For the week ending August 31, Card Ladder's five biggest trading card sales were all Pokemon, and the top one was private.
| # | Card | Grade | Price | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1998 Japanese CoroCoro Pikachu Illustrator | PSA 9 | $2,700,000 | Private sale, August 31 |
| 2 | 2000 Neo Genesis First Edition Lugia #9 | PSA 10 | $360,000 | Fanatics Weekly, August 30 |
| 3 | 2000 Neo Genesis First Edition Typhlosion #17 | CGC 10 Pristine | $336,000 | Fanatics Weekly |
| 4 | 2015-16 Japanese XY Promo Pikachu lot (11 cards) | All PSA 10 | $336,000 | Fanatics Weekly, August 30 |
| 5 | 2008 Great Encounters Palkia LV.X #106 | PSA 10 | $204,000 | Fanatics Weekly, August 30 |
Total: about $3.94 million, the second-largest week of the summer after the $4.47 million Illustrator-and-Snap week of August 9 to 16.
The Illustrator
The Pikachu Illustrator is the hobby's reference card and it has now sold four times in 2026, in four grades. The PSA 9 at $2.7 million sits above the BGS 9 at $2.0 million (July 25) and the BGS 8.5 at $1,006,500 (August 15), and far below the only PSA 10 at $16.5 million (February). PSA has graded fifteen 9s and one 10. Private sales are reported with less detail than auctions, but the number is consistent with the ladder, and it is the rung the market had been waiting for.
Neo Genesis, twice
The $360,000 Lugia was last Thursday's lead; its date is now reported as August 30 rather than August 31. The Typhlosion is the set's other First Edition chase, and its $336,000 came with the CGC Pristine 10 label that has been doing a lot of work this summer: the $1.02 million Rayquaza Gold Star a week earlier carried the same designation. Two Neo Genesis First Edition holos in the top five the same week is the clearest sign yet that the repricing has moved past the EX era.
Eleven Pikachus
The 2015-16 XY promo Pikachu lot is eleven Japanese promo cards sold together, all in PSA 10, for $336,000. Lots are hard to comp, but the number says something about where demand for complete, perfect Pikachu runs sits in a year when the 30th Celebration set is about to put thirty new Pikachus into every pack.
The Palkia
The 2008 Great Encounters Palkia LV.X in PSA 10 at $204,000 is the newest card in the five by seven years and the first Diamond & Pearl-era card we can find above $200,000. The LV.X cards were the chase of their era and have been priced like mid-tier modern for most of the past decade. The Diamond & Pearl sets are not in our vintage basket; this result is the kind of thing that eventually makes them candidates.
Source: SI Collectibles, September 7, 2026, via Card Ladder.
The Lead ran in The Pack Report, September 7, 2026: A $2.7 Million Illustrator, and a $204,000 Palkia. Published by Rip Station.