Pokemon Go helps make old Pokemon cards worth thousands

Some sets go for tens of thousands of pounds, and the huge popularity of the new augmented reality game is helping to drive the market

Nintendo Co employee Toru Kusakabe displays the game-maker's newly-launched Pokemon, or pocket monster video game software (Reuters)

Pokemon Go has helped the original Pokemon cards surge in value – with many worth tens of thousands of pounds.

The huge popularity of the new Pokemon Go game has helped Nintendo gain billions of dollars in value, let people sell Pokemon Go accounts for thousands and has led to people spending huge amounts of time and money hunting down Pokemon.

But people are also hunting out their old Pokemon cards, too. That has led to a massive surge in the number of people selling old Pokemon merchandise, and has driven up its price.

One card – the "Pikachu Illustrator" that's described as the "holy grail" of the hobby – sold for over £75,000 early in July.

There has been a 45 per cent increase in sales of Pokemon-related items on eBay, the site said. That has meant that one of them has sold every 12 seconds.

On the site, some sets of old cards are going for tens of thousands of pounds. Rare cards on their own can sell for upwards of £5,000 – and into five figures – while collections of cards go for even more.

The value of individual cards is almost entirely defined by their rarity, though only cards in a good condition will be able to sell for extra-high prices.

If cards are still in their protective sleeves or the packs they come in, then they will sometimes be able to command prices of hundreds or thousands of pounds.

But that also requires that the cards are rare. There are clues to whether any particular card is likely to command a high price – if it is holographic, has a star or stars in the bottom right corner, or is an especially early card – but the full price can be worked out by searching eBay or specialist sites.