Everybody laughed at Crimson Invasion.

And honestly? They still aren't wrong.

The set dropped into start of Sun & Moon and local game stores couldn’t move boxes. You could practically hear the disappointment every time someone cracked a pack and pulled another Nihilego GX.

Fast forward nearly a decade later, and suddenly the same sealed product nobody wanted is... still not particularly wanted. That is where time comes in, and boy has time done its job. If someone so much as sneezes on the ETB (Pushing $200) or booster box (pushing $700) with such a thin market depth then prices will go up by $50 to $100 for etbs.

Welcome to the Pokémon sealed market.

This is where the reality of a bad product stops mattering, nostalgia becomes financial policy, and investors start fighting over products they mocked for years. Crimson Invasion has quietly transformed from “dead inventory” into no inventory: shrinking sealed supply, aging Sun & Moon nostalgia, thin market depth, and collectors that sometimes value scarcity over hype.

But here’s the real question nobody wants to answer:

Even with the market being this thin Is Crimson Invasion actually undervalued…

Today we’re diving deep into the Crimson Invasion Elite Trainer Boxes ecosystem using current eBay sold listings and TCGplayer market data to break down:

• real liquidity,
• actual buyer demand,
• price trends,
• market depth,
• and whether this set has long-term strength or just artificial scarcity carrying it forward.

Because in the Pokémon market, “bad set” doesn’t always mean “bad investment.”

Sometimes it means the exact opposite.

I tend to buy booster boxes over Elite trainer boxes, but in this case I have entered into a position of 8 Elite trainer boxes I intend to hold on to. The cards in the set aren't very desirable which pushes me to view this as a etb collector investment.

Estimated daily demand by platform

Here’s the breakdown:

• PriceCharting Ebay Sales explicitly shows “volume: 1 sale per day” based on aggregated completed sales tracking from eBay and marketplace data.
  • 16 active quantity
  • 14 sellers
  • 30 total sold over 1 month
  • market price around $181.41
  • Lowest Listed: $219+$9.99 shipping
    • 7 listings sub $250
    • 6 listings $250-$350
    • 1 listing $500
• TCGplayer Crimson Invasion ETB listing currently shows:
  • 17 active quantity
  • 13 sellers
  • 21 total sold over 3 months
  • market price around $225
  • Lowest Listed: $225
  • 12 listings sub $250
  • 3 listings $300 range
  • 1 listing $1000

The TCGplayer chart for Crimson Invasion Elite Trainer boxes show steady demand throughout the past year even as the price increases.

Interpreting the demand

For a 2017 mid-tier Pokémon set, ~1 ETB sale/day is actually healthy.

Crimson Invasion is not:

• Evolving Skies
• Team Up
• Cosmic Eclipse
• Hidden Fates

Those products can move multiple units daily even at high prices.

Instead, Crimson Invasion behaves like a low-liquidity vintage sealed collectible:

• relatively small buyer pool
• aging sealed supply
• infrequent but consistent collector demand

Market depth observations

The important part is not just sales/day — it’s how thin the market is.

Current signals:

• 17 active marketplace listings visible on TCGplayer 
• 16 active listings on ebay
• many listings are single-copy inventory

That means:

• one aggressive buyer can temporarily move market price
• a few dry weeks can create artificial scarcity
• price spikes are easier than in highly liquid ETBs

Demand quality

Crimson Invasion ETB demand today is mostly:

1. Sun & Moon sealed collectors
2. ETB display collectors
3. sealed-investment/speculation buyers
4. completionists filling SM-era gaps

It is not heavily supported by:

• ripping demand
• chase-card EV
• competitive play demand

That distinction matters because it makes the market:

• more stable than hype-driven modern product
• but more vulnerable to collector sentiment shifts

Bottom-line estimate

A realistic current estimate is:

• ~30 sealed Crimson Invasion ETBs changing hands monthly
  
  • 1 per day average
  • $5,000–$7,000 monthly gross secondary-market turnover
• With a continued bullish Pokémon market a $500 price point is easily seen by December.
• The hard work has been done by current sellers with 10 years about to be under this sets belt holding a (or 8) $200 ETB for 2-5 years is easy. at that point it is as old as something like steam siege and just look at the availability and price of that set...

At current prices (~$225–$250 market), that puts Crimson Invasion ETBs in the category of:

• illiquid but consistently collectible Pokémon sealed product.