Seasonality: what each month has done to card prices
Take every English card worth $3 or more, measure its price from the 1st of a month to the 1st of the next, and ask what the card in the middle did. December is the strongest month, the median card +3.6% on average and up in 5 of 5 years. May is the weakest at −0.1%. Across all 67 months the typical month is +0.7%.
The median card, month by month · each cell is one month of one year
| Month | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Average | Years up | Cards up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0.0% | 0.0% | −0.5% | −1.3% | +0.6% | +1.9% | +0.1% | 2/6 | 46% |
| February | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | +2.6% | +4.6% | +1.2% | 2/6 | 51% |
| March | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | +2.2% | +4.4% | +1.1% | 2/6 | 50% |
| April | 0.0% | +0.9% | 0.0% | 0.0% | +0.5% | +5.5% | +1.2% | 3/6 | 51% |
| May | −0.1% | −0.1% | −0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — | −0.1% | 0/5 | 43% |
| June | 0.0% | −0.8% | −0.4% | −0.2% | +1.5% | — | 0.0% | 1/5 | 45% |
| July | −0.2% | 0.0% | −0.5% | −1.0% | +0.6% | +1.4% | 0.0% | 2/6 | 46% |
| August | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | +1.9% | +1.0% | +0.5% | 2/6 | 48% |
| September | 0.0% | 0.0% | −0.3% | +0.5% | +1.1% | +0.8% | +0.4% | 3/6 | 49% |
| October | 0.0% | −0.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% | +0.4% | — | +0.1% | 1/5 | 48% |
| November | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | +0.6% | +0.6% | — | +0.2% | 2/5 | 48% |
| December | +0.8% | +3.9% | +2.6% | +8.6% | +2.1% | — | +3.6% | 5/5 | 59% |
The median is the card in the middle of the pack, so one Charizard cannot move it. “Cards up” is the share of cards that rose at all, averaged over the years. A zero in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024is a true reading: in those years the typical card's monthly price did not change at all, because most of the catalogue traded too thinly for its recorded price to move month to month; the value-weighted table below carries the information for those years.
The value-weighted basket · the same months, weighted by what each card was worth
| Month | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −7.8% | +0.4% | −1.5% | −0.8% | +3.2% | +2.9% | 4,877 |
| February | +1.1% | −2.6% | +2.2% | +1.1% | +6.0% | +5.9% | 5,075 |
| March | −4.3% | +1.4% | −0.1% | +3.4% | +5.9% | +7.1% | 5,160 |
| April | −2.8% | +1.7% | +1.7% | +3.1% | +4.4% | +7.6% | 5,195 |
| May | −5.3% | −1.1% | −0.8% | −0.5% | +2.0% | — | 4,974 |
| June | −1.4% | −3.6% | −0.8% | +0.3% | +5.4% | — | 4,960 |
| July | −2.6% | −0.2% | −2.6% | −1.4% | +4.7% | +7.1% | 5,285 |
| August | −2.7% | 0.0% | +0.3% | −0.3% | +11.0% | +10.7% | 5,383 |
| September | −1.3% | −2.3% | −1.2% | +3.4% | +2.6% | +12.6% | 5,433 |
| October | −1.3% | −1.6% | +0.1% | +2.3% | −0.2% | — | 5,048 |
| November | +0.5% | −1.7% | +0.6% | +3.4% | +2.4% | — | 5,144 |
| December | −0.8% | +3.2% | +2.0% | +7.6% | +2.6% | — | 5,161 |
Weighted by price, the expensive cards speak loudest: this is closer to what a collection's value did than to what a card did. Read the two tables together; a month that is green in both was broad, a month green here and flat above was carried by the top.
By era · the median card of each era, averaged over the years
| Month | Vintage (1999–2003) | Classic (2004–2010) | Modern (2011–2019) | Current (2020–) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −0.2% | +0.7% | 0.0% | −2.0% |
| February | +1.2% | +1.3% | +1.3% | −1.0% |
| March | +1.0% | +1.2% | +1.4% | −0.5% |
| April | +1.0% | +0.9% | +1.4% | +2.0% |
| May | −1.3% | +0.3% | +0.4% | −3.9% |
| June | −0.3% | +0.7% | +0.1% | −3.3% |
| July | +0.5% | +0.9% | +0.3% | −2.9% |
| August | +0.8% | +1.0% | +0.7% | −1.3% |
| September | +0.8% | +1.0% | +0.6% | −1.0% |
| October | +1.4% | +1.3% | +0.6% | −3.5% |
| November | +0.8% | +0.6% | +0.4% | −1.4% |
| December | +6.2% | +1.4% | +4.0% | +4.2% |
An era is the card's set's release year: Vintage 1999–2003, Classic 2004–2010, Modern 2011–2019, Current 2020 on. Current-era cards include everything still being printed, whose prices fall as supply arrives, which is why that column runs red in most months: it is a product cycle, not a season.
For media
Free to cite · CC-BY 4.0- Updated
- RefreshesMonthly, after each month closes
- SourceCardTrack's restated raw price series (first-of-month readings since December 2020, daily since 29 August 2026), one card at a time.
Source: CardTrack, Pokémon card price seasonality, 24 October 2026. https://cardtrack.com/data/seasonalityCharts and tables may be reproduced with the attribution above under CC-BY 4.0. How the numbers are built: methodology. Press enquiries, corrections and custom cuts of the data: jd@cardtrack.com. CardTrack is a market measure, not investment advice.
Method: English cards with a raw price of at least $3 on the 1st of the month and the 1st of the next, on the restated series the card charts draw; moves beyond ±250% left out; a month with fewer than 1,000 cards is left out.For each month of each year: the median card return, the value-weighted basket return (each card weighted by its price on the 1st), and the share of cards that rose. For each calendar month across the years: the average of its yearly medians, how many of those years were positive, and the same by era. Prices are the same ones the card pages show, restated across changes in our pricing method so a change of method never reads as a month's move. Past months describe what happened; they are not a forecast. Market measures, not investment advice. More data →