Quick summary (TL;DR)
In 30 seconds
- The 10 SIRs added up to $960 on release day and are at $344 (−64%) today. The Futuristic Rares lost more than 70% since September 17, and that's without counting the pre-sale bubble ($1,000 listed for a Mewtwo that's worth $29 today).
- The cause is mechanical, not demand: very generous pull rates (one SIR every ~20 packs) and the biggest print run in TCG history. There are too many copies, and prices for almost everything are still looking for a floor.
- The Classic Collection is holding up better: −31% overall, and the Charizard only −11%. It's the most expensive card in the set outside the Mew RGB cards, which are still between $3,500 and $4,500 on very few sales.
- Promos crash right when their product ships: the Pikachu ex promos from the UPC fell −54% in the last week, and the UPC comes out today. If you want a promo, wait until its box is on shelves.
- All 30 Pikachus cost about $22, and sealed product is down too (ETB from $173 to $111). In tournaments only Mew ex matters, and that hasn't moved its price.
Today marks seven weeks of 30th Celebration on shelves, and there's finally enough price history to tell the story properly. On September 27 I wrote that the floor still hadn't arrived, and it didn't: the Mewtwo ex Futuristic that was at $72.73 back then is worth $28.95 today. This time I wanted to go past the headline and look at every chase card in the set at three points in time: release day, two weeks later, and yesterday. I put it together from our own price database, which stores TCGPlayer's market price every day, and I checked it against what's been published elsewhere.
Every card in this article comes with its photo, its dated prices, and a button to see it on TCGPlayer. If you're looking for what the set is and what its new rarity means, start with our 30th Celebration guide.
What happened before launch, in short
- February 27, 2026, Pokémon Presents: first teaser of some "pearlescent" Mew and Mewtwo cards, which would later become the Futuristic Rares.
- June 1: full reveal in Japan, with a simultaneous worldwide release, 30 Pikachus by 30 different artists, and the first Classic Collection reprints (Charizard, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX).
- July 15: pre-orders open at Pokémon Center. Queues of up to six hours, CAPTCHA failures, and the Pokémon Center ETB sold out within hours.
- July 25: the first Mew RGB shows up on a Whatnot stream, a secret card that wasn't on any official list.
- August: pre-sale fever. On TCGPlayer the Mewtwo ex Futuristic was listed at $1,000 and the Mew ex Futuristic reached $3,333 listed, although actual sales of that Mew ran from $850 to $1,800. Pre-sale ETBs were reselling for $175–220 on eBay.
- First week of September: Pokémon Center cancels thousands of orders in its crackdown on bots, taking legitimate buyers down with them.
- September 16: it releases worldwide on the same day, a first in TCG history. It enters Standard a few days later: the first Regionals with the set were Brisbane and Frankfurt, on September 26.
Since then the set has been rolling out in waves: Booster Bundle and Mini Tins on October 2, Battle Decks on October 30 and, today, November 6, the Day and Night UPCs, the Ditto Premium Collection, and the Mew and Mewtwo Figure Collections. The tins and the Binder Collection are still to come on December 4. Those dates matter, and you'll see why further down.
How to read the prices. Each card shows its TCGPlayer (Near Mint, USD) price on the dates you see on the card: Sep 17 (first full day on sale) and Sep 30. "At publish" is the Nov 5 price, and "Now" updates live. For the cheap cards I don't have a daily series from day one, so I use our weekly snapshots from Sep 21 and Sep 28; that's why some cards show those dates instead. "Pre-sale (listed)" is an asking price from before the card even existed, not a sale. On each card, the green ▲ or red ▼ shows whether the price went up or down compared with the row above. For the Mew RGB cards I also show "eBay (7d)" in italics as a separate reference. Charts start at 90 days; you can switch them to 30 days or 1 year.
Futuristic Rare: the biggest crash
The set's two stars, illustrated by YOSHIROTTEN, are the ones that deflated the most. It's not just the pre-sale bubble: even using the price from the first day on sale, the Mewtwo ex fell −71% and the Mew ex −74%.
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
Here's what the drop looks like since launch. I left the pre-sale out on purpose: with August's $1,000 and $3,333 listings in there, the rest of the line would be squashed flat against the bottom.
