{
  "url": "https://www.moonstonehq.com/articles/print-run-archaeology",
  "slug": "print-run-archaeology",
  "title": "Print-Run Archaeology: What Registry Depth Says About How Much Was Actually Printed",
  "summary": "Nobody outside The Pokémon Company knows real print runs. But 203 sets of registry data sketch the fossil record: the average deeply tracked MEP promo has 38,076 slabs, on three cards and one enormous registry line. The average deeply tracked Rising Rivals card has 234. That 160-to-1 spread is the closest thing to a print-size map the hobby has, and it is a map of grading, not of printing.",
  "section": "Analysis",
  "published": "2026-08-27",
  "readMinutes": 6,
  "publisher": "moonstone",
  "findings": [],
  "tables": [
    {
      "title": "The five deepest and five shallowest registries we track (average pop across a set's tracked cards above pop 100)",
      "columns": [
        "Set",
        "Avg pop",
        "Reading"
      ],
      "rows": [
        {
          "Set": "MEP Black Star Promos",
          "Avg pop": "38,076",
          "Reading": "handout-scale print, graded by everyone"
        },
        {
          "Set": "SV-P Promotional Cards (JP)",
          "Avg pop": "30,601",
          "Reading": "JP promo flood"
        },
        {
          "Set": "Terastal Fest ex (JP)",
          "Avg pop": "20,436",
          "Reading": "modern JP mega-print"
        },
        {
          "Set": "M2 Inferno X (JP)",
          "Avg pop": "19,039",
          "Reading": "current chase engine"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Celebrations](/set/celebrations)",
          "Avg pop": "18,661",
          "Reading": "the anniversary print went WIDE"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Mysterious Treasures](/set/mysterious%20treasures)",
          "Avg pop": "332",
          "Reading": "DP-era: nobody graded, few survive NM"
        },
        {
          "Set": "Flight of Legends",
          "Avg pop": "292",
          "Reading": "quiet vintage stratum"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Majestic Dawn](/set/majestic%20dawn)",
          "Avg pop": "275",
          "Reading": "ditto"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Chaos Rising](/set/chaos%20rising)",
          "Avg pop": "245",
          "Reading": "too new to grade deep, watch this one"
        },
        {
          "Set": "[Rising Rivals](/set/rising%20rivals)",
          "Avg pop": "234",
          "Reading": "the shallowest layer we track"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "charts": [],
  "sections": [
    "How to read the strata honestly"
  ],
  "method": [
    "Latest recorded PSA population per tracked card (moonstone daily registry snapshots through August 27, 2026), grouped by catalog set; sets shown have at least 3 tracked cards with pop above 100 (203 sets qualify). 'Average pop' is the mean across a set's tracked cards WITH POP ABOVE 100, the same threshold that qualifies the set, not across every tracked card. That matters: averaged over all tracked cards instead, Rising Rivals reads 135 rather than 234, Mysterious Treasures 213 rather than 332 and MEP 22,863 rather than 38,076, so the published figures are the above-100 means throughout and an earlier version of this note described the wrong population. The surviving cards skew toward a set's most-graded chases; absolute levels are therefore ceilings for typical cards, and cross-era comparisons mix print size with grading propensity as discussed. Where a set qualifies on only three or four cards, as MEP and Celebrations do, one registry line moves the whole row. No print-run estimates are stated or implied beyond relative registry depth. 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."
}