Pokémon TCG Pocket did something the card game had struggled to do for years. It got lapsed players opening packs again.
The app launched worldwide in October 2024, it’s free to download, and you can open packs every day without paying a thing. A lot of people who hadn’t touched a Pokémon card since school now know exactly which ones they want.
There’s a gap in that, though. Everything you pull in Pocket is digital. You can build decks with it and, since the trading feature arrived, swap it with friends, but you can’t sell it. A crown rare Mewtwo ex in your app has no cash value at all.
The paper game works differently, and a lot of the Pokémon that Pocket players chase have printed cards that cost serious money. Below is what the paper versions of some Pocket favourites are worth.
The figures are UltraBall’s market values at the start of November 2026 (the latest update is dated October 31), built from sold listings rather than asking prices. Unless I say otherwise, they’re for an ungraded card in near mint condition. Graded prices are for PSA slabs, where 10 is a perfect score.
Charizard ex has three answers
Pocket’s Charizard ex is one of the cards that defined its first expansion. In paper, there isn’t one Charizard ex to compare it with, there are several, and the price depends almost entirely on which printing you mean.
The one collectors fight over is the full-art Charizard ex from the 151 set, numbered 199. It’s valued at $325, up from $263 a year ago, and it’s anything but scarce on the market: UltraBall counted 586 ungraded sales in the last 90 days. A PSA 10 is valued at $1,275.
The Paldean Fates version, number 234, sits at $250 and has drifted down from $283 a year earlier. The Obsidian Flames Charizard ex, number 223, is the budget pick at $99.10, and it’s lost 11% over the past four weeks.
All three are versions of the same Pokémon with the same basic idea, and the most expensive is worth more than three times the cheapest.
That’s the first lesson for anyone moving from Pocket to paper. Which printing you own matters far more than the name on it.
Pikachu ex: one card, two very different prices
Pikachu ex is another Pocket staple, and the paper version from Surging Sparks shows how much art and rarity count. The standard Pikachu ex, number 57, is worth $4.89. The special illustration rare, number 238, with the big full-scene artwork, is valued at $257.
That’s the same Pokémon from the same set, and one costs more than fifty times the other. If you’ve enjoyed the immersive cards in Pocket, the ones where the art opens out into a little animated scene, this is roughly the paper equivalent of that appeal: the card that’s all picture and very little frame.
The expensive Pikachu has actually come down over the year, from $331 to $257, though it’s been fairly flat for the past month. A PSA 10 is valued at $744.
Mew ex and the Mythical Island crowd
Mew ex was the headline card of Pocket’s Mythical Island expansion, and in paper it ranges from cheap to genuinely expensive. The full-art Mew ex from 151, number 193, is valued at $30.60.
The one people actually lose sleep over is the Paldean Fates Mew ex, number 232, which UltraBall lists under its fan nickname, Bubble Mew. It’s at $831, up from $632 a year earlier, and a PSA 10 is valued at $2,550. Of every modern card in this piece, it’s the priciest.
Mewtwo ex, the old guard
Mewtwo ex was the face of Pocket’s launch, and it’s the one where paper history gets interesting. There was a Mewtwo ex long before Pocket existed, in the Ruby & Sapphire set from 2003.
That card, number 101, is now valued at $861, against $137 a year ago. It’s risen 33% in the last four weeks alone. A PSA 9 is valued at $9,300, and the last PSA 10 recorded sold for $78,000 on October 26.
I wouldn’t pin that run on any single cause, and a climb this steep is exactly the sort of thing that can reverse. It’s still striking for a card that sat in the low hundreds a year ago.
If you played the Mewtwo ex deck in Pocket, you’ll know Gardevoir did a lot of the work. The paper Gardevoir ex special illustration rare from the original Scarlet & Violet set, number 245, is a gentler $62.60, with a PSA 10 at $198.
So should Pocket players buy paper?
That depends on why you play. Pocket is a good game in its own right, and the fact that its cards can’t be sold is arguably part of the appeal. Nobody’s tempted to treat a pack as an investment.
Paper is a different hobby with different risks. Prices move, sometimes a lot in a month, and the gap between a standard card and its fancy alternate version can be huge.
If you’re tempted to pick up a physical copy of a Pocket favourite, check which printing you’re actually looking at, and look at sold prices rather than listings. UltraBall Pokémon card prices are a straightforward place to start, with values broken out by grade and printing.
If what you want is the Pokémon in your hand rather than the rarest version of it, the standard printing is usually the cheap way in. The $4.89 Pikachu ex has the same attacks as the $257 one.
