The Rayquaza ex re-mark
The August 22 Fanatics auction put a PSA 6 Rayquaza Gold Star at $43,200 and two PSA 10 Treecko Gold Stars at $132,000 and $114,000. Prices do not move in isolation: the 2005 EX Deoxys Rayquaza ex, the set's other chase card, re-marked in Rip Station's engine from $35,000 to $85,000 in PSA 10 this week on new comps. It is the largest dollar move since the Index started and the reason EX Deoxys leads the vintage basket for a second week. The same mechanism works down the ladder: when the top card in a set re-prices, the cards one tier below it get re-priced over the following weeks, which is where the opportunity usually is.
Pocket's Rocket month
Team Rocket's Ambition went live in Pokemon TCG Pocket on Wednesday, August 26 at 6 p.m. Pacific. The set's launch campaign runs more than a month: missions, emblems and a puzzle campaign for pack hourglasses through September 29. That keeps Giovanni, the Rocket birds and Team Rocket branding in front of Pocket's player base through Worlds and past the 30th Celebration launch on September 16, which is a long window for a vintage set that has been flat in our Index for four weeks.
Worlds on Twitch
The World Championships stream on Twitch from Friday, with drops available during the main broadcast and the PokemonXP panel on the card game. TCG Live's Worlds celebration (Learning Lab, Gym Leader Challenge, Build & Battle, Worlds cosmetics) runs through September 3, when the Fall Study Season events begin ahead of the September 15 client update.
The fast tiers slowed down too
PSA's August 25 update did not only double the Regular tier. Super Express ($349) moved from 7-10 business days to 10-15 and Walk-Through ($599) from 5-7 to 7-10. Express ($149, 20-30 days) was the only tier whose quote did not change, which makes it the best price-to-wait ratio on the menu for anything worth grading this autumn. The full tier table is in this issue's Chart of the Day.
Sources: Baseball America, August 25; PocketMonsters.net, August 20; Pokemon.com, August 6; TCG Live community letter, August 14.
Quick Hits ran in The Pack Report, August 27, 2026: Worlds Opens Tomorrow, and PSA's $80 Tier Now Takes Four Months. Published by Rip Station.