{
  "url": "https://www.moonstonehq.com/articles/are-pokemon-cards-a-good-investment",
  "slug": "are-pokemon-cards-a-good-investment",
  "title": "Are Pokémon Cards a Good Investment?",
  "summary": "Our deepest price tape says the median card is up 90.1% in twenty months. That tape covers 13.9% of the printings we follow weekly, and the rest tells a different story.",
  "section": "Investment research",
  "published": "2026-09-22",
  "readMinutes": 9,
  "publisher": "moonstone",
  "findings": [
    {
      "value": "+90.1%",
      "measures": "median 20-month change, deepest tape",
      "basis": "2,766 cards, from January 27 2025 to each card's latest reading"
    },
    {
      "value": "13.9%",
      "measures": "of the weekly price tape that deep pool covers",
      "basis": "2,766 of 19,837 printings"
    },
    {
      "value": "0.0%",
      "measures": "median change across everything we price",
      "basis": "18,340 cards over the common recent window"
    },
    {
      "value": "83.6%",
      "measures": "of the deep pool clearing a 24% cost floor",
      "basis": "over twenty months, against 45.6% rising at all over three weeks"
    }
  ],
  "tables": [
    {
      "title": "Deep tape, from January 27 2025 to each card's latest reading, by entry price",
      "columns": [
        "Price when the tape starts",
        "Cards",
        "Median change",
        "Share higher",
        "Share clearing 24%"
      ],
      "rows": [
        {
          "Price when the tape starts": "Under $1",
          "Cards": "994",
          "Median change": "+75.0%",
          "Share higher": "92.1%",
          "Share clearing 24%": "82.0%"
        },
        {
          "Price when the tape starts": "$1 to $5",
          "Cards": "869",
          "Median change": "+101.4%",
          "Share higher": "93.3%",
          "Share clearing 24%": "83.7%"
        },
        {
          "Price when the tape starts": "$5 to $20",
          "Cards": "568",
          "Median change": "+103.7%",
          "Share higher": "94.4%",
          "Share clearing 24%": "84.5%"
        },
        {
          "Price when the tape starts": "$20 to $100",
          "Cards": "267",
          "Median change": "+111.8%",
          "Share higher": "94.4%",
          "Share clearing 24%": "88.0%"
        },
        {
          "Price when the tape starts": "$100 and up",
          "Cards": "68",
          "Median change": "+86.6%",
          "Share higher": "92.6%",
          "Share clearing 24%": "79.4%"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The same weeks, August 30 to September 2026, measured three ways",
      "columns": [
        "Group",
        "Cards",
        "Median change",
        "Share higher",
        "Share unchanged",
        "Value-weighted"
      ],
      "rows": [
        {
          "Group": "Everything we price",
          "Cards": "18,340",
          "Median change": "0.0%",
          "Share higher": "45.6%",
          "Share unchanged": "18.5%",
          "Value-weighted": "-3.7%"
        },
        {
          "Group": "The deep-tape pool",
          "Cards": "2,461",
          "Median change": "+0.7%",
          "Share higher": "54.3%",
          "Share unchanged": "12.5%",
          "Value-weighted": "+1.5%"
        },
        {
          "Group": "Everything else",
          "Cards": "15,879",
          "Median change": "0.0%",
          "Share higher": "44.3%",
          "Share unchanged": "19.4%",
          "Value-weighted": "-4.9%"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Deep tape, cards entering at $20 or more and still quoted in the September 2026 run: the extremes",
      "columns": [
        "Card",
        "Set",
        "Jan 2025",
        "Sept 2026",
        "Change"
      ],
      "rows": [
        {
          "Card": "[Kyogre-EX](/card/bw5-26)",
          "Set": "[Dark Explorers](/set/dark%20explorers)",
          "Jan 2025": "$20.24",
          "Sept 2026": "$111.41",
          "Change": "+450%"
        },
        {
          "Card": "[Mimikyu GX](/card/sm8-206)",
          "Set": "[SM - Lost Thunder](/set/sm%20-%20lost%20thunder)",
          "Jan 2025": "$22.16",
          "Sept 2026": "$120.38",
          "Change": "+443%"
        },
        {
          "Card": "[Rayquaza GX](/card/sm7-160)",
          "Set": "[SM - Celestial Storm](/set/sm%20-%20celestial%20storm)",
          "Jan 2025": "$26.99",
          "Sept 2026": "$144.00",
          "Change": "+434%"
        },
        {
          "Card": "[Pikachu](/card/g1-RC29)",
          "Set": "[Generations](/set/generations)",
          "Jan 2025": "$30.16",
          "Sept 2026": "$159.68",
          "Change": "+429%"
        },
        {
          "Card": "[Lisia](/card/sm7-164)",
          "Set": "[SM - Celestial Storm](/set/sm%20-%20celestial%20storm)",
          "Jan 2025": "$290.38",
          "Sept 2026": "$204.75",
          "Change": "-29%"
        },
        {
          "Card": "[Escape Rope](/card/sm3-163)",
          "Set": "[SM - Burning Shadows](/set/sm%20-%20burning%20shadows)",
          "Jan 2025": "$24.66",
          "Sept 2026": "$16.77",
          "Change": "-32%"
        },
        {
          "Card": "[Duraludon VMAX](/card/swsh7-220)",
          "Set": "[SWSH07: Evolving Skies](/set/swsh07%3A%20evolving%20skies)",
          "Jan 2025": "$22.79",
          "Sept 2026": "$15.12",
          "Change": "-34%"
        },
        {
          "Card": "[Nest Ball](/card/sm1-158)",
          "Set": "[SM Base Set](/set/sm%20base%20set)",
          "Jan 2025": "$27.32",
          "Sept 2026": "$9.13",
          "Change": "-67%"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "charts": [],
  "sections": [
    "The cards we have watched longest went up a lot",
    "A long price history is itself a selection",
    "Nothing works until you clear the round trip",
    "What the extremes look like when the entry is real money",
    "Three things the data actually supports"
  ],
  "method": [
    "Sources: our weekly price series per TCGplayer product (api_cache rows keyed ppthist), covering the 19,837 English printings that hold such a series; all but one of them also carry a recorded daily ask. The deep pool is every one of those whose series begins on January 27, 2025, the earliest date the weekly tape holds, which is 2,766 cards or 13.9 percent. Long-window changes run from that first reading to each card's latest reading. For 2,421 of the 2,766 that reading is dated September 19 to 22, 2026; the other 345 series stopped updating earlier, the oldest in May 2026, so their window is shorter than twenty months and their changes are included as recorded. The extremes table is restricted to cards still quoted in the September run, which is why a worse loser, Jolteon ☆ at -41 percent, is absent: its series stops on July 28, 2026. The common window runs from each card's first reading on or after August 30, 2026, provided that reading lands by September 5, to its latest, and covers 18,340 printings; the September 5 cutoff keeps the window a genuine three weeks for every card in it, and dropping it would widen the population to 18,651 and the value-weighted change to -4.4 percent; a card is counted as unchanged only when the two readings are identical. Medians use the upper-middle value on even samples. Value-weighted figures are the sum of latest prices over the sum of starting prices, so a dear card counts for more than a cheap one. All prices here are asks, the daily market price a seller is listing at, not completed sales; graded sale medians are a separate tape and are not used in this study. The 24 percent round-trip cost floor is the figure published in our momentum retraction and is a model of marketplace fees, postage and the bid-ask gap rather than a measured transaction cost. Nothing here is financial advice."
  ],
  "terms": "Figures are moonstone's own recorded measurements, dated as published. Quote them with the population stated beside them. The article at `url` is the human form of this file."
}