30th Celebration, five days in

The set launched Wednesday, and by the weekend enough packs had been opened for the community counts to settle: a Classic Collection card roughly once in ten packs, a special illustration rare roughly once in twenty, the two Futuristic rares roughly once in 120 packs. With six foil cards per pack and 33 secret rares, that is the most generous chase distribution of any set in the Mega Evolution era, and prices responded the way generous pull rates always make them respond. In Japan, where the set launched the same day, Friday market guides had the Classic Collection Lugia and Charizard around ¥20,000 each (about $135), the Mew ex Futuristic rare around ¥19,000 and the Mewtwo ex around ¥15,000, with the Magikarp and Gengar Classic reprints at ¥7,000-7,500. The pre-launch asks were multiples of those numbers.

The RGB Mews

The three unrevealed Mew ex variants, Red, Green and Blue, remain the only scarce thing in the set. Friday's Japanese guides had them at ¥750,000-1,000,000 for Red, ¥600,000-700,000 for Blue and ¥500,000-600,000 for Green, roughly $3,400 to $6,800. The first reported sale, a Blue on eBay on launch day, was $20,000; the fall since is what happens when the second, third and tenth copies surface. The Pokemon Company has not acknowledged the cards exist, there is no official pull rate, and a master set now needs all three.

The sealed box

Heritage sold a sealed 1999 First Edition Base Set booster box on September 18 for $750,000. It is the most expensive sealed Pokemon product with a public record we can find, and the logic is straightforward: a First Edition Charizard in PSA 10 has sold for $954,800 and $1,000,953 this year, there are 36 packs in the box, and sealed vintage trades as an option on what is inside. The same auction sold the Legendary Collection reverse Charizard for $575,000, which gives the Legendary Collection set in our vintage basket its first major comp since the Index began.

PSA on Tuesday

PSA's next fortnightly backlog update is due September 22. The September 8 figure was 9.9 million, down a million in two weeks, with the company saying a suspended tier could be evaluated for reopening before the end of September. Tomorrow's number is the first to include the 30th Celebration submission wave, and the month has nine days left.

Sources: SNKRDUNK Magazine, September 18, 2026; SI Collectibles, September 21, 2026; Heavy, September 8, 2026.

Quick Hits ran in The Pack Report, September 21, 2026: An $11 Million Week: Two Illustrators, $7.8 Million. Published by Rip Station.