How to Check Pokémon Card Prices Before Grading

23 January 2026

Before spending money on grading, you need to know two things: what the card is worth raw, and what it would be worth graded. Here's how to find accurate pricing for both.

Checking Raw Card Prices

The best source for raw card prices is eBay sold listings. Go to eBay, search for your card by name and set, then filter by "Sold items" and "UK only" (or include international if you want a broader view). This shows you what the card actually sold for, not what sellers are hoping to get.

Look at the last 5 to 10 sales. Ignore outliers (unusually high or low prices). The middle of the range is your realistic raw value.

Other useful sources: Cardmarket (popular in Europe), TCGPlayer (US-focused but useful for reference), and Facebook selling groups where you can see completed sales.

Checking Graded Card Prices

Same approach but search for "[card name] PSA 10" or "[card name] graded 10". Compare prices for 10s, 9s, and 8s to understand the full picture. The grade-to-grade price differences tell you how much risk you're taking.

If a 10 sells for £200 and a 9 sells for £90, but the raw card is worth £50, you need to be very confident of getting a 10 for the maths to work well. Getting a 9 would still be profitable but less impressive.

Using Population Reports

Check the population report for your card at the grading company you're considering. If there are already 10,000 copies graded as 10, adding one more won't be particularly special. If there are only 100 copies in a 10, yours will carry more weight in the market.

Low population doesn't automatically mean high value though. A card nobody wants won't sell well regardless of how rare the graded copies are. Population data works best when combined with active demand.