{ "url": "https://www.moonstonehq.com/articles/retired-pokemon-card-mechanics-value", "slug": "retired-pokemon-card-mechanics-value", "title": "Are Lv.X, LEGEND and BREAK Cards Worth Anything?", "summary": "Nine Pokemon card mechanics have been retired since 2007, and 634 English TCGplayer products carry one of them with a Near Mint quote today. The median Lv.X asks $100.00 across 79 products, about ten times the $10.02 median of a VMAX across 236. Age is not what you are paying for: Restored, a mechanic that ran from 2011 to 2016, has a median of 97 cents across 15 products, and the dearest bucket of the nine is a six-card curiosity from 2015.", "section": "Quant research", "published": "2026-10-12", "readMinutes": 9, "publisher": "moonstone", "findings": [ { "value": "$100.00", "measures": "median Near Mint ask for a Lv.X card", "basis": "79 Lv.X products, all 79 quoted" }, { "value": "$10.02", "measures": "median Near Mint ask for a VMAX", "basis": "236 products whose printed name says VMAX or Gigantamax" }, { "value": "10.0x", "measures": "Lv.X median divided by VMAX median", "basis": "79 against 236; 12.2x if 24 mislabelled V cards stay in the VMAX group" }, { "value": "92.4%", "measures": "share of Lv.X products at or above $50", "basis": "73 of 79; for VMAX it is 49 of 236, or 20.8%" } ], "tables": [ { "title": "Each mechanic against the median card from its own sets", "columns": [ "Mechanic", "Products", "Median NM", "Times its own set's median card" ], "rows": [ { "Mechanic": "Primal Reversion", "Products": "6", "Median NM": "$332.41", "Times its own set's median card": "651.8x" }, { "Mechanic": "LEGEND (per half)", "Products": "20", "Median NM": "$249.54", "Times its own set's median card": "194.6x" }, { "Mechanic": "Mega EX", "Products": "83", "Median NM": "$42.21", "Times its own set's median card": "58.2x" }, { "Mechanic": "Lv.X", "Products": "79", "Median NM": "$100.00", "Times its own set's median card": "50.2x" }, { "Mechanic": "VMAX (name verified)", "Products": "236", "Median NM": "$10.02", "Times its own set's median card": "20.1x" }, { "Mechanic": "BREAK", "Products": "36", "Median NM": "$6.03", "Times its own set's median card": "10.1x" }, { "Mechanic": "VSTAR", "Products": "111", "Median NM": "$7.94", "Times its own set's median card": "8.9x" }, { "Mechanic": "Restored", "Products": "15", "Median NM": "$0.97", "Times its own set's median card": "1.6x" } ] }, { "title": "The parts, added up, against the whole", "columns": [ "Card", "Parts quoted", "Sum of the parts", "Provider's own bundle" ], "rows": [ { "Card": "[Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND (Undaunted)](/card/hgss3-90)", "Parts quoted": "2", "Sum of the parts": "$1,199.12", "Provider's own bundle": "none quoted" }, { "Card": "[Lugia LEGEND (HeartGold SoulSilver)](/card/hgss1-113)", "Parts quoted": "2", "Sum of the parts": "$716.66", "Provider's own bundle": "none quoted" }, { "Card": "[Palkia & Dialga LEGEND (Triumphant)](/card/hgss4-101)", "Parts quoted": "2", "Sum of the parts": "$284.91", "Provider's own bundle": "none quoted" }, { "Card": "Darkrai & Cresselia LEGEND (30th Classic Collection)", "Parts quoted": "2", "Sum of the parts": "$41.99", "Provider's own bundle": "none quoted" }, { "Card": "[Mewtwo V-UNION (SWSH Black Star Promos)](/card/swshp-SWSH160)", "Parts quoted": "4", "Sum of the parts": "$50.27", "Provider's own bundle": "$45.35" }, { "Card": "[Pikachu V-UNION (SWSH Black Star Promos)](/card/swshp-SWSH139)", "Parts quoted": "4", "Sum of the parts": "$33.10", "Provider's own bundle": "$25.26" }, { "Card": "[Zacian V-UNION (SWSH Black Star Promos)](/card/swshp-SWSH163)", "Parts quoted": "4", "Sum of the