If you are trying to price the Silcoon card from EX Ruby & Sapphire, here is the short answer: the standard (base) version is a low-value common-table card that has most recently sold for around $3.50 in Near Mint condition, while the reverse holo version is the more desirable of the two and has changed hands for roughly $15.99 Near Mint. Silcoon is card #43/109 in the 2003 EX Ruby & Sapphire set, a Grass-type Uncommon that evolves from Wurmple, and it was never a chase card, so its pricing sits firmly in single-digit territory for raw copies. To put that in concrete terms: if you pulled a Silcoon from an old EX Ruby & Sapphire pack and you are looking at the plain, non-shiny printing, you should expect to sell it for a few dollars at most. If instead the card has the patterned, mirror-like background of the reverse holo, you are holding the version worth chasing, and that one can clear $15 or more in clean condition.
The wide spread between those two printings is the single most important thing to understand before you list or buy. Sold-comparable data backs this up. Across recent marketplace sales, Silcoon averaged about $4.15, with individual transactions ranging from a low of $0.99 to a high of $61.59. That high figure is the outlier, driven by graded or reverse holo copies rather than typical raw cards, and it is a useful reminder that the variant and the grade do nearly all the work in determining what this card is actually worth.
Table of Contents
- What Does Price Charting for EX Ruby & Sapphire Silcoon Actually Tell You?
- Base Print Versus Reverse Holo: Where the Real Value Difference Lives
- How the Sold-Comparable Range Explains the $0.99 to $61.59 Spread
- Pricing a Raw Copy Versus Paying to Grade It
- The PSA 10 Data Gap and Why It Matters
- Where Silcoon Sits in a Wurmple Evolution Collection
- Cross-Checking Silcoon’s Identity Before You Buy or Sell
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Does Price Charting for EX Ruby & Sapphire Silcoon Actually Tell You?
When collectors talk about “price charting” a card like Silcoon #43/109, they are really asking two questions: which printing do I have, and what have copies like it recently sold for? For this card the answer hinges almost entirely on the first question. The base print and the reverse holo print are tracked as two separate collectible variants, and they do not trade at the same price. The base sits near $3.50 Near Mint; the reverse holo sits near $15.99 Near Mint. That is more than a four-fold difference for what is otherwise the same artwork and the same card number. A price chart is most useful here as a sanity check against a single listing.
For example, if you see one seller asking $25 for a raw base Silcoon, the sold-comparable average of $4.15 tells you that asking price is detached from reality. Conversely, if a reverse holo shows up at $5, the recent $15.99 sale suggests it may be underpriced. The chart is the context that turns a single number into a decision. The limitation worth naming is that low-value cards like Silcoon trade infrequently, so any “last sold” figure can be weeks or months old. A $3.50 data point is a reasonable anchor, but it is not a guarantee that a buyer is waiting today at that price. Thin trading volume means the chart describes a tendency, not a live quote.
Base Print Versus Reverse Holo: Where the Real Value Difference Lives
The base (standard) Silcoon is the version most people will own, because it was the common pull. Its market value is modest and stable: recent Near Mint sales land around $3.50, and retail listings from hobby shops such as PVP Shoppe, KanZenGames, The Nerd Merchant, and Black Vault Gaming consistently price single copies in the low-single-digit-dollar range. That cross-shop agreement is reassuring, because it means the $3.50 figure is not one fluke sale but a settled consensus among sellers who actually move inventory. The reverse holo is the version that justifies a closer look.
With a most-recent Near Mint sale near $15.99, it carries the bulk of the card’s collectible interest. The reverse holo treatment applies the foil pattern to the card body rather than the artwork window, and for many EX-era cards this printing is meaningfully scarcer than the base, which is exactly why the price separates the way it does. The warning here is simple but easy to ignore: do not assume every shiny-looking Silcoon is the valuable one, and do not assume the holo premium applies to a worn copy. Condition compounds with variant. A reverse holo with edge whitening or surface scratches can fall well below its $15.99 Near Mint reference, sometimes closer to the base-card range, erasing the premium you thought you were paying for.
How the Sold-Comparable Range Explains the $0.99 to $61.59 Spread
The most informative single piece of data on Silcoon is not the average but the range. Recent sold comparables run from $0.99 at the bottom to $61.59 at the top, with an average of roughly $4.15. That spread looks dramatic until you break it down by what each end represents. The $0.99 sales are almost certainly played base copies or bulk-lot pricing. The $4.15 average reflects the typical raw base card. The $61.59 high end is where graded and reverse holo copies live.
Consider a practical example. Suppose you list a base Silcoon in lightly played condition. You should mentally anchor near the low-to-middle of that range, perhaps $1 to $3, not the average and certainly not the high. Now suppose you submit a pristine reverse holo for grading and it comes back strong; that is the kind of copy that can approach the top of the observed range, because grading plus the scarcer printing stack two premiums on top of each other. The takeaway from the spread is that quoting a single “Silcoon price” is misleading. The card does not have one value; it has a distribution, and where your copy lands depends on variant and condition before anything else.
