Is the Base Set booster box worth it?
Cheaper to buy singles
The booster box costs €19,020.98 today (Cardmarket trend). 34 cards are worth €5 or more — €1,235.01 together, 0.06× the box price. The top five cards make up 59% of the whole set’s value.
How cards are priced
Most cards in any set are commons worth cents. Whether a box pays off depends on hitting one of the few top cards.
Most valuable cards in the set
Full set →| # | Card | Set | Price today | 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Charizard 4/102 | Base Set | €496.96 | +14% |
| 2 |  Blastoise 2/102 | Base Set | €112.08 | -15% |
| 3 |  Venusaur 15/102 | Base Set | €83.63 | -9% |
| 4 |  Clefairy 5/102 | Base Set | €58.13 | +54% |
| 5 |  Zapdos 16/102 | Base Set | €48.98 | +23% |
| 6 |  Alakazam 1/102 | Base Set | €46.04 | -9% |
| 7 |  Raichu 14/102 | Base Set | €41.84 | -7% |
| 8 |  Chansey 3/102 | Base Set | €32.65 | +1% |
| 9 |  Nidoking 11/102 | Base Set | €27.28 | -29% |
| 10 |  Mewtwo 10/102 | Base Set | €25.01 | -16% |
| 11 |  Poliwrath 13/102 | Base Set | €21.08 | -29% |
| 12 |  Dragonair 18/102 | Base Set | €21.02 | +6% |
| 13 |  Hitmonchan 7/102 | Base Set | €20.58 | +77% |
| 14 |  Gyarados 6/102 | Base Set | €20.10 | -10% |
| 15 |  Magneton 9/102 | Base Set | €19.49 | -6% |
| 16 |  Machamp 8/102 | Base Set | €15.25 | +14% |
| 17 |  Ninetales 12/102 | Base Set | €14.60 | -17% |
| 18 |  Pidgeotto 22/102 | Base Set | €10.14 | -8% |
| 19 |  Clefairy Doll 70/102 | Base Set | €9.65 | +10% |
| 20 |  Impostor Professor Oak 73/102 | Base Set | €9.65 | +2% |
Prices: Cardmarket trend, updated daily — as of Oct 29, 2026.
How to read these numbers
The full-set value is what all cards would cost as singles. One box won’t complete the set and the rarest cards are rare, so we focus on cards from €5. If they are worth many times the box price, the set is rich in valuable cards; if value is concentrated in a few cards (high top-5 share), opening is a lottery.
If you want a specific card, buying it as a single is almost always cheaper. A box makes sense if you enjoy opening, play limited/draft or collect sealed product.