Shining Fates

What Shining Fates is

Shining Fates is a special expansion of the Sword & Shield Series, released in English on February 19, 2021 under the set code SHF. It has 72 cards in the numbered set, one secret rare and a 122 card Shiny Vault subset, for 195 cards in total. It follows the Hidden Fates formula: a small main set of Pokémon V and VMAX and a large Shiny Vault of Shiny Pokémon on embossed holofoil, with the Shiny Vault card able to replace the reverse holofoil slot in a pack.

The main set holds seven Pokémon V and five Pokémon VMAX, 11 Ultra rares (Alcremie V 64 and eight full art Supporters among them), three Amazing Rares (Reshiram 17, Kyogre 21 and Yveltal 46) and a single rainbow secret rare, Alcremie VMAX 73. The Shiny Vault holds 104 regular Shiny Pokémon (SV001 to SV104), 16 Shiny Pokémon V and VMAX (SV105 to SV120) and two secret rare Eternatus cards (SV121 and SV122), and Shiny Charizard VMAX SV107 in its Gigantamax form is the card on the box.

Like Champion's Path before it, Shining Fates packs were only sold inside specially marked products. Most cards carry the D regulation mark, with 16 on the newer E mark. The cards come from the Japanese Shiny Star V subset, the Venusaur & Blastoise VMAX Starter Sets and the VMAX Special Set, and a few were available earlier in the V Battle Deck Venusaur vs. Blastoise.

What makes Shining Fates different

• A 122 card Shiny Vault The Shiny Vault is larger than Hidden Fates' and holds more than 100 Shiny Pokémon. Regular Shiny cards use new artwork, Shiny Pokémon V reuse their earlier full art artwork, and Charizard VMAX SV107, Suicune SV022, Ditto VMAX SV119, Ditto V SV118, Minccino SV093 and Yamper SV039 lead it in the graded market.
• Shiny Charizard VMAX Gigantamax Shiny Charizard VMAX SV107 is the most valuable card in the set and the reason the set sold as it did, though its graded premium is modest by Charizard standards because the print run was enormous.
• Three Amazing Rares Reshiram 17, Kyogre 21 and Yveltal 46 continue the Amazing Rare treatment from Vivid Voltage, and Reshiram 17 and Kyogre 21 both sit among the set's stronger graded cards.
• Packs only in products There were no booster boxes. Packs came in the Elite Trainer Box, three hexagonal tins, the Pikachu V Collection, four Mad Party Pin Collections, five Mini Tins, two Premium Collections and three Walmart collections, so sealed Shining Fates is a set of products rather than displays.
• The Japanese record holder Shiny Star V, the Japanese source, had 330 cards with 140 secret cards, the largest Japanese set at the time until Shiny Treasure ex, surpassing the 250 of GX Ultra Shiny. Its packs held ten cards with a guaranteed Pokémon V or VMAX, and a Reverse Halo Holofoil parallel set covered every non holofoil card.
• A name built from two sets Shining Fates takes its name from Shining Legends and Hidden Fates, the two earlier special sets built around Shiny Pokémon, and it shares their structure.

How Shining Fates arrived

Japan released Shiny Star V on November 20, 2020 as the fourth subset of the Sword & Shield era, a High Class Pack built largely from reprints of Pokémon V and VMAX, several with artwork previously exclusive to English expansions and merchandise, plus a large run of Shiny Pokémon as secret cards in the S and SSR rarities. The English set followed on February 19, 2021, ten days after the McDonald's Collection 2021 and a month before Battle Styles.

The first wave on February 19, 2021 brought the Elite Trainer Box, the Pikachu V Collection, the Eldegoss V, Boltund V and Cramorant V Tins, the four Mad Party Pin Collections and Ultra Pro portfolios. The tins were hexagonal in every region for the first time, though European tins held five packs against six elsewhere. A second wave on March 5, 2021 added five Mini Tins and the Shiny Crobat VMAX and Shiny Dragapult VMAX Premium Collections, and three Walmart collections with regular and jumbo copies of the tin promos followed from May 21, 2021.

The set landed at the height of the pandemic collecting boom and was printed and opened in quantities few sets have matched, which is why raw prices for most of the Shiny Vault never built a base. A handful of Trainer cards had lives outside the set: Gym Trainer 59 and Professor's Research 60 as reverse holofoil Professor Program promos, Professor's Research 60 as a Cosmos Holofoil in the Professor Juniper Tournament Collection, and Boss's Orders 58 and Indeedee 56 in V Battle Decks.

Shining Fates products and what came in them

The Elite Trainer Box holds ten booster packs, an exclusive Eevee VMAX promo (SWSH Promo 087), 65 card sleeves featuring Gigantamax Eevee, basic Energy cards, six damage counter dice, a coin flip die, two acrylic Special Condition markers, a rulebook, a player's guide and a code card.

The Pikachu V Collection holds four packs and regular and jumbo Pikachu V promos (SWSH 061) with artwork different from the Vivid Voltage card. Each tin holds six packs (five in Europe) and a Shiny Eldegoss V (SWSH 084), Boltund V (SWSH 085) or Cramorant V (SWSH 086). Each Mad Party Pin Collection holds three packs, an enamel pin and an alternate art Galarian Mr. Rime (SWSH 079), Dedenne (SWSH 080), Polteageist (SWSH 081) or Bunnelby (SWSH 082), the last in an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland style. Each Mini Tin holds two packs, a coin and an art card, and the two Premium Collections hold seven packs, a coin and Shiny Crobat V and VMAX or Shiny Dragapult V and VMAX with a jumbo VMAX. The three Walmart collections hold five packs and regular and jumbo copies of the tin promos.

Collecting and grading Shining Fates

Charizard VMAX SV107 is the card that matters, and the live prices above show a modest gap between a raw copy and a PSA 10 by Charizard standards. Suicune SV022, Ditto VMAX SV119, Ditto V SV118, Minccino SV093 and Yamper SV039 follow, all cheap raw cards where the PSA 10 is the whole value, and the Amazing Rare Reshiram 17 and Kyogre 21 are the strongest main set cards. Only one tracked single clears a meaningful raw price and the median raw card is low, so a raw Shiny Vault master set is an achievable project.

The top of the PSA 10 list is misleading. Snom 29, the reverse holofoil Celebi 3, Volcanion 25 and Cufant 49 show very high graded prices on almost worthless raw cards, numbers built on a few sales that no buyer should anchor on. Treat them as noise and match the variant label in the checklist below before comparing prices.

Grading only works at the margins here. The Shiny Vault foil shows print lines and surface scratches readily, centering was inconsistent across the run, and the low ceilings mean fees take a large share, so grade pack fresh copies that pass a loupe check and keep the rest in binders. Sealed Shining Fates is a set of tins and collections rather than displays, and the sealed table above tracks what each product trades for today.