{
  "url": "https://www.moonstonehq.com/articles/pokemon-print-clock-status-model",
  "slug": "pokemon-print-clock-status-model",
  "title": "The Print Clock: When Pokémon Sets Stop Printing, and How to Read It",
  "summary": "Nobody publishes the printing schedule, but the presses leave fingerprints in sealed prices. We reconstructed the print calendar from a decade of documented patterns, then built a status model that reads the market and calibrates perfectly against known truth.",
  "section": "Market Structure",
  "published": "2026-07-28",
  "readMinutes": 12,
  "publisher": "moonstone",
  "findings": [
    {
      "value": "~10B/yr",
      "measures": "cards printed at stated max capacity",
      "basis": "vs ~1B/yr pre-2020, from fiscal disclosures"
    },
    {
      "value": "17/17",
      "measures": "known-OOP sets correctly classified",
      "basis": "every SWSH set, market data alone"
    },
    {
      "value": "2.2×",
      "measures": "the retail-ratio line",
      "basis": "no out-of-print set trades below it"
    },
    {
      "value": "3.1×",
      "measures": "an ACTIVELY PRINTED set right now",
      "basis": "Phantasmal Flames, demand > presses"
    }
  ],
  "tables": [
    {
      "title": "The era clock",
      "columns": [
        "Era",
        "First set",
        "Final set",
        "Print status today"
      ],
      "rows": [
        {
          "Era": "Sword & Shield",
          "First set": "Feb 2020",
          "Final set": "[Crown Zenith](/set/crown%20zenith) · Jan 2023",
          "Print status today": "Out of print (all sets)"
        },
        {
          "Era": "Scarlet & Violet",
          "First set": "Mar 2023",
          "Final set": "[Black Bolt](/set/black%20bolt)/[White Flare](/set/white%20flare) · Jul 2025",
          "Print status today": "Wind-down, final restocks, stop reported from early 2027"
        },
        {
          "Era": "Mega Evolution",
          "First set": "Sep 2025",
          "Final set": "ongoing",
          "Print status today": "In print, at maximum capacity"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Print-status board, twenty sets across the three eras (cheapest standard ETB ÷ $49.99)",
      "columns": [
        "Set",
        "Era",
        "Ratio",
        "Status"
      ],
      "rows": [
        {
          "Set": "[Perfect Order](/set/perfect%20order)",
          "Era": "Mega",
          "Ratio": "1.32×",
          "Status": "In print, at retail"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Chaos Rising](/set/chaos%20rising)",
          "Era": "Mega",
          "Ratio": "1.39×",
          "Status": "In print, at retail"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Pitch Black](/set/pitch%20black)",
          "Era": "Mega",
          "Ratio": "1.57×",
          "Status": "In print, allocation tightening"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Mega Evolution](/set/mega%20evolution)",
          "Era": "Mega",
          "Ratio": "2.40×",
          "Status": "In print: SUPPLY-CONSTRAINED"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Phantasmal Flames](/set/phantasmal%20flames)",
          "Era": "Mega",
          "Ratio": "3.07×",
          "Status": "In print: SUPPLY-CONSTRAINED"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Twilight Masquerade](/set/twilight%20masquerade)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "2.12×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, era laggard"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Temporal Forces](/set/temporal%20forces)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "2.28×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, era laggard"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Surging Sparks](/set/surging%20sparks)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "2.49×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, era laggard"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Shrouded Fable](/set/shrouded%20fable)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "2.51×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, era laggard"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Journey Together](/set/journey%20together)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "2.54×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, era laggard"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Prismatic Evolutions](/set/prismatic%20evolutions)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "3.30×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, premium building"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Black Bolt](/set/black%20bolt)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "3.46×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, premium building"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Paldea Evolved](/set/paldea%20evolved)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "4.74×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, fully priced"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Obsidian Flames](/set/obsidian%20flames)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "6.37×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, fully priced"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Paldean Fates](/set/paldean%20fates)",
          "Era": "SV",
          "Ratio": "9.57×",
          "Status": "Wind-down, fully priced"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Battle Styles](/set/battle%20styles)",
          "Era": "SWSH",
          "Ratio": "2.33×",
          "Status": "Out of print, the OOP floor"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Lost Origin](/set/lost%20origin)",
          "Era": "SWSH",
          "Ratio": "4.51×",
          "Status": "Out of print"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Crown Zenith](/set/crown%20zenith)",
          "Era": "SWSH",
          "Ratio": "6.67×",
          "Status": "Out of print"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Celebrations](/set/celebrations)",
          "Era": "SWSH",
          "Ratio": "8.63×",
          "Status": "Out of print"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Evolving Skies](/set/evolving%20skies)",
          "Era": "SWSH",
          "Ratio": "10.46×",
          "Status": "Out of print, the ceiling"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "charts": [],
  "sections": [
    "The print calendar nobody publishes, but everyone can see",
    "Retail price is the print detector",
    "What the clock says to do"
  ],
  "method": [
    "Production figures are from The Pokémon Company's annual fiscal disclosures as reported by Fortune, PokeBeach, PokeGuardian, and Kotaku: ~1B cards/yr pre-2020, 3.7B (FY2020), 9B (FY2021, an announced doubling with a public commitment to reprint 'at maximum capacity'), ~10.2B (2024), ~85B cumulative, with the ~10B level publicly characterized as maximum physical capacity. Era dates from Bulbapedia (Crown Zenith, Jan 2023, final SWSH special set; Black Bolt/White Flare, Jul 2025, final SV sets; Mega era from Sep 2025). The ~3-year per-set wind-down and early-2027 SV print-stop window reflect community and distributor reporting, not official statements, and are labeled accordingly. The status model uses each set's CHEAPEST standard Elite Trainer Box (Pokémon Center exclusives excluded) ÷ $49.99 MSRP, cross-checked against booster-bundle ÷ $26.94, from our tracked sealed universe as of July 28, 2026, with thresholds calibrated on known ground truth (17/17 SWSH sets ≥2.3×, freely-stocked Mega sets ≤1.4×). The calibration runs over every tracked set; the board above PRINTS twenty of them, chosen to span the three eras and both ends of each. It is not the full list: our sealed universe today carries a standard ETB for 64 sets, and five of the seventeen Sword & Shield sets appear on the board. Print status is INFERRED: TPCi publishes no schedules; treat statuses as probabilistic, and expect reprint waves to move current-era ratios abruptly. 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."
}