The Index is a proprietary model built by Rip Station, which publishes The Pack Report. Method, full history and the trend chart.
This reading is September 3 against August 27.
- Vintage basket: +0.7% (median of 114 cards; 59 up, 32 flat, 23 down)
- Modern basket: 0.0% (median of 112 cards; 38 up, 32 flat, 42 down)
How the index is built
Each basket takes twelve active sets and, within each, the ten most-traded cards. Vintage means 1999 to 2007 plus the promo series; modern means 2016 onward. Every card is priced by Rip Station's own engine from public comps, separately for every grader-and-grade lane. A card's weekly change is the average across its lanes; a set's reading is the median of its cards; the basket headline is the median of all cards. A flat reading means "no news," not "no demand."
Vintage sets
| Set | Index w/w | Basket |
|---|---|---|
| Base Set | +1.1% | 10 cards |
| Legendary Collection | +0.0% | 9 cards |
| Skyridge | +1.8% | 10 cards |
| XY-P Promotional cards | +0.0% | 10 cards |
| Expedition Base Set | -0.1% | 10 cards |
| EX Team Rocket Returns | +2.8% | 8 cards |
| EX Deoxys | +1.2% | 10 cards |
| Neo Destiny | +1.3% | 10 cards |
| EX Holon Phantoms | +1.7% | 9 cards |
| Team Rocket | -0.4% | 10 cards |
| Neo Genesis | +2.4% | 10 cards |
| EX Unseen Forces | +2.7% | 8 cards |
Modern sets
| Set | Index w/w | Basket |
|---|---|---|
| Evolutions | -0.4% | 6 cards |
| Ascended Heroes | -1.6% | 10 cards |
| Generations | -0.1% | 10 cards |
| Celebrations | -2.1% | 8 cards |
| Crown Zenith | +0.2% | 10 cards |
| Fates Collide | +0.0% | 9 cards |
| 151 | -0.5% | 10 cards |
| Paldea Evolved | +0.7% | 10 cards |
| BREAKpoint | +0.0% | 9 cards |
| Celebrations: Classic Collection | +1.1% | 10 cards |
| Pokémon Card 151 | -1.1% | 10 cards |
| Shining Legends | +0.0% | 10 cards |
Reading the week
Seven readings, seven positive, and this is the largest by a distance. The difference from August is breadth: nine of twelve vintage sets were up at least a percent, against four or five in a typical August week. Neo Genesis moved on the $360,000 First Edition Lugia, Skyridge is still absorbing the $150,000 Gengar, and Base Set put in its biggest reading without a headline sale behind it, which is the kind of move that comes from dealers re-marking inventory rather than from one auction. Chart of the Day has the full seven-week history.
Modern was flat for the fifth time in seven readings and has still not posted a positive week. Celebrations, the 2021 anniversary set, fell 2.1 percent in the fortnight before the 30th Celebration launch takes its place as the anniversary product; Ascended Heroes fell a seventh straight time with its tins now on shelves. Classic Collection, the 2021 reprints, rose 1.1 percent, and Paldea Evolved was up for the first time in a month.
Movers
Up: a PSA 9 Expedition Pichu from $1,200 to $2,938, the largest dollar move in the vintage basket this week; a PSA 5 Legendary Collection Dark Blastoise from $30 to $74; a PSA 6 Classic Collection Venusaur from $14 to $29. Down: a CGC 8 Team Rocket Dark Slowbro from $107 to $54, a CGC 9 Team Rocket Returns Dark Tyranitar from $60 to $32, and a BGS 9.5 Japanese 151 Bulbasaur from $80 to $31.
The Index ran in The Pack Report, September 3, 2026: A $360,000 Lugia, and the Biggest Vintage Week Yet. Published by Rip Station.