Pokémon Card Market Report — October 2026
Pikachu (Black & White) led the Pokémon card market, up 87.3% over the past 30 days.
CardTrack's monthly read on the Pokémon card market, built from live blended values across 4,363 tracked cards. Movement is each card's change vs the previous month's close.
The market, in plain English
October was one of those months where the headline number undersells the drama underneath it. Across the 4,363 cards we track for Pokémon prices, the CardTrack Pokémon Index crept up just 3.3% over the past 30 days — a perfectly respectable gain, but nothing that explains the chaos going on card by card. The standout story is the Pikachu from Black & White, which jumped 87.3% to $128, while Latias & Latios-GX from Team Up put in real dollar terms its own fireworks, climbing 86.5% to $3,914. Yveltal-GX wasn't far behind at +86%. But for every riser there was a card going the other way just as hard — the Kyogre ex promo lost 84.3% of its value, and older names like Expedition's Poliwrath and the HeartGold & SoulSilver Ninetales both gave back 70%-plus. This is a market where the average is calm but the individual stories are anything but.
Against the rest of the trading card world, Pokémon held the middle of the pack. Disney Lorcana was the real winner this month at +4.2%, edging out Pokémon's 3.3%, while Magic: The Gathering added a steadier 1.8% and Yu-Gi-Oh! barely moved at +0.5%. One Piece was the only card game in the red, slipping 0.4%. Nothing here looks like a bubble or a crash — just a hobby that's grinding forward in fits and starts, with Lorcana's newer, scarcer pulls giving it a bit more juice than the more mature Pokémon market.
Stack that against other places people put their money and the picture gets more interesting. Bitcoin ran hot at +9.3%, the S&P 500 added a solid 2%, and gold actually lost ground, down 2.9%. So cardboard beat the stock market and trounced gold this month, even if it couldn't keep pace with crypto's usual volatility. For a hobby that skeptics still like to call a fad, quietly outperforming gold is worth a moment's pause.
None of this changes the long game. The cards making headlines today — whether they're climbing like Pikachu or sliding like Kyogre ex — are reminders that this market rewards patience over panic. If you want to see where the real money sits, the most valuable Pokémon cards and the rankings on the CardTrack 100 are worth a scroll before you make your next move. Quiet months like this one tend to be the calm before the next big swing — keep your watchlist close.
📈 Top 10 risers
| # | Card | Value | 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $128PSA 10 $6,000📍 Last sold $140 Raw · 27 Jun | +87.3% | |
| 2 | $3,914PSA 10 $15,650📍 Last sold $750 Raw · 27 Jun | +86.5% | |
| 3 | $56PSA 10 $451 | +86.0% | |
| 4 | $120PSA 10 $1,603📍 Last sold $42 Raw · 9 Aug · 12 sales/90d | +84.3% | |
| 5 | $111PSA 10 $249 | +79.8% | |
| 6 | $74PSA 10 $52,800📍 Last sold $20 Raw · 27 Jun | +78.6% | |
| 7 | $1,132PSA 10 $30,000📍 Last sold $330 Raw · 27 Jun | +71.0% | |
| 8 | $1,894PSA 10 $3,782📍 Last sold $180 Raw · 28 Jun · 1 sales/90d | +70.9% | |
| 9 | $129PSA 10 $35,655📍 Last sold $50 Raw · 23 Jun | +69.0% | |
| 10 | $7,438PSA 10 $106,514📍 Last sold $5,400 Raw · 25 Aug · 11 sales/90d | +65.3% |
📉 Top 10 fallers
| # | Card | Value | 30d |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $39PSA 10 $216,000 | -84.3% | |
| 2 | $45PSA 10 $156,000 | -72.3% | |
| 3 | $34 | -70.7% | |
| 4 | $71PSA 10 $935 | -69.9% | |
| 5 | $70 | -67.5% | |
| 6 | $551PSA 10 $14,900📍 Last sold $550 PSA 2 · 24 Jun | -66.7% | |
| 7 | $33PSA 10 $9,999📍 Last sold $28 Raw · 7 Aug · 3 sales/90d | -59.0% | |
| 8 | $112PSA 10 $12,000📍 Last sold $465 PSA 8 · 23 Jun | -55.5% | |
| 9 | $3,583PSA 10 $32,790📍 Last sold $2,415 Raw · 29 Aug · 12 sales/90d | -52.6% | |
