Sell Your Bulk Pokemon Cards
Checking the buylist light
01What we pay today, locked in when you submit
| Category | Cash per 1,000 | Cash per card | Credit per 1,000 | Credit per card |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commons and uncommons | $20 | 2c | $24 | 2.4c |
| Non holo rares | $30 | 3c | $36 | 3.6c |
| Holo and reverse holo | $50 | 5c | $60 | 6c |
| Cosmos holo | $100 | 10c | $120 | 12c |
| Amazing Rare | $500 | 50c | $600 | 60c |
| Baby shiny | $500 | 50c | $600 | 60c |
| VMAX and VSTAR | $1000 | $1.00 | $1200 | $1.20 |
| GX, EX and V | $750 | 75c | $900 | 90c |
| Full art Pokemon and Trainer | $750 | 75c | $900 | 90c |
| Pikachu ultra rare | $750 | 75c | $900 | 90c |
| Gold foil secret rare | $1250 | $1.25 | $1500 | $1.50 |
| Trainer Gallery and Illustration Rare | 80 percent of TCGplayer market, priced when your box is counted, never less than $1.00 a card. Near Mint only on this line, nothing below it is paid. | |||
| Rainbow foil ultra rare | 80 percent of TCGplayer market, priced when your box is counted, never less than $2.00 a card. Near Mint only on this line, nothing below it is paid. | |||
| Basic energy | Not accepted. Pull it before you ship; energy adds weight and nothing else. | |||
Rates as of September 14, 2026. Store credit pays 20 percent more than cash. English, Near Mint, sorted by line.
These rates move with the card market, so the board you are reading now will not be the board forever. The one that counts is the board showing when you press Send: we capture it with your submission and pay your box on it, even if a line changes while your cards are in the mail.
02How it works
Count and submit
Enter your counts by category in the portal. You get an instant estimate and a submission ID. The estimate is not an offer; it is the math on your numbers.
Box and mail
Ship to the address on your confirmation with your ID on the box. Inbound shipping is your cost; tracking is strongly recommended.
We recount
Every box is counted by hand. Our count governs, and any category that moves more than 10 percent shows side by side in your offer.
Accept, then get paid
The final offer lands by email. Accept it and payment follows by PayPal, or store credit worth 20 percent more. Payment always comes last, after verification, never on the spot.
03What we accept, illustrated
04How to sort
Back to the ratesSort your cards by the line of the rate table they fall under. Every ex together, every non holo rare together, every holo rare together, and so on down the board. That is the whole instruction: one pile per row, and the rows are the same rows you counted from. The piles below are that table, in order, with the tell that puts a card in each one.
The piles
- Basic energyNot bought
Pull these out first. We do not buy them, and they are postage weight and nothing else.
- Commons and uncommons$20 per 1,000
A circle or a diamond printed at the bottom of the card, artwork flat. Non holo Trainers go in this pile too, whatever the word TRAINER across the top might suggest.
- Non holo rares$30 per 1,000
A star printed at the bottom of the card, and the artwork still stays flat.
- Holo and reverse holo$50 per 1,000
Holo rares and reverse holos together in one pile. If the artwork shines or the border and text box shine, it belongs here, and you do not need to tell the two apart because they pay the same.
- Cosmos holo$100 per 1,000
Tilt it under a lamp. The shine is made of scattered dots and rings of different sizes across the picture, like a starfield, instead of straight lines or one flat sheet. Those go in this pile rather than the holo pile.
- Amazing Rare50c per card
The rarity line on the card reads Amazing Rare.
- Baby shiny50c per card
The shiny Pokemon from the Hidden Fates, Shining Fates and Paldean Fates subsets.
- VMAX and VSTAR$1.00 per card
The card name carries VMAX or VSTAR.
- GX, EX and V75c per card
The card name carries GX, EX, ex or V, printed on the ordinary card frame.
- Full art Pokemon and Trainer75c per card
The artwork runs edge to edge behind the text instead of sitting in a window. Pokemon and Trainers both, on the same line.
- Pikachu ultra rare75c per card
Any Pikachu V, VMAX or ex. Pikachu comes out of the other ultra rare piles and into this one, because it is the only name with its own line.
- Gold foil secret rare$1.25 per card
A metallic gold card whose number runs past the set total.
- Trainer Gallery and Illustration Rare80 pct of market
The TG and GG numbered cards, plus the Illustration Rares whose scene art fills the whole card. One line, one pile. Paid at 80 percent of TCGplayer market when your box is counted, never less than $1.00 a card. Near Mint only on this line. Anything below it is not paid, so leave played copies out.
