{
  "url": "https://www.moonstonehq.com/articles/the-flatter-ladder",
  "slug": "the-flatter-ladder",
  "title": "Japan Prices the Same Cards on a Flatter Ladder",
  "summary": "Take eleven sets that exist in both languages and match them card by card, both legs quoted by the same Western marketplace. Japanese commons cost more than English commons. Japanese chase cards cost a fraction of English chase cards. The Japanese price rises with only the 0.73 power of the English price, which means the gap is not a discount. It is a different slope. And on the median card there is barely a gap at all.",
  "section": "Data forensics",
  "published": "2026-09-03",
  "readMinutes": 9,
  "publisher": "moonstone",
  "findings": [
    {
      "value": "0.732",
      "measures": "elasticity of the JP price to the EN price",
      "basis": "standard error 0.011, n=755, 24.7 errors below 1.00"
    },
    {
      "value": "0.170x",
      "measures": "median JP/EN ratio above $100 English",
      "basis": "n=36; 94% of that band is cheaper in Japanese"
    },
    {
      "value": "1.36x",
      "measures": "median JP/EN ratio under $0.25 English",
      "basis": "n=382; only 27% of the floor band is cheaper in Japanese"
    },
    {
      "value": "0.728",
      "measures": "same elasticity, strict one-printing-per-side subsample",
      "basis": "standard error 0.012, n=563"
    }
  ],
  "tables": [
    {
      "title": "Japanese price relative to its English counterpart, by English price band, September 2, 2026",
      "columns": [
        "English price band",
        "Pairs",
        "Median EN",
        "Median JP",
        "Median JP/EN",
        "Share cheaper in JP"
      ],
      "rows": [
        {
          "English price band": "Under $0.25",
          "Pairs": "382",
          "Median EN": "$0.12",
          "Median JP": "$0.15",
          "Median JP/EN": "1.360x",
          "Share cheaper in JP": "27%"
        },
        {
          "English price band": "$0.25 to $1",
          "Pairs": "87",
          "Median EN": "$0.68",
          "Median JP": "$0.46",
          "Median JP/EN": "0.742x",
          "Share cheaper in JP": "68%"
        },
        {
          "English price band": "$1 to $5",
          "Pairs": "109",
          "Median EN": "$2.12",
          "Median JP": "$1.64",
          "Median JP/EN": "0.766x",
          "Share cheaper in JP": "61%"
        },
        {
          "English price band": "$5 to $20",
          "Pairs": "78",
          "Median EN": "$11.11",
          "Median JP": "$4.38",
          "Median JP/EN": "0.368x",
          "Share cheaper in JP": "88%"
        },
        {
          "English price band": "$20 to $100",
          "Pairs": "63",
          "Median EN": "$36.80",
          "Median JP": "$10.30",
          "Median JP/EN": "0.253x",
          "Share cheaper in JP": "98%"
        },
        {
          "English price band": "Over $100",
          "Pairs": "36",
          "Median EN": "$274.63",
          "Median JP": "$48.11",
          "Median JP/EN": "0.170x",
          "Share cheaper in JP": "94%"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "charts": [],
  "sections": [
    "The specification, stated before the result",
    "The ladder, rung by rung",
    "Base Set against Base Expansion Pack, in one set",
    "Why the ladders differ"
  ],
  "method": [
    "Both legs are canonical printing prices from moonstone's daily TCGplayer sync, read on September 2, 2026. That is the same instrument the card pages show, and a correction from an earlier draft of this piece, which read the flagship-printing field and therefore published English prices that its own card pages contradicted (Erika's Dragonair at $407.99 against the correct $117.63, for one). Those cache rows carry refresh stamps spanning July 29 to September 2, 2026, so this is a same-day comparison of two legs quoted by the same upstream marketplace rather than two independent instruments. Pairing method: English sets were matched to Japanese counterpart sets we verified individually, then cards were joined on the cleaned English card name within each set pair, taking the cheapest priced printing on each side. Rows whose names carry a pattern, jumbo, deck-kit or promo marker are excluded. That rule removes exactly ONE priced Japanese row from the eleven surviving pairs and therefore changes no coefficient here; the rationale an earlier draft gave for it, that such rows inflate the Japanese leg, is not supported, since across the whole Japanese catalog the marked rows carry a median price of $0.98 against $2.00 for everything else. The rule survives because it was the reason one candidate pair was dropped, not because it is doing work in the sample that remains. Two candidate pairs were dropped outright and are named so the exclusions are auditable: Paldean Fates, because the English set in our catalog is a shiny subset while its Japanese counterpart is a full set, so a name join crosses print tiers; and 151, because the exclusion left it with only two usable rows. Eleven set pairs and 755 card pairs survived. The strict robustness subsample keeps only names with exactly one priced printing on each side, n=563. Both regressions put the Japanese price on the left and the English price on the right; neither dependent variable contains its own regressor. Standard errors are classical and do not adjust for clustering within set pairs, which would widen them. Japanese legs are marketplace quotes on thinner listing depth than the English legs, so read the gap as a shape rather than an executable trade at size. 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."
}