Ask what Pokémon bulk is worth and you get a price per pound, a price per thousand, or someone telling you it depends. All true, none of it useful when you have a box in front of you.
We paid $133.00 for about 1,750 cards in our last big buy. That is $0.08 a card, which is roughly the going rate for unsorted modern bulk with the obvious value already pulled.
Then we scanned all of it, listed it, and waited a month. Here is what came back.
The number that matters is revenue per listed card
Across 2,865 cards listed we took $240.25 in the first month. That works out to $0.08 per card listed.
Compare it to the $0.08 the card cost. Month one roughly returned the price of the cardboard and nothing else.
That is not a failure, it is the shape of the business. You do not get paid when you buy the bulk or when you list it. You get paid slowly, over months, as the catalogue is picked over.
Scaled to a round number: 1,000 bulk cards cost about $76.00. At our sell through they produce roughly 29 sales in the first month, $82.94 gross, around $65.11 after eBay takes its cut.
So a thousand cards pays for itself in month one and starts making money in month two, if the pace holds. That last clause is doing a lot of work and we will know in October.
Why the average card is worth so little
Look at what a box of modern bulk contains. Ours is overwhelmingly reverse holos, which is exactly what you want, because reverse holos hold a floor that non foil commons do not.
Even so, 61% of everything we sold went at our $1.99 minimum. The average sale was $2.86 and after fees we kept about $2.25 of it.
The single card that beat everything was a reverse holo Wynaut at $25.09. One card in 2,865. You cannot plan a business around finding it, but you can make sure you would recognise it if you did, which is the entire argument for scanning everything rather than eyeballing the box.
What bulk is worth to you specifically
If you are selling a collection, the honest answer is that a buyer pays for the sorting work they will not have to do. Sorted, sleeved, era labelled bulk is worth several times what a mixed shoebox is worth, because the buyer's real cost is time and not cardboard. Our guide to valuing your own bulk walks through it card by card.
If you are buying, the price per card only means something next to a sell through rate. Cheap bulk that never sells is more expensive than good bulk at twice the price. That is also the reason we keep comparing venues in where to sell bulk for the most money and Misprint against TCGplayer.
The caveat, same as always. This is one lot, one store, 25 days. The mix in your box is not the mix in ours, and a lot with vintage in it plays by completely different rules.
Buy the sorting, not the cards.
Frequently asked questions
- How much is Pokémon bulk worth per card?
We paid $0.08 per card for unsorted modern bulk. In the first month those cards returned $0.08 each in revenue, so month one roughly covers the purchase price and nothing more.
- What does a 1,000 card bulk lot return?
At our purchase price and sell through, about $76.00 to buy, 29 sales in the first month, $82.94 gross and around $65.11 after eBay fees.
- Does sorting bulk increase its value?
Substantially, because the buyer is paying for time rather than cardboard. Sorted, sleeved and era labelled bulk sells for several times what a mixed box does.
- What is the average Pokémon single worth?
Ours averaged $2.86 a sale, of which we kept about $2.25 after fees. 61% of sales happened at our $1.99 floor.
