Pokemon TCG Treasure Hunting #3 | Cosmic Pikachu, where are you: Can Snorlax wake us up?
- Professor Ash
- Jul 28, 2024
- 4 min read
Hello my fellow Kikians! Do you have lot's of modern bulk building up in your closet? Do you think it's all worthless? This series focuses on looking for hidden treasures in our Pokemon TCG collections that may be worth more than you would expect.
The Goal
The goal is to turn our bulk into Pokemon gold!! I want save up enough money to pay for a chase card I've wanted for a while, the Cosmic Eclipse secret Pikachu, and not just loose but a real PSA 10 slab.
I remember watching the Pokemon anime as a little kid watching Ash's and his little furry pals adventure and this card truly captures that emotion, I love it. I've also only recently got into slabs and I have a lot of space in my newly mounted slab case i want to fill.
Can my bulk help me get there? Let's find out with a little help from Snorlax.
The rules
Only set's from Sun and Moon and X and Y can be used, and only regular common, uncommon, rare and holo rare's cards and reverses can be used. So no ultra rares, art rares, full arts or promos. I want to really uncover some cards where the value would surprise us.
Can we turn our trash into gold? Let's go treasure hunting!
The progress $24.45/$160
After week 2 we have continued to make progress. We sold a couple more of our trainers from week one so now we have officially sold over half of our trainer lots. Huzzah!!
We also sold 20% of our Energy lots from last week. The star being the reverse speed and splash energies selling for a gross total of $4.24. These sold pretty much the day I listed them suggesting maybe I under priced them? Still we have added a net $8 to our funds this week taking us nearly 15% towards our cosmic Pikachu prize.
Below is a spreadsheet of the breakdown of what has/has not sold for those who are interested.
On the flip, there has been literally 0 views on my combined special energy lots. I am going to give it more time but perhaps this is a failed experiment showing people don't want these combined (unless they are reverse holo?!) and we may have to rethink how to sell these.
Also big picture we are probably looking at a grand total of $45-$50 net even when all the energy and trainer cards sell. So maybe 30% towards our goal. This leaves us with a $110-$120 gap to fill if we want to say hello to our little Pikachu friend. This leaves us with little choice but to..........drum roll..........start selling actual Pokemon cards and not just the peripheral trainers and energies.
Our rules still apply so we aren't looking at mega hits just the 'bulk' pokemon from the xy/sun and moon sets. To start with things are going to get all cuddly with gen 1 favorite Snorlax.
Pokemon TCG Treasure hunting with an old friend
Who doesn't love Snorlax?
The mega punching, borderline trademark infringing, sleepy mush ball who blocked all our progress in the red and blue days, who won our hearts in the progress (seriously why haven't they replicated this in the 3D games. A visually stunning giant Pokemon blockade a la Grand List of Dectus that make us all think a little about how best to get around)?
Today, he is still one of the most popular Pokemon especially in the TCG whether it is for collectors (he isn't the Pokemon 151 mascot for nothing) or players. This winning combination is exactly why we are likely to find some value in these cards even in the 'bulk' realm. The demand for some of these cards in the gym leader challenge format makes some of these 4-6 year old cards still valuable and there are plenty of people who just collect Snorlax making a nice demand pool.
That doesn't mean every Snorlax has value though, so let's jump in to find out more.
What are the prices?
Whilst there are a plethora of Snorlax out there not every single one has value.
A few of the prices that stood I'm listing below. Feel free to see if they are in your collection!!
Obviously the banger is the reverse holo for the Snorlax from Breakthrough however I wanted to add the Pokemon Go Snorlax at the bottom to show it's not only reverse holo's with any value. The Pokemon Go Snorlax is actually worth slightly more than its reverse holo variant. This is likely because A. few people collected the Pokemon go set and B. this is a viable card in the GLC format. It pays to do your research..
Whats the hidden value in my Snorlax collection?
Below we see some of the Snorlax cards and couple of other cards I picked out to add into lots. I am thinking of combining all the non holo Snorlax i have into a single lot and aim it more at collectors and then let my reverse holo's go separately.
In total I am adding 13 more cards into 8 more lot's with an estimate net value of $10.
Wrap up
Feel free to check out our ebay store here if you would like to bid on any of the finds :).
I'll be back in a week with an update of our progress and what we are looking at next for hidden value.
Enjoy your week of Pokemon TCG treasure hunting and remember to chill like Kiki!
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