The Best Pokémon Card Gifts to Buy This Holiday

Make some super effective purchases this season.

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Getting gifts for a family member or friend and not sure what to choose this holiday season? If they love the Pokémon Trading Card Game and you need help finding a present, you are in the right place! Picking holiday gifts is never easy, and The Pokémon Company's wide range of TCG products doesn't help as there is so much to choose from. To help you with your holiday shopping this year, we have created a guide detailing the best Pokémon TCG products you can buy both at local retailers and online!

Whether you are helping a family or friend expand their collection or want to get them into playing by the rules of the official Pokémon Trading Card Game, Build & Battle Boxes are some of the best gifts you can currently buy for any Pokémon fan. Each Build & Battle Box comes with a pre-selected deck of cards that can be used right out of the box to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game and four additional booster packs to help players expand their selection.

Alongside the standard Build & Battle Boxes, Build & Battle Stadiums are also available for those looking to either increase their gift size or purchase an item intended for more than one person–whether you are buying a Pokémon TCG gift for a couple, two parents, or two siblings, this is by far one of the best presents you could choose to give to a pair of Pokémon fans. The Stadium iteration of the Build & Battle Box includes two Build & Battle Boxes and four additional booster packs; in total, that gives players four more booster packs than what an Elite Trainer Box would provide.

The individual Build & Battle Boxes generally retail for anywhere between $15.99 to $19.99, but there are several sellers online across TCGPlayer and card shops such as GameNerdz who sell these products at discounted prices as low as $12.99. Likewise, Build & Battle Stadiums retail for $59.99, however, many iterations of the product can be found at almost half the price–for example, Fusion Strike has been going for as low as $29.99 on Amazon just this past year. For anyone looking to gift a Build & Battle Box or Stadium containing recently released Pokémon cards, you should choose between Silver Tempest or Lost Origin.

The Pokémon GO Premier Deck Holder Collection has been tanking in price across card shops online these last few months due to a lack of interest in more Pokémon GO products. However, its value is still superb for those who collect (or are yet to collect) cards from this special TCG series. With 9 booster packs, a Premiere Ball card deck holder, and two gorgeous Dragonite promo cards [Dragonite VSTAR and Dragonite V], the Dragonite VSTAR box provides some serious value. Due to this set being a special release, all Pokémon GO products are guaranteed to contain a holo card or better–in other words, you really cannot go wrong with giving this product as a gift!

The Pokémon GO Premier Deck Holder originally retailed in stores for $49.99, but you can easily find this product on sites such as TCGPlayer for as low as $30. Even Target has recently given the Pokémon GO product a price slash as it now sits at only $36.99, and it is still readily available both in stores and online!

The Pokémon TCG: Holiday Advent Calendar (2022) is this year's notable festive Pokémon package packed to the brim with various Pokémon winter-themed goodies and boosters to keep a fan busy for 24 days–or one long sitting if they decide to tear through the whole kit in a single ravenous go. Like the Pokémon Trick or Trade BOOsters from Halloween, this year's Holiday Advent Calendar will only be available during the winter season of 2022.

Neatly stuffed inside a thematically appropriate red, white, and gold packaging decorated with some cute Pokémon Christmas-themed artwork, this year's first-ever TCG Holiday Advent Calendar includes six booster packs [random selection of recently released sets], six fun packs [3 card mini booster packs], five promo cards, two promo V cards, a promo VMAX card, two large coins, two sticker sheets, and a sidekick dangler featuring Pikachu and Delibird.

The Pokémon 2022 Holiday Advent Calendar instantly became hard to find when it hit store shelves this past November, but there have been quite a recent number of restocks these past few weeks of the product. While many websites have been hiking the price of the advent calendars, they are occasionally being restocked on the Pokémon Center's website! The Pokémon TCG: Holiday Advent Calendar (2022) can currently be purchased at Target in-stores for $49.99!

