Should You Sell Your Pokémon Cards Individually or In Bulk?
As a fellow Pokémon card collecting enthusiast, I‘m often asked what‘s the best way to sell an accumulated stack of cards to earning some solid profit. From my experience closely following the hobbyist marketplaces over the past decade, I generally recommend a hybrid approach. Cherry-pick your absolute best cards for individual selling to maximize value, while liquidating the rest in organized bulk lots to save time and effort.
Top Reasons to Sell Cards Individually
Selling premium cards one-by-one allows capturing their full fair market value, especially if they are rare vintage cards in good condition. For example, a 1999 1st edition holographic Charizard recently sold at auction for $420,000! Even more common cards can still fetch decent resale prices individually:
| Card | Recent Sale Price |
|---|---|
| 2016 M Charizard EX (PSA 10) | $275 |
| 2018 Rainbow Rare Charizard GX | $195 |
| 2011 Zekrom Ultra Rare | $125 |
Other key benefits include:
- Maximizing value for highly sought-after cards
- Buyers pay premium prices for specific rare cards they want
- Allows accurately setting reserves in auctions
However, listing individual common cards is generally not worth the time and effort required. This is where selling cards in bulk comes in handy.
Top Reasons to Sell Cards in Bulk
While bulk lots only sell for approximately 10% the value of individual card sales, they offer an easy way to liquidate less rare cards to free up space and earn some spare cash. Specific advantages include:
- Saves time photographing, listing, and shipping hundreds of low-value cards
- Allows quickly clearing out less popular commons
- Buyers purchase for reselling, crafts, gameplay and more
I typically see modern bulk lots of 1000+ common/uncommon cards sell for $30-$60 depending on card conditions and properties.
| Lot Size | Avg Sale Price |
|---|---|
| 1000 mixed commons/uncommons | $35 |
| 5000 cards from 2016-2020 | $55 |
| 25 holographic rares lot | $45 |
So while not hugely profitable, selling bulk cards provides an easy way to clear some space and make a bit of bonus money from an accumulated collection.
Recommended Mixed Approach
Given the above analysis, I generally recommend a balanced approach that mixes individually selling premium cards while moving bulk lots of extras:
1. Carefully pick out top cards (ultra rare, old holos, 1st editions) and use grading services to maximize resale value in individual listings
2. Next, organize remaining cards into Bulk Lots grouped by card sets or eras. Here‘s an example 10,000 card lot organization:
- 1500 McDonald‘s Promo Cards
- 3000 Bulk 2017-2019 Standard Set Cards
- 1500 Bulk 2016-2018 Energy Cards
- 2500 Bulk Sun & Moon Rare Cards
- 1500 EX/GX/V/VMAX Cards
Properly categorizing and displaying entire bulk lot contents will garner strong buyer interest.
3. Lastly, sell bulk lots on popular secondary marketplaces! I regularly check recent sold prices and adjust my bulk lot pricing accordingly on eBay, Facebook Groups, and local hobby stores to ensure competitive market value.
Hope this helps provide a strategic blueprint for reliably monetizing your Pokémon card collection. As always, feel free to reach out with any other questions!