Pricing a Raw Copy Versus Paying to Grade It
For a card with Silcoon’s numbers, the grading math rarely favors the base print. Professional grading typically costs more per card than a raw base Silcoon is worth on the open market. Spending a grading fee plus shipping to encase a $3.50 card is a losing trade unless the card has sentimental value or is part of a larger set-completion grading submission. The realistic comparison is stark: grading cost on one side, a few dollars of resale on the other.
The reverse holo changes the calculation, but only at the margins. At roughly $15.99 raw Near Mint, a high grade could push it toward the upper end of the observed sales range, but the available public data does not show a reliable, dated standalone gem-grade sale to confirm a consistent premium. That uncertainty is itself a tradeoff: you would be paying a known grading cost against an unproven ceiling. The honest comparison is that raw selling is the low-friction, low-cost path that fits the vast majority of Silcoon copies, while grading is a speculative move that makes sense only for a top-condition reverse holo, and even then only if you accept that the resale upside is not firmly documented.
The PSA 10 Data Gap and Why It Matters
A common collector instinct is to look up the PSA 10 price for a card before deciding what to do. For Silcoon #43/109, that instinct runs into a wall: no reliable standalone PSA 10 sale figure surfaced in current public results. There is no clean, dated gem-mint data point to quote, which means anyone claiming a precise PSA 10 value for this card is likely extrapolating rather than citing a confirmed sale. The closest available indicator of top-end pricing is the $61.59 high comparable, which reflects graded or reverse holo copies rather than a verified gem-mint base card.
That number is a ceiling hint, not a guarantee. Treating it as a firm PSA 10 valuation would be a mistake, because it bundles together different grades and variants into a single high-water mark. The warning is to be skeptical of confident graded-price claims on low-population, low-demand cards. When the public sales record is thin, the responsible position is to say the graded value depends on grade and variant and that the data does not pin down a specific PSA 10 number. Acting on a fabricated precise figure is how collectors overpay for grading or overprice a listing that then never sells.
Where Silcoon Sits in a Wurmple Evolution Collection
Silcoon is a Stage-1 Bug Pokémon that evolves from Wurmple, and within the EX Ruby & Sapphire set it functions as a mid-evolution connector rather than a headline card. Collectors who pursue full evolutionary lines often want Silcoon specifically to bridge Wurmple to Beautifly, which gives the card a small, steady source of demand beyond pure set completion.
That niche interest helps explain why even the base print holds a stable few-dollar floor rather than dropping to true bulk. As a concrete example, a player or collector assembling the Wurmple line from this set will typically grab the base Silcoon for a dollar or two as a checklist item and only seek out the reverse holo if they specifically want the foil variant for display. The card’s role is supporting, and its pricing reflects that supporting status.
Cross-Checking Silcoon’s Identity Before You Buy or Sell
Before acting on any price, confirm you are looking at the right card. Silcoon is #43/109 in the 2003 EX Ruby & Sapphire set, the set total is 109 cards, and it is catalogued as a Grass-type Uncommon.
Those identifiers appear consistently across card databases and dealer pages, so a listing that mislabels the set number or rarity is worth a second look before you trust its price. A quick concrete check: match the bottom-corner collector number to 43/109 and verify the Grass-type symbol and Stage-1 designation evolving from Wurmple. If all three line up, you can confidently apply the figures above, roughly $3.50 raw Near Mint for the base print and roughly $15.99 raw Near Mint for the reverse holo, with the broader sold range of $0.99 to $61.59 as the outer boundaries of what copies have actually fetched.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is Silcoon EX Ruby & Sapphire #43/109 worth?
The base print last sold for about $3.50 Near Mint, while the reverse holo last sold for about $15.99 Near Mint. Recent sales averaged around $4.15 overall.
Which Silcoon variant is more valuable?
The reverse holo is the more valuable of the two tracked variants, selling for several times the price of the standard base print.
What is the highest price a Silcoon #43/109 has sold for?
The highest recent sold comparable was $61.59, a figure driven by graded or reverse holo copies rather than a typical raw base card.
Is there a confirmed PSA 10 price for Silcoon?
No reliable standalone PSA 10 sale figure appeared in current public results. Graded value depends on grade and variant, and the $61.59 high comp is the closest available top-end indicator.
Is Silcoon #43/109 worth grading?
For the base print, usually not, since grading costs typically exceed the card’s few-dollar value. A top-condition reverse holo is the only copy where grading might make sense, and even then the resale upside is not firmly documented.
What set and rarity is this Silcoon?
It is card #43/109 in the 2003 EX Ruby & Sapphire set, a Grass-type Uncommon and a Stage-1 Bug Pokémon that evolves from Wurmple.