parts": "$14.64", "Provider's own bundle": "$14.53" }, { "Card": "[Morpeko V-UNION (SWSH Black Star Promos)](/card/swshp-SWSH287), SWSH287 to SWSH290", "Parts quoted": "4", "Sum of the parts": "$7.01", "Provider's own bundle": "$3.51" } ] }, { "title": "Six of the 22 Lv.X quotes that fail at least one of the three tests", "columns": [ "Card", "Our NM quote", "Last seen", "Dump market, 2026-10-12" ], "rows": [ { "Card": "[Mismagius GL LV.X (Rising Rivals)](/card/pl2-110)", "Our NM quote": "$99.99", "Last seen": "2026-06-13", "Dump market, 2026-10-12": "$99.99" }, { "Card": "[Leafeon LV.X (Majestic Dawn)](/card/dp5-99)", "Our NM quote": "$200.00", "Last seen": "2026-06-13", "Dump market, 2026-10-12": "$200.00" }, { "Card": "[Garchomp LV.X (Majestic Dawn)](/card/dp5-97)", "Our NM quote": "$102.66", "Last seen": "2026-06-18", "Dump market, 2026-10-12": "$187.00" }, { "Card": "[Snorlax LV.X (Rising Rivals)](/card/pl2-111)", "Our NM quote": "$797.47", "Last seen": "2026-09-08", "Dump market, 2026-10-12": "$999.99" }, { "Card": "[Porygon-Z LV.X (Majestic Dawn)](/card/dp5-100)", "Our NM quote": "$200.00", "Last seen": "2026-09-22", "Dump market, 2026-10-12": "$144.00" }, { "Card": "[Luxray GL Lv.X (Rising Rivals)](/card/pl2-109)", "Our NM quote": "$98.21", "Last seen": "2026-10-01", "Dump market, 2026-10-12": "$120.58" } ] } ], "charts": [ { "title": "Median Near Mint ask by retired mechanic", "unit": "$", "note": "634 English TCGplayer products with a Near Mint condition quote, read 2026-10-12. LEGEND is quoted per half and V-UNION per quarter, so those two bars are parts of a card rather than a card.", "points": [ { "label": "Primal Reversion", "value": 332.41, "basis": "6 products, Primal Clash and Ancient Origins" }, { "label": "LEGEND, one half", "value": 249.54, "basis": "20 halves from four 2010 sets and one 2026 reprint pair" }, { "label": "Lv.X", "value": 100, "basis": "79 products, 75 from the Diamond and Pearl and Platinum era and four later printings" }, { "label": "Mega EX", "value": 42.21, "basis": "83 products, the XY era and its reprints" }, { "label": "VMAX", "value": 10.02, "basis": "236 products whose own name says VMAX" }, { "label": "VSTAR", "value": 7.94, "basis": "111 products in 11 provider groups, the Sword and Shield era plus one 2026 reprint" }, { "label": "BREAK", "value": 6.03, "basis": "36 products, 35 from the XY era and one 2026 reprint" }, { "label": "V-UNION, one quarter", "value": 5.78, "basis": "24 quarter cards, all SWSH promos" }, { "label": "Restored", "value": 0.97, "basis": "15 products, 13 from sets between 2011 and 2016 and two Cosmos Holo promos" } ] }, { "title": "Share of each mechanic's products asking $50 or more", "unit": "%", "note": "Same 634 products, same Near Mint quotes, read 2026-10-12. Primal Reversion reaches 100% on six products, which is why it is printed with its count.", "points": [ { "label": "Primal Reversion", "value": 100, "basis": "6 of 6" }, { "label": "Lv.X", "value": 92.4, "basis": "73 of 79" }, { "label": "LEGEND, per half", "value": 90, "basis": "18 of 20" }, { "label": "Mega EX", "value": 45.8, "basis": "38 of 83" }, { "label": "VMAX, name verified", "value": 20.8, "basis": "49 of 236" }, { "label": "VSTAR", "value": 14.4, "basis": "16 of 111" }, { "label": "BREAK", "value": 0, "basis": "0 of 36, top card $43.26" }, { "label": "V-UNION, per quarter", "value": 0, "basis": "0 of 24, top quarter $17.34" }, { "label": "Restored", "value": 0, "basis": "0 of 15, top card $11.01" } ] } ], "sections": [ "What you are paying for is the slot, not the mechanic", "Two of the nine are not whole cards", "The Lv.X number rests on the oldest quotes in this note", "What this cannot tell you" ], "method": [ "Read from moonstone production on 2026-10-12. Universe: tcgcsv_products, 32,868 rows, one per English TCGplayer product across all 220 groups, so no Japanese and English set-name deduplication is needed. 