Pokémon's New Prismatic Evolutions Cards Are Selling For Crazy Money

Prismatic Evolutions has, rather sadly, broken the Pokémon TCG. Thanks to bots, scalpers, and atrocious prevention of them by the Pokémon Center, cards for this new, special set sold out, sometimes even before pre-orders were visible to the public. And it’s a shame, because it’s a cracking collection of cards, so it’s not an enormous surprise that resale prices on the special arts are absurd.

Now, it’s worth noting from the start that these prices will come down. Right now, The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) is rushing reprints to try to provide some stock, and this is a set that will be releasing in new boxed forms throughout the rest of 2025. People will, at some point, calm down a bit. But not yet. Which is to say, for goodness sakes, don’t pay these prices. Unless a particular piece of colorful cardboard is the final ingredient you need for a spell that will save your family from the clutches of an evil wizard, there is no rational reason for handing over hundreds or—as the case may be—thousands of dollars.

However, should you have been lucky enough to stumble on a pack or two, and fancy making a quick buck off someone not smart enough to follow my advice, now’s the moment. You mercenary monster.

Usually, when I put these galleries together for a set, there’s one card that breaks the hundred bucks barrier, and then by the lower end of the top 10, we’re in the low 20s and teens. Not this time, folks—we’re not going to be dipping below two hundo. Because, as previously established, absurd. In fact, to dip below $100, we’d have had to go 18 spots deep.

All prices are accurate at the time of writing, but obviously wildly fluctuate based on the combined whims of capitalism and derangement.

Usually with these galleries, there’s something worthwhile to say about each card that’s peaking in price, because there are usually interesting stories behind why that particular art is catching on fire, or a meta in the live TCG that is driving its demand. As you click ahead, you’ll realize that’s not exactly the case this time out. Get ready to see some very, very pretty Eeveelutions, and then judge the wider public on their priorities over which of Eevee’s final forms are deemed of more worth.

However, there is one surprise entry here, and it’s absolutely baffling. We’ll get to that.

Meanwhile, this Eevee ex is, cruelly, deemed of less worth than all eight of the evolved form ex cards, despite Eevee being necessary to play every single one of them. It’s almost as if people aren’t basing the cards’ value on their use in the game! Madness!

It has the magnificent ability to evolve into any Eeveelution the moment it’s played, so long as you have one in your hand, as well as delivering a whopping 200 damage on its own—albeit continuing 2024's terastallized form bizarreness of requiring three different-color energies attached.

Should you manage to pull this pretty card, you’ll have something currently worth $230 in your hand. Bet you wished you’d washed it better now.

So now you know. Jolteon is deemed the least valuable incarnation of Eevee. Extraordinarily rude.

Hence why this card is yours for a bargain price of $242.

Are you seeing the pattern yet?

This is a very lovely card, a really splendid combination of the somewhat limiting terastallized pattern and stylized swirly flames.

At $249, Flareon is only narrowly losing out to Jolteon in the battle for last place.

Here’s our first leap in price, with the apparently better-loved Glaceon ex currently fetching $301.

Let’s not lose sight of how excellent this art is, just because the situation has become farcical. Look at those amazing pattern details, the combination of prisms, diamonds, lines and swirls, a fascinating combination of design choices.

I mean, it’s not three hundred bucks of loveliness, not least given it’s 2.5 by 3.5 inches big and made of floppy card. But still lovely.

I wonder how much these values are dictated by the already-known popularity of Eeveelutions, and how much is purely based on the intricacy of the art. Did they go all-out on this Vaporeon because they know it’s liked more than Flareon, or is it more liked because they went all-out? Scientists, find out.

But people sure do like it, either way. It’s current market price is $318, with prices online sometimes hitting $400. I remember a couple of years ago when everyone was losing their minds because the Evolving Skies Moonbreon had hit $400, and we’ve still got five cards to go!

Espeon is objectively better than Sylveon, so this is clearly unacceptable. It’s also a better card than Sylveon’s (it’s coming), which looks like Barbie threw up after eating her own Dreamhouse. This one’s much more marvellous.

Is it $353 marvellous? No, it is not. We have fallen through a bad vortex.

Gotcha!

You weren’t expecting a piece of bulk to be here, were you? The reason is—and admittedly this is not a picture of the specific version of the card—it’s the version of this Umbreon card that has the Master Ball holo pattern printed on it.

These have been a feature in Japan for a few years now, but Prismatic Evolutions is the first time we’ve had it over here. There’s a chance of getting every Pokémon card as a Poké Ball holo or Master Ball holo. The former are reasonably common, the latter much more rare. Rare enough that during this current lunacy, the rest of the Eeveelution versions are fetching $60 to $100.

But Umbreon’s gonna Umbreon, and astonishingly, this incredibly ordinary card, with a barely perceptible holo patterning, is currently changing hands for over $368. Anyone paying that much doesn’t deserve to have money.

The best Eeveelution, as dictated by an expert panel of me, takes third place. And best of all, in a completely lovely card. And worst of all, for $432.

If this were the $20 it would normally be in any other timeline, I’d be sorely tempted. But I think I’d rather be able to pay the mortgage this month. And you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Barbie threw up after eating her own Dreamhouse.

Now, let’s be clear about something important: this card is epic in the TCG. Look at those attacks. For three energy you can do 160 damage and prevent 100 incoming damage next turn. Then for three different-color energy, Angelite lets you put two of your opponent’s benched Pokémon back into their deck! That’s monstrous. Heck, it’s a way of clearing a bench to go in for an early game-ending kill.

Although if you’re playing the game, I’d suggest perhaps avoiding buying this particular version, given it’d cost you $565.

What is going on?! It’s worth noting that while more expensive than regular ex cards usually are, you can pick up a card with the exact same abilities for around $5. Again, if you can find them.

Here we are. The all new Moonbreon. The one card to rule them all. This utterly beautiful piece of art, shrunk down and printed on a playing card, has an at-the-time-of-writing market price of...$1,590.

It began selling at over $1,630, so you could consider this quite a bargain! Over the first week the set’s been “on sale,” it’s wavered between $1,540 and $1,590, and it’s very hard to know in which direction it will travel.

I desperately hope that all the other cards in this set will soon plunge in prices, as TPCi gets some more stock out there and weakens the hands of the scalpers. But this card, I dunno.

Umbreon causes a brain disease doctors call “Dumbassitis,” and that previous Moonbreon from 2021's Evolving Skies is now at $1,700. It was once considered extraordinarily expensive at $400, but stuck there, growing to around $500 at the start of 2024. Then slowly that number climbed over the year, faster and faster, up to $800 by October, and then rocketing up when everything went to shit with the announcement of Prismatic Evolutions.

Given this, and given this new Umbreon is so spectacularly stunning, and that it can even let you win a game just by discarding its energy, I wonder if it might hold this bonkers value for a while. And you know what? I kinda like that. The rest being so expensive is miserable, making it impossible for regular folks to collect the set, and just drives scalping. But having one card be this incredible thing to pull out of a pack? That’s kind of fun, right?

.