5 Things to do With Your Bulk Pokémon Cards

Stop! Don’t throw your bulk Pokémon cards away. We put together a list of things to do with all those extra cards. You can make some extra cash, or even change a child’s life.

What are Bulk Cards?

Bulk cards are all of those Pokémon cards stacked up in the corner of your room! Seriously though, every collector or TCG player is going to end up with a huge amount of bulk cards before too long. 

Bulk cards are the non-holo Commons, uncommons, and rares that gert thrown aside after opening a booster pack. In some cases, you may even consider reverse holos and regular holo rares to be bulk. 

When we’re opening packs, we’re looking for “hits”. A hit is anything above a holo rare. In some cases, you may open a dozen booster packs and not pull a single hit- thats a lot of bulk! 

5 Things to do With Bulk

1. Sell it Online (or locally)

Online

A great place to sell bulk cards is eBay. 

There are other options such as tcgplayer.com and trollandtoad.com, but eBay is going to move your product quicker, as it receives the most attention. 

STEP 1- Research

First, you’ll want to head over to eBay.com and search “Pokémon card bulk”. Next, go to the search filter and check off “Sold Listings”. This way you can see what people are actually paying for bulk cards.

Get an idea of what people are paying for an amount similar to what you have. Check out the listing and see if the bulk includes reverse holo cards, holos, or even GX or V cards.

STEP 2- Create a listing

When you create a listing, you will then have the option to copy someone else’s as a template. This can be helpful if you found a listing similar to yours. Go ahead and copy it, make any changes, and upload photos of your bulk cards.

STEP 3- Shipping cost

A lot of Pokémon cards can get very heavy, very fast. Make sure that you specify shipping details in your listing. In this case, it is probably best to have the buyer pay for shipping. 

Don’t be afraid to jack it up. 

If you did your research, you probably noticed that a lot of listings sold for ~$20 but had a shipping cost of >$50. This sounds funny, but it’s just the nature of buying/selling bulk cards. Cards are heavy, so shipping is expensive.

Local

Consider listing your cards on a local buy n’ sell or Facebook Marketplace. 

Once again, do your research and see what others are asking for their bulk cards. If you want to get rid of them quickly, you can always reduce the price or offer free delivery within your area.

2. Trade it in for Credit

If you don’t know what to do with your bulk cards, consider trading them in. 

Local

Lots of small card shops or game stores will take bulk cards in exchange for store credit. They might not credit you very much, but it could add up to something nice over time.

Online

Many people don’t know this, but some online card stores will also credit you if you send them your bulk cards. Furthermore, you can trade in or sell your rarer cards too. This can be extra helpful if you have some doubles that you need to offload. 

Some sites that will buy cards from you:

• TrollandToad
• 401Games
• SkyFoxGames
• CardCavern
• FullGripGames
• CapeFearGames
• CCGCastle
  
• KanzenGames (Canada)

3. Donate it

This is the best thing to do with your bulk cards, I promise. 

I don’t mean dropping them off at a thrift store but actually giving them to kids or new players. Bulk cards make deck building a lot easier, and there are a lot of card and hobby shops that host tournaments. Drop by one of these places and ask if you can donate your cards for deck-building.

Don’t stop there. You can donate your cards to schools, recreational centers, hospitals, daycares, and more. Or just ask your friends if they know anyone whose kids like Pokémon. 

4. Make Art

It’s ok if you don’t have any artsy ideas because many have done it already.

Pinterest is a great place to explore what people are doing with their unwanted Pokémon cards. 

u/monty_vincent on Reddit makes stunningly beautiful artwork out of only Pokémon energy cards.

Imbaartcom from DeviantArt creates shadow box Pokémon cards- a trend that has popped up lately that utilizes bulk cards.

There are limitless art projects when it comes to Pokémon cards. 

5. Keep Them

I get it, you’re probably wanting to get rid of your bulk cards- that’s why you’re here right?

Have you considered keeping them? Sure, they aren’t worth much now and they probably won’t be worth much in a few years, but in 10-15 years they will be. If you look back at commons and uncommons from 10 years ago, they have increased in value. 

You won’t make a fortune from holding onto your bulk for 10 years, but you likely would make some cash. Not to mention, the nostalgia of finding old cards is intoxicating.

If you have the storage space and you’re in no rush to get rid of them, keep them. You never know when they might come in handy. Perhaps you’ll have friends or family visiting and you can surprise the kids with Pokémon cards. 

Final Thoughts

Bulk cards are an annoying byproduct of opening booster packs. If one of the 5 entities on this list didn’t pique your interest, ask your friend what theft would do, or what they have done in the past. I would like to take this chance to further suggest donating your cards to some kids, though. I grew up having never opened a Pokémon booster pack, and a donation (even if it was just bulk) would have absolutely transformed my childhood.