author

Janelle Sazon

Contributing Writer

Janelle Sazon writes collecting guides and best-card roundups for Cardboard Alpha, with an eye on what makes a Pokémon card worth chasing: the artwork, the rarity tier, the condition it survives in, and what it really costs to own once the hype is set aside. Articles under this byline are written for collectors at every level, lean on published pricing and population data rather than speculation, cite every source inline, and are fact-checked against those sources before they are published.

Credentials

Contributing Writer, Cardboard Alpha
Focus areas: collecting guides, best-card roundups
Research grounded in published pricing and population data, cited inline

Janelle Sazon's articles describe the collecting market using published pricing and population data. They are informational and are not personalized investment advice.

Articles by Janelle Sazon

A photograph of a woman at a sunlit window beneath a raised pink blind, holding up a hand drawn pink umbrella, with flat pokeball-red illustrations of raindrops and stars drawn over it.

Collecting Guides

How to Store Pokemon Cards to Protect Their Value

NARA, NEDCC and CCI give specific numbers for storing paper: below 75°F, under 65 percent humidity, out of sunlight, in stable enclosures. This guide maps those rules onto TCGplayer's condition standards and prices a Near Mint to Lightly Played step across 10,461 card variants on October 20, 2026.

7 min read

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Collecting Guides

How to Build a Master Set: Strategy and Cost

What counts as a Pokémon master set, what four modern sets cost to complete on Cardboard Alpha's October 20, 2026 evaluated prices, and how the list you choose changes the bill. The five priciest cards held 35.7 to 56.9 percent of each set's main-print cost, and Prismatic Evolutions' foil patterns and Crown Zenith's Galarian Gallery moved their totals far more than reverse holos did.

7 min read

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Collecting Guides

Should You Insure Pokemon Cards? What Policies Pay

A homeowners or renters policy may leave collectibles out, cap what it pays or replace a card with a similar one, according to the Texas Department of Insurance, and one State Farm form posted in Maine sets a $2,500 total for stamps, trading cards and comic books. The guide compares actual cash, replacement, market and agreed value, scheduled riders and two collector insurers' own pages, and lists the records insurers ask for. On October 19, 2026, Cardboard Alpha's evaluated prices put a median of about 63 percent of a set's one-of-each value in its 10 highest-priced cards across 38 English sets.

8 min read

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Best Cards

Most Valuable Pokemon Cards by Decade: 1990s Through 2020s

This guide ranks Pokemon cards by decade with two separate lenses: Cardboard Alpha's raw Near Mint evaluated prices for English printings on October 13, 2026, and the highest auction sale found for each decade at Heritage, Goldin and Fanatics Collect. It names the leader of the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s on each lens, adds sale-based PSA 10 prices for the 2010s and 2020s, and shows why the two answers differ.

7 min read

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Collecting Guides

Bulk Pokemon Cards Worth Money: What to Look For

Of 19,575 priced commons and uncommons, 30.2 percent were at $1 or more on October 12, 2026, and 73 percent of those came from sets printed from 1999 to early 2011. This guide sorts bulk by era, finish and print run, then shows what TCGplayer's fees take from a one-dollar card.

7 min read

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Collecting Guides

Miscut and Error Pokemon Cards: Are They Worth More

Most miscut and error Pokemon cards are not worth more than a clean copy, because graders treat slight miscuts and print flaws as condition, which mostly lowers the grade. A small set of documented errors and variants is the exception: a Near Mint Shadowless Red Cheeks Pikachu was $109.95 on TCGplayer on October 7, 2026, against $45.66 for the yellow-cheek print.

8 min read

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Collecting Guides

What to Do With an Inherited Pokemon Card Collection

A nine-step plan for inherited Pokemon cards: change nothing at first, record and protect the cards, sort them into bulk, maybes, and graded or sealed, then price the maybes from sold listings. It sets PSA, TCGplayer and National Archives guidance beside October 1, 2026 price bands for 33,644 English prints and the IRS Publication 551 basis rule.

8 min read

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Collecting Guides

Pokemon Card Rarity Symbols Explained: From Common to Hyper Rare

The main Pokemon card rarity symbols, from a Common's black circle to a Hyper Rare's three gold stars, with the print treatment each one marks. Then the price test: Cardboard Alpha's evaluated raw prices for all 252 Surging Sparks cards on September 29, 2026, tier by tier, against TCGplayer's measured pack odds.

7 min read

Best Cards

The Most Expensive Pokemon Cards Ever Sold: A Running Ranking

This running ranking lists the highest confirmed sale for each Pokemon card, led by the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator's $16,492,000 Goldin Auctions result on February 16, 2026. It covers the $2.7 million Torchic Gold Star, the seven-figure Gold Star, Charizard and Trophy Pikachu sales of 2026, and the disputed eBay listings left out.

7 min read

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Best Cards

Most Valuable Arceus Pokemon Cards: A Price Guide

Cosmic Eclipse's Arceus & Dialga & Palkia GX alternate full art (221/236) is the most valuable Arceus card on TCGplayer, at $566.16 as of September 26, 2026. This guide ranks the ten highest-priced Arceus cards from TCGplayer's full Arceus catalog, breaks down the LV.X and AR price spreads inside the 2009 Platinum: Arceus set, and states what it does not price.

6 min read

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Best Cards

Most Valuable Entei Pokemon Cards: A Price Guide

Cardboard Alpha's live market data prices Entei star, the 2005 EX Unseen Forces Gold Star, at $1,067.00 raw and Near Mint as of September 26, 2026, the top of a ten-card Entei ranking drawn from the 35 English Entei printings in its catalog.

5 min read