Same rarity, less than half the price: trainer SIRs
The week in the Pokémon card market: our take, the biggest price moves, the news and what's coming.
- In 17 of 21 sets the typical trainer SIR sells for less than the typical Pokémon SIR, a median 0.42× as much. The exceptions where the trainer art wins: Twilight Masquerade, Shrouded Fable, Black Bolt and Phantasmal Flames.
- Phantasmal Flames is the most top-heavy set: Mega Charizard X ex ($660) alone is 60% of the master-set cost. Sealed prices track a set's total value, not its concentration, so if that one card slips, the box has nothing priced in.
- Singles stay the trade over ripping: Umbreon ex sells for $1,338; pulling one takes about 1,441 packs, roughly $20,300. Even the best box going, Temporal Forces, returns 65¢ per $1. Delta Reign isn't even out yet: preorders already sold out, chase card at $2,166.69.
- The Japanese print of the same special art costs 0.64× the English one for 2024+ sets — Umbreon ex: $409 vs $1,327. The gap is widest against Prismatic Evolutions, at 0.22×.
- Graded vintage keeps climbing while modern chase slabs cool. The strength is in the old cardboard, not the new pulls — and the gap between the two keeps widening. A PSA 10 holo Charizard at Heritage is being floated as a $1.7 million record.
Biggest price moves
 Seel (94)Skyridge |
$225▲ 149.1% |
 Dratini - 052/109EX Team Rocket Returns |
$199▲ 147.6% |
 Jolteon StarEX Power Keepers |
$1,750▲ 133.3% |
 Dark AmpharosEX Team Rocket Returns |
$325▲ 130.1% |
 Giratina Prism StarUltra Prism |
$71.03▲ 129.8% |
 Luxray GL - 2010 (Mychael Bryan)World Championship Decks |
$27.21▼ 57.8% |
 Raichu - 081/128Base Expansion Pack · JP |
$35▼ 52.0% |
 Magnemite (7)Neo Discovery |
$41▼ 51.8% |
TCGplayer market price, week ending Oct 11, 2026. Look up any card.
In the news
- Yahoo FinanceTop 100 Pokémon card index up 150.7% since 2021, beating stocks and bitcoinAn index tracking the 100 most expensive Pokémon cards has returned 150.7% since September 2021, per BeInCrypto, against roughly 73% for the S&P 500. The index sits 1.2% below its September 29 all-time high.
- VICEFirst-edition PSA 10 Charizard reportedly sells for record $1,385,274A 1999 first-edition holographic Charizard in PSA 10 has sold for $1,385,274, a record for the card, collector Jeremy Padawer said on X, according to VICE. Padawer put the PSA 10 population at 123 copies.
- MSNCollectors press big retailers to stop scalper bots buying up Pokémon cardsCollectors are calling on major retailers to do more against scalpers using automated bots to snap up Pokémon card stock, saying the practice is damaging the hobby for genuine buyers, according to MSN. The complaints include accounts from collectors such as a Melbourne father.
- MSNPokémon card values keep climbing, with grading and fakes in the spotlightMSN reports Pokémon card values are surging and walks collectors through how grading, rarity, recent sales and fakes can move prices. It names no specific cards or figures.
- WargamerFuturistic Rare Mew and Mewtwo ex drop over 95%, now cheaper than SIR versionsTCGplayer data cited by Wargamer shows Futuristic Rare Mew ex at a $62 market price and Mewtwo ex at $50, down over 95% from speculative pre-release values of $3.2 thousand and $1,000. Both now sit below their Special Illustration Rare counterparts at $88 and $57.
- ComicBook.com2010 fan-designed Zorua contest promo sells for $156,000 at FanaticsThe 2010 Illusion's Zorua Design Contest Promo, the Kindergarten Winner card drawn by six-year-old Megu Taniguchi, sold for $156,000 in a Fanatics Collect auction that ended September 27, according to ComicBook.com. Roughly one hundred copies were printed.