First Partner Collection Series 3
The Pokemon Company put the third First Partner Collection bundle box into retail on August 7. The line is built around oversized versions of starter Pokemon and is aimed squarely at the youngest end of the hobby. It will never be a chase product, and it does not need to be. The jumbo cards are the on-ramp: the kid who gets a First Partner box in 2026 is the collector who buys a Base Set Charizard in 2040. Watch the line as a demand indicator, not an investment.
Ascended Heroes tins, August 28
Three Mega Evolution: Ascended Heroes tins are due on August 28 at $21.99 each, with four booster packs and a promo card: Mega Feraligatr ex, Mega Meganium ex or Mega Emboar ex. Tins matter to prices because they are a second wave of openings for a set that launched in January; more packs opened means more supply of the chase cards, and Ascended Heroes is already the modern set in our index that has drifted lowest over the past month. The promos themselves are rarely worth much; the packs decide the set.
Worlds warm-up in TCG Live
Pokemon TCG Live is running a World Championships celebration from August 6 to September 3, tied to the PokemonXP festival around the event. It includes a Learning Lab of competitive lessons, a Gym Leader Challenge single-type format, Build & Battle with Scarlet & Violet: Journey Together, event-themed login gifts and cosmetics, and Twitch drops for watching the Worlds broadcast. The World Championships themselves are August 28 to 30 in San Francisco, at the Moscone Center with top-cut matches on the Chase Center main stage. Worlds weekend is historically a strong week for sealed and for whichever cards the winning decks run.
PSA's record July
In its August 11 backlog update PSA said July surpassed June as the company's biggest grading month on record, the second record month in a row. That throughput is the whole reason the backlog finally fell, from 12.4 million to 11.85 million, and it is running across five facilities including the new Plano, Texas site. It is also the reason the Value tiers stay closed: even at record output the queue is nearly twelve million, and PSA's reopening threshold is five.
Sources: Pokemon TCG Live Worlds announcement (August 6); Screen Rant on the Ascended Heroes tins; PSA backlog tracker.
Quick Hits ran in The Pack Report, August 13, 2026: Rayquaza Takes the Week, Gengar Takes Two Spots. Published by Rip Station.