Sun & Moon ETB Bundle Sells $6.2k ☀️, Lot of 71 PSA 10 Chinese Captain Pikachu Sells $47.9k ⚓️, Legendary Treasures Uncut Sheet Sells $12k 🥶, Silver Tempest Rayquaza Has Takeoff Potential 🐲

📋 TLDR

The Pokémon market this week saw strong activity across sealed Sun & Moon, high-end graded singles, and niche collectibles. A $6.2k Sun & Moon ETB bundle highlighted continued demand for sealed products from that era, while Brilliant Stars and Silver Tempest sales point to sets with undervalued chases still gaining traction. Graded markets were led by a $47.9k lot of Chinese Captain Pikachu PSA 10s, a $7k PSA 10 Platinum Supreme Victors Garchomp, and unique sales like the $2.6k Lugia Legends pair.

In vintage and niche, a $12k Legendary Treasures uncut sheet and a $12.6k Japanese Vending Series III box continues to highlight the market’s appetite for rare formats, while a Gold Star Torchic jumped from $20k to $28k within a month. Altogether, collectors continue to show conviction in both modern sealed prestige items and historically scarce Japanese exclusives, with some modern cards like Rayquaza TG20 positioned as potential future movers.

📦 Sealed Product Market Highlights

🔵 Sun & Moon ETB bundle collection sells for $6.2k

Listing - best offer accepted from $6.4k list price

This bundle features a collection of 12 ETBs from the Sun & Moon era. With the somewhat recent popularity of sealed Sun & Moon, I felt like this prompted a closer look at how each Elite Trainer Box from this era is performing on the secondary market. Below is a breakdown of the most recent average prices for each ETB included in the lot. (I'm mainly averaging based on sales over the past couple weeks to a month):

If bought individually at the average price this would put the total at around $5.66k. This makes the $6.2k sale price a slight premium but still a solid investment given 2025’s inflated sealed market. Demand for Sun & Moon in particular still seems to remain insatiable, especially for high-rarity ETBs like Cosmic Eclipse (which contains some pretty rare and sought after Tag Team chase cards) and Shining Legends, and limited supply continues pushing prices upward. The price data for some of these ETBs spanning the past couple months was actually quite limited. Collectors still clearly view sealed Sun & Moon ETBs as prestige items with staying power, making this 12-box lot a meaningful opportunity in today’s market (although not every single one of these sets necessarily has highly desirable chase cards).

🔵 Brilliant Stars booster box sells for $475

Listing

The top chases from this set are the Charizard V 154, Mimikyu V TG16, Umbreon VMAX TG23, Arceus V 166, and other Eevelution cards.

Brilliant Stars booster boxes saw a huge jump in value in may from around a $250 average to a current $430 average. This set is still widely seen as underrated by the community and has some really solid headliner cards that have continued to go under the radar even now with the big jump. Deviating slightly from the numbers, the Charizard V 154 in particular weaves a very cool narrative in the Charizard vs Venusaur showdown with two other cards: Charizard XY 276 Promo and Charizard Sword Shield 260 Promo. Although the XY promo has exploded significantly in value, 154 and 260 are still incredibly solid pickups at a decent price even in a PSA 10 (around $650 and $350 in a PSA 10 respectively).

It's still speculation ultimately, but the other cards in this set namely the Arceus, Mimikyu, and Eevelutions are still underrated in my opinion and have significant upside.

🔵 Sword & Shield Silver Tempest booster box sells for $3.11k

Listing

The top chases in Silver Tempest are the Lugia V Alternate Art and the Trainer Gallery Rayquaza VMAX. Lugia V Alternate has held strong value, with recent listings crossing the $1k line in a PSA 10 in some cases. The Trainer Gallery Rayquaza VMAX has also seen rising interest among collectors.

Silver Tempest booster box sales are around $350 to $400 within the past two weeks (the $300 mark was crossed around May/June). Now many enthusiasts agree that the Lugia V is carrying this set as the sole chase which isn’t wrong just looking at the data. With that being said, other cards in this set, in particular the Rayquaza VMAX TG, is still a massively underrated (again in my opinion) card for the simple fact that it features cool Rayquaza artwork albeit in a relatively high pop PSA 10 wise (roughly 10k).

With a solid chase card (even if it's the only one at the moment) and eventual scarcity, Silver Tempest is still at a solid price point to pick up at the current and arguably low end while it continues to climb.

💎 Singles & Graded Cards Highlights

🔵 PSA 10 Obsidian Flames Pokemon Center ETB Promo Charmander sells for $2k

Listing

The $2k sale of this PSA 10 Charmander Promo (population of 608) from Obsidian Flames continues to highlight the desire for exclusivity in this case in the form of the Pokemon Center stamp. These stamped cards are only available on Promo cards included in the Elite Trainer Box sold at the Pokemon Center which has its own stamp on the box as well.