22,735 of those carry a Stage field in the provider's extendedData. 744 fall in a retired-mechanic Stage value after case-fold merges (Legend with LEGEND, Level Up with Level-Up, Mega with MEGA and Mega Evolution, BREAK Evolution with BREAK, V-UNION with V-Union, Gigantamax folded into VMAX). EXCLUDED, each counted: 67 products in the Jumbo Cards group (oversized display cards, not the playable card), 37 in the World Championship Decks group (silver border, not tournament legal, a different product class), and 6 V-UNION [Set of 4] listings, which are bundles and are used only as the cross-check in the parts table. That leaves 634 products and all 634 carry a Near Mint quote, so no selection on price was applied. 3 of the 634 have no row in our own catalog and are therefore not linked anywhere in this note. PRICES: condition_quotes WHERE condition = 'NM' AND price > 0, one row per product, as_of values running 2026-06-13 to 2026-10-11. Only Near Mint is a card price here; the LP, MP, HP and Damaged rungs were read only to test ladder coherence and never mixed into a median. 621 of the 634 quotes are the Holofoil printing on a single-printing product; the exception is Restored, where 13 of 15 quote the Normal printing of a two-printing product. Medians are the upper middle value on an even sample, the house convention. The clean subset keeps a quote only if its as_of is within seven days of 2026-10-12, no rung below Near Mint is quoted above it, and it sits within 5% of the latest tcgcsv_prices market figure for the same printing. Latest means the most recent day that product carries rather than one fixed day: 628 of the 634 have a 2026-10-12 row, and products 475987, 489300 and 85750 fall back to 2026-09-27, 2026-10-02 and 2026-10-07. A different 3 of the 634, all Prize Pack Series cards, carry no dump figure at all for the quoted printing, so that third test is reported for them rather than failed, and 2 of those 3 sit inside the clean subset having passed a test that was never applied to them. 440 of 634 survive on that reading and 438 if a missing dump figure is counted as a failure. Per group 57 of 79 Lv.X, 142 of 236 name verified VMAX, 65 of 111 VSTAR, 80 of 83 Mega EX, 36 of 36 BREAK, 17 of 20 LEGEND, 18 of 24 V-UNION, 11 of 15 Restored and 6 of 6 Primal. The VMAX group is published two ways because the provider's Stage field is wrong on 24 of its 260 products, which are plain V cards: 260 products give a median of $8.18 and a 12.2x Lv.X multiple, the 236 whose printed name says VMAX or Gigantamax give $10.02 and 10.0x, and the note leads with the second. Set-mate multiples divide each product's Near Mint quote by the median Near Mint quote of every Stage-carrying product in the same provider group, computed over 7,803 priced products in the 63 groups these cards appear in; all 63 clear a 10-product minimum. NOT A TIME SERIES: condition_quotes is a continuously upserted snapshot, so every figure is one reading and no figure here is a change over time. No graded, PSA population or gem-rate data is used anywhere in this note. A prior adversarial pass on this topic counted 643 products rather than 634, with 4 more VMAX, 1 more VSTAR and 4 more Mega EX from an addition we could not reproduce. That pass is a document rather than a stored reading, so its figures are quoted here as provenance and cannot be recomputed either." ], "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." }