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December 1st - December 7th, 2025

📋 TLDR

📰 TCG News: GameStop records a $30k PSA 10 Gengar trade-in, Japan reveals more Erika and Pikachu ex cards for Start Deck 100 Battle Collection, and Pokémon Japan offers exchanges for misprinted MEGA Dream ex Mega Attack Rares.

🔢 Card Market Highlights: High-end Pokémon prices stay firm with Burning Shadows boxes around $800–$1k, select Japanese and Chinese sealed softening, and standout sales like charity Fossil Kabuto, premium Pikachu promos, Pikachu Illustrator, and Neo Discovery boxes.

😴 Potential Sleepers: Scarlet & Violet 151 - Poliwhirl #176/165

🏆 Card of the Week: Shaymin #225 is a Pokémon Center 20th Anniversary promo, illustrated by Shoko Nakagawa, one of the hosts of the Pokénchi TV show. The card was handed out in Japan, to customers at Pokémon Centers who said the keyword “Pokénchi!” at the counter. This card beautifully captures Shaymin’s essence as the Gratitude Pokémon who lives in flower patches and can transform ruined land into a lush field of flowers.

📰 TCG News

Note: Some updates may touch on wider Pokémon news beyond the TCG.

🔵 GameStop Sets Record With $30k PSA 10 Gengar Trade-In

GameStop announced a record-setting trade-in at its Grapevine, Texas location, where a customer brought in a fully authenticated PSA 10 Holo Gengar through the GameStop Power Packs program. The card received a fair market valuation of $33,883, and after inspection and verification, GameStop paid out $30,494.70, now the largest single trade-in in the company’s history. (Source: X)

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🔵 More Cards from “Start Deck 100 Battle Collection” Revealed, Including Erika’s Pokemon!

More cards from Japan’s upcoming Start Deck 100 Battle Collection have been shown, including a full Erika-themed Grass line (Oddish through Vileplume ex and Victreebel), Erika’s Tangela, a new Pikachu ex, Mega Audino ex, and refreshed Supporters like Waitress and Boss’s Orders (Corbeau). The decks release in Japan on December 19, with many of these cards expected to roll into the Ascended Heroes set in January. (Source: PokéBeach)

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🔵 Japan Offers Fix For Defective MEGA Dream ex Mega Cards

After reports that some Mega Attack Rares from MEGA Dream ex were printed with the wrong foil texture, Pokémon Japan has acknowledged the issue and opened an “Individual Card Exchange” option for affected copies. The misprint uses the texture pattern from the Traditional Chinese version, causing incorrect textured cutouts around the Japanese lettering. Collectors who submit a ticket can swap their misprinted cards for corrected versions, a level of direct card-for-card replacement that is still not seen in most international markets. (Source: PokéBeach)

📈 Card Trends

Source: Price data provided by TCGPlayer.com and chart visual provided by TCGMarketNews.com (which sources data from TCGPlayer).

Top Gains 🔼

Top Losses 🔽

Note: Card Trends are ranked/based on 7-day percentage changes with minimum sales volume and basic price filters to cut bulk noise. Outliers and obvious bad listings are filtered when possible, but thin/high-end card markets mean single sales can still swing prices.

🔢 Card Market Highlights

📦 Sealed Product Market Highlights

🔵 Burning Shadows Booster Box Sells for ~$830

​Listing​

The top chases of Burning Shadows are the Charizard GX #150 (PSA 10 ~$4.6k), Darkrai GX #88a (PSA 10 ~$1k), and Acerola #142 (PSA 10 ~$850). Booster box prices have come down from ~$1.3k in September to ~$800-$1k. When looking at raw card prices, the most expensive is still the Charizard GX #150 around $550 in NM condition. It hasn’t outpaced the cost of the booster box yet suggesting that Burning Shadows is slowly becoming more scarce.

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🔵 Lot of 2 Japanese B&W Dragon Selection & Spiral Force Booster Bundles Sells for ~$3k

​Listing​

The top chase cards of Dragon Selection (counterpart to English Dragon Vault) are the Rayquaza #11, Dragonite #5, and Latias #9 / Latios #10 (all PSA 10 ~$100). PSA 10 prices are quite low and populations are typically under 100 for the top chases. B&W era cards also have a unique horizontal line holo texture adding to the appeal. Price data is extremely limited but for reference a 1st edition version of this box sold for $3.3k in July 2025.

Spiral Force (Japanese counterpart to Plasma Freeze) introduces additional Team Plasma Pokémon like Deoxys EX #53 and Eon Pokémon Latios EX #54 (both PSA 10 ~$1k). These two are also the top chase cards of the set. Similarly, price data is extremely limited for this set but not far off from Dragon Selection.

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🔵 Chinese Gem Pack Volume 3 Booster Bundle Case Sells for ~$800

​Listing - One case contains 20 booster bundles. The above image is of a single booster bundle.

Chinese Gem Pack Volume 3 contains some reprints from other sets alongside most notably some Chinese exclusives including Gengar #307 (PSA 10 ~$600), Cubone #407 (PSA 10 ~$527), Meowth #207 (PSA 10 ~$240), and more. Gem Pack Volume 3 was released at the end of September and since then prices for sealed cases have come down from ~$2k.

