Where do pokemon prices come from? I’ve always wondered how people decide the price. Like if you own a pop 1 card that turns to a pop 10 for example and you set it at $200 on eBay then the other 9 follow suit ? Like surely someone has to come up with a price to start of with 
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Haha, thanks, I was going to ask this sooner or later
They breed with dittos at the daycare center.
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A seller asks for a price or a buyer offers a price. The opposite end of the transaction, seller or buyer, then accept the price and the sale is complete. If a buyer/seller can’t be found for the price offered the item goes unsold. If another buyer/seller comes along for the same item they may use the new information, past sale, to help guide them, but without the other end of the transaction to comply, a sale will never transpire. Every transaction is simply a trade where two parties agree on the offer, or ‘price’.
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So somebody would come up with a price to start with ? Say $100 then every other eBay listing would be around that number for the same card ?
Yes one person would offer the card for a price. If it sold for $100, the next seller could then decide to attempt to sell for that price, or if they saw the card went quickly or they felt they could sell it for more they could choose to sell for more. It all depends upon the sellers strategy and the ability to find a buyer, assuming we’re talking from the sellers offers first perspective.
The real key is in the supply demand model of our economy. If someone tries to sell a card for far more than anyone is willing to pay it won’t sell. As soon as the price is lowered to the point it does sell then a point of sale has been established. A point of sale is simply information that can be used in any way. It can be completely ignored or it can be someone’s guide. Ultimately, the next point of sale is a new agreement between two parties whether it was influenced by the past sale or not.
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Very well put.
@cullers makes an excellent point about supply and demand. This past Spring I sold a Japanese Water vs Fire Booster Box for $2000. I was told up front by some members that I was asking too much and should expect around 1,200, but I noticed NONE were for sale on eBay. How badly did someone want it would dictate the price, not any single set value. I put it up for a “best offer” and someone just bought it without making an offer for the full amount. #Winning
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@cullers hit it on the head!
The only other qualifier I would add is these are collectibles. Unless the item is printed in mass quantities, the price will naturally fluctuate. As @joer mentioned above, availability is a major factor for prices.
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Echoing the points above, no singular party can “make” a price in an open and free market. A price is only a price when it becomes agreed upon by the buyer and the seller. The making of market prices, even on pop 1 cards, is out of the hands of any individual. The buyer and seller must mutually agree upon what is fair.
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I’ve collected most all tcg for decades. I have often drawn on what similar type items have done and their trends to value more recent items.
What @cullers, said is absolutely spot on from a theoretical point of view, I would just add some practical examples of what I do as a seller if I have no price reference as ebay gives you enough information to know how close or far you are from a realistic price.
Usually what I do for items that I believe are low end, is put them up for auction, so I can define a price point. Once that item sells at auction, I can use that price point as a reference to what my lowest sale price will be on future copies of that item. From then on, I’ll put further copies on sale as ‘Buy it Now’ as a price point is already established.
It is important to keep in mind though that prices are organic, and past sales aren’t always an accurate guide, especially if they happened several months in the past.
In regards to high end items I do the opposite, starting with prices I believe are very high, and checking how many people view the item or add it to their ebay watch list. If after a week my item got a handful of views and no watch list counts, I know the price is too high, so I drop it gradually, until I get to a point where buyers express interest in it.
Additionally, if I have many copies of the same item, I do not list them all at once, for two reasons. Number one, buyers will act more on impulse if an item is close to being sold out, number two the price of a card may spike based on a youtube video or a demand from Pokemon TGC players.
A good example would be the Shining Lugia, which was readily available to collectors at a very low price until a few weeks ago. All of a sudden players found a deck that made it work and the price skyrocketed. If I had 50 copies listed for sale at $10 just because that had been the last sale price and the price shot up while I was afk, by the time I would check my ebay sales I would already be out of stock and the lowest price on them would be $15, so I would have missed out on the opportunity of realising a higher price. On the other hand, if I only listed four or five copies and sold them all in a day, I could then list a few more for $15 and if they were still selling quickly, gradually increase the price until the new price point settles down.