| 10 | $32PSA 10 $250 | -50.7% |
💵 Biggest dollar movers
| # | Card | Value | $ move | 30d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,583PSA 10 $32,790📍 Last sold $2,415 Raw · 29 Aug · 12 sales/90d | −$3,976 | -52.6% | |
| 2 | $7,438PSA 10 $106,514📍 Last sold $5,400 Raw · 25 Aug · 11 sales/90d | +$2,938 | +65.3% | |
| 3 | $6,330PSA 10 $114,000📍 Last sold $4,699 CGC 4 · 30 Aug · 11 sales/90d | +$2,090 | +49.3% | |
| 4 | $3,914PSA 10 $15,650📍 Last sold $750 Raw · 27 Jun | +$1,815 | +86.5% | |
| 5 | $551PSA 10 $14,900📍 Last sold $550 PSA 2 · 24 Jun | −$1,104 | -66.7% | |
| 6 | $3,496PSA 10 $32,800📍 Last sold $4,750 PSA 5 · 28 Aug · 12 sales/90d | +$891 | +34.2% | |
| 7 | $1,894PSA 10 $3,782📍 Last sold $180 Raw · 28 Jun · 1 sales/90d | +$786 | +70.9% | |
| 8 | $992PSA 10 $95,100📍 Last sold $467 Raw · 30 Aug · 12 sales/90d | −$585 | -37.1% | |
| 9 | $2,401PSA 10 $4,050📍 Last sold $4,400 PSA 10 · 29 Jun | −$559 | -18.9% | |
| 10 | $1,132PSA 10 $30,000📍 Last sold $330 Raw · 27 Jun | +$470 | +71.0% |
🏆 PSA 10 premium leaders
Biggest raw → PSA 10 multipliers — where grading adds the most. See the full Grading ROI index →
| # | Card | Raw | PSA 10 | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $42 | $1,674 | 40× | |
| 2 | $188 | $7,487 | 39.7× | |
| 3 | $28 | $1,100 | 39.7× | |
| 4 | $94 | $3,720 | 39.7× | |
| 5 | $101 | $4,000 | 39.5× | |
| 6 | $1,016 | $40,123 | 39.5× | |
| 7 | $98 | $3,828 | 39.2× | |
| 8 | $102 | $4,000 | 39.2× | |
| 9 | $114 | $4,440 | 39× | |
| 10 | $26 | $1,000 | 38.9× |
💎 Grading ROI spotlight
Where grading pays off most — the PSA 10 best case beside the expected return once every grade is weighted by its gem rate, after cost. Full Grading ROI index →
| # | Card | Gem rate | Best case | Expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4% | +$303,749 | +$41,387 | |
| 2 | 3.3% | +$280,011 | +$30,823 | |
| 3 | 1.6% | +$327,456 | +$21,288 | |
| 4 | 2% | +$457,024 | +$20,011 | |
| 5 | 3.1% | +$256,097 | +$19,229 | |
| 6 | 8.4% | +$117,178 | +$16,288 | |
| 7 | 3.5% | +$184,648 | +$16,241 | |
| 8 | 15.2% | +$84,942 | +$14,094 |
📦 Sealed product watch
| Product | Price | 30d |
|---|---|---|
| $717 | +91.1% | |
| $280 | +60.0% | |
| $112 | +47.6% | |
| $249 | +35.8% | |
| $200 | +34.7% | |
| $567 | -17.2% | |
| $1,515 | -16.3% | |
| $489 | -14.2% | |
| $204 | -14.1% | |
| $1,621 | -13.5% |
Reading the October 2026 numbers
The CardTrack Index reads 107.8 this edition. That figure compares totals: the 4,363 cards in this basket are worth 7.8% more in total than the 4,493 cards in the September 2026 report's basket were. The +3.3% beside it is a different measure: the value-weighted average of each card's own move since that snapshot, leaving out any move beyond ±90%. The two agree to within 4.5 points this edition, so either one gives the same picture of how CardTrack's values moved.
Read the index as a measurement of CardTrack's own values, not as a market return. Both snapshots are blended prices, so when CardTrack changes how a price is computed, every card priced that way moves between editions without a copy changing hands. Even a reading as small as +3.3% belongs next to the movers above, not in a sentence about where the market went. The daily CardTrack 100 marks its own method steps, and the way a blended price is built is set out in how CardTrack prices cards.
Vintage here means cards from sets released before 2003 (496 cards this edition); modern chase means alt-art, illustration, special illustration, secret, rainbow, hyper and V-era ultra rarities (1,623 cards). Modern chase led by 0.6 points, +0.0% against -0.6% for vintage. They moved in opposite directions, which is the case where the gap between them says the most. The vintage basket is the smaller of the two, so a handful of expensive cards carry more of its average.
