Two of the five biggest trading card sales in the week of August 9 to 16 were 1999 Pokemon Snap contest cards, and both were graded PSA 8: a CoroCoro Best Photo #1 Bulbasaur at $809,943 and a 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo #4 Charmander at $640,500, both at Goldin on August 9. For most cards an 8 means visible wear and a steep discount from the 10. For these it is the best grade that exists.
What the Snap cards are
In 1999 Nintendo's Pokemon Snap let players photograph Pokemon in-game. CoroCoro Comic and the television show 64 Mario Stadium ran contests in which players submitted their best shots; the winning photographs were turned into real trading cards, printed in runs of about twenty, and mailed to the winners. There is no retail copy of a Snap card. Every one that exists went to a child in 1999 who had just won a contest and wanted to show people.
Why the population tops out at 8
A card that was handled, traded hands at school and spent years in a drawer before the hobby decided it was valuable does not come back as a 10. Most surviving Snap cards carry edge wear and surface scratches that hold them at 6 or 7. An 8 means a copy that was somehow protected from the start, and it is as high as the real-world population goes for most designs. There is no higher grade to wait for, so the 8 carries the premium a 10 would carry on an ordinary card.
The rule, generalized
Grade is a rank within a population, not a position on a ten-point scale. Before discounting an 8, pull the population report and look at what sits above it. On a 2023 alt-art with 4,000 10s, an 8 is a bulk card. On a Snap card, a Trophy Pikachu, a 1996 CoroCoro promo or an early Japanese tournament prize, an 8 can be the top of the pop, and the market has learned to price it that way. The two Snap cards this week clearing $1.45 million between them is the proof.
Sales via SI Collectibles, August 17, 2026.
Grade Expectations ran in The Pack Report, August 17, 2026: A $4.5 Million Week, and the Illustrator Is Back. Published by Rip Station.