Dark Sandslash18/109 · Team Rocket Returns Price & Value
Market value · Near Mint · Normal
- PSA 9$313 sold · 90d · pop 36
- PSA 10$183pop 40
Make sure you have the right card
Every price on this page is for Team Rocket Returns #18/109, 2004. Check yours against the tells below before you buy, sell or grade.
Everything except the illustration window is foiled — the mirror image of a normal holo, where only the picture shines.
No foil anywhere — the non-holo printing.
What's your copy worth?
✨ Is it worth it?
An AI market read of this card — value, momentum, grading economics, liquidity. It lays out the data; you decide.
Dark Sandslash is a Rare Pokémon card from Team Rocket Returns (#18, released 2004), illustrated by Masakazu Fukuda. It's a Stage 1 Fighting/Darkness-type Pokémon with 70 HP, evolving from Sandshrew, weak to Grass ×2. Prices below are aggregated across marketplaces — raw and graded, updated daily and shown in your local currency.
Prices last updated 10 September 2026.
Dark Sandslash price history & recent sales
Graded a PSA 10? See its cert-verified sales and price history → — individual sales PSA tied to a specific slab, each with a cert number you can check.
Price history · Raw
We'll email you when this card's value crosses your target.
Verified sales history
Medium confidence30 sales in 90 days, but prices vary widely. · Very liquid — Sells often
7 of 10 verified sales were competitive auctions — this price reflects real bidding, not asking prices. A graded copy trades roughly every 11 days (median gap between cert-verified sales).
By grade
- Raw$9.5040 sales · 30 in 90d, sells often
- PSA 10$1456 sales
- PSA 9$18.505 sales · 3 in 90d, occasional
- PSA 7$25.003 sales · 1 in 90d, rare
- PSA 6$1151 sale
- Lot$9.601 sale
- CGC 9$55.001 sale · 1 in 90d, rare
- CGC 7.5$8.001 sale · 1 in 90d, rare
Is Dark Sandslash worth grading?
Most copies come back PSA 9 — worth $31 against the $84 you put in, a $53 loss. The money is in the 1 in 1 that reach PSA 9 or 10 and sell for $31–$145. Averaged over every outcome that is −$8 a card.
That is the average submitted copy. Tell us about yours and the verdict re-prices — most cards stop being worth grading here. Not sure? Grade it from a photo →
These are set to a flawless copy — the answer above. Change any of them to re-price it for the card in your hand.
Compare graders, and the live market
The verdict above is PSA's — the grader the population report, the ROI table and the price ladder on this page all use. Trader prices all three graders against each other and adds what the asking market is doing right now.
- PSA, CGC and Beckett side by side — each on its own population and its own fees, with Beckett scored on the 9.5 its market actually pays for.
- Lightly and moderately played — the same expected return for a copy that cannot gem.
- Ask vs sold — what the live listings want, against what copies have really closed at.
- Momentum — the 30-day median against the 90-day, per grade.
- Where it sells higher — the Fanatics-versus-eBay premium, with the sale counts behind it.
- Population history — the weekly PSA census, so you can see how fast 10s are arriving before you post the card.
The odds
Dark Sandslash is a Rare in Team Rocket Returns — the pack's hit slot lands on Rare 67% of the time, split across 14 rare cards in the set, so pulling this exact card is roughly 1 in 21 packs.
Estimates only. Pack odds come from CardTrack's pack model (the same one behind the pack simulator) — not an official rate. Grading odds are the real cumulative PSA population, which skews toward nicer, resubmitted copies, so it overstates the true first-submission gem rate. Full grade-by-grade breakdown below.
Grade-by-grade ROI & risk-adjusted outcomesNet vs raw per target grade, plus the probability-weighted distribution
| Target grade | Est. value | Grading fee | Net vs raw | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 | $183.00 | $72 | +$98 | 13.8× |
| PSA 9 | $31.33 | $70 | −$52 | 2.4× |
⚖️ Risk-adjusted return
Best case isn't the whole story. Weighting every grade by how often it actually happens, across 94 PSA-graded copies:
| Outcome | Chance | Value |
|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 | 40.4% | $145.00 |
| PSA 9 — typical | 38.3% | $31.33 |
| PSA 8 | 11.7% | $31.33 † |
| PSA 7 | 6.4% | $25.00 |
| PSA 5 | 3.2% | $13.28 |
† Priced from PriceCharting's graded ladder — we hold no completed sale of our own at that grade. Every other row is our own sold data.
Net = graded value − raw value − grading cost (tier fee + ~$20 round-trip shipping), using PSA fees as of 2026-08-26; the paused PSA Value tier is excluded so this isn't overstated. Gem rate is estimated from cumulative PSA population, which skews toward nicer, resubmitted copies — so it overstates the true grade rate. Treat it as a guide, not a guarantee.
