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

What is the Future Of The Pokémon TCG: Evolving Skies Umbreon Alt Art?

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 stake a special look at the ultimate chase card of Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies, which came out in August 2021, to attempt to understand the future of what ended up being the Sword & Shield era's biggest card.

There was a time with the Umbreon VMAX Alternate Art from Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies was slightly beat out by the Rayquaza VMAX Alternate art from the same set. We could have never predicted back then that the week one value of the card, which generally is majorly inflated, would end up being less than the value a year and a half after the set's release.

The Umbreon VMAX Alternate Art is currently valued at $494.51 as of this writing. The lowest price that it currently goes for on TCGPlayer is $425 and the most recent sale was for $580.97.

To understand exactly how much this card blew up, let's take a look at its trajectory over the last year.

In December 2021, this card was valued at $189.06.

In March 2022, this card was valued at $292.07. Big jump.

In June 2022, this card was valued at $318.45. Growth but less so than the previous three months.

In October 2022, this card was valued at $568.18. This was clearly collectors panicking that the card was becoming unobtainable, because that is growth to the point where it's unusual, as we even saw a reprint of Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies Elite Trainer Boxes during this time and the release of more booster boxes to hobby shops. This normally tanks a set's value. It did the opposite for Evolving Skies.

We have seen the card's value slightly drop this month, but what happens next? It's something we will have to judge on a month-to-month basis. As a completionist, though, I'll tell you this. The moment the card drops under $200, if it ever does again, I'm buying.

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