{
  "url": "https://www.moonstonehq.com/articles/everyone-grades-the-freebies",
  "slug": "everyone-grades-the-freebies",
  "title": "Everyone Grades the Freebies: MEP Black Star Promos and the Deepest Registries in the Game",
  "summary": "The MEP Black Star family sits on the deepest registry line we track, a 38,076 average across its three cards with a pop above 100, deeper than Celebrations and deeper than any chase set. That line is shared by several products and one card is 93% of it, so it is a stratum reading, never a card population. The cards are free with a purchase. The slabs are a business. And one of them was so new we had to add it to our own catalog from a reader's photo.",
  "section": "Data forensics",
  "published": "2026-08-28",
  "readMinutes": 5,
  "publisher": "moonstone",
  "findings": [],
  "tables": [],
  "charts": [],
  "sections": [
    "The economics of grading a free card"
  ],
  "method": [
    "Registry depth as of August 28, 2026, from daily PSA population snapshots per the [Print-Run Archaeology methodology](/articles/print-run-archaeology): per-set means across the cards with a pop ABOVE 100, which is three cards for MEP and skews hard toward each set's most-graded prints, and which is why the absolute is a stratum reading rather than a card population; throughput from the linked index. The mep-093 seeding is documented in our catalog history. Not 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."
}