For comparison, the non stamped version of this card currently goes for around $250-$300 in a PSA 10 with a population of 8874. Now the population of the stamped version is something to consider as well with regards to its investability. Although this is just a guess its possible that no one wants to grade the non stamped version when it doesn’t have nearly as much upside as the stamped version assuming it even grades a 10. One question is how much more upside does this card still have?

On a similar note for a cheaper alternative that could still have room to grow, the Pokemon Center stamped Snorlax Promo from the 151 ETB has a pop of around 1386 in a PSA 10 and is close to crossing the $1k mark.

🔵 PSA 10 Japanese sequential Lugia Legends pair sells for $2600

Listing - Best offer accepted from $2.92k list price

Legend cards were introduced during the HeartGold and SoulSilver era as a unique mechanic that required pairing two separate halves into play to form a single powerful Pokémon. In Japan these cards were printed in a 1st edition and unlimited run. For comparison, the top half in a 1st edition vs unlimited has a PSA 10 pop of 838 vs 68. The bottom half in a 1st edition vs unlimited has a PSA 10 pop of 750 vs 70.

There are some cases like with this sale where the unlimited run is generally more desirable. In this particular case the unlimited edition of not only this Lugia card but also the Entei & Raikou, Suicune & Entei, and Palkia & Dialga are unlimited edition cards, which were limited to 5000 sets. Now despite the fact that English cards generally hold their value better, this is one instance where I would argue the Japanese versions are far more valuable and have better growth potential.

These Legends cards were later expanded to other legendary Pokemon including the legendary Johto Dogs as well as the Hoenn legendaries just to name a few. In my opinion Legends cards are still very underrated for their uniqueness and exclusivity at least in Japanese. But even in English the PSA 10 pops are very scarce.

🔵 PSA 10 Platinum Supreme Victors Garchomp sells $7k

Listing - Best offer accepted from $9.99k list price

This Garchomp has a population of 43 in a PSA 10. What stands out about this set and maybe applies to some other English sets is that across the entire set, the total population of cards in a PSA 10 is 1825. Among the top chase cards of this set the population gets quite a bit smaller which significantly drives the price.

One other notable card in this set is the Charizard with a PSA 10 pop of 118 which recently sold for $10.1k although it hasn't been confirmed yet fully. A copy of the Absol G Lv. X in a PSA 10 (with a pop of 22) recently sold for $5.05k. Because of low pops and scarce pricing data it's hard to draw any particular conclusions, but in the July 28th report I shared a sold listing for a Platinum Supreme Victors booster box that sold at $16.1k which was seeing a significant jump in value month over month and to some degree I would expect that to reflect in the top chase cards although not at the same rate.

🔵 Lot of 71 PSA 10 Chinese Captain Pikachus sells for $47.9k

Listing

In the last report I shared a sale for a lot of 57 PSA 10 Chinese Umbreons from the 151 Gem Collection that sold at $39.9k on Aug 7th. This Captain Pikachu lot sale comes just 8 days later and from the exact same seller (was it the same buyer for both sales?). For the Umbreon sale, the question I posed at the time was what the buyer’s potential motivation was for this large purchase. Getting a deal on a per slab basis (around $700) to then quickly sell off single slabs 1 by 1 at the current market price which was higher (close to $800)? Or hold for the long term as the Chinese market inevitably grows even more?

Now in this case the $47.9k sale would put the Captain Pikachu slabs at about $675 each. Current PSA 10 sales put it at about $730-$750 which is a pretty significant deal per slab so the question here remains the same. At the present, it’s difficult to say if sales like this represent a growing confidence in the long term Chinese market or if it’s once again a strategy to simply turn a quick profit.

This card did see a spike up to around $950 in June before coming back down a bit and then slowly trending back up from $700 so this could also be a case of the buyer identifying and buying the dip to then hold.

🕰️ Vintage & Niche Market Highlights

🔵 Legendary Treasures Radiant Collection uncut sheet sells for $12k

Listing - Best offer accepted from $16k

Uncut sheets of Pokémon cards are in most cases, complete panels of cards in a particular set straight from the printing press. They are also among the most visually striking and collectible items in the TCG world. The Radiant Collection uncut sheet from the Legendary Treasures set (2013) includes the full suite of Radiant cards in one intact layout. These sheets are not distributed in retail; instead, they surface through production overruns, factory mistakes, or specialty promotions, making them exceptionally rare and prized by collectors.

Uncut sheets typically carry their own premium and are difficult to compare to graded or singles when talking about price but for reference a Legendary Treasures booster box sold for $6.9k at the end of the May. It should also be noted that many of the top chase cards of this set are duplicates within this sheet as well leading to its increased value. Although for older sets the cost can scale exponentially and somewhat prohibitively, uncut sheets for newer sets are a great way to add a niche yet solid growth potential item to your collection. Or just purely as a collectors item as well.

