| RECON // NEWSLETTER NO. 003 |
MON OCT 12, 2026 |
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Know the market. Collect with conviction.
TCG · VIDEO GAMES · ANIME
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 | | IMAGE: FANATICS COLLECT |
Four e-Reader-era Pokémon 10s sell for $780,000, three at multiples of their records
| GRADES | PSA 10 ×3 · CGC PRISTINE 10 |
| VENUE | FANATICS COLLECT WEEKLY |
| POPS AT 10 | 13 · 19 · 84 · 129 |
$780,000 FOUR CARDS · REPORTED OCT 9
A PSA 10 Expedition Butterfree made $204,000, a CGC Pristine 10 Skyridge Gengar $216,000, and PSA 10 copies of the Expedition Gengar and Skyridge Umbreon $180,000 each in Fanatics Collect’s latest Weekly auction, per ComicBook.com. The Butterfree’s prior record was $60,001 in August and the Skyridge Gengar’s $37,820 in June, so two cards sold at 3.4 and 5.7 times their previous highs. The multiples track the census: the two smallest populations at a 10 (13 and 19 copies) moved the most, and the 129-copy Umbreon moved 7%.
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A Zorua promo drawn by a six-year-old sells for $156,000 at Fanatics Collect
The 2010 Illusion’s Zorua Design Contest promo, Kindergarten Winner variant, shows Zorua and Pikachu on a bus as drawn by Megu Taniguchi, then six, for the Zoroark: Master of Illusions contest; it closed at $156,000 on Sept 27, per ComicBook.com and Dexerto. ComicBook.com puts the print run at about 100, and Dexerto’s last reported PSA 10 sale is $8,700 in 2023, so this copy sold at about 18 times the prior comp. The slab in Fanatics’ lot photo reads BGS 10 Pristine while Dexerto calls it a PSA 10; either way, a card with a story and a run near 100 just priced like a trophy card.
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Pokémon games took the top graded-game sale in five of the last six weeks
The Graded Games Report counted 728 settled eBay sales for Sep 29 to Oct 6, up 12% on the week, led by a sealed Pokémon Blue (PSA 9.6 A+) at $16,150; six of the top eight were Pokémon titles. The weekly top sale was a Pokémon game in five of the six weeks since late August, a $30,000 sealed Red (WATA 9.4 A+) and a $40,000 Silver (PSA 9.8) among them, with Super Mario 64 the one exception at $19,995. Weekly medians held between $301 and $350 through the run, so the money is concentrating at the top of the Pokémon shelf while the typical graded game trades near $300.
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| TCG |
Wizards’ next Banned and Restricted announcement lands today, Oct 12. PureGrail’s look back at the Sept 2024 Commander bans: Dockside Extortionist fell from $81 to $20 and Mana Crypt from $184 to $85, per MTG Insider, and Jeweled Lotus ran from about $31 to $83 before the Feb 9 decision kept it banned, per MTG Rocks. (PureGrail, Oct 9) |
| TCG |
Alt’s Oct 1 auction closed four Pokémon lots above $500,000 and all four show paid, per Chase Society: a PSA 10 Shiny Legend Rayquaza at $791,622, the PSA 5 Prerelease Raichu at $699,625, a PSA 10 Legendary Collection reverse holo Snorlax at $651,001 and a PSA 10 fan-club promo Espeon at $505,001, with buyer’s premium. Fanatics’ four lots above $500,000 from Sept 27 and Oct 4, the $8.4M Art Academy Pikachu among them, still showed unpaid flags on Oct 9. (Chase Society, Oct 9) |
| TCG |
A 2014 World Championships No. 1 Trainer Pikachu trophy card graded CGC 9 sold for $292,800 at Goldin, reported Oct 5. Goldin sold the 2012 No. 1 Trainer Pikachu, also CGC 9, for $63,440 on May 18. (Collectibles News, Oct 5 · figoca, May 18) |
| TCG |
Chase Society’s tracker put the 2025 Journey Together booster box at $196 on Oct 8, its first print under $200, down from $205 on Oct 6. The 30th Celebration ETB is $143 (from $148), the booster bundle $70 and the set of ten mini tins $261 (from $285). (Chase Society, Oct 9) |
