Prices are finally calming down on the Pokémon TCG’s latest set, Destined Rivals, meaning the resale market is no longer quite so bonkers. As such, it makes for a good time to see which pulls from the long-awaited return of Team Rocket are fetching the big bucks, and how much you’re going to need to fork out if you want to add a specific special art to your collection.
All year long, Pokémon TCG has been plagued by issues of availability, and the accompanying misery of resellers wreaking havoc on the market. Destined Rivals is certainly no exception, and for once it’s not just because of people wanting to turn a profit at the expense of the real players: this is a damned good set of Pokémon cards, adding a huge amount of new fun to the live game, as well as being a set packed with stunning art, and most excitingly of all, better pull-rates.
When it comes to prices, I’m also pleased to report that things aren’t nearly as crazy as I’d expected. Now, for the sake of my own ego, I did correctly call which would be the biggest cards, but I’m happy to say I got the pricing trends wrong. I’m not sure if that’s because of the better pull rates (they appear to be almost identical to those of Journey Together, itself a big improvement since the removal of Ace Specs, but with twice as many cards in this newer set, there’s so much more variety to enjoy), or if perhaps at last the whole global fuss is finally calming down, but either way it’s great news for the hobby. So sorry, if you did pull a Cynthia’s Garchomp, you’re not quite as rich as you might have expected. Although not too sorry, since the numbers here are still double what we’d have seen a year ago.
I should note on prices, while the individual cards themselves aren’t going quite as mad, the sealed packs themselves still are. Right now, a booster box of 36 packs is selling for $250, over a hundred bucks over its RRP, while Elite Trainer Boxes are also 50 percent higher than they should be at $87. If you’re chasing particular cards, please don’t spend that—it’s far smarter just to pay for the specific card you’re after.
So, that all said, here are the highest-priced cards in Destined Rivals. All prices are accurate at the time of writing, but likely to change very quickly: