Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Evolving Skies, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, Umbreon

Pokémon TCG Value Watch: Evolving Skies In April 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 – Evolving Skies, which came out in August 2021 are doing now in April 2022.

Here are the top valued cards of Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies with market values observed on TCGPlayer as of this writing:

1. Umbreon VMAX Alternate Art 215/203: $344.30
2. Rayquaza VMAX Alternate Art 218/203: $220.55
3. Leafeon VMAX Alternate Art 205/203: $132.41
4. Glaceon VMAX Alternate Art 209/203: $124.02
5. Sylveon VMAX Alternate Art 212/203: $113.57
6. Umbreon V Alternate Art 189/203: $86.45
7. Rayquaza V Alternate Art 194/203: $78.16
8. Dragonite V Alternate Art 192/203: $77.26
9. Leafeon V Alternate Art 167/203: $62.06
10. Sylveon V Alternate Art 184/203: $57.84
11. Glaceon V Alternate Art 175/203: $57.62
12. Espeon V Alternate Art 180/203: $55.76
13. Rayquaza VMAX Rainbow Rare 217/203: $41.58
14. Umbreon VMAX Rainbow Rare 214/203: $38.58
15. Sylveon VMAX Rainbow Rare 211/203: $30.10
16. Noivern V Alternate Art 196/203: $30.00
17. Duraludon VMAX Alternate Art 220/203: $28.71
18. Umbreon V Full Art 188/203: $27.46
19. Shiny Inteleon Gold Secret Rare 227/203: $23.16
20. Gyarados VMAX Rainbow Rare 207/203: $22.43

This is… very interesting. For me, it's alarming. For someone who bought this card multiple times when it was lower in value, it's probably exhilerating. But the Umbreon VMAX Alternate Art has risen almost $100 since last month. That makes it by far the most expensive card of the entire Sword & Shield era with no other pull even coming close at this point. This is due to a sequence of buy-outs due to the card's price going up, which then forces it to go up more, as well as the scarcity of the card due to the Pokémon TCG not yet reprinting Evolving Skies. The price will likely continue to rise. Looking at TCGPlayer as of this writing, multiple people per day are buying the card at this high price, which will then drive the value higher. The other VMAX Alternate Arts (with the exception of Duraladon) all also rose between $15 and $20. There are a whopping five cards over $100 and twelve over $50. This goes to show how sought-after this set is, as it continues to be on the rise in a huge way months after release.

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