$11.3 Million in a Week: Two Illustrators, Five Cards Over $500,000

The five biggest trading card sales of last week came to $11,339,471, five times the week before and the largest total on record. Every one of the five cleared half a million dollars. Four of them were Pokemon.

Two Illustrators, One Day Apart: On Thursday Heritage sold a PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator for $5,000,000. On Friday Goldin sold a CGC 9 for $2,806,271. Three weeks ago a PSA 9 changed hands privately at $2.7 million; the same grade has now nearly doubled in eighteen days. Chart of the Day has the ladder, which now has six rungs.

The Other Two: A sealed 1999 First Edition Base Set booster box made $750,000 at Heritage, and a 2002 Legendary Collection Charizard reverse holo in PSA 10 made $575,000 in the same sale: a reverse holo of a reprint, from a set in our vintage basket, at more than half a million. The Magic card in the middle was an Alpha Black Lotus in PSA 10 at $2.2 million.

The 9 Rung Moved: On September 7 we charted four Illustrator sales and the PSA 9 was $2.7 million. Eleven days later a PSA 9 made $5.0 million at Heritage. Nothing about the card changed; the Torchic at $2.7 million, the Lugias, the Gold Stars and a sealed box at $750,000 all printed in between, and the bidder who paid $5 million was pricing off all of them.

Label Gap, Again: The CGC 9 at $2.8 million a day later is 44 percent below the PSA 9 and almost exactly where the PSA 9 was three weeks ago. At the top of the hobby, the PSA label is worth most of a grade point.

Both Baskets Flat: the Quietest Week in the Data

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.

Nothing Moved: Both baskets read 0.0%, and this time it was not a median sitting between winners and losers: 105 of 116 vintage cards and 93 of 112 modern cards were unchanged, by far the fewest re-marks in any reading. Our engine prices from public comps, and over the 30th Celebration launch weekend almost no vintage comps landed in its lanes. The sales that will move the basket, the Legendary Collection Charizard at $575,000 and everything beneath the $5 million Illustrator, have not fed through yet. Treat this week as a pause in the data, not in the market.

Vintage sets

Modern sets

Two 9s, 24 Hours, $2.2 Million Apart

Thursday: a PSA 9 Illustrator, $5,000,000, Heritage. Friday: a CGC 9 Illustrator, $2,806,271, Goldin. Same card, same grade number, one day apart, and the PSA copy made 78 percent more.

Why the Gap Is So Large: Three reasons, in order of size. The buyer pool: the collectors who bid seven figures price off PSA's population report (fifteen 9s, one 10) and treat other labels as a different census. Perceived standard: a CGC 9 is widely assumed to crack and resubmit to PSA as an 8.5 or 9, so the market prices it at the lower of those. Order: the PSA copy sold first and set the week's reference; the CGC copy a day later sold to the underbidders.

Lower Down: The same gap exists on a $500 card and it is much smaller, 10 to 30 percent, because the buyer pool is broader and less label-conscious. The rule: the higher the price, the more the label matters, because the fewer the bidders, the more each one's census preference counts. This issue's quiz card is a Japanese promo in PSA 9, where the label question is simpler: PSA dominates Japanese grading, so there is almost no cross-label market to compare.

• Generous: Five days in, community pack counts put 30th Celebration's pull rates among the friendliest of the modern era: a Classic Collection card about one pack in ten, a special illustration rare about one in twenty, the Futuristic rare Mew ex and Mewtwo ex about one in 120. The announced chase cards re-priced in days; in Japan the Classic Lugia and Charizard were around ¥20,000 (about $135) by Friday.
• The Secret Mews: Japanese market guides on Friday had the three RGB Mews at ¥750,000-1,000,000 (Red), ¥600,000-700,000 (Blue) and ¥500,000-600,000 (Green): roughly $3,400 to $6,800, down from the $20,000 launch-day eBay sale as the first copies surfaced. The Pokemon Company has still said nothing about them.
• A Box for $750,000: A sealed 1999 First Edition Base Set booster box sold at Heritage on Thursday for $750,000, the highest public price we can find for sealed Pokemon product. Thirty-six packs priced as thirty-six chances at a card that has cleared a million twice this year.
• Tomorrow: PSA's fortnightly backlog update. Two weeks ago: 9.9 million, falling 500,000 a week, and a hint that a closed tier could reopen in September. There are nine days of September left.

Saturday Was the Day: Five Four-Figure Pulls in Ten Hours

Rip Check: 1,780 packs by 343 collectors in the seven days to Monday, nearly double the week before (958 by 97). The $50 machine did 1,271 on its own, the $500 machine 108, and a new $60 machine opened. All-time: 16,603.

Pulls of the Week: All on Saturday. From the $500 machine: a 2010 HGSS Undaunted Umbreon holo in PSA 8 ($1,479), a 2025 Black Bolt Zekrom ex black-white rare in PSA 10 ($1,410), a 2002 Japanese Town on No Map First Edition Arcanine holo in PSA 8 ($1,309) and a 2001 Neo Discovery Umbreon holo in PSA 8 ($1,140). And from the $250 machine, a 2019 Hidden Fates Charizard GX shiny in PSA 10 ($1,350). See what is live HERE.