Pokémon TCG’s Black Bolt And White Flare might be an anticlimactic ending to the Scarlet & Violet era, but some of the cards included are fetching extraordinary prices. We’ve compiled the top ten highest selling cards in the split sets.
It was obvious that Black Bolt and White Flare’s special black Zekrom and white Reshiram cards were going to be popular, but perhaps not this popular. I’ll save the prices for the slideshow, but if you pull one, things are sweet. However, what I wasn’t expecting was that the red Victini card—found in both sets—would match them for cost.
Black Bolt and White Flare are Pokémon’s first English-language foray into a real-world split set. That means there are squillions of cards unique to each pack type—a situation made all the more confusing and frustrating by this being a so-called “special set” where packs cannot be bought separately, only as part of collection boxes and Elite Trainer Boxes. It seems likely that this extra layer of difficulty in getting hold of the cards, in a situation where that was already close to impossible thanks to scalpers, could be driving up resale prices.
And that sucks. Kids who just want to buy the pretty card of their favorite Pokémon are unable to buy product in stores, and are wildly priced out of buying them as a single. We’re even seeing some of the more common Illustration Rares going for over $100. To put this in context, usually when I compile these pieces, the tenth-most-expensive cards are usually around the $20 mark, sometimes even less. In this top ten, we’re not going to drop below $77. It’s all completely out of control, and given The Pokémon Company isn’t planning on easing back any time soon—September sees the start of the crowd-pleasing Mega Evolutions sets—it’s hard to see it getting better.
Still, if you managed to find some packs to open and pulled any of the following, you’re damned lucky. Rather than compiling two separate lists, I’ve combined the two sets together and picked the highest prices from both sides. I’ll mark which set each is from, in case you’re chasing.