Population across gradersPSA, CGC, BGS & TAG — every grade, with gem rates
40 of the 97 PSA-graded Dark Sandslash copies came back a gem-mint 10 — 41%. The rest graded lower.
Bar length is relative to this grader's most common grade; the figure on the right is the share of all 97.
Bar length is relative to this grader's most common grade; the figure on the right is the share of all 100.
Bar length is relative to this grader's most common grade; the figure on the right is the share of all 7.
Bar length is relative to this grader's most common grade; the figure on the right is the share of all 3.
Real graded population from PSA, CGC, BGS & TAG — a lower gem rate means a Dark Sandslash 10 is harder to pull.
Copies for sale right now
2004 Pokemon EX Team Rocket Returns Dark Sandslash #18/109 Regular HPRaw · eBay$3.50
Pokemon TCG Dark Sandslash EX Team Rocket Returns 18/109 Rare LPRaw · eBay$4.99
Pokémon TCG Dark Sandslash EX Team Rocket Returns 18 Regular RareRaw · eBay$6.00
Dark Sandslash 18/109 Rare EX Team Rocket Returns HPRaw · eBay$6.49
Dark Sandslash 18/109 Team Rocket Returns Rare Regular 70 HP Pokémon CardRaw · eBay$7.50
Dark Sandslash 18/109 Pokémon Team Rocket Returns LPRaw · eBay$8.95Cheapest raw copy $6.00 — 55% below our near-mint estimate of $13
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All grades & conditions
Every grade we pricePSA / CGC / BGS ladder with per-grade population
| Grade | Relative value | Price |
|---|---|---|
| PSA 10pop 40 | ✓ 5 cert-verified$183$183–$249 | |
| PSA 9pop 36 | $31$27–$36 | |
| PSA 7pop 7 | $25$21–$29 |
Raw condition ladderNM → damaged, with real sold medians where we have them
For context: a graded PSA 5 slab of this card sells for about $19 (cert-verified) — a heavily-played raw copy shouldn't cost much more than that.
Price by printingBase vs reverse holo vs 1st edition — priced separately
Price by variant
Priced per printing — some from our own completed sales, the rest from TCGplayer's market price. Reverse holo, 1st edition and unlimited often differ sharply.
Market dataCross-market spread, EU price, momentum & community buzz
Cross-market prices
12% spreadCurrently 12% cheaper on PriceCharting than TCGplayer. These are independent market prices for the same card — a wide gap can mean a buying opportunity. Informational only, not arbitrage advice.
Market signal
Derived from this card's 90-day price history, recent trend and cross-market price gap. Informational, not advice.
Card textAttacks, abilities, weakness / resistance / retreat
Evolves from Sandshrew.
If Dark Sandslash is your Active Pokémon and is damaged by an opponent's attack (even if Dark Sandslash is Knocked Out), the Attacking Pokémon is now Poisoned.
This attack's damage isn't affected by Weakness, Resistance, Poké-Powers, Poké-Bodies, or any other effects on the Defending Pokémon.
This Pokémon is both Fighting Darkness type.
About the PokémonSpecies, generation, evolution line
Card detailsSet, rarity, artist, Pokédex & specs
More from Team Rocket Returns
Frequently asked questions
How much is Dark Sandslash (Team Rocket Returns #18) worth?
As of 10 September 2026, Dark Sandslash from Team Rocket Returns is worth approximately $13.28 ungraded (near-mint), and around $183 in PSA 10 gem mint. Values are blended from real Cardmarket, eBay sold and TCGplayer prices and update daily.
What is the PSA 10 price for Dark Sandslash?
A PSA 10 (gem mint) Dark Sandslash from Team Rocket Returns is worth around $183 — roughly 14× the raw ungraded value of $13.28.
Should I grade my Dark Sandslash?
Grading is worth it when the PSA 10 premium comfortably beats the grading fee and the card is clean enough to have a real shot at a 10 — the "Should you grade it?" estimate above works that out per grade, net of the current fee.
Is Dark Sandslash rare?
Dark Sandslash is a Rare card from Team Rocket Returns (card #18).
How do I know if my Dark Sandslash is Reverse Holo?
The card body, not the picture: Everything except the illustration window is foiled — the mirror image of a normal holo, where only the picture shines.
Cite & embed this card
Free to use with attribution to CardTrack.
Dark Sandslash (Team Rocket Returns #18) — Pokémon market value $13.28, PSA 10 $183.00. Source: CardTrack, https://cardtrack.com/pokemon/card/team-rocket-returns/dark-sandslash-18<iframe src="https://cardtrack.com/embed/card?id=ex7-18" width="100%" height="160" style="border:0;max-width:460px" title="Dark Sandslash price — CardTrack" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font:12px system-ui">Source: <a href="https://cardtrack.com">CardTrack</a></p>