One of the primary factors that keeps fans young and old alike coming back to Pokémon is their massive, ever-expanding supply of characters. With over 1,000 distinct Pokémon already in existence, the well never runs dry for collectors. And with the official announcement of Wind and Wave , we are about to see a whole additional roster added to both the gaming universe and the TCG space. This constant influx of fresh blood ensures that collectors always have a new chase, a new favorite, or a new speculative hold to hunt down.
Because of this massive roster, Pokémon literally has no shortage of characters to lean on to sell sets. But they don't stop at just a single version of a Pokémon. To multiply their options, the Pokémon Company continuously introduces region variants, shinies, evolutions, Terastalized forms, VMAXs, and whatever creative new versions they decide to add next. It creates a brilliant ecosystem where a single popular species can have dozens of collectible variations, keeping the market dynamic and giving investors multiple entry points for a single IP asset.
But here is the golden rule: within this massive character space, there is still a fiercely disproportionate demand for certain characters. We’ve spoken about this in the past—so I won’t go into exhaustive detail here—but we discussed this exact phenomenon regarding Luffy in the One Piece TCG. Even though he is a single character, the demand and popularity of Luffy completely transcends the risk of there being "too many" cards of him. The same goes for the heavy hitters in Pokémon. Just compare any random new Pokémon to a cultural titan like Pikachu, the franchise's eternal mascot. The demand simply isn't a level playing field.
We see this first-hand in the current Scarlet and Violet Era with Terapagos. Introduced in the SV era, Terapagos is a fascinating, beautifully designed legendary turtle with a glittering, crystalline shell that ties directly into the Terastal phenomenon. It’s an incredibly unique Pokémon with gorgeous, ethereal illustrations across its card variants. By all logic of design, lore importance, and shiny cardboard aesthetic, Terapagos should be a heavy hitter for collectors.
But let's look at how this translates into the value arena. There are around 12+ different cards of this Pokémon that have been released in the last few years, with the top four being two Special Illustration Rares (SIR) and two Hyper Rares. You have one SIR and one Hyper Rare in the Prismatic Evolutions set, and one SIR and one Hyper Rare in the Stellar Crown set. The estimated pull rate sits around 1/540 packs for the Stellar Crown Terapagos SIR , and nearly three times that difficulty in Prismatic Evolutions! Despite these punishing odds, these SIR cards are both sitting around just $30 each —a far cry from a $1,200+ Umbreon SIR with similar pull rates. Additionally, looking at the Hyper Rarity tier cards with an estimated 1/400 pull rate, both Hyper Rare Terapagos cards are stubbornly sitting under the $10 mark .
To put that into staggering perspective: if you had one of every Terapagos card ever printed—including those two brutal-to-pull Hyper Rares and the two elusive SIRs—your entire Terapagos portfolio would still have a combined value of less than $90 . Now, compare that to a similar rarity card like the SIR Pikachu in Surging Sparks , which currently commands a market price of around $250 . That means the combined value of every Terapagos card in existence is roughly one-third the price of just one similar rarity Pikachu card!
Ultimately, this perfectly illustrates the immense financial weight of a strong legacy character. In a space where more characters give you more variety, it still proves that the tried-and-true fan favorites are the undisputed market makers. Rarity and pull rates might dictate the floor, but it’s the character that dictates the ceiling. If you want to build a portfolio that thrives long-term, you must weigh character popularity just as heavily as scarcity.