- Mewtwo ex (157)$25.96▼ 75%
- Mew ex (158)$32.14▼ 80%
TCGPlayer market price (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace. Daily where available; earlier, interpolated weekly snapshots.
One detail explains almost all of it: according to community sampling, you get one Futuristic every ~100 packs, and each specific SIR every ~200. In a normal set those numbers are several times higher. Add the largest print run in TCG history on top of that, and there are a huge number of copies looking for a buyer.
The 10 Special Illustration Rares
All of them in the red since release day, no exceptions: between −50% and −70%, with the median card at −61%. Together they went from $960 to $686 in two weeks, and to $344 yesterday.
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
Taken together, the 10 SIRs show a decline with no rebounds worth mentioning:
TCGPlayer market price (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace. Daily where available; earlier, interpolated weekly snapshots.
What stands out most to me is the order: apart from a few small crossovers, the ranking on day one is nearly the same as today. Mew, Gengar, and the Pikachu ex cards are still on top; Salamence and Fuecoco, at the bottom. The market didn't change its mind about which ones are the good ones; it just lowered the price of all of them at once. Jirachi ex held up best during the first two weeks (−11%), but in October it fell in line with the rest.
The Mew RGB cards: the real grail
Three Mews with the same art, each with a red, green, or blue foil as a tribute to Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue, and with "R/RGB", "G/RGB", or "B/RGB" instead of a card number. They're not on the official set list and they come in regular packs; estimates of how many packs it takes range from 1 in 3,200 to 1 in 20,000, none of them official.
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
- Mew R$4,492▼ 25%
- Mew G$3,161▼ 15%
- Mew B$4,264▲ 14%
Since October 10, when all three had sales. With so few sales per month, each jump may be a single sale · TCGPlayer market price (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace. Daily where available; earlier, interpolated weekly snapshots.
They're the only cards in the set that didn't sink: they're down between 3% and 25% from their first TCGPlayer price, and the blue one actually went up. But take that with a grain of salt: only 4 to 12 copies of each sell on TCGPlayer per month, so a couple of sales can move the price by hundreds of dollars. That's why I added the eBay median for the last 7 days to each card (in italics, as a separate reference), which is currently between $3,600 and $4,325. A blue copy sold for about $20,000 on eBay right before launch, but that was peak hype, not today's market.
Classic Collection: the part of the set that holds up best
The 30 reprints of historic cards, from Base Set to Paldea Evolved, come in regular packs (roughly one every 10 packs, and each specific card every ~300). They're the group that held up best: −31% overall, and the median card only −17%. Several even went up during the first two weeks: the full collection went from $1,003 on September 17 to $1,055 on September 30, before dropping to $689.
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
29 cards (N has no price in our catalog) · TCGPlayer market price (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace. Daily where available; earlier, interpolated weekly snapshots.
The Charizard is the most expensive card in the set outside the Mew RGB cards, and it has barely moved (−11%). The Lugia, which became the most expensive card after launch (outside the RGBs) at $297.72 on September 30, did lose half its value, with −20% in the last week alone. The N (Supporter) is missing: it has no photo in our catalog, so I left it out of the gallery; it sits around $14 on TCGPlayer.
Keep one thing in mind about today: every UPC includes a guaranteed Classic Collection pack. With the UPCs hitting stores, more supply of exactly these cards is coming in. If the Classic cards were holding up because of relative scarcity, the next few weeks will be the test.
If you own Classic cards, the Classic Collection page shows live prices for all 30, and in the Collection Tracker you can add them to your 30th Master Set.
Illustration Rare: the deepest drop in percentage terms
The 18 IRs added up to $219 on release day and $53 today: −76%. Here the pre-sale was pure fantasy: Maushold and Galarian Meowth were listed at $145 before launch and are worth $7.30 and $4.38 today.
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
TCGPlayer market price (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace. Daily where available; earlier, interpolated weekly snapshots.
With one IR every ~5 packs, it was only a matter of time. Only Maushold and the Meowth family are still above $4. They're beautiful cards for the binder, but as an investment the market has already delivered its verdict.
