Start SlideshowStart SlideshowImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuJourney Together might be a reasonably interesting set for the tabletop card game, re-introducing Trainer Pokémon to the game for the first time in 25 years, but it’s a massive anticlimax for collectors. Which turns out to be just the thing the hobby desperately needed; there are no $1000+ cards this time out, not even close, making it a set regular players can more reasonably afford to collect.This isn’t going to last. At the end of May, Destined Rivals arrives, which will reintroduce Team Rocket Trainer Pokémon to the TCG, and everyone will go nuts. But as we predicted back in March, we can enjoy this moment of respite, where picking up a card you need for your deck isn’t going to require a second mortgage. That’s not to say there aren’t some high prices here, but it’s a big deal that the bottom end of the top 10 is under $20, and under $10 by the 16th. It’s possible to pick up full-art cards as lovely as the Noibat and Lycanroc for around $5, which feels just about right. Most importantly, regular ex cards are between 50c and a dollar, meaning building a solid, competitive deck is affordable to most. This is, of course, all helped by there being just so few special art cards in a very disappointing set. Pull rates are grim, but given that everything being manufactured is being instantly bought, there are a lot of cards out there to be resold for those unfortunate enough not to be able to find sealed cards. Perhaps you’re looking to be one of those resellers. Here are the ten cards fetching the highest prices (at the time of writing) to dig out from your own collection.Previous SlideNext Slide2 / 12List slidesWailord Illustration RareList slidesWailord Illustration RareImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuWell, this is just a splendid card, right? It’s a lovely, daft piece of art, the enormo-smiling whale looking like he’s having a brilliant time in the coral. And look at that boat for scale!Artist Katsunori Sato has only designed five cards, but they’re all bangers. I hope we get to see a lot more full-art work from him.The card, which can wallop for 210+ in a Water deck, is currently changing hands for just under $20.Previous SlideNext Slide3 / 12List slidesArticuno Illustration RareList slidesArticuno Illustration RareImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuI’m surprised this card isn’t fetching higher prices, given it’s one of the three legendary birds. But then again, it doesn’t follow the tradition of having Moltres and Zapdos hidden in there somewhere, which often seems to get collectors excited. Still, it’s a typically gorgeous piece of art from Kuroimori, who has previously given us the utterly perfect shiny Gardevoir from Paldean Fates.It’s not cheap, however. You’re still paying some bird tax. At the time of writing, this is selling for just shy of $29.Previous SlideNext Slide4 / 12List slidesIono’s Bellibolt ex GoldList slidesIono’s Bellibolt ex GoldImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuIono cards always do well, ever since the bonkers creator Trainer was added to the TCG in Paldea Evolved. While we’re not seeing the $200 her earlier cards were selling for, it’s striking that gold cards are getting high prices—they’ve been out of favor for a very long time, but this set has two in the top 10. (The third gold card is a crappy Spiky Energy, and goes for under nine bucks.)That’s largely to do with their both featuring fan favorites, and it helps that the Bellibolt itself has a very powerful Ability to let you load your Electric deck with energy, and a hefty attack of its own, on a scale usually reserved for a Stage 2 card.There’s a much more expensive version of this card to come, but it seems noteworthy that Iono’s Kilowattrel—which to my eyes is the far more interesting piece of art—isn’t troubling the top 10. Still, that leaves me tempted to pick one of those up for $12.This card, however, is selling on eBay and the like for $31.Previous SlideNext Slide5 / 12List slidesN’s Zoroark ex GoldList slidesN’s Zoroark ex GoldImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuHere’s the other gold card, and to be very fair, it’s far better looking than most golden messes. This has a lot of color, and a more detailed, bold design. Plus, you know, it’s fun to have Prof N cards! And of course people love them some Zoroark.Prices for this start at around $32, but I’ve seen it fetching as high as $50.Previous SlideNext Slide6 / 12List slidesVolcanion ex Special Illustration RareList slidesVolcanion ex Special Illustration RareImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuIn any other set, I’d be dead surprised to see a card as cluttered and not that useful so high in the price charts. But this is a set with only six special illustration rares, meaning all six of them are in the top 10! It’s kind of here by