What packs/tins to get?

[RockHardSemi]

Right, I'm feeling another Pokémon binge coming on. Bought a few single cards off eBay, things like Garchomp/Charizard Lvl. X and stuff. However I'm thinking of buying a few booster packs to open myself.

Last time I bought a Pokemon booster pack was years ago, when there was Base Set, Jungle and Fossil packs. I checked them out on eBay and they're like £8 per pack!

So I was looking at the more recent ones and... there's so many. Black and White, Black and White Emerging Powers, Call of Legends, Undaunted(?). I'm clueless! I don't know what packs contain Lvl. X cards, Prime cards or anything. It's all confusing. So I was looking for some help from people who know what comes from what packs! Or tins even.

Thanks.

 

[donavannj]

The sets that contained Lv. X cards are no longer in print, but they were in the sets from Diamond & Pearl to the Platinum: Arceus set.

Primes are in the four HeartGold SoulSilver (HGSS/HS) sets: HGSS, Unleashed, Undaunted, and Triumphant. The first three of these sets are out of print now.

The three most recent sets are Call of Legends, Black and White, and Black and White: Emerging Powers.

You'll find many of the sets printed in the last 5 years, especially those from the last two years, still on sale in some retail stores in various forms due to an oversupply on the retailer's part (they usually intentionally do this because there seems to be a lot of sales of boosters for some sets that happen well after they're out of print).

For cards that you can turn around and sell for money, the most valuable set is arguably HS Triumphant due to the number of cards in that set that fetch quite a bit of money due to their usefulness in competitive play in the current Modified format.

Otherwise your best bet on finding information on what's in the tins is on the backs of the tins themselves. They'll usually say what's included inside (in terms of what sets the boosters are from and how many boosters are in there).

If you want more information, you'll have to be more specific, such as what cards in particular you're looking for.

 

[RockHardSemi]

I just like the look of the cards, I don't play competitively or anything. I just thought these Lvl. X/Prime cards might be cool.

I just bought:

3 x Mysterious Treasures Booster Packs for £7.50

and

10 x HS Triumphant Booster Packs for £23.40

£30, well spent? I'll see when I open them!

 

[donavannj]

If you get duplicates of either Magnezone Prime or Yanmega prime, consider selling your extra copies of them. They'll fetch a fair bit and pay for more packs.

 

[lloebet]

ok as you now no they no longer make LV.X cards [as far as we know] primes are from heartgold soulsilver and up and LV.X uhm uh i have no idea about LV.X but i know they started some time around pearl and dimond.

 

[RockHardSemi]

Well those 3 Diamond and Pearl ones were rubbish. I have a feeling they had been re-sealed. As they seemed a bit open already, unlike the Triumphant ones which made a distinctive ripping sound when opening and were fiddly to open!

The Triumphant ones on the other hand weren't bad. I got a Yanmega Prime and a Mew Prime (I think they're Prime, it doesn't say Prime on there but it looks like the ones on eBay). I also got a weird card, it's like cut in half? It had Palkia on it I think. Just looked it's called "Palkia and Dialga Legend". Is that a promo card or something? Well, apart from those I got a Holo Drapion and Solrock, with a load of rares and Rev Holos. Might buy a few more packs, was quite fun opening them and was only £20 for 10 packs.

 

[donavannj]

You bought these off of eBay, I presume? Run fake tests on the Majestic Dawn packs.

Primes have a specific foil and card style, but they aren't labeled as such.

Palkia and Dialga LEGEND is a card that has two pieces to it. In English, you only get one half in a pack, while in the Japanese sets they're bundled together. It's not a promo card. There are several LEGEND sets within the four HGSS sets.