{
  "url": "https://www.moonstonehq.com/articles/art-floor-foil-tiers",
  "slug": "art-floor-foil-tiers",
  "title": "The Art Floor: What 480 Price Histories Say About Every Foil and Rarity Tier",
  "summary": "We tracked eighteen months of daily prices across seven sets and grouped every card by its rarity tier. Illustration Rares are not just winning, they are accelerating, gold cards are the quiet loser of the modern era, and the cheapest corner of the best tier is hiding in plain sight.",
  "section": "Analysis",
  "published": "2026-08-06",
  "readMinutes": 9,
  "publisher": "moonstone",
  "findings": [
    {
      "value": "+77%",
      "measures": "IR median over 18 months, best of every tier",
      "basis": "and the last six months alone ran +78.7%"
    },
    {
      "value": "+13.7%",
      "measures": "Hyper Rare median, worst of every tier",
      "basis": "gold foil, lowest pull rate, last place"
    },
    {
      "value": "5.6x",
      "measures": "IR growth vs gold growth",
      "basis": "the market pays for art, not for scarcity"
    }
  ],
  "tables": [
    {
      "title": "Median growth by rarity tier, Feb 2025 to Aug 2026 (463 of the 480 cards, 7 sets)",
      "columns": [
        "Tier",
        "Cards",
        "18-month median",
        "Last 6 months",
        "Median price today"
      ],
      "rows": [
        {
          "Tier": "Illustration Rare",
          "Cards": "52",
          "18-month median": "+77.4%",
          "Last 6 months": "+78.7%",
          "Median price today": "$19.18"
        },
        {
          "Tier": "Ultra Rare",
          "Cards": "163",
          "18-month median": "+44.9%",
          "Last 6 months": "+28.6%",
          "Median price today": "$7 range"
        },
        {
          "Tier": "Shiny Ultra Rare",
          "Cards": "8",
          "18-month median": "+42.3%",
          "Last 6 months": "+42.0%",
          "Median price today": "$5 range"
        },
        {
          "Tier": "Double Rare",
          "Cards": "22",
          "18-month median": "+40.0%",
          "Last 6 months": "+29.4%",
          "Median price today": "$2 range"
        },
        {
          "Tier": "Secret Rare (SWSH)",
          "Cards": "50",
          "18-month median": "+33.5%",
          "Last 6 months": "+19.8%",
          "Median price today": "$14 range"
        },
        {
          "Tier": "Shiny Rare",
          "Cards": "119",
          "18-month median": "+31.6%",
          "Last 6 months": "+53.2%",
          "Median price today": "$5 range"
        },
        {
          "Tier": "Special Illustration Rare",
          "Cards": "31",
          "18-month median": "+29.5%",
          "Last 6 months": "+47.0%",
          "Median price today": "$45 range"
        },
        {
          "Tier": "Hyper Rare (gold)",
          "Cards": "18",
          "18-month median": "+13.7%",
          "Last 6 months": "+15.7%",
          "Median price today": "$11 range"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "charts": [],
  "sections": [
    "What the foils physically are",
    "Eighteen months of growth, by tier",
    "The art floor: collectors buy illustrations, not print odds",
    "The SIR reconciliation: the tax got paid, then the chase took over",
    "The undervalued corner: cheap IRs that are already moving",
    "The gold trap, named",
    "Amazing Rares: nine cards, one print window, no sequel"
  ],
  "method": [
    "Universe: every card with a full-window Near Mint daily price history in seven sets (Scarlet & Violet 151, Evolving Skies, Paldean Fates, Temporal Forces, Crown Zenith, Obsidian Flames, Team Up), pulled from our TCGplayer price feed on August 6, 2026. Window: February 2025 through August 2026; growth compares 14-day averages at each end, and the six-month column rebases from early February 2026. Cards starting under $1 are excluded as penny noise, leaving 480. Team Up's history begins October 2025 and its cards therefore mostly fall out of the full-window stats. Tier labels are TCGplayer rarity strings; Japanese AR/SAR equivalents are discussed but not in the table because their histories live on a different provider path. Amazing Rares fall outside the seven-set universe, so Vivid Voltage and Shining Fates were pulled separately on August 6, 2026 with full price histories; their growth figures compare the first February 2025 reading, the week of February 3, with the latest, point to point, rather than the 14-day-average endpoints used in the main table. Anchoring instead on the last week of January 2025, which the series also carries, moves the tier median from +277% to +284% and moves individual cards by up to 87 points, so the anchor is stated rather than left to inference. Medians throughout; tiers with fewer than 8 qualifying cards omitted, which is why the eight tiers in the table account for 463 of the 480 cards."
  ],
  "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."
}