Pokémon Trading Card Game tins can be found at practically every retailer or online card shop, and there are dozens of products to pick up that every collector and player of the game will appreciate. Pokémon tin products have always been extremely popular as they provide a substantial number of items for a great price. The only negative aspect of these products is that the packs included are never guaranteed to be from a select series–of course, unless the tins pertain to a specific special series such as Pokémon GO or Shining Fates.

Starting with the smallest item of the batch, for only $8.99, a Pokémon Trading Card Game mini-tin will fetch you two packs, a player's coin, and an art card. The art cards inside mini-tins can all be lined up to create one picture, but these cards do not fit standard card sleeves due to their height. Currently, the available mini-tins customers can find in stores and online for the standard MSRP are from the special Pokémon GO series and Sinnoh Stars.

Jumping up to the next size product, Poké Ball tins all contain 3 packs each, a coin, and of course, are packaged within a tin replica of Pokémon's iconic capture device. While the Poké Balls are not necessarily optimal for holding cards, they certainly are fun display pieces for Pokémon fans. A Poke Ball tin retails for $12.99, and the current selections contain either all Pokémon GO booster packs (check for Pokémon GO label) or booster packs from a range of recent series such as Astral Radiance, Fusion Strike, and Brilliant Stars.

Many Pokémon fans have reported that Poké Ball tins purchased on the Pokémon Center's website have recently included older packs from as far back as 2019, however, keep in mind that all of these products except those that are Pokémon GO branded can contain a variety of random booster packs. Much like drawing cards from booster packs themselves, nothing is guaranteed from these tins, and The Pokémon Company has always stated this in their product descriptions!

Finally, there are the Pokémon Trading Card Game Stacking Tins and Collector Chests. Pokémon TCG Stacking Tins are small and simple boxes plastered with art that contain three packs and a coin for $12.99–yes, these are just an alternative to Poké Balls, but these products are far safer to store cards in due to their shaping and size. While Collector Chests are a bit pricier, generally retailing for about $24.99, a few extra bucks will get you five booster packs, a small binder for cards, a notebook, some stickers, exclusive holographic promo cards (usually three), and a sturdy lunchbox-styled tin case for your products.

Of all the tin product choices currently available, the Pokémon TCG Collector Chest definitely feels the most premium–but the price also speaks for itself. For those looking to purchase a Collector Chest, there are currently multiple options to choose from, and none of them disappoint! For customers looking to gift a Collector Chest that includes some of the latest booster packs, be sure to grab the Fall 2022 iteration of the product!

Of all the Pokémon TCG items to avoid purchasing this holiday season, V Battle Decks and unofficial card packs are generally the only products you will want to stay away from.

There are only two reasons to purchase a V Battle Deck: either you are getting someone young a deck to learn how to properly play the Pokémon Trading Card Game, or you are purchasing a deck that contains a promo card of one of their favorite Pokémon. Meanwhile, packages containing loose Pokémon cards, "graded" cards, or a variety of products for "a great price" are almost always a scam. There are hundreds of so-called "card assortments" on Amazon and in retail stores like Walmart and Target customers should avoid. If you see the company MJ Holdings listed anywhere on the packaging, save yourself from making someone disappointed, and don't buy that product!

On a final note, do you happen to live near a Costco or Sam's Club? If you are looking to get a premium Pokémon TCG gift for someone at an excellent price, these wholesale stores are where you should stop first on your shopping trip. Costco and Sam's Club have some incredible repackaged Pokémon TCG products to choose from. While the term "repackaged" may sound bad on the surface, these are sealed products containing older sets and extra promotional cards—they were never opened and are official Pokémon products, unlike those MJ Holdings assortments.

Right now, between Costco and Sam's Club, you can find a variety of Elite Trainer Boxes and tins for a discounted price. Additionally, Sam's Club has an exclusive "Pokémon Heavy Hitters Premium Collection" for $39.99 (as seen above) that contains cards of Lucario and Tyranitar, four coins, and a whopping 13 booster packs!

Creative writer, NXpress Host, and Games Editor. I have always held a high interest in the fields of professional writing and communications. You can find me with my head deep in the espionage genre or in a kayak upstream. I’ll always be first in line for the next Hideo Kojima or Masahiro Sakurai game.

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