The Plasma Storm booster box is one of those boxes you now look at open-mouthed. In 2013 it simply sat on the shelves; today it is one of the pricier sealed products from the Black & White era. In this blog you will read when the box came out, what exactly is inside, which cards you can pull and how the price has developed over the past few years.
When did the Plasma Storm booster box come out?
Plasma Storm arrived on 6 February 2013 as the eighth main set of the Black & White series. It is the first of three Plasma sets, followed by Plasma Freeze in May and Plasma Blast in August of the same year. Team Plasma is central to all three, but Plasma Storm is the one that set the tone.
The box has never been reprinted since. What was made in 2013 is all there will ever be, and after thirteen years not a single copy is being added.
What is in the Plasma Storm booster box?
- 36 booster packs of Black & White—Plasma Storm
- 10 cards per pack, so 360 cards in total
- A guaranteed rare or better in every pack
The set itself has 138 cards: 135 in the main set and 3 secret rares above that. This is the classic structure from that period, where the numbers above the set total are the rarest cards.
Which cards can you pull?
Plasma Storm revolves entirely around Team Plasma. The stars are the Team Plasma Pokémon-EX: Lugia-EX, Articuno-EX and Zapdos-EX. On top of that, this set introduced the ACE SPEC trainer cards, of which you were only allowed one per deck. That was a significant change in how people built their decks at the time, and it still makes those cards interesting for collectors.
Beyond that you will find the usual full arts, plus the three secret rares that go beyond the set number. Which cards from this set actually fetch the most today, we list in the top 7 chase cards from Plasma Storm.
How has the price developed?
What a Plasma Storm booster box cost in shops back in 2013 can no longer be established reliably. What is well documented are the sales of recent years:
- October 2023: €4,394
- February 2024: €4,136
- December 2025: €15,596
- April 2026: €21,453
The reference price for a sealed box sits at €19,740 in September 2026. Until the end of 2025 almost nothing moved for years, and then it went up almost fivefold in a matter of months. Do keep in mind: only around five are sold per year, so a single unusual sale shifts the average immediately. Read the figures above as a line, not as a daily rate.
Is the Plasma Storm booster box worth holding on to?
It is no longer a box you buy to open. The gap between the value of the sealed box and the cards inside has become too large for that. Anyone buying one buys it to keep.
What works in its favour: the print run can only get smaller. Every box someone does open disappears from the market for good. And because sealed product from the Black & White era was never kept in large numbers, there are simply few copies left.
What to weigh up: at these amounts and with so few sales per year, the price is set by a small group of buyers. That can climb fast, but it can just as easily go quiet. On top of that, only buy from a seller you trust who shows clear photos of every side: at these sums you will also come across fakes and resealed boxes.
Please note: card values can go up as well as down. There is no guarantee of an increase in value.
Conclusion
The Plasma Storm booster box is a 36-pack box from February 2013, holding 360 cards from a set of 138. Team Plasma, the EX cards of Lugia, Articuno and Zapdos and the very first ACE SPEC trainers make it special in terms of content.
But the real reason it gets so much attention now is in the numbers. From just over €4,000 in early 2024 to nearly €20,000 today, without a reprint ever happening. Anyone who has one sitting on a shelf owns something no new copies are being added to.
Looking for something from the same set with a different story? Then take a look at the Plasma Storm Elite Trainer Box. It only holds seven packs, but it is the very first ETB ever released.