The promos: they drop right when their product ships
This is the clearest pattern in the whole set, and it helps explain what's happening today. Each MEP promo comes in a specific product, and its price sinks in the week that product hits stores:
- Victini (MEP 102) and Zeraora (MEP 103) come in the Battle Decks, which came out on October 30. In seven days they fell −59% and −60%.
- Pikachu ex (MEP 107 and 109), Espeon ex (108) and Umbreon ex (110) come in the Day and Night UPCs, which release today. The two Pikachu ex promos lost −54% in the last week.
- Ditto (MEP 106) is the exception: it comes in the Ditto Premium Collection, also out today, and it still went up. My read is that supply simply hasn't reached sellers yet, not that it will hold.
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
- Victini MEP 102$21.29▼ 78%
- Zeraora MEP 103$20.08▼ 80%
- Pikachu ex MEP 107$46.49▼ 88%
- Pikachu ex MEP 109$59.91▼ 80%
Battle Decks: Oct 30 · UPC: Nov 6. Before those dates these are pre-sale prices · TCGPlayer market price (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace. Daily where available; earlier, interpolated weekly snapshots.
The cards are marked "Pre-sale" because promos from October and November products only had asking prices from before they existed: the Zeraora's $99.95 or the Pikachu ex's $400 were bets, not sales. The cheap promos at the end (Tech Sticker, Poster Collection, ex Box and ETB) only have a series starting in early November, so they show yesterday's price.
The practical lesson: if you want a promo, wait until its product is in stores. Before that date you're paying for pre-sale scarcity.
What's happening now: the biggest risers and fallers
Comparing release price with yesterday's (only cards over $3, no promos, for the reasons above), the ones going up are almost all Classic Collection reprints that launched cheap and then repriced:
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
Solgaleo-GX doubled (from $3.59 to $7.44), and Zacian V, Raikou, Uxie, Greninja BREAK and Arceus VSTAR are up between 25% and 63%. I couldn't find any outside explanation for this, so it's an observation from our own data: my hypothesis is that on day one they sold "blind", as minor Classic cards, and then the market adjusted for nostalgia and for how scarce each specific card is (~1 in every 300 packs). Even so, almost all of them dropped in the last week; the push happened in September.
The biggest fallers since launch are the IRs and the Mew ex Futuristic:
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
And over the last seven days, the hit is concentrated in the promos that just came out and in the IRs of the legendary birds. For cards without a daily series, the reference point is our weekly snapshot from October 26:
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
What about sealed? The rise didn't last
In the September article I said sealed product was going up while singles were sinking. That was true for the first week, but it didn't last:
| Product (MSRP) | Sep 17 | Sep 30 | Nov 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ETB ($49.99) | $173 | $158 | $111 (−36%) |
| Pokémon Center ETB ($59.99) | $298 | $318 | $271 (−9%) |
| Booster Bundle ($26.94, released Oct 2) | $120 | $89 | $69 (−42%) |
| Single pack | $16.04 | $14.95 | $11.60 (−28%) |
| UPC Night ($179.99) | $670 | $724 | $430 (−36%) |
(TCGPlayer market price from our daily series. The UPC releases today: until yesterday it was pre-sale.)
Everything is still above MSRP (the ETB sits at 2.2 times its MSRP), but the trend is down and restocks have been frequent. The Pokémon Center ETB is holding up best, because it's the most limited product in the set.
The 30 Pikachus, one by one
The set's hook was guaranteeing one Pikachu per pack, each by a different artist. Lovely for collecting, bad news for speculators: with one in every pack, they're everywhere. Today all 30 together cost about $22, versus ~$61 in the first week. Before launch some were listed at $50; that was never a real price.
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
TCGPlayer market price (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace. Daily where available; earlier, interpolated weekly snapshots.
Shinji Kanda's Pikachu (040) is the only one that breaks away, at $3.17; the rest move between $0.46 and $1.02, with the median at $0.63. According to Bill's Archive, the differences between them depend more on how many copies are listed than on the art. The good news: if you like the idea of completing all 30, it's probably the cheapest and prettiest challenge any recent set has offered.
If you're building the binder, our placeholder generator lets you export the full set as a printable PDF and mark the slot for every Pikachu you're still missing.
