Pokémon card prices are weird. I’m not the first to say that, and unsurprisingly, I doubt I’ll be the last. SIRs from modern Pokémon TCG sets can go for hundreds, while vintage cards can sell for such high figures that most people could afford a home. Yet, at high-end auctions, prices can get a little weird—this Lugia ex card is proof.
Coming from the 2013 Plasma Storm Pokémon set, Lugia ex #108 has a low PSA 10 population, with only 23 receiving a gem mint grade from the grading service. That’s a 5% rate, which isn’t high, but these cards were fairly common, meaning that, at the time, many went ungraded or were damaged enough during play to receive lower grades.
Currently, the market value, according to Collectr, sits at around £37k for a PSA 10 of this card. That’s not a great indication, because so few sales occur for such a small selection of this card, but it’s a good idea of what to expect. So, having one sell in a Fanatics Collect auction in September for $102,000 is a massive figure. In fact, it’s ridiculous, even by Pokémon TCG standards.
However, the exact same card—the one with the same certification—has now sold for $18,600 on the same auction platform. Is this a sign of the market cooling? Well, possibly, and that could only be a good thing, but the $102,000 sale was also so high that it may have been an attempt to drive up the price. Once again, at auctions like these, they’re out of reach for 99% of collectors.
But considering how high the initial auction was, especially compared to the current market price, it’s no surprise that things have drastically settled. If every card is expensive, eventually so many vintage cards will be limited to the millionaires of the world—how many of them are truly Pokémon fans?
Although I do hope that this is a sign that things will simmer down. It would be nice to be able to walk into a shop and see packs at retail price, or Arceus forbid, below retail. That’s the dream.
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