What it is
Pokémon Trading Card Game
The Pokémon TCG is a collectible and playable card game built around Pokémon, Trainers, Energy cards, expansions, rarities, variants and sealed products.
Learning page
Pokémon TCG, release tracking and LootWatcher setup
A working guide for understanding the Pokémon TCG market, what LootWatcher scans, what each source is used for, and what still needs manual review.
Core unit
Set → Card → Variant
LootWatcher should treat a set as the container, a card number/name as the base card, and condition/printing as market variants.
Market value
Variant-level pricing
Market price belongs to a condition and printing, such as Near Mint / Holofoil or Near Mint / Master Ball Reverse Holo.
Retail drops
Availability is separate
Retail stock/preorder status comes from stores such as BIG W and Gameology. It should not overwrite card reference data or market price data.
How LootWatcher scans Pokémon data
Each source has a different job. Keeping the source boundaries clean prevents one dataset from overwriting another.
PokémonTCG.io v2
Reference source for sets and cards: set names, series, release dates, printed totals, full totals, card numbers, rarities, images, attacks, weaknesses, retreat cost, artist, legalities and raw card JSON.
- Used by: Pokémon Reference Sync
- Does not decide: retailer stock or LootWatcher market score
- Current fix required: auto-paginate sets above 250 cards
JustTCG
Market source for variant pricing. The working logic resolves a set, searches a card, and selects the best returned variant locally.
- Used by: manual card price sync
- Primary price: variant.price
- Best default: Near Mint first, Holofoil/Normal/other variants as returned
Retailer scans
Retail source for product listings, retailer price, stock, preorder, delivery, pickup and fulfilment notes.
- BIG W backend record only = backend loaded / not available
- Delivery available before release = preorder / delivery only
- Retailer price is not the same as card market price
Static snapshots
Safe JSON exports let Cloudflare Pages show the latest saved catalogue/reference data even when the local scanner/backend is offline.
- Used by: public/static website
- Does not include: secrets, webhooks, API keys, databases or logs
- Requires: Export Snapshot Now, then GitHub push
Released and upcoming sets in your local reference database
This section reads the sets already synced in LootWatcher. It is not scraping official release news from this page.
Sets loaded—
Released—
Upcoming—
SourceLocal API
Released / current sets
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Upcoming / future-dated sets
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Sealed products and retail release formats
This is an explanation only. LootWatcher is not yet ingesting a sealed-product catalogue source automatically.
Booster Pack
Single random pack from an expansion. Used for collecting, opening and low-cost entry.
Booster Display Box
A sealed display box of booster packs. Standard expansion boxes commonly contain 36 booster packs.
Booster Bundle
A smaller sealed product that groups multiple booster packs, commonly six packs for recent English products.
Elite Trainer Box
Collector/player product with booster packs plus accessories such as sleeves, dice, dividers, Energy cards and a storage box.
Pokémon Center ETB
Exclusive ETB variant that may include extra booster packs and/or Pokémon Center stamped promos depending on the product.
Build & Battle Box
Prerelease-style product with a ready-to-play deck, promo card and booster packs.
Collection Box / Premium Collection
Boxed product with promo cards and booster packs. Some include pins, coins, posters, oversized cards or display items.
Tins / Mini Tins
Sealed tins that usually include booster packs and a card, coin or art card depending on the release.
Card characteristics worth displaying later
These are the fields that are useful for learning, filtering and collection/market review.
Base card details
- Name, set, series and release date
- Card number and printed/full total context
- Rarity and group: normal, additional or secret
- Artist, regulation mark and legalities
Gameplay details
- Supertype and subtypes
- HP, type, stage and evolution text
- Abilities, attacks, weaknesses and resistances
- Retreat cost and converted retreat cost
Market details
- Condition: Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played, Damaged
- Printing: Normal, Holofoil, Reverse Holofoil, Poké Ball, Master Ball, Stamped and promo styles
- JustTCG card ID, TCGPlayer ID/SKU and market price
- AUD conversion and price movement fields
What else should be listed?
Suggested learning blocks to add after we confirm the direction.
Glossary: rarity, reverse holo, master ball, illustration rare, special illustration rare, promo, stamped card, MSRP and market price.
Release workflow: how to watch upcoming sets, when to scan retailers, when to sync JustTCG, and when to export static snapshots.
Source confidence: which fields are trusted from PokémonTCG.io, JustTCG, retailers and manual inputs.
Rate limits: JustTCG free tier limits mean manual/small-batch syncs first, not full automatic price syncs for every card.
Variant policy: which condition/printing becomes the default score price and which variants are stored for comparison.