Fanatics Weekly closed on Saturday, October 4, and when the dust settled five Pokemon cards had combined for $2,964,000. That is a strong week for the hobby by any measure. What makes it worth a closer look is which card led it.
The board
- 2008 Diamond & Pearl Great Encounters Cresselia #2, PSA 10 - $960,000 (Fanatics Weekly, October 4)
- 2001 Southern Islands Mew #1, PSA 10 - $840,000 (Fanatics Weekly, October 4)
- 2019 SM Black Star Promo Detective Pikachu SM170, PSA 10 - $420,000 (eBay, October 9)
- 2004 Clash of the Blue Sky Rayquaza Gold Star, BGS 10 Pristine - $384,000 (Fanatics Weekly, October 4)
- 2003 Aquapolis Crystal Lugia #149, PSA 10 - $360,000 (Fanatics Weekly, October 4)
Why a Cresselia
Cresselia has none of the things that usually make a seven-figure card. No anime arc anyone remembers, no Charizard-sized fan base, no celebrity owner. It is a Diamond & Pearl era holo from a set, Great Encounters, that most collectors would struggle to name a chase from. And it still out-sold every Pikachu and every Charizard on the board.
The explanation is condition, not character. Diamond & Pearl era holos were printed on stock that scratches and silvers if you so much as look at it, and the print runs went into binders and shoeboxes, not top-loaders. Gem-mint copies of the obscure holos from that era are now genuinely scarce objects, and the buyers at the top of this market have stopped caring whether the Pokemon on the front is famous. They are buying the grade.
That is the quiet shift in this result. Five years ago the top of the market was a list of the cards everyone knows. Today it is a list of the cards almost nobody has in a 10.
The rest of the board, briefly
The Southern Islands Mew is the second-highest price we have seen for that promo, and it is the one on this list with the most direct line to our machines: a PSA 8 of the exact same card is loaded in the $150 machine right now at an estimated $6,100. Two grade points separate a nice weekend from a house deposit, which is the whole hobby in one number.
The Detective Pikachu SM170 result is the odd one out: a 2019 promo, so not scarce by age, trading at $420,000 on the strength of a tiny PSA 10 population and movie nostalgia that turned out to have real staying power. The Rayquaza Gold Star in BGS 10 Pristine continues the Gold Star run that has defined the last two years at the top end. And the Crystal Lugia at $360,000 more than doubled the card's previous record of $148,511, which tells you how fast the Crystal-era ceiling is moving now that the 30th anniversary has put e-Reader era cards back in front of people.
What to do with this
Nothing dramatic. Seven-figure results do not change what a PSA 8 of anything is worth on Tuesday. But if you hold vintage holos in high grade, this is the market telling you that the premium for the top grade is widening, not narrowing, and that it is widening fastest on the cards that were never chase cards. Source: SI Collectibles, Top 5 TCG Sales of the Week.
The Lead ran in The Pack Report, October 12, 2026: A $960,000 Cresselia? Sure, Why Not. Published by Rip Station.