The Pack Report
Two Pikachu Illustrators cleared $1 million apiece, two Snap contest cards cleared $600,000, and Pokemon's top five hit $4.47 million in a single week.
| Up | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dark TyranitarEX Team Rocket Returns · PSA 9 | $91 → $125 | +37% |
| Dark DragoniteTeam Rocket · PSA 3 | $120 → $248 | +105% |
| MagbyExpedition Base Set · PSA 8 | $200 → $265 | +32% |
| KyogreCelebrations (modern) · CGC 9 | $8 → $20 | +150% |
| Down | ||
| RaichuBase Set · CGC 9.5 | $350 → $176 | -50% |
| PikachuLegendary Collection · PSA 7 | $37 → $33 | -11% |
| Cynthia's SpiritombAscended Heroes (modern) · CGC 10P | $160 → $76 | -53% |
Two Illustrators, Two Snap Cards, $4.47 Million
The five biggest trading card sales of the week ending August 16 came to $4,470,643, more than six times the week before. Four of the five were Pokemon, and three of those were cards that exist in fewer than forty copies.
Wrong Name, Right Price: A 1996 CoroCoro Comic promo Glossy "Incorrect Illustrator" Pikachu in CGC 10 sold privately on August 14 for $1,300,000. The day after, Goldin hammered a 1998 Illustrator Pikachu in BGS 8.5 at $1,006,500. That is the second Illustrator over $1 million in three weeks, after the BGS 9 that went for $2 million in late July.
Say Cheese: Two 1999 Pokemon Snap contest cards, a Best Photo #1 Bulbasaur at $809,943 and a Mario Stadium Best Photo #4 Charmander at $640,500, both PSA 8, both at Goldin on August 9. Those were printed in runs of about twenty for contest winners, and a PSA 8 is as good as they come. More in Grade Expectations.
Not Pokemon: The fourth spot went to a One Piece 2024 Chinese Year One World Championship 1st Place Luffy trophy card at $713,700, an 8-by-8-inch display piece. Full list HERE.
Lumpy by Design: The weekly top-five total went $0.53M, $2.54M, $0.70M, $4.47M across the four most recent tallied weeks. The $2.5M week was one $2 million Illustrator; this week was two Illustrators and two Snap cards. Strip those out and the "normal" top five runs $500k to $700k, which is the number to watch. The spikes tell you one thing only: when a trophy card comes to market in 2026, the money is there.
Another Flat Week: Vintage +0.2%, Modern Flat
The Pack Report Index tracks two baskets: the ten most-traded cards in each of twelve vintage sets (1999-2007) and twelve modern sets (2016 on), priced by our own engine from public comps, grade by grade, and compared with the same day last week.
Still Quiet: A second flat week in a row. Vintage edged up 0.2%, modern was unchanged on the median, and a third of each basket did not re-mark. The lean is the same: EX Unseen Forces +4.0%, Skyridge and Neo Genesis +1.3% each, Base Set -0.8%; on the modern side Crown Zenith and the Celebrations Classic Collection both gave back 1.3%. The seven-figure sales up top are a different market from this one; nothing in either basket trades above $40,000.
Vintage sets
| Set | Index w/w | Basket |
|---|---|---|
| Base Set | -0.8% | 10 cards |
| Legendary Collection | +0.0% | 8 cards |
| Skyridge | +1.3% | 10 cards |
| XY-P Promotional cards | +0.0% | 10 cards |
| Expedition Base Set | -0.1% | 10 cards |
| EX Team Rocket Returns | +0.2% | 8 cards |
| EX Deoxys | +0.0% | 10 cards |
| Neo Destiny | +0.8% | 10 cards |
| EX Holon Phantoms | +0.0% | 9 cards |
| Team Rocket | +0.9% | 10 cards |
| Neo Genesis | +1.3% | 10 cards |
| EX Unseen Forces | +4.0% | 8 cards |
Modern sets
| Set | Index w/w | Basket |
|---|---|---|
| Evolutions | -0.6% | 6 cards |
| Ascended Heroes | -0.0% | 10 cards |
| Generations | +0.0% | 10 cards |
| Celebrations | +0.0% | 8 cards |
| Crown Zenith | -1.3% | 10 cards |
| Fates Collide | +0.0% | 9 cards |
| 151 | -0.3% | 10 cards |
| Paldea Evolved | -0.0% | 10 cards |
| BREAKpoint | +0.0% | 8 cards |
| Celebrations: Classic Collection | -1.3% | 10 cards |
| Pokémon Card 151 | +0.1% | 10 cards |
| Shining Legends | +0.0% | 10 cards |
The Index is a proprietary model built by Rip Station, which publishes The Pack Report. Method, full history and the trend chart: thepackreport.com/pack-report-index.
For a Snap Card, an 8 Is a 10
Both Snap contest cards in this week's lead sold in PSA 8: the Best Photo Bulbasaur at $809,943 and the Mario Stadium Charmander at $640,500. On almost any other card an 8 is the grade you settle for. On these it is the grade you pray for.
Mailed to Kids: The Snap cards were printed in 1999 for winners of photo contests built around the Nintendo 64 game, roughly twenty copies per design, and sent to the winners, who were mostly children. They were not sleeved. They were shown around. Most of the surviving copies carry edge wear and surface marks that cap them at 6 or 7; an 8 is the ceiling of the real-world population, and there may be no 9.
The Rule: Grade is relative to the population, not to the scale. Before you dismiss an 8, look at what the pop report says is above it. When the answer is "nothing," the 8 is the gem.
- Ten Figures: Collector Crypt, the Solana platform that vaults graded cards and sells them through fixed-price packs, said this week it has crossed $1 billion in cumulative sales since launch. Tokenized packs are now a nine-figure-a-month business, and most of the cards inside them are Pokemon.
- Thirty Pikachus: Pokemon TCG: 30th Celebration, due September 16, will put one of thirty different Pikachu cards in every pack, each in a different art style; the first two revealed on August 12 are by sowsow and Shimaris Yukichi. A guaranteed Pikachu per pack is a new mechanic for an English set, and it will make the Pikachu subset the thing people chase.
- The Ladder: Illustrator Pikachu prices in 2026 so far: PSA 10 $16.5M (February), BGS 9 $2.0M (July 25), BGS 8.5 $1,006,500 (August 15). Every grade above an 8 is now a seven-figure card.
- Straw Hat: A One Piece 2024 Chinese Year One World Championship 1st Place Luffy trophy card sold for $713,700 at Goldin on August 9, the only non-Pokemon card in the week's top five and the second One Piece trophy to crack it this summer.
Twice Last Week's Rips, and a Shining Charizard Out of a $50 Pack
Rip Check: 3,008 packs were ripped by 255 collectors in the seven days to Monday, more than double the 1,432 by 185 the week before. The $50 machine led with 1,010, the $25 machine did 981, and the $100 machine had its biggest week yet at 854. All-time: 7,805.
Pull of the Week: Saturday evening, out of the $50 machine, a 2002 Neo Destiny Shining Charizard in PSA 7, estimated at $2,976, nearly 60 times the ticket. The $1,000 pack's Shining Gyarados 1st Edition PSA 7 ($4,781, Tuesday) is still the biggest card to leave the vault this month. See what is live HERE.
- Aug 25 · PSA's next fortnightly backlog update
- Aug 28 · Ascended Heroes tins; Pokemon World Championships open in San Francisco (through Aug 30)
- Sep 16 · Pokemon TCG: 30th Celebration releases
This Shining Steelix is loaded in the $150 machine at an estimated $227. Neo Destiny shinings are soft-cornered, and this one has lived a full life. What did PSA give it?