Trading Card Tips

Pokemon Cards - more fun that bubble gum.

Courtesy of Nintendo

Magic Cards - dueling in the palm of your hand.

Courtesy of Wizards

Reviewed by Kidzworld on Dec 27, 2006 (Rating: 1 Star Rating

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Collectible cards - Pokemon, Magic, baseball and others - can be worth serious coin. Learn to trade like a pro or you could get ripped off cuz you don't know what your cards are worth.

If you've been a good Pokemaster all year Santa probably gave you a stack of cool new cards for Christmas. Now it's time to trade with your buddies to get the hot cards you want. But do you know what they're worth? Some cards are worth some serious money to collectors and traders. It's a good plan to know what yours are worth so you don't get burned when you're trading.

The trick is sorting out the big money cards from the ones you should pick your teeth with. Here's some advice:

Bigger isn't always better - a lot of 'powerful' cards are so hard to use that they suck.

Famous characters are usually worth their weight in gold. A Darth Vader card is gonna be worth a ton more than some deck-scrubbing Stormtrooper.

Rare Magic cards all have a little gold stamp below and to the right of their picture. Other games use different ways to show rare cards - find out the trick and you're all set.

First editions, promo cards and cards nobody makes anymore are worth a mint - even if it's a lousy card.

If you want to figure out if your Poke-collection or your Harry Potter cards are worth enough for a new skateboard, snag a Trading Card Game magazine. The mag Duelist, from Wizards of the Coast, is a good one. So are Inquest and Scrye. You can find them at your local comic/hobby store for about $5 US. Make sure you snag the newest issue - prices are always changing, so an old mag is useless.

Of course, you can always check out the net for the latest prices. One of the biggest card sites is www.pojo.com. It covers everything from Pokemon to your grandma's collectible napkins.

I have been playing Magic since Invasion came out. I stopped playing for a year and when I came back a whole new style of Magic appeared with high powered cards. I learned to play from expert cards.

Kidz Submit by:

Nickname: legions
Age: 14
Rating: 5