default.It’s no slight to artist Akagi, who illustrated the wonderful Palafin from Paldean Fates, and then the impossibly colorful and glorious Greninja ex from Twilight Masquerade—a card that’s still fetching $350 raw, and almost $700 in a PSA 10. In fact, his Kingdra ex is one of my favorite card arts ever. But this one doesn’t much appeal to me. However, others clearly disagree, as it’ll cost you around $42 to get one.Previous SlideNext Slide7 / 12List slidesHop’s Zacian ex Special Illustration RareList slidesHop’s Zacian ex Special Illustration RareImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuOh gosh this is just so lovely! Good ol’ Hop, the poor bastard victim of Sword and Shield, always so confident, always so defeated, and here with his pride and joy, the Zacian. Artist DOM has been around since that superb Jolteon full-art in Brilliant Stars, and they’ve also provided some excellent art toward Pokémon TCG Pocket. What’s so interesting is just how wildly their style changes, this gorgeous Zacian looking like a cross between pastels and watercolor.That all combines into a pricy card, currently changing hands for $66.Previous SlideNext Slide8 / 12List slidesIono’s Bellibolt ex Special Illustration RareList slidesIono’s Bellibolt ex Special Illustration RareImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuSo here’s the regular version of the gold card. It’s...fine? I dunno. It’s a useful card, but as I mentioned, it’s so flat compared to the far more interesting Kilowattrel. Clearly I’m the fool, though, as this will cost you a hefty $87.Previous SlideNext Slide9 / 12List slidesN’s Zoroark ex Special Illustration RareList slidesN’s Zoroark ex Special Illustration RareImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuAnd here’s the SIR version of the Zoroark gold. Again, I’m not particularly taken by the art here, but then I’m but one foolish man, and I’m delighted others are valuing it.I’m a big fan of artist Megumi Mizutani’s Morty’s Conviction full-art from Temporal Forces, with that enormous grinning Gengar staring menacingly at a Pidgey, and her Mega Gardevoir EX from Generations is an all-time classic. I just don’t get the framing here, and the muddied colors seem to pull focus in all the wrong directions. Still, shut up me, because people are paying at least $94 to have their own copy of this.Previous SlideNext Slide10 / 12List slidesSalamence ex Special Illustration RareList slidesSalamence ex Special Illustration RareImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuWhen I wrote about this set before its release, I mentioned how flat I found so much of the art. That’s true here too! Yet, this Salamence ex is selling for $107 or higher. I wish I had one to sell!It’s a wild card for the game. Once you’ve evolved it from Bagon and Shelgon, you have a Pokémon that can do 50 damage to every one of your opponent’s benched cards, which is utterly devastating. You could take five out of six prize cards in a single turn! The 300 attack is a tougher ask, requiring at least two energy types, and you lose two of them each time you use it. But with 320HP on this Dragon type, I’d just use it to blast the bench until my opponent walked off crying. If that’s something you like the sound of, the Ultra Rare version of the card is only about $3, and the regular ex is under a buck.Previous SlideNext Slide11 / 12List slidesLillie’s Clefairy ex Special Illustration RareList slidesLillie’s Clefairy ex Special Illustration RareImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuClefairy as the hottest card in a set? I know. What is happening? This certainly is a very beautiful card, in a very lacklustre set, but why is this particular card getting sold for $199, having peaked at $320?Well, it’s in large part because this is the card of the Journey Together meta. Dragon decks have recently become a big deal, something only boosted by that previous Salamence, and this Basic card can absolutely devastate them.Lillie’s Clefairy ex switches any Dragon type card’s weakness to Psychic, which then doubles the damage. And it only needs to be on your bench to do this, making Psychic sets incredibly powerful against the most popular competitive decks that had been dominating. It’s super-powerful in play, too, delivering an extra 20 damage for every benched card on either side of the board, offering a maximum of 220, which is then doubled to 440 against a Dragon type. Boof.The popularity of the card means the Ultra Rare version is fetching $16, and the regular ex starting at $5 (so ten times more expensive than most other ex cards!). This, combined with the amazing art from Susumu Maeya (who previously gave us that amazing Deerling and Sawsbuck in Temporal Forces), means it’s gone stellar.However, I suspect it’ll be as nothing when compared to the Marnie’s Morpeko by Susumu Maeya that’ll be in Destined Rivals. I’m predicting at least $400 for that one..