Pokemon TCG: 12 Most Valuable Sets of All Time
By Chris Guest
6. Dragon Frontiers
Average Price per Card: $22.77
Dragon Frontiers was part of a run of sets in the latter period of the EX series that featured Pokemon cards that were type-swapped – that is to say their normal typings were not present and were instead switched to interesting, and sometimes zany, types.
Perhaps that novelty leads to this set having an average price per card of nearly $23, and the most valuable cards from the set certainly bear that out: a shiny, dark-type Charizard Star leads the charge, unsurprisingly, with an astounding market price of $1,402.80, though other notable cards, such as a water-type Mew Star ($604.31), a grass-type Dragonite ex ($199.99) an electric-type Tyranitar ex ($152.50) and a water-type Salamence ex ($97.90) are nothing to sneeze at.
5. Legendary Collection
Average Price per Card: $23.37
The top five kicks off with this tremendous compilation set that was released in May of 2002 and collected the most popular and most famous cards from the TCG’s first four sets – Base Set, Jungle, Fossil and Team Rocket – an era that spawned several notably powerful deck archetypes.
The real money lies in this set’s one-off “fireworks” foiling method, which was striking and divisive at the time, but the collectors have won out, as those cards hold immense value on today’s secondary market. A quick peek at the most valuable cards from this set on TCGPlayer shows a reverse holofoil Dark Blastoise (with the fireworks foiling) worth well over $200 more than its standard holofoil.
Even this set’s cheapest card, the humble Potion, is worth only 25 cents in its standard form… and a whopping $25.43 as a reverse holofoil. That’s a price increase of over 10,000 percent!
4. Fossil
Average Price per Card: $24.33
As the most valuable Fossil cards of all time indicate, the Pokemon TCG’s third-ever set holds tremendous cache among collectors on the secondary market, as it marked the debut of a plethora of the most popular ‘mons of all time – including Dragonite, the rest of the legendary birds, fossil ‘mons such as Aerodactyl and more.
The holofoil Dragonite is truly a highlight of this set, and it still stands as the most valuable card from the collection, but it certainly earns that price point with its gorgeous artwork from Kagemaru Himeno that shows a supremely cute Dragonite in front of a striking rainbow background.