How to Open Pokémon Packs and Handle the Cards

To open a Pokémon pack, tear along the crimped seam at the top of the wrapper, slide the cards out without bending them and put the ones you want to keep straight into sleeves. Do it at a clean, dry table with the sleeves already out, because a card has no protection between leaving the wrapper and going into a sleeve. A current English main-set pack such as Perfect Order holds 10 cards, 1 Basic Energy and 1 Pokémon TCG Live code card, according to Pokémon's own page for the set. Other products and languages differ, so check what you open against the exact product, not a general rule.

Prepare a clean space and suitable sleeves

Pokémon cards are standard size. Dragon Shield lists its standard sleeves as fitting cards of 63 x 88 mm (2.5 x 3.5 in) and names Pokémon among the games they suit. Its "Japanese size" is for Yu-Gi-Oh and similar games, and at 59 x 86 mm it is smaller than a Pokémon card, so it will not fit.

If you want two layers, an inner sleeve goes on first. Dragon Shield's Perfect Fit sleeves are inner sleeves, and its instructions are to slide the card in top first, then sleeve the card as you normally would. For anything you plan to post, or send to be graded, a rigid toploader comes next. BCW's standard 3 x 4 inch toploader has an inside of 2 3/4 x 3 7/8 inches and takes cards up to 35pt thick, which leaves room for a sleeved card. We will stock card sleeves in these sizes when we open.

If the pack came in an Elite Trainer Box, you already have sleeves. Pokémon lists 65 card sleeves in the Perfect Order Elite Trainer Box, its Pokémon Center edition and the Pitch Black Elite Trainer Box.

Before you start, put these within reach:

• A cleared, dry table, ideally with a cloth or playmat on it, and no food or drink nearby
• Clean, dry hands
• Open sleeves, one for each card you expect to keep, with the open ends facing you
• A toploader for any card you might post or send to be graded
• Small scissors, if you would rather cut than tear
• The set's list of cards and a pen, or a note on your phone

Open the wrapper without stressing the cards

Pack wrappers are sealed with a crimped seam at the top and bottom. Before you open anything, press lightly on the face of the pack to feel where the top edge of the card stack sits. The aim is to open the wrapper above that line so nothing you do touches a card.

Hold the pack upright and tear across the top seam, following the line of the crimp. Do not tear down the side. A side tear runs along the edge of the stack and can catch the corners of the outer cards. If you use scissors, cut close to the crimp and check first that the cards have settled away from the top.

Hold the opened wrapper by its lower half and let the stack slide out into your other hand. If it sticks, open the wrapper wider instead of tugging. Pulling a stack out by one corner, or flexing it to loosen it, is how a fresh card picks up a crease or a dented corner. Put the stack down flat on the table, face down.

If you are opening several packs, from a booster bundle or a box, open one, deal with its cards and then open the next. A pile of loose cards from five packs is harder to handle gently than one stack of ten. We will stock single booster packs as well as the larger boxes.

Check the pack contents and language

There is no single correct count for a Pokémon pack. Pokémon's page for Perfect Order gives 10 cards, 1 Basic Energy and 1 Pokémon TCG Live code card per English pack. The official Japanese site lists 5 cards per pack for Inferno X. Count what you have against the page for the exact product you bought.

The same applies to sealed products, where the extras change from one box to the next. These are the contents Pokémon lists on its own product pages.

Check the language too. The wrapper and the card text should match each other and match what you paid for. The differences between Japanese and English cards are set out in Japanese vs English Pokémon cards.

Each card carries a collector number near the bottom, usually written as the card's number over the set's count. Checking a few numbers against the Perfect Order set guide, or the guide for whichever set you opened, confirms the cards belong to the set on the wrapper.

Does the card trick apply?

The "Pokémon card trick" or "pack trick" usually means the idea that the rarer cards sit in a fixed place in the pack. People then open the pack at one end, or turn the stack over, to choose when they see them. Related claims say packs with better cards weigh more, or can be picked by their position in a box.

Pokémon publishes what a pack contains. It does not publish the order the cards sit in inside the wrapper, or how packs are arranged in a box. No official source confirms an order for any current English set, so we do not print one here. Even if an order held for one set, it would tell you nothing about another product or language: a 5-card Japanese pack cannot share a layout with a 10-card English pack.

For opening, the only technique that matters is the handling. If you like a slow reveal, keep the stack face down and slide one card at a time off the back, lifting it clear rather than dragging its face across the card beneath. That is gentler on the surfaces than fanning the stack or shuffling it. Pull rates, which are a separate question from pack order, are covered in Pokémon pull rates explained.

Sleeve and list the cards you want to keep

Pick each card up by its edges, not by its face. Hold the sleeve open end towards you, tilt it slightly and let the card slide in under its own weight with a light push on the bottom edge. If it catches, take it out and start again. Pushing a corner into the seam of a sleeve bends it.

For a double sleeve, slide the card top first into the inner sleeve, as Dragon Shield describes for its Perfect Fit sleeves, then put it into the outer sleeve with the open end the other way, so the two openings do not line up. A card you might post or send off goes into a toploader once it is sleeved.

Then write down what you kept: the set, the collector number, the language, and a note if it is a reverse holo. A list built as you open is far easier than one built from a pile later, and it shows you which cards you still need if you are working towards a master set. Keep the Pokémon TCG Live code card with your list if you play the digital game.

The common cards you do not sleeve still need somewhere to go, and what to do with bulk Pokémon cards sets out the options.

If the wrapper or contents look unusual

Stop opening if the seam looks glued, re-crimped or uneven, if the wrapper is loose around the cards, or if the count or set does not match the product page. Keep everything together, including the wrapper, and photograph the pack and the cards before you throw anything away. The checks for resealed and fake packs are in how to spot fake Pokémon packs.

Take it back to whoever sold it to you, with the photographs. For anything bought from us once we open, use the contact page and send the photographs with your message.

We are not open yet, so there is nothing to return today. The full policy will be written before the first sale and published on the returns page.

Once your cards are sleeved and listed, the most useful next step is somewhere safe to keep them, which is the subject of how to store Pokémon cards.