How to buy your first graded Pokémon card without making mistakes

Your first graded card is bought with head and heart together: a card you love, in a slab you can verify, at a price you know before you bid. Everything else, from the label to the shipping, is a checklist you can learn in ten minutes. Here it is.

Choosing the card: affection comes first

The most useful advice we can give a beginner is not to buy the first card thinking about what it will be worth. Buy it because you like it: the Pokémon, the illustration, the set you opened as a child. A card chosen that way stays in the collection even if the market falls, and the market does fall, sometimes.

The Illustration Rares (IR) and Special Illustration Rares (SIR) of recent sets are an excellent starting point. Pokémon 151, for example, brought back the first 151 Pokémon with new illustrations: Pikachu 173/165 in PSA 10 is at about €430, Blastoise ex 200/165 at about €470, Alakazam ex 201/165 at about €270, all PriceCharting prices for the last month, October 2026.

Understanding the label and the certificate number

A slab is a rigid sealed case with a label. The label carries the card name, the set, the collection number, the year, the grade and a certificate number. The grade is a mark from 1 to 10: on Pokechrono we sell only cards in PSA 10, the top of the PSA scale, which the company calls Gem Mint.

The certificate number is the most important part. It is unique to that slab and is looked up on the grading company's website: the page that appears must describe exactly the card in front of you. If the number does not exist, or if it matches another card, the slab is not reliable, whatever the seller says.

What to look at in the slab

Before paying, ask for sharp photos of the front and back, including the corners of the case. Three checks are enough:

• the seal: the case is welded along the edge and must show no gaps or signs of opening;
• the plastic: light scratches on the surface are normal and can be polished out, cracks and chips are not;
• the match: card, label and certificate must tell the same story.

A slab with a compromised seal no longer guarantees the grade, because the card may have been swapped. That is why every card we sell is photographed by us before shipping.

Where to buy: auction or fixed price

Fixed price is simple: you see the price, you decide. An auction takes one more step, but on a graded card it is often the most transparent way to find the right price, because the buyers set it and not the seller.

On Pokechrono the auction lasts 24 hours and allows a single sealed bid per person. Nobody sees the others' bids, nobody raises at the last second: you write the amount you are willing to pay, confirm by email, and at the deadline the highest bid wins. The buyer's premium of 12% is added to the amount bid, with verification included, plus insured shipping. The full process is on the how it works page.

How much to spend: typical budgets

As of October 2026 the catalogue prices draw three bands. For many modern IRs and SIRs in PSA 10 you are between €100 and €300, and for the most sought-after cards of a set you go up towards €400 or €500, as in the three examples from Pokémon 151. The alternate arts of 2021 and 2022 cost from a few hundred to a few thousand euros. Base Set vintage in PSA 10 costs thousands of euros, even tens of thousands for Charizard.

For a first card the lower band has everything you need: a genuine card, a verifiable certificate, an object you are happy to keep. The rest comes later, if it comes.

From confirmation to delivery

After winning you pay within three days. Our expert re-checks slab and certificate, then the card leaves in a rigid box with custom-cut foam, with tracked and insured shipping. Delivery arrives between ten and fourteen days from payment.

On arrival you have 48 hours to check: the seal, the plastic, the match with the listing. Photograph the parcel before opening it, for the insurance. If something does not add up, write to us from the contact page within that window and we will take care of it. If everything adds up, and it usually does, you have just started a collection.