Buy Pokémon ETB (Elite Trainer Box) UK

An Elite Trainer Box, nearly always called an ETB, is a set-branded storage box with booster packs and a kit of accessories inside. It is the product most people are thinking of when they say they want "a box" of a new set but do not want 36 packs. Every main expansion gets one, and some special sets get two.

What is inside

For every Scarlet & Violet and Mega Evolution set the standard ETB holds nine booster packs, a full-art foil promo card made for that ETB, 65 card sleeves in the set's artwork, 45 Energy cards, a player's guide to the set, six damage-counter dice, a coin-flip die, two condition markers and four card dividers, all in a lidded box that holds about 400 sleeved cards. Sword & Shield era ETBs such as Evolving Skies and Crown Zenith held eight packs. The exact list is printed on the back of each box and we will quote it on each product page rather than paraphrase.

Standard versus Pokémon Center

Most recent sets have two editions. The Pokémon Center ETB is sold only through Pokémon's own store and holds eleven packs instead of nine, usually with a different promo (often a stamped version) and sometimes different sleeves. They are different products that cost different amounts and we will list them separately, never as one product with a note. If a listing anywhere says "ETB" with eleven packs and does not say Pokémon Center, ask.

Which sets have one

All of them from the last few years, including the special sets that skip a booster box: 151, Prismatic Evolutions, Ascended Heroes, Crown Zenith and Celebrations all have ETBs. Some sets have two ETBs with different cover Pokémon and the same contents, such as Mega Evolution's Mega Lucario and Mega Gardevoir boxes. We will list those as two products.

Who an ETB suits

A new collector, because it is the only product that arrives with everything you need to store and play with the cards. A set collector who wants the ETB promo. Anyone buying a gift, because it looks like one. It suits a pure pack-opener less well: nine packs for the ETB's usual cost buys more packs as a booster bundle or a share of a booster box.

How we will check them

Same rules as every sealed product: distributor or retail sourcing stated on the page, shrink wrap checked for the factory seam, and the edition confirmed by the pack count printed on the box. We will not open an ETB to confirm contents and then reseal it, which should go without saying but does not everywhere.