| TCG |
CGC now grades trading card games full-time at its Hong Kong office instead of shipping them to Sarasota, with no extra fee for qualifying cards. Hong Kong card grading began in May 2024; CGC counts nearly 20 million cards certified since its card service launched in July 2020. (Collectibles News, Oct 9) |
| Cross |
PSA’s active backlog was 8.2 million cards as of Oct 6, down from 9 million on Sept 22. The lower-priced Value tiers stay paused; the new Standard tier costs $59.99. (Sports Collectors Daily, Oct 7) |
| TCG |
Bandai’s OP-18 The Dominance of God reaches English shelves Nov 20 and Japan Nov 21, at $4.99 a pack with 127+1 card types. Saint Gunko and Saint Shamrock get their first cards. (Bandai, read Oct 11) |
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LIVE
OCT 9–22 |
Christie’s anime & manga sale (online) →
About 130 lots, NYC viewing Oct 8–12 · Akira Kaneda cel and Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn cel est. $5,000–7,000 each, a Pokémon series cel est. $2,000–3,000, per The Art Newspaper |
EST $344K–$523K |
STARTS
OCT 15 |
Goldin Pokémon 30th Anniversary auction →
Pre-bids open; the PSA 8 1997 Gold 1st Place Trophy Pikachu, the only copy in PSA’s census, stood at $2,348,500 with premium one day into pre-bidding, per Star City Games (Oct 8) · live through at least Oct 25 |
LEAD LOT $2.35M BID |
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| UPCOMING RELEASES |
DROP DATES |
| OCT 30 |
One Piece Card Game EB-05 Heroines Edition vol. 2 (English): 75+2 types, $4.99 a pack
LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
BANDAI |
| OCT 30 |
Gundam Card Game GD-06 Stardust Trail: 135+8 types, 12-card packs, $4.99
LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
ZZ AND 0083 DEBUT |
| NOV 6 |
Delta Reign (Pokémon TCG, English): ETB, booster bundle, booster box
LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
PRE-ORDERS OPEN |
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| RELEVANT CONTENT |
PODCASTS |
| VIDEO GAMES |
Hobby Speculators Podcast · A Playstation game can sell for $125,000???
The hosts argue graded video games trade below what the size of the gaming audience would suggest, with Stadium Events as their example, a counterpoint to the Pokémon-led top sales in Big News.
LISTEN AT 40:25 → |
| TCG |
NostalgiaNomics · Pokemon Investing MOVES TO MAKE NOW!
The hosts walk through their data on money moving from booster boxes to specialty sets, the shift behind the Journey Together box slipping under $200 in The Tape.
LISTEN AT 8:55 → |
| TCG |
Straw Hat Speculator · One Piece Market Update ($1000+) | October 11
Grayson’s week-end One Piece update covers sealed boxes, cases and singles above $1,000, the shelf that EB-05 and OP-18 land into this fall.
LISTEN AT 0:00 → |
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FIELD NOTE
The census set the multiple. Smaller pop, bigger jump.
Four e-Reader-era cards sold at Fanatics with populations of 13, 19, 84 and 129 at a 10, and their multiples over the last record ran 5.7x, 3.4x, 1.8x and 1.07x in that order. The smaller the census, the bigger the jump, across two sets and four characters. When a whole era re-rates in one auction, the pop report is doing the pricing and the comps are a month behind.
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Disclosure: Links marked eBay are affiliate links: Collector Recon may earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. Collector Recon doesn’t own the items featured and isn’t paid by auction houses or brands for coverage. Figures are from the sources named, checked the day they were reported; not investment advice. You’re receiving this because you subscribed at collectorrecon.xyz. |
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