2017 Pokémon Card Values & Price Guide

The five English sets of 2017

The year's expansions came out roughly every three months:

• Sun & Moon (February 3, 2017; 163 cards including secret rares) opened the era. It introduced Pokémon-GX, the Alolan forms of familiar Pokémon, and gold secret rare basic Energy.
• Guardians Rising (May 5, 2017; 169 cards) is named for the Tapu, the island guardians of Alola.
• Burning Shadows (August 4, 2017; 169 cards) is the set behind one of the era's best-known chase cards, the Rainbow Rare Charizard-GX.
• Shining Legends (October 6, 2017; 78 cards) is a smaller special set that brought back Shining Pokémon, a rarity last seen in the Neo era.
• Crimson Invasion (November 3, 2017; 124 cards) is built around Ultra Beasts, whose GX cards carry a red GX logo and an Ultra Beast bar under the HP.

The SM Black Star Promos, numbered with an SM prefix, came from collection boxes, tins and events rather than booster packs. Japanese sets from the same year appear in this guide as well, among them Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon and GX Battle Boost. They follow their own release schedule and their own market, so compare a Japanese card with other Japanese copies, not with its English counterpart.

What makes a 2017 card valuable

The Sun & Moon era was printed in very large quantities, so most 2017 commons, uncommons and regular holos are worth little raw. Value concentrates in a few places:

• Secret rares, numbered above the set's printed total, such as 149/145 in a 145-card set. This is where Rainbow Rares and gold cards sit. Guardians Rising's Primarina #149 is one of them.
• Shining Pokémon from Shining Legends, such as Shining Rayquaza (56/73), Shining Genesect and Shining Mew. Their shiny holo treatment makes them the most sought-after cards of that set.
• Full-art Pokémon-GX and Supporters. The textured full arts are the middle tier of the era: worth more than a holo, usually well below a Rainbow Rare.
• Popular Pokémon. Charizard, Pikachu, Mewtwo and Rayquaza carry a premium in every rarity. Compare their printings across eras in the Charizard, Rayquaza and Mewtwo guides.

How to tell which 2017 printing you have

• Read the number in the bottom corner. It identifies the card within its set: 56/73 is Shining Rayquaza whatever the artwork suggests at a glance. A number higher than the total after the slash means a secret rare.
• Check the set symbol next to the number. Each expansion has its own symbol, and the same Pokémon often appears in several 2017 sets at very different values.
• Holo or reverse holo. A holo rare shines on the artwork only; a reverse holo shines everywhere except the artwork and is a separate, usually cheaper, printing.
• Language. Japanese cards have Japanese text and their own set numbering, and they are valued separately.

Is a 2017 card worth grading?

Only the top rarities usually are. Grading pays when the graded value clears the raw price plus the fee, which rules out most 2017 commons and holos and leaves the secret rares, Shining Pokémon and full arts. Their textured surfaces show scratches under a bright light, and a scratch is often the difference between a 9 and a 10, so check the surface before anything else. The grade-by-grade estimates on each card page show what that difference is worth for your card.

The XY era ended the year before, in 2016; Sun & Moon continued into 2018.