Darkness Ablaze in August 2022

The Pokémon TCG is an ever-changing and unpredictable market. Over the past two years, we’ve seen renewed interest in the hobby due to a number of factors, including the 25th Anniversary, strong Sword & Shield-era sets featuring stunning Alternate Arts, influencers, box breaks, COVID-19 lockdown pushing people to find hobbies, and more. For a time, sets and cards that were readily available quickly became difficult to find. Now that the hype is settling down let’s see where modern sets stand. Every month, I will do an installment of this series, Pokémon TCG Value Watch. This series is not financial advice but is rather a way to help collectors know the trajectory of a card’s availability so that Pokémon TCG completionists like myself know when to strike. Today, let’s see how the cards of Sword & Shield – Darkness Ablaze, which came out in August 2020, are doing now in August 2022.

Here are the top valued cards of Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Darkness Ablaze with market values observed on TCGPlayer as of this writing:

1. Charizard VMAX 020/189: $40.11
2. Salamence VMAX Rainbow Rare 194/189: $9.52
3. Eternatus VMAX Rainbow Rare 192/189: $8.32
4. Shiny Rillaboom Gold Secret Rare 197/189: $8.24
5. Butterfree VMAX Rainbow Rare 190/189: $7.81
6. Capture Energy Gold Secret Rare 201/189: $7.70
7. Scizor VMAX Rainbow Rare 193/189: $7.67
8. Shiny Coalossal Gold Secret Rare 198/189: $5.78
9. Charizard V 019/189: $5.55
10. Centiskorch VMAX Rainbow Rare 191/189: $5.05

There is very little movement on Darkness Ablaze this month. The value of this set took a major hit after a reprint made packs more available. This set also has no major chase card, as it has a standard Charizard VMAX but no secret rare equivalent. The Charizard VMAX is steady at $40 with just a few cents of movement this month.

The biggest drop is the Capture Energy Gold Secret Rare which is down $2. It was already at a very low value, so this drop makes it an even bigger incentive for completionists to act on this set now.