability so that Pokémon TCG completionists like myself know when to strike. Today, let's see how the cards of Sword & Shield – Battle Styles, which came out in March 2021, are doing now in October 2022.
Here are the top valued cards of Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Battle Styles with market values observed on TCGPlayer as of this writing:
- Tyranitar V Alternate Art 155/163: $77.38
- Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX Alternate Art 170/163: $53.96
- Empoleon V Alternate Art 146/163: $47.81
- Single Strike Urshifu VMAX Alternate Art 168/163: $28.76
- Level Ball Gold Secret Rare 181/163: $18.02
- Shiny Houndoom Gold Secret Rare 179/163: $14.32
- Rapid Strike Urshifu V Alternate Art 153/163: $13.81
- Single Strike Urshifu V Alternate Art 151/163: $13.26
- Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX Rainbow Rare 169/163: $12.47
- Phoebe Full Art Trainer Supporter 161/163: $11.10
- Corviknight VMAX Rainbow Rare 171/163: $10.90
- Empoleon V Full Art 145/163: $10.55
- Single Strike Urshifu VMAX Rainbow Rare 167/163: $10.43
- Cheryl Rainbow Rare Trainer Supporter 173/163: $9.65
- Cheryl Full Art Trainer Supporter 159/163: $9.37
The Empoleon V Alternate Art is way up. As recently as August and for months steadily before that, this card was in the low $20s. Last month, it shot up to the $30s and is now approaching $50. This is a market correction, as this was quite a low value for an Alternate Art, especially of a Starter. I don't see it going nearly as high as the Tyranitar V Alternate Art, but I could see it settling in the low $40s.