🔵 Japanese Series III Vending sheet box sells for 12.6k

Listing

The Vending Series of Pokemon cards were a unique set released in Japan in 1998, that were distributed through vending machines. These cards were sold in sheets that needed to be peeled apart with 4 cards to a sheet, and different sheets containing different sets of cards. There were three main vending series, each distinguished by a color (blue, red, and green). Vending Series III featured 18 sheets with 4 cards each, and a bonus card with a unique back.

This particular sale features a box of two 50 sheet bundles at $12.6k. Back in June, a similar listing sold at $10.1k. The Vending Series has multiple contributing factors for its steep rise in value making it a highly sought after collectible besides just the unique method of distribution. The top chase card of this set, Ooyama’s Pikachu, features a very unique Pikachu artwork, with PSA 10 copies approaching $3k (and in some cases crossing that line) in 2025 compared to around $700-$800 in a PSA 10 at the end of 2024.

Another cool feature of the vending series was the Masaki promos, which were incredibly exclusive and distributed only through a 1998 mail-in campaign in Japan. Collectors had to cut out and send in specific exchange cards from the vending sheets, such as Kadabra, Haunter, Graveler, Machoke, or Omanyte, in order to receive the corresponding evolved form as a promo (Alakazam, Gengar, Golem, Machamp, or Omastar). Because participants had to physically sacrifice their exchange cards to get the promos, very few of those cards survived, and the promos themselves were printed in relatively low numbers. This unique distribution method has made the Masaki promos (and subsequently the Vending Series) some of the most iconic and sought after Japanese exclusives from the early Pokémon TCG era. A Masaki Gengar promo sold for $24.99k in December 2024.

🔵 PSA 10 Japanese 1st Edition Gold Star Torchic sells for $28k

Listing - Best offer accepted from $34.99k list price

This Japanese Gold Star Torchic has a population of 100 in a PSA 10. In the July 14th report, I shared a similar listing for this card that sold at $20k. I wanted to highlight this card again with the recent popularity of gold star cards but even still the fact that we’re seeing more than one sale for such a limited pop card at a staggering difference within the span of a month. This time it's an $8k jump. In English, this card is even more scarce with a population of 19 in a PSA 10. Will we continue to see huge jumps like this with each sale? Or is it simply because the population is so limited which drives major price variance.

😴 Potential Sleepers

Silver Tempest - Rayquaza VMAX #TG20

A lot of enthusiasts consider the Lugia V to be what carries the Silver Tempest. Objectively and just looking at price data, this isn’t wrong. However this set contains other cards that I still consider to be very underrated. In particular the Rayquaza VMAX Trainer Gallery card. This card features incredibly cool artwork of Rayquaza in its VMAX form and the trainer Zinnia featured in the Delta episode of the Ruby & Sapphire remakes.

While there might be other Rayquaza cards that are in a similar primed position to take off, this card in particular features cool Rayquaza artwork and a tie in to the games which is not common. It has a PSA 10 population count of 10,963 and sales are currently averaging around $210 over the past couple of weeks.

For comparison (how many times have I said that in this report so far), its predecessor (at least by my definition) and one of the highlights along with the Moonbreon from Evolving Skies, Rayquaza VMAX 218 is one of the more popular modern grails. It has a PSA 10 population count of 12,081 and current sales are averaging around $1500.

To further make a case, TG20 is not the first card to feature Rayquaza and Zinnia. Rayquaza V 194 from Evolving Skies also features this duo and has recently seen a big spike in value in June where sales averaged around $415 to around $630 at the present.

Overall I think these recent jumps and conditions/attributes will help drive TG20 upwards soon. Are there any other Rayquaza cards you think are primed to take off?

📚 Educational Commentary – Collector’s Corner

What is “shill bidding” and how does it impact auction comps?

Shill bidding is when sellers (or accomplices) place fake bids to drive auction prices higher without intending to purchase, which can mislead collectors into thinking the market is hotter than it really is. Inflated “sales” get cited as comps even if they never actually complete, distorting perceived value and encouraging over payment. Red flags include low-feedback accounts repeatedly bidding on one seller’s items, unusual bid patterns that escalate unnaturally, or the same bidders appearing across multiple auctions from a single seller. Because of this, isolated record prices should always be treated with caution. Stronger market signals come from multiple confirmed sales across venues, consistent BIN activity, and auctions from reputable houses where payment is verified. In short, shill bidding muddies the waters, but with careful cross-checking, collectors can separate true market value from manipulated noise (or in most cases some sellers become well known for it and that’s another way to stay wary).

🫐 Berries For Thought

💭 What do you think is the biggest gap in card grading services today?

💭 When do you decide to bid at auction versus just going in on the “buy it now” price even though it might be more expensive?

Questions/Feedback?

Contact me at news@luckyeggreport.com 🙂.