We buy, sell and trade PSA, BGS and CGC Pokémon slabs.
Market news · updated Sep 30, 2026
Pokémon card market news, with our take
The auction results and market stories worth knowing about, each with a few lines on what we make of it as people who buy and sell these cards. Every note links to the original reporting.
Backend text strings found on Target's website point to a drawing system for Pokémon TCG drops: entry window, random winners, 24 hours to pay, limit of one per account, no login needed. No formal announcement yet, according to Polygon.
Our take If real, this beats the current 3 a.m. drop chaos and a one-per-account cap is tougher on bulk buyers than the two-per-transaction limit now. Raffles aren't bulletproof, though - Walmart's version, in place since earlier in 2026, still gets gamed by botters with multiple accounts. Treat it as a rumor until Target confirms it.
According to Covers.com, Coinbase teased a feature letting users open Pokémon card packs on their phones, each pull backed by a physical card that can be vaulted digitally or shipped. No launch date was given; five pack designs, 01 through 05, were shown.
Our take Pack-rip apps keep multiplying, and a crypto exchange joining in says more about where speculative money sits than about collector demand. The $50 billion ripping market figure is an estimate, so treat it loosely. What matters is what Coinbase skipped: pack prices, pull odds, and whether those five tiers hold real sealed product or something thinner.
A PSA 10 reverse holo Pikachu from the 2002 Legendary Collection is at $600,000 including the 20% buyer's premium on Fanatics Collect, with extended bidding still ahead. The same card went for $510 in December 2017 and $264,000 in June 2026, according to Men's Journal.
Our take Reverse holos were written off as cheap reprints when this set came out, so a six-figure one shows how far condition scarcity has reshaped the high end. But a mid-auction number with extended bidding to come isn't a market read, it's one card. The better test is where it closes, and whether the $320,000 Gold Star Pikachu in the same sale confirms the demand.
A mint-condition reverse holo Mew card is at auction and already bid near the median U.S. home price, with predictions it could pass $400,000, according to MSN. About a week of bidding remains.
Our take Six-figure estimates are easy to float while bidding is still open, and the final number is what counts. With no grade or population stated, there is little here to judge whether this Mew warrants it. If it clears, expect attention on other high-grade Mew cards; if it stalls, treat the $400,000 as pre-sale talk.
Beezie announced that a first-edition Base Set Charizard in PSA 10, one of 123 copies at that grade, changed hands on its on-chain marketplace for $1,000,000. The company says it sourced the card from Rally for $300,000 less than a year ago.
Our take This comes from Beezie's own press release and the sale ran on its own platform, so treat the record framing with caution — there is no public auction to check it against. Even so, a seven-figure result keeps the top end of Pokémon strong. It says little about mid-grade copies, which trade to a different rhythm.
A PSA 10 2015 Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Pikachu, one of 100 copies printed as a contest prize, sold Sept. 28 at Fanatics for $8.4 million with buyer's premium, per Dexerto. Only Logan Paul's $16.4 million Pikachu Illustrator has sold for more.
Our take PSA 10 examples went for $19,200 in June 2025, so this is not a normal move; it looks like deep-pocketed bidders chasing a 100-copy prize card. Treat it as a one-off, not proof that promos are repricing across the board. Worth watching whether the $780,000 Legendary Collection sale holds at the next auction.