The Chinese market overall has come down quite significantly which leaves room to continue climbing again. For reference, the highly anticipated Pikachu Gengar from Chinese 151 Collect for example has come down from ~$4k to ~$1.5k in a PSA 10 in the past 6 months.
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💎 Singles & Graded Cards Highlights

🔵 1st Edition Fossil Kabuto Sells for $51.1k to Benefit St. Jude

​Listing - currently redirects to a separate listing but item number is 376753063977

Kabuto King, a now well known Kabuto-focused collector, just turned that attention into a charity headline. Kabuto King auctioned a signed 1st Edition Fossil Kabuto on eBay, with eBay waiving fees and the card closing at $51.1k, all going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Kabuto King has said they will publicly share proof of buyer payment, PSA authentication, and the final donation receipt, turning a hoard project into a feel good moment for the wider hobby (some proof has already been shared via Kabuto King’s social media profile.
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🔵 PSA 10 Pretend Team Skull Pikachu Sells for $6.5k

​Listing​

As the market for cards as a whole has corrected, even high end cards like Poncho cards that have historically held price very strongly have also seen a big correction. Generally speaking, PSA 10 sales for Poncho cards are slightly more common than raw sales but prices have come down in the past couple months from about $8k.

Pretend Gyarados and Magikarp have also seen some sales in a similar range. A PSA 10 copy of Mario Pikachu even sold for $13k this week from highs of ~$18k although it's not clear how long these dips will last for.
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🔵 PSA 10 Facing A New Trail Acerola Sells for $4k

​Listing​

Facing A New Trail is the Japanese counterpart of the Burning Shadows set. The equivalent Acerola #142 from Burning Shadows has come down a bit from $1k when I wrote about it in the September 22nd report. Generally, and depending on the set, some cards can actually be harder to pull in Japanese than English even with guaranteed hit rates for the former.

On top of that, trainer cards are typically much more popular with Japanese collectors. With that being said this card has also come down a bit from a high of ~$4.7k in a PSA 10 in July.

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🕰️ Vintage & Niche Market Highlights

🔵 PSA 8.5 Pikachu Illustrator Sells for $500k

​Listing​

Originally awarded to winners of CoroCoro Comic illustration contests in 1998, Pikachu Illustrator is a Japanese promo with about 39 copies officially awarded and roughly 40–41 believed to exist in total. It also holds the record for the most expensive Pokémon card ever, after a PSA 10 copy sold for $5.275 million in a 2021 private sale recognized by Guinness.
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🔵 PSA 10 Natta Wake Birthday Pikachu Sells for $12k

​Listing​

Going back in time a bit before this sale, a PSA 10 copy of this card sold for ~$3.1k in December 2024.

Printed in 2001 as the bonus card for Kagemaru Himeno’s manga Natta Wake Vol. 6 (How I Became a Pokémon Card), this Birthday Pikachu is a newly illustrated take on her original 1998 “birthday” design, keeping the blank name line and classic card frame rather than simply reusing the old artwork.

From the November 17th report, the original Pikachu Birthday White Star 2nd Anniversary promo sold for $7.8k that week which is fitting into a broader pattern of the birthday Pikachu cards moving up steadily.

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🔵 1st Edition Neo Discovery Booster Box Sells for ~$35.6k

​Listing​

The top chases of this set are the original Moonbreon (Umbreon #13 - most recently sold for $20k in a PSA 10) and Yanma #17 (PSA 10 ~$9k). One recent sale from this year was for ~$27.2k January of this year. Because these boxes are scarce there is no solid trendline but with each sale the price has been jumping several thousand at a time. Nearly two years ago in January 2024 there was one sale for $18.1k. In November 2021 a box sold for $9.6k.

😴 Potential Sleepers

Scarlet & Violet 151 - Poliwhirl #176/165

PSA 10 - 4114 pop / 12252 total - $130 average

Ungraded - $24 average for near mint condition

Now that the 151 expansion has been released for over 2 years now, most of the popular cards from the set have had time to settle with the price range. 151 has some of the most underrated full art cards. While the starter Pokémon dominate most of the top spots in price, this Poliwhirl card is still very underrated for its art. Raw prices have been increasing for NM copies from about $15 to $24 over the past 6 months although it hasn’t been steady and with some dips.

Naturally, PSA 10 prices have increased overall going from about $100 in June to a peak of near $200 in September/October before coming down to its current price point.

📚 Educational Commentary – Collector’s Corner

I’m just getting back into Pokémon, where’s a good place to start without spending a ton of money?

If you are easing back in, the simplest starting point is to pick one lane and keep it small at first. That could be a favorite Pokémon, a single modern set you like the look of, or even just “cards under $5 with art I enjoy.” A basic binder, some cheap nine pocket pages, and a short wish list will get you much further than random impulse packs.

For a lot of newer or returning collectors, buying singles of the cards you actually want ends up cheaper and more satisfying than chasing them through sealed products. You still get the fun of building a page or a theme, but you are not relying on luck.

It also helps to set a clear budget before you start, even if it is something like “I spend $20–30 a month on cards, max.” From there, you can mix in the occasional pack when you want the opening experience, and fill the rest of your budget with targeted singles.

Take your time, learn what you actually enjoy holding in your hand, and do not worry about keeping up with every new release (and the past couple of years in Pokémon have been insane with the amount of set releases). If you build slowly around the cards that make you smile, you will usually make fewer rushed purchases and the hobby stays fun instead of stressful.

🫐 Berries For Thought

Rank these three:

• Celebrations
• 151 Expansion
• Paldean Fates

Share your thoughts by replying to this email! (I read all of them 🙂)

Questions or feedback? Send a message to news@luckyeggreport.com 🥚.

Note: Sold listing links sometimes redirect to active listings after some time, but should still be discoverable by searching for the listings manually.

Chart Source: TCGPlayer, TCGMarketNews