The playable cards: what's seeing tournament play
Time to be honest: the competitive impact of 30th Celebration is small. The set is legal in Standard (regulation mark J) and the Classic Collection isn't. In the Limitless TCG tournament database, only one card really shows up:
- Mew ex (066). Its Memory Helix ability lets it use the attacks of your Benched Pokémon, and it only gives up two Prize cards. It's mostly played as a single support copy: that's how it won the Gdańsk Regional (October 31, 1,739 players) inside a Slowking deck. Its best result as the main attacker was 8th place in Louisville (October 10) with a "Mew Box" running 3 Mew ex.
- Unown (072). 40 damage, and if it Knocks Out a Pokémon you take an extra Prize card. It shows up in a handful of Slowking lists and in that Louisville Mew Box.
- Jirachi ex (102). Draws until you have 7 cards in hand for a single Colorless Energy. About 19 lists, almost all of them Basic Box.
- Greninja ex (021). In Japan it won City Leagues in Tokyo and Fukui in October, but in English-card tournaments it barely appears.
- Gengar ex (090), Salamence ex (109), the Pikachu ex cards and Mewtwo ex: lots of buzz during pre-sale and practically zero lists in tournaments. Gengar ex has a fun ability (if it gets Knocked Out, you flip a coin and on heads the attacker goes down too), but for now it's a collector's card.
Prices updated on November 10, 2026 · TCGPlayer via TCGdex
Won the Gdańsk Regional on October 31 · TCGPlayer market price (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace. Daily where available; earlier, interpolated weekly snapshots.
Did that move prices? No. The Mew ex Double Rare went from $7 to $1.72 even though it won a Regional, because you only need one copy and there are tons of them: you get a Double Rare every ~4 packs. The only one that went up (Salamence ex, from $0.39 to $0.58) doesn't see play, so that's just noise on a pennies card. The 30th market is driven by collectors, not players. None of the sources I checked connect a tournament result to a price change.
So, what's going on with the 30th?
Putting it all together, here's my read:
- Prices across the whole set are still looking for a floor. TCGPlayer was still describing it as "still falling" on November 4, and our weekly snapshots agree. There are no signs of a rebound in the chase cards.
- Supply hasn't finished arriving. The UPCs come out today, each with a Classic Collection pack, and the tins and the Binder Collection are still due in December. Every wave so far has pushed its cards' prices down.
- Value is concentrated in very few cards: the Mew RGBs, the Classic Charizard and Lugia, and the Mew and Gengar SIRs. It's the same pattern as the 25th anniversary: in Celebrations (2021), the Classic Charizard fell ~65% and took almost three years to recover, according to TCGinvest.
- For collectors, this is good news. Completing the 30 Pikachus costs about as much as a box of packs, and the SIRs are at a third of their release price. If your goal is to own the set, not to invest, now is a better time than September.
Delta Reign also releases today, and something similar is happening there: in Japan, the star card of the original set fell ~63% from its peak. I broke it down in what prices to expect from Delta Reign. For broader market context, check out crash or correction?, and if you want to know what sets a Futuristic apart from an SIR, see our rarity guide.
Free tool
Build your 30th Master Set, Classic and promos included
In the Collection Tracker you can create a 30th Celebration Master Set that combines the main set, the Classic Collection and the MEP 094–110 promos into a single list, with each part in its own section. You choose what to include (for example, no promos), check off what you own, and see its live value, card by card.
Sources
- Card and sealed prices: our daily TCGPlayer series (Near Mint, USD) via PokéTrace, from August 13 to November 5, 2026, plus our weekly price snapshots for cards without a daily series since launch. The eBay medians for the Mew RGB cards come from the same source.
- External price cross-check: Bill's Archive (launch-to-now prices and promos), TCGinvest, Kotaku, Wargamer and DoubleHolo. They match our data except on day one, when prices were changing by the hour.
- Timeline and products: Insider Gaming, Kotaku, Dexerto and the Bill's Archive product calendar.
- Pull rates: community sampling compiled by Wargamer and Sports Illustrated. None of the figures are official.
- Tournaments: the Limitless TCG database (Louisville and Gdańsk Regionals, Japanese City Leagues), checked on November 6, 2026.
Prices from TCGPlayer (USD) as a global reference; they may vary in your local market. The "At publish" price is historical evidence and is never changed; the "Now" column updates live. Editorial reference, not investment advice.