- Rainbow foil ultra rare80 pct of market
Pastel rainbow texture across the whole card, number running past the set total. Paid at 80 percent of TCGplayer market when your box is counted, never less than $2.00 a card. Near Mint only on this line. Anything below it is not paid, so leave played copies out.
One box, one row, or one banded stack per pile, and nothing else. Every pile above is a line on the rate table, which is the point: a pile that exists is a number on your offer. When a card could sit in two piles, the higher paying one wins.
The one pass
- Is it a basic energy?Out of the box
- Does the card name carry ex, EX, GX, V, VMAX or VSTAR, or does the artwork run edge to edge, or is it gold, rainbow, TG, GG or a full scene Illustration Rare?Its own line on the board
These are the lines paid by the card rather than by the thousand, so each one gets its own pile. A Pikachu V, VMAX or ex comes out of those piles into the Pikachu pile.
- Otherwise, does any part of the card shine?Holo and reverse holo
Holo rares and reverse holos share one line, so you do not have to tell them apart. The artwork shining is a holo rare; the border and text box shining while the picture stays flat is a reverse holofoil. Both go in the same pile and both pay the same.
- Otherwise, read the symbol at the bottom of the card.Star: non holo raresCircle or diamond: commons and uncommons
Trainers follow the same symbol. A non holo Trainer with a circle or a diamond is counted with the commons and uncommons, on the same line and at the same rate.
What not to do
- Do not alphabetize.Nothing in our count cares what letter a card starts with, and putting a box in order is the slowest thing you can do to it.
- Do not sort by set.We pay by category, not by set. Splitting a box by set turns one evening into five and pays exactly the same at the end of it.
- Do not sleeve the piles counted by the thousand.Sleeves come off at our counter and go in the bin, and on the way here they add real postage weight to a box you are paying to ship. The top of the board is the exception: we encourage sleeving the cards on the per card lines, because those leave here again as singles. It is not required and nothing pays less for arriving bare.
- Do not split by type or color.Fire, water, and grass all pay the same rate. The pile is the category, never the color on the card.
Honestly, how long does it take. A monster box runs roughly 3,000 to 5,000 cards and sorts in about an evening once the piles are laid out on the table. Nearly all of that evening's gain sits in the piles above the commons, because a card only reaches its own line when it is in its own pile: one card off the top of the board pays what a hundred commons pay. Every category is counted at the same published rate whoever sends it, so the sorting is what decides which rate your cards get counted at.
05The rules we buy by
- English cards only, Near Mint, sorted into the categories above. Every box has to arrive sorted by rate line; that is what we count from. Send the piles counted by the thousand unsleeved. Sleeving the per card lines is encouraged and never required.
- Minimum submission $10 at the rates above, which is about 500 sorted commons. The estimate on the submission form tells you when you are there.
- No basic energy. Pull it before you pack; it adds postage weight and earns nothing.
- When a card fits two categories, the higher value category wins. A reverse holo rare counts as a holo rare, not a reverse holo common.
- Trainer Gallery, Illustration Rares and rainbow foils pay 80 percent of the card's TCGplayer market value, read when we count your box rather than when you submit it, and never less than the minimum shown on their rows. Near Mint only on those three lines: a card below Near Mint is not paid at all. Everything else on the board is the flat figure beside it.
- Inbound shipping is your cost up front and your risk until the box reaches us. Use tracking. We are not responsible for packages we have not received.
- Boxes that count to more than $500 ship free. You pay the postage when you send it, and once we have counted the box we add what it cost you back onto your payout, up to $25. It is our recount that decides it, not the estimate, so keep the postage receipt.
- Mail to: Monster & Shield, 2552 Bengal Rd, North Charleston, SC 29406. Your submission ID and your name both go on the outside of the box, and a slip of paper with the same two written on it goes inside. Post the box under that same name. A box that arrives with no way to identify it is held, not counted. How to pack it and buy the cheapest postage.
06Where to sell bulk Pokemon cards without the guesswork
Selling bulk is the part of the hobby with the least information in it. Half the shops that buy bulk never publish what they pay. The other half quote rates that only work if you drive the box to their counter. Selling card by card on a marketplace turns a closet cleanout into a second job. A buylist built for mail was the missing option, so that is what this page is.
The rates above are the actual numbers, on the open page, compared against every published competitor we can find each month. Cash lands via PayPal after your box is verified. Store credit pays 20 percent more and spends anywhere on the site, which turns a monster box into a graded slab or whole stacks of the exact card you want instead of pocket change. Between submission and payout you are never in the dark: a private status page tracks arrival, recount, offer, and payment, with an email at every step.
