3 weeks ago
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Published Feb 20, 2026, 11:38 AM EST
Physical copies go for hundreds, or even thousands, on the resell market
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Ahead of Nintendo's forthcoming Pokémon Presents stream on Feb. 27, which will celebrate 30 years of the Pocket Monsters, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced Friday that Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen will be arriving on the Nintendo Switch eShop the same day as the stream. But instead of coming to Nintendo Switch Online's catalog of classic games, as has been the case with other Game Boy Advance games, they'll be standalone releases for $19.99.
The standalone releases and their prices drew a mixed response from longtime fans. "Recycling a 20+ year old game to sell for $20 on a new platform. Did they learn from Bethesda?" one Reddit user said. "Happy to have the game available, but also sad that its 20 dollars. Not expensive but Id consider it too pricey for a 22 year old gba game," another said. Others aren't happy that the games aren't coming to Nintendo Switch Online: "It's a scam that it isn't just in NSO+ emulator."
Charging $19.99 for games that originally released in 2004 may seem a bit pricey to some, but it's cheaper than the going rate for these titles. The only legitimate way to play them is with a physical copy, which are going for a pretty penny on eBay.
Image: eBaySpend a few minutes on the auction site and you'll see multiple listings asking for $150 or more for copies of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. And those are just for the game cartridges themselves. Listings, most of them graded, that include the original box are being listed for thousands of dollars.
Narrowing the searches down to recently sold items on eBay paints a similar picture; plenty of listings sold for $125 or more. Then there's this listing of both games and everything their boxes included that sold for a whopping $935. (GameStop wanting $54.99 for a copy of FireRed doesn't look too bad right now.)
Time will tell if the digital convenience of these childhood favorites will drive down the resell market for the physical copies, or if there's still enough of a demand from collectors that prices stay in the hundreds (or thousands). If the market for FireRed and LeafGreen is anything like the market for old Fire Emblem games, for example, don't be surprised if it's the latter. The 2005 GameCube release Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance hit NSO's Nintendo Classics library earlier this year, but people are still selling physical copies on eBay for around $200. A graded copy went for $330 after an auction. (In this case, your local GameStop might not be much cheaper as the retailer is asking $169.99 for it.)
There's one thing we can reasonably predict, however: Don't be surprised if Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen shoot up the eShop's bestsellers chart when they release on Friday, Feb. 27.
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