30th Celebration Reprint Market Effect
Pokemon singles fell 21.6% over ten weeks.
Pokemon's latest English set, ME: 30th Celebration arrived on 16 September 2026, and the thirty cards in its Classic Collection were all cards that already existed. Which leaves collectors with a question worth answering: while everyone was waiting for the reprints, what did the originals do?
We measured it. Every figure below comes from CardBase's own record of completed sales, and the full working is at the bottom of this page.
Everything is Going Down
Pokemon singles had a bad summer across every single era. We've seen losses from 3% all the way to 30% just in the past few months. Part of a larger price move that collectors have felt the entire year.
The Three Eras
−5.4%
Vintage (to 2009) fell
15 weeks to 14 September 2026 · 4,626 products
- Vintage (to 2009)−5.4%
- Mid era (2010 to 2019)−2.7%
- Modern (2020 on)−31.1%
- Vintage (to 2009)
- Mid era (2010 to 2019)
- Modern (2020 on)
The numbers
| Week | Vintage (to 2009) | Mid era (2010 to 2019) | Modern (2020 on) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jun | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| 15 Jun | 100.2 | 101.1 | 99.1 |
| 22 Jun | 103.4 | 99.9 | 99.9 |
| 29 Jun | 101.8 | 101.6 | 98.9 |
| 6 Jul | 100.9 | 100.5 | 98.4 |
| 13 Jul | 102.2 | 101.2 | 97.5 |
| 20 Jul | 102.6 | 103.1 | 95.8 |
| 27 Jul | 102.0 | 100.2 | 94.3 |
| 3 Aug | 101.9 | 100.3 | 92.4 |
| 10 Aug | 97.3 | 100.5 | 77.3 |
| 17 Aug | 97.2 | 98.0 | 73.8 |
| 24 Aug | 94.1 | 96.1 | 68.1 |
| 31 Aug | 96.8 | 100.4 | 68.6 |
| 7 Sep | 93.1 | 97.1 | 63.8 |
| 14 Sep | 94.6 | 97.3 | 68.9 |
Measured from our weekly sales between 8 June 2026 and 14 September 2026. The first 12 weeks of the window were left out: not enough of these products changed hands in them to price the group honestly. The last week was left out too, because it is still being collected. Freak individual sales are left out of the figures automatically.
Modern did the most damage. As a group, cards printed from 2020 on gave up 31.1% in fifteen weeks. Vintage lost 6.1% and the mid era 2.7%. Real falls, but nothing like the same order of event.
That is the market the 30th Celebration originals were sitting in.
30th Classic Collection
The Classic Collection is a selection of cards that The Pokemon Company has decided to reprint within 30th Celebrations.
We took the Classic Collection card by card, found the original printing of each one in the CardBase catalog, and measured those originals as one group against every other Pokemon single we track.
Twenty-nine of the thirty have an original we can price; the thirtieth, Greninja BREAK, does not change hands often enough for us to hold a price on it. Where a card exists in more than one printing (first edition, shadowless, unlimited, reverse holo), every printing is in the group. That comes to 52 individual products.
The originals behind the Classic Collection
−8.0%
The 30th Celebration originals fell
10 weeks to 14 September 2026 · 52 products
- The 30th Celebration originals−8.0%
- The wider Pokemon market−21.6%
- The 30th Celebration originals
- The wider Pokemon market
The numbers
| Week | The 30th Celebration originals | The wider Pokemon market |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| 20 Jul | 102.8 | 99.4 |
| 27 Jul | 111.4 | 98.1 |
| 3 Aug | 98.9 | 96.5 |
| 10 Aug | 111.4 | 85.6 |
| 17 Aug | 105.1 | 82.6 |
| 24 Aug | 107.3 | 77.6 |
| 31 Aug | 104.4 | 78.9 |
| 7 Sep | 105.9 | 74.3 |
| 14 Sep | 92.0 | 78.4 |
Measured from our weekly sales between 13 July 2026 and 14 September 2026. The first 17 weeks of the window were left out: not enough of these products changed hands in them to price the group honestly. The 30th Celebration originals trades far less than what it is compared with: a typical week matched 23 of its products against 4,807 for The wider Pokemon market. Read its line as the rougher one. Freak individual sales are left out of the figures automatically.
Over the same ten weeks, the wider Pokemon market fell 21.6%. The Classic Collection originals fell 8.0%.
Preliminary data showed a 2% increase while drafting this article, but post-release pricing has since changed that narrative. However, they fell less than half as far as the market around them.
Classic Collection vs Actual Classics
The obvious objection is that the Classic Collection is mostly old cards, old cards fell least, and that is the whole finding. However, the subset compared to the cards of their eras shows us a more important distinction.
The thirty cards are spread across all three eras. Fourteen come from sets released before 2010, eleven from 2010 to 2019, and five from 2020 on: Zacian V, Raikou, Mew VMAX, Arceus VSTAR and the gold Magikarp from Paldea Evolved. Modern as a whole fell 31.0%. A group that is one in six modern fell by only 8.0%.
So the reprint list is not just riding vintage's smaller fall. Something is holding up the individual cards on it.
Three of them
The most valuable card on the list, and the one many collectors are chasing after.
A common mid-era banger, with our beloved Rayquaza.
The modern entry.
Every card we measured
| Card | Original printing | Released |
|---|---|---|
| Charizard (4/102) | Base Set | 1999 |
| Pikachu (58/102) | Base Set | 1999 |
| Misty (18/132) | Gym Heroes | 2000 |
| Erika's Jigglypuff (69/132) | Gym Challenge | 2000 |
| Sneasel (25/111) | Neo Genesis | 2000 |
| Shining Celebi (106/105) | Neo Destiny | 2002 |
| Lugia, crystal (149/147) | Aquapolis | 2003 |
| Delcatty (5/109) | EX Ruby & Sapphire | 2003 |
| Dark Tyranitar (19/109) | EX Team Rocket Returns | 2004 |
| Scizor ex (108/115) | EX Unseen Forces | 2005 |
| Metagross, delta species (11/113) | EX Delta Species | 2005 |
| Palkia LV.X (106/106) | Great Encounters | 2008 |
| Uxie (43/146) | Legends Awakened | 2008 |
| Crobat G (47/127) | Platinum | 2009 |
| Gengar Prime (94/102) | Triumphant | 2010 |
| Darkrai & Cresselia LEGEND, top (99/102) | Triumphant | 2010 |
| Darkrai & Cresselia LEGEND, bottom (100/102) | Triumphant | 2010 |
| N (101/101) | Noble Victories | 2011 |
| Rayquaza EX (85/124) | Dragons Exalted | 2012 |
| Genesect EX (11/101) | Plasma Blast | 2013 |
| M Gardevoir EX (106/160) | Primal Clash | 2015 |
| Greninja BREAK (41/122) | BREAKpoint, not measured | 2016 |
| Solgaleo GX (89/149) | Sun & Moon Base Set | 2017 |
| Buzzwole GX (57/111) | Crimson Invasion | 2017 |
| Pikachu & Zekrom GX (33/181) | Team Up | 2019 |
| Zacian V (138/202) | Sword & Shield Base Set | 2020 |
| Raikou (50/185) | Vivid Voltage | 2020 |
| Mew VMAX (114/264) | Fusion Strike | 2021 |
| Arceus VSTAR (123/172) | Brilliant Stars | 2022 |
| Magikarp (203/193) | Paldea Evolved | 2023 |
What we are watching next
The interesting part starts now. Supply of these exact cards has just gone up for the first time in, for some of them, twenty-six years, and attention went up with it. Those two pull in opposite directions, and nobody knows yet which one wins, including us.
