Analysis
What the market did, and why
One event per piece. A tournament result, a reprint, a rotation: we pull the affected cards from our nightly price snapshots and TCGplayer sales history, show what moved and what did not, and say what the data supports. Guides are evergreen how-tos; these are dated and specific on purpose.
- 30th Celebration · September 10, 2026 · 7 min read30th Celebration Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box: What the Sold-Out Preorder Actually Costs Now
The Pokémon Center ETB preorder crashed the site in July, queues past 7 hours, sold out by afternoon. On TCGplayer it peaked at 12.2x its $59.99 MSRP that week, more than the 2021 Pokémon Center ETB commands after five years of real demand. It was 8.3x on September 8, a week before launch.
- 30th Celebration · September 8, 2026 · 12 min readPokémon 30th Celebration presale prices: every product against MSRP, and what the last three launches did to prices
On September 8, eight days before launch, every product sold above MSRP, the Elite Trainer Box at 3.7x its $49.99 list. Presale prices were already down 58% since July, the loose pack went from $136 to $17, and Pitch Black says chase singles lose another half after launch. The 25th anniversary set says the opposite about sealed held from MSRP for five years.
- Sealed market · September 7, 2026 · 14 min readIs the sealed Pokemon market correcting? Two years of booster box prices and a year of sales say: depends what you bought
We built the Lab Booster Box Index from every English 36-pack booster box on TCGplayer, 26 months of nightly prices, and a year of sales volume. Seasoned boxes are up 20% year over year and 7% off a July peak. New product is where the correction lives.
- Worlds 2026 · September 5, 2026 · 8 min readAndrew Hedrick's Worlds-winning Dragapult list: every card priced, and what happened after
The full 60-card list that won Worlds 2026, priced card by card with buy links, plus the TCGplayer sales data on what people bought after the final. Spoiler: the deck is $40 and the win did not change that.
Looking for the how-tos instead? See the guides, or the weekly report for this week's movers.