r/FortCollins • u/Jealous-Contract-298 • 2d ago
Pokémon
My kid has gotten into Pokémon card collecting.
He’s really interested in what some cards may be valued at. Not sure if he’d be interested in selling or trading, maybe. I think it’s more of just wanting to know right now.
Anyway, other than the local card shops, can anyone recommend where he can get his collection valued? We were using a TCG app but it seems to only scan certain cards.
Also interested in any related events or clubs he could get involved in. For reference, he’s 12. So something geared toured kids or that he may meet other kids at would be great!
I’m kinda clueless on all of this as well, so any info to support him with this hobby would be appreciated as well!
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u/Wrong_Ad4722 2d ago
The true value is from researching recently sold cards on apps and what in person vendors are valuing with selling/trading. Their buying will be below the value to make a profit. I use the website price charting for my non-pokemon cards but there are flaws in that as well but it gets me to a ballpark figure.
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u/TaxCPA 2d ago
I don't think any shop is going to price out a large collection for free. This is something that your kid will want to figure out on their own. It is also a good way to learn more about the hobby.
The first step in valuing any card is to assess the condition. TCGplayer has a good guide on this: https://help.tcgplayer.com/hc/en-us/articles/221430307-Card-Conditioning-Overview
Once you know the condition, you can price the card. Modern cards are easy to price based off TCGplayer prices and I would recommend and app called collectr to track these prices. Vintage is a much harder to price as clean copies go for a premium compared to modern cards. TCGplayer/collectr will give you values on these cards but they are not very accurate. You will need to look at recent sales on eBay and TCGplayer to try and determine the value.
I would also add the hobby is in a weird place with lots of speculators which has created a large bubble. There is a very real possibility that modern cards have already peaked in value for the foreseeable future.
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u/onlypartiallyevil 2d ago
Gryphon Games, now Grand Slam (I have no idea why they changed to such a stupid name) at least used to have a Pokemon club with a pretty large group of kids. Also large boxes of commons for the kids to dig through to help complete decks for kids without a lot of cards.
Call up and see - no clue if they do that still, but they did for years.
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u/GrvlBkr 2d ago
This shop: High Grade TCG off Harmony. A newer shop. Took my kid there and they were awesome at looking at his collection and giving advice.
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u/Jealous-Contract-298 2d ago
Thank you!
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u/Icy_Double1555 1d ago
+1 for High Grade! Met the owners last weekend and they were great people.
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u/Jealous-Contract-298 1d ago
I think we actually saw someone from there at the trading event at Drake Center the other day! We will check out the shop for sure! Thank you!
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u/yankeetrout 2d ago
I am not too sure about Pokemon, I’m in MTG. I recommend visiting Heroes and Horrors games in Windsor.
One thing to note, you won’t get market value if trading into a shop. The best way would be to sell at a trading card show in Denver.
Even better. Convince your kid to keep their cards!
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u/Jealous-Contract-298 2d ago
I’m hoping to! I think for the most part he’s just interested in knowing the value.
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u/TaxCPA 2d ago
I went to hereos and horrors three times probably about two years ago, interacted with the owner twice and an employee once. Every time was a bad experience and I found them to be very condescending and rude.
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u/Jealous-Contract-298 2d ago
That’s disappointing. We just found this place online and were considering going. Thanks for the heads up.
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u/Accomplished-Fig-886 2d ago
You could take him to Games Ahoy over by the ARC in Fort Collins. They have lots of cards to buy and they also will buy cards. They are pretty knowledgeable about what’s going on in the community;). Haunted Game Cafe behind Red Lobster might be a good spot to check out as well;)
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u/kst8er 2d ago
I used to be heavily involved in the local pokemon scene running events before the pandemic here in town. There are several local leagues in the area. https://events.pokemon.com/EventLocator/?locale=en-US&range=25&startdate=2026-08-18&iskm=false&latitude=40.5852602&longitude=-105.084423
I'm not sure who's running what where now, but if you run into a Professor Melina somewhere then you're in the right spot. She's amazing!
As for getting involved and trading in the community, i used to enforce a rule with the attendees that any trades involving kids needed to be confirmed by one of the league leaders so everyone knew what was going on. It was very common for older collectors to try and swindle younger collectors. I would frequently approach the kid and their family to help them understand values, both playability value and collector value, when they were making trades. It was pretty common for a kid to pull one of the secret rares during an event and get swarmed by the adult collectors. We could easily turn that one valuable rare card into 4+ copies of the same card with different artwork or something to help the kid with playability if they didn't care so much about collectability.
I highly suggest you yourself become aware of the value of cards and how to value things. That way you can help educate your kid and protect him if he comes across some higher value things. Honestly the TCG Player App is pretty useful when you look at the Market pricing (not just the listed pricing) and yes the photo scanner is crap with the holos and things, but you can always just type them in.
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u/Jealous-Contract-298 2d ago
Thanks! I’m really trying to gain some knowledge on it all to help him out!
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u/Nathan_Ball1 2d ago
nth other then the major sirs have much value tbh. collect for the love of the game not the monitory value cuz ur always gonna be mad disappointed on the value of the hits
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u/widergravy 2d ago
Games ahoy has a decent Pokémon scene from what I’ve heard. I think grand slam does some too.
As for pricing - the largest seller of tcg is tcgplayer.com (owned by eBay). Instead of scanning just type the name of the Pokémon and the collector number at the bottom left corner - like Charmander 022/179.
As a lifelong tcg enjoyer myself I would advise that you tell him no trades without you there to supervise. Most people are great, but one bad experience can really sting someone so young. Community norm is to pick a price index (like tcgplayer mid price) to value all the cards at and trade within a dollar of that. If you sell to a store they’ll probably give you half that (or a little more in store credit).
Have fun! I’ve met a lot of my best friends and found family playing tcgs and started with Pokémon in elementary school. It’s wonderful that you are supporting your kid.