Worlds Opens Tomorrow; Team Rocket Is Already Live

The 2026 Pokemon World Championships open tomorrow, Friday August 28, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with the finals moving to the Chase Center on Sunday and the first PokemonXP fan festival running alongside. The opening ceremony is 9 a.m. Pacific.

Three Things Land at Once: Worlds weekend has always been good for sealed product and for the singles in whatever wins. This year it coincides with two tin releases on Friday, the Mega Forces tins (choose a Mega Dragonite, Darkrai or Zeraora ex promo) and the Ascended Heroes tins ($21.99, Mega Feraligatr, Meganium or Emboar ex), and with Pocket's Team Rocket's Ambition, which went live Wednesday at 6 p.m. Pacific with Giovanni's legendary birds and the new Owner card type.

What to Watch: Decklists on Friday night, and the Team Rocket vintage set in next week's Index. The 2000 set has been flat for a month; Pocket spotlights have moved paper prices before.

Down, and Slower: PSA's Tuesday update put the active backlog at 10.9 million cards, down 950,000 (about 8 percent) from August 11 and 1.5 million below the July 28 peak, with five hubs running including the new Plano, Texas facility. The catch, in the same update: the $80 Regular tier's quoted turnaround doubled from 30-40 business days to 70-80, roughly four months. Super Express ($349) went from 7-10 days to 10-15, Walk-Through ($599) from 5-7 to 7-10. Express ($149) held at 20-30.

The Math: At 475,000 cards a week, the backlog reaches the 5 million threshold for reopening the $25 Value tiers in about twelve more weeks, call it late November, if submissions do not pick up. The 30th Celebration set lands September 16. They will pick up.

Vintage +0.3%, Modern -0.4%: First Red Modern Reading

The Pack Report Index tracks two baskets: the ten most-traded cards in each of twelve vintage sets (1999-2007) and twelve modern sets (2016 on), priced by our own engine from public comps, grade by grade, and compared with the same day last week.

Five and Oh: Vintage added 0.3%, its fifth straight positive week, led by Legendary Collection +2.0%, EX Deoxys +1.6%, EX Unseen Forces +1.4% and Team Rocket Returns +1.3%. Modern printed its first negative reading, -0.4%, with 55 of 112 cards lower: Ascended Heroes -3.1% the day before its tins, Paldea Evolved -1.5%, while Evolutions went +6.5% for a second week.

Vintage sets

Modern sets

The Index is a proprietary model built by Rip Station, which publishes The Pack Report. Method, full history and the trend chart: thepackreport.com/pack-report-index.

Is Grading Still Worth It at a Four-Month Wait?

PSA's Regular tier now quotes 70 to 80 business days. Before you send anything in this autumn, run three numbers: what the card sells for raw, what it sells for in a 10, and what it sells for in a 9. Our card pages show all three.

The Rule: Multiply the 10 price by your honest odds of a 10 (for a pack-fresh modern card that is rarely better than 40 percent; for a 2016 Evolutions holo, lower) and add the 9 price times the rest. Subtract the fee and the raw price. If the number is not comfortably positive, the card is not a grading candidate at that tier. A Stellar Crown Squirtle illustration rare at $372 in a 10 clears the bar at $80; most $40 cards do not.

The Wait Is a Cost Too: Four months of your money locked in a box is a cost, and so is price risk: the 10 that is worth $372 today may be worth less in January after 30th Celebration and Delta Reign reset attention. If a card is worth grading, Express at $149 and 20 to 30 days is often the better trade than Regular at $80 and four months. If it is not worth $149, it was probably not worth $80 either.

• Aftershock: Saturday's Gold Star auction is still moving prices. The PSA 10 EX Deoxys Rayquaza ex re-marked from $35,000 to $85,000 in our engine this week, the largest dollar move the Index has recorded. When the Gold Star in a 6 clears $43,200, the ex in a 10 does not stay at $35,000.
• Rocket Month: Team Rocket's Ambition is live in Pocket with a month of missions, emblems and a puzzle campaign for pack hourglasses through September 29, so the spotlight on Giovanni's birds lasts past Worlds and into the 30th Celebration launch.
• Drops: Worlds streams on Twitch from Friday with drops during the main broadcast and the PokemonXP card game panel; TCG Live's Worlds event and its cosmetics run through September 3, when the Fall Study Season events start.
• Even the Fast Lane: Buried in Tuesday's PSA update: Super Express ($349) went from 7-10 business days to 10-15 and Walk-Through ($599) from 5-7 to 7-10. Express ($149) was the only tier that held, which makes it the best value on the menu for anything worth grading.

Ten Thousand Packs, and a New $200 Machine

Rip Check: Rip Station passed 10,000 packs ripped all-time this week (10,189 as of Thursday). The seven days to Thursday were quieter than the week before, 1,479 packs by 213 collectors against 2,775 by 364, with the $50 machine at 681, the $25 machine at 505 and the $150 machine at 222.

New Machine: The $200 machine opened this week, and its first notable pull came Tuesday morning: a 1999 Fossil Articuno holo in PSA 10, estimated at $603. Last Friday's 1999 Japanese CD Promo Charizard PSA 9 ($1,290, $150 machine) is still the week's biggest. See what is live HERE.