One honest note about pace, because it is the tradeoff mail buylists carry: from the day you ship to money in hand is typically one to two weeks, most of it postal transit and our recount queue. What you get for the wait is a verified count, a paper trail, and rates that do not need a haggle. If your bulk is sorted and Near Mint, you will not find a better published cash rate for commons and uncommons, and if someone posts one, tell us and watch this table move.
07Selling questions, answered straight
How much can I sell my bulk Pokemon cards for?
Commons and uncommons earn $20 per 1,000 in cash or $24 in store credit, and non holo Trainers are counted on that same line. Non holo rares earn $30 per 1,000, holos and reverse holos earn $50 per 1,000, and a holo whose foil is a starfield of scattered dots and rings is a cosmos holo, which has its own line at $100 per 1,000. Everything above that is paid by the card: 50 cents per card for Amazing Rares and baby shinies, $1.00 per card for VMAX and VSTAR, 75 cents per card for the GX, EX and V class, 75 cents per card for full art Pokemon and Trainers and for any Pikachu ultra rare, $1.25 per card for gold secret rares. Three lines are not a flat figure at all: Trainer Gallery, Illustration Rares and rainbow foil ultra rares pay 80 percent of the card's TCGplayer market value, priced when your box is counted, and they are the one place we pay nothing at all for a card below Near Mint. The table above is the live price list; 5,000 commons alone comes to $100, and a normal mix with rares and shinies in it lands far higher.
How do I actually sell you my cards?
Fill out the submission form with your counts by category and you get an instant estimate, a submission ID, and mailing instructions. Ship the box to us with your ID written on it. We recount everything by hand, email you a final offer, and pay when you accept. The whole trail lives on a private status page we email you.
When and how do I get paid?
After your cards arrive, our recount is done, and you accept the final offer. Nobody who buys bulk through the mail pays on the spot, and anyone promising instant payment before verifying a box is pricing that risk into a worse rate. Payment goes out by PayPal, or as store credit worth 20 percent more if you would rather turn bulk into singles or whole stacks from the shop.
Do I have to sort my cards first?
Yes. Sort your cards by the line of the rate table they fall under: every ex together, every non holo rare together, every holo rare together, and so on down the board. There is no separate unsorted rate to fall back on, because the count is the categories, and a pile that has not been separated cannot be counted as the category it belongs to. It is one pass down the box, not five. The gain is in the piles above the commons: holos and reverse holos have their own line at $50 per 1,000, and everything above that is paid by the card, from 50 cents per card up to $1.25 per card, with Trainer Gallery, Illustration Rares and rainbow foils paid at 80 percent of market instead of a flat figure.
What counts as a reverse holo?
A reverse holofoil is a card of any rarity with the foil printed on the background of the card and not on the picture of the Pokemon, the Trainer, or the special energy. Tilt it under a light: if the frame and border shine while the picture stays flat, it is a reverse holo. Holo rares and reverse holos share one line on the rate table, so you do not have to tell them apart while you sort. Anything that shines goes in the same pile.
Do you buy basic energy cards?
No, and pulling them is the first move of any sort. Basic energy is the one thing on this page we do not buy, and it still costs you postage on the way here, so every energy card in the box is money spent shipping weight. Every category we do buy has its own line on the rate table above.
Does the rarity symbol decide what my cards pay?
Mostly. The symbol printed at the bottom of the card is the base read: a circle is a common, a diamond is an uncommon, and a star is a rare. Commons and uncommons share one line, non holo Trainers are counted on that same line whatever the word TRAINER across the top might suggest, and rares split by whether the card shines. Two things ignore the symbol entirely. Anything with foil goes in the holo and reverse holo pile unless the foil is a starfield of scattered dots and rings, which has its own cosmos holo line above it, and anything wearing a V, ex, GX, VMAX, VSTAR, full art, Trainer Gallery, Illustration Rare, gold secret or rainbow frame is paid on its own line by the card. Full art Pokemon and full art Trainers share one line; any Pikachu V, VMAX or ex leaves the ultra rare piles for the Pikachu line. Every figure is on the rate table above, which is the one that governs.
What if your count does not match mine?
Our recount governs the offer, and that cuts both ways: we regularly count more than sellers declared. If any category shifts more than 10 percent from what you declared, the offer email shows your count and ours side by side so you can see exactly where the difference is before deciding.
Can I get my cards back?
No. Sending your cards is final: once your box reaches us the cards are ours, and we do not ship bulk back. Please do not send anything you want to keep, and pull any card you are unsure about before you tape the box.
What you are choosing is how you get paid, not whether. We recount by hand, send you the figure, and pay it. Any category we count more than 10 percent away from your declaration is shown to you side by side. The window stays open 14 days with a reminder at day 10, and if you never reply we simply pay out the option you picked when you submitted.