Pikachu from Black & White tops the risers at +87.3%, now $128. 4 of the 10 risers moved 80% or more, close to the ±90% line beyond which a move is treated as bad data (10 cards crossed it this edition and were set aside). A move that near the cut-off deserves the same suspicion: open the card page and check the sales before reading it as demand. Of the 10, 1 is from sets released before 2003. The daily movers board shows the same kind of list updated every day rather than once a month.
At the other end, Kyogre ex (Nintendo Black Star Promos) fell 84.3% to $39. 2 of the fallers are Black Star promos; the rest come from booster sets. Percentages flatter cheap cards, so the dollar table ranks by the size of the move in money: Treecko ☆ (Team Rocket Returns) moved −$3,976 to $3,583. 6 of the biggest dollar moves were rises and 4 were falls.
The PSA 10 premium table divides a card's PSA 10 price by its raw price and only considers multiples between 2× and 40×, which is why this edition's leaders sit between 38.9× and 40×. Aerodactyl (Legend Maker) leads at 40×: $42 raw against $1,674 in a PSA 10. A big multiple says a gem copy is scarce next to raw ones; it says nothing about your chance of grading one, which is what the gem rate measures. The grading spotlight weighs that chance in. For Gliscor LV.X (Legends Awakened) the best case after about $8,139 of grading and shipping cost is +$303,749, but only 4% of the copies in PSA's population report are 10s, so the expected result, valuing a PSA 9 at 40% of a PSA 10 and anything lower at the raw price, is +$41,387.
Supreme Victors Booster Pack leads the sealed table at +91.1%, priced at $717, while Base Set Theme Deck - "Overgrowth" is the weakest at -17.2%. Sealed moves are each product's 30-day price change when the edition was built, not a month-over-month snapshot like the cards; current prices are on the sealed Pokémon products pages.
The basket went from 4,493 tracked cards in September 2026 to 4,363 in October 2026. This report samples one snapshot a month; to follow a single card between editions, open its card page, where the price history is daily. Every figure above is in the JSON download below under the same free-to-cite terms, and earlier editions are in the Pokémon market report archive.
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Pokémon Card Market Report — October 2026. CardTrack, 1 October 2026. https://cardtrack.com/pokemon/reports/pokemon-card-market-report-2026-10<iframe src="https://cardtrack.com/embed/cardtrack-index" width="100%" height="240" style="border:0;border-radius:12px" title="CardTrack Pokémon Index"></iframe>
<p style="font:12px sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://cardtrack.com/pokemon/reports/pokemon-card-market-report-2026-10">CardTrack Pokémon Card Market Report</a></p><iframe src="https://cardtrack.com/embed/report?id=2026-10" width="100%" height="300" style="border:0;border-radius:12px" title="CardTrack Pokémon market report — October 2026"></iframe>Frequently asked questions
What is the CardTrack Index?
The CardTrack Index tracks the value of a basket of 4,363 liquid Pokémon cards, with sub-indices for Vintage (pre-2003), Modern chase and Graded (PSA 10). This edition it stands at 107.8, +3.3% over the past 30d.
Why are some big movers excluded?
Movers need a minimum value (≥ $30) and at least three contributing marketplaces, and any move beyond ±90% is treated as bad data rather than a real price change — 10 cards were excluded and flagged for review this edition.
Is vintage or modern doing better right now?
This edition, Vintage (pre-2003) moved -0.6% and Modern chase moved +0.0% over the past 30d.
Is a rising CardTrack Index a reason to buy Pokémon cards?
No. The index compares two snapshots of CardTrack's blended values, so it moves when prices move and also when CardTrack changes how a price is computed; this edition's +3.3% is a reading of those values, not a forecast. It describes where CardTrack's prices sat when the edition was built, not where they are going, and nothing in this report is financial advice.
How is the PSA 10 premium calculated?
It is a card's PSA 10 price divided by its raw (ungraded) price, and the table only considers multiples from 2× to 40×. This edition Aerodactyl (Legend Maker) leads at 40×, $42 raw against $1,674 in a PSA 10. The multiple ignores grading cost and the odds of a 10, which the grading spotlight accounts for.
Methodology
The CardTrack Index tracks the value of a basket of liquid Pokémon cards, with sub-indices for Vintage (pre-2003), Modern chase (alt-arts, illustration/secret/rainbow rares) and Graded (PSA 10). Blended from eBay sold results, Fanatics auctions, TCGplayer and Cardmarket, updated daily. To avoid noise, movers require a minimum value (≥ $30), at least three contributing marketplaces, and any implausible move (greater than ±90%) is excluded and flagged for review. This is market data, not financial advice — prices can move quickly.