Pokémon TCG
Two copies of the same Pokémon card, with the same name, number and art, can sell for very different prices. The difference is usually where the foil is, or a small stamp on an old card. Here's how to tell each version apart.
Tilt the card under a light and look at where it shines.
These are the names TCGplayer lists them under, which is why price guides and TurnZero HQ use them too.
A holofoil card, or "holo", has a foil layer behind the artwork only. For most of the game's history the holo was the rare card in a pack, which is why the phrase "holo rare" stuck. In the Scarlet & Violet sets every regular Rare is printed holo, so a holofoil copy of those cards is simply the normal way to find them.
A reverse holo flips that: the foil covers the frame, the text box and the borders, and the artwork is left plain. Reverse holos arrived in English sets in the early 2000s and have been in most booster packs since, usually as a common, uncommon or rare from the same set printed with the reverse treatment. The card number is the same as the normal copy; only the finish is different.
Full art, illustration rare and gold cards are foil or textured across the whole face, art included, but they are not a version of another card. Each has a collector number of its own, often above the set's printed total (a 199/198, say), so it's a separate card with a separate price rather than the holo version of the regular one. Reading the collector number →
Early English sets from the Wizards of the Coast era were printed twice. The first print run carries a small black 1st Edition stamp just below the bottom left corner of the artwork. Later runs dropped the stamp, and those copies are called Unlimited. The same card can therefore exist as four versions:
Not every old card came in all four, since a holo rare was printed as a holo and a common was not. The stamp is the part that moves the price most: a 1st Edition copy is from the smaller first print run.
Collectors buy a specific version of a card, so marketplaces list each one separately and their prices move separately. A common that is worth next to nothing as a normal copy can be worth noticeably more as a reverse holo, and a 1st Edition holo from an early set is a different purchase entirely from its Unlimited twin. None of that is a rule: the gap depends on the card and on demand, so the only reliable answer is the current price of the exact version you have.
That's how TurnZero HQ's Pokémon collection works. Every copy you add is stored with its variant, priced from TCGplayer's market price for that variant, and updated daily, so a binder with a few reverse holos in it is valued as one. How the collection tracker prices cards →
Where the shine is. On a holofoil card the artwork is foil and the rest of the card is not. On a reverse holofoil it's the other way around: the frame, text box and borders are foil and the artwork is not. Tilt the card under a light and the difference is obvious.
Usually a little, and sometimes a lot, but not always. For most commons and uncommons the reverse holo sells for more than the normal copy because fewer are opened. Whether the gap is cents or dollars depends on the card, so check the price of the exact variant rather than assuming.
A full art card is foil or textured across the whole face, but it isn't a variant of another card: it has its own collector number, often beyond the set's printed total. It's priced as its own card rather than as the holo version of a regular one.
Look just below the bottom left corner of the artwork for a small black stamp reading "Edition" around a 1. Early Wizards of the Coast era sets were printed first with that stamp and then again without it; the unstamped copies are called Unlimited. No stamp means Unlimited, or a set that never had a 1st Edition run.
Yes. Each copy in your Pokémon collection has a variant, using TCGplayer's names, and each variant is priced on its own. The scanner adds a card as its headline version, since a camera can't reliably tell a reverse holo from a normal copy, and you change the variant on the card's page.
Add your Pokémon cards by variant and TurnZero HQ values each copy from daily TCGplayer prices. Free to start.
Create Free AccountPokémon and Pokémon character names are trademarks of Nintendo. ©Pokémon. ©Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc. TurnZero HQ is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Creatures Inc., or GAME FREAK inc. Card data comes from the open PokemonTCG dataset, and prices from TCGplayer.