For the week of August 16 to 23, Card Ladder's five biggest trading card sales were all Pokemon, and all five hammered in the same Fanatics Collect weekly auction. It is the second clean sweep this month, after the $4.47 million Illustrator-and-Snap week of August 9 to 16, and it came in at roughly $684,000.
| # | Card | Grade | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1999 Japanese 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo Snap Contest Koffing | BGS 9 | $180,000 |
| 2 | 2000 Japanese Promo Tropical Mega Battle Chubu No. 1 Trainer | PSA 9 | $168,000 |
| 3 | 2004 EX Team Rocket Returns Treecko Gold Star #109 | PSA 10 | $132,000 |
| 4 | 2004 EX Team Rocket Returns Treecko Gold Star #109 | PSA 10 | $114,000 |
| 5 | 2000 Japanese Promo 500 Pt. Fan Club Eevee #133 | PSA 10 | $90,000 |
The Koffing
The 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo Contest ran in 1999 to promote Pokemon Snap on the Nintendo 64. Players mailed in photographs taken inside the game; the winning shots were printed as real cards and sent to the winners, fifteen copies per design. Two weeks ago Goldin sold the Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle from the same contest for $809,943, $640,500 and $555,100. Koffing at $180,000 is the same object with a less famous face on it, and the gap between the two numbers is a clean measure of what the starter premium is worth at the very top of the market.
The Chubu trainer
The No. 1 Trainer promos were awarded to regional winners of Japan's World Challenge Summer 2000 tournaments, one region at a time. The Chubu copy in PSA 9 is the only example PSA has graded, which makes $168,000 less a price than a single data point. Trainer promos have been the quiet winners of the year: the demand that used to stop at the Illustrator and the Snap cards now runs one tier down into cards that exist in single digits.
The Treeckos and the Eevee
Two PSA 10 Treecko Gold Stars in the same auction sold for $132,000 and $114,000, against a prior record of $32,790 and a January 2025 sale of about $7,000. That is the chart in this issue, and the gap between the two 10s is this issue's Grade Expectations. The Fan Club Eevee, a 2000 Japanese promo given to members who collected 500 points, rounded out the five at $90,000.
What a sweep means
Two Pokemon sweeps in three weeks, from two different auction houses, with the money spread across Snap cards, trophy promos and Gold Stars rather than concentrated in one card, is the broadest the top of the Pokemon market has looked all year. Sports cards and Magic did not place a lot in the top five either week.
Source: SI Collectibles, August 23, 2026, via Card Ladder.
The Lead ran in The Pack Report, August 24, 2026: A $180,000 Koffing, and the Treecko That Went From $7,000 to $132,000. Published by Rip Station.