{ "url": "https://www.moonstonehq.com/articles/the-same-slab-four-times-the-price", "slug": "the-same-slab-four-times-the-price", "title": "The Same Card, the Same Grade, Four Times the Price", "summary": "On the 33 English cards whose PSA 10 tape holds between 20 and 40 verified sales, the highest sale is a median 4.00 times the lowest. On 98 English cards with 20 or more verified sales in both grades, a PSA 9 sold for more than the cheapest PSA 10 on 55 of them. The median is the right summary of a graded card's price. It is not the price.", "section": "Methodology", "published": "2026-09-03", "readMinutes": 8, "publisher": "moonstone", "findings": [ { "value": "4.00x", "measures": "median high-to-low ratio, PSA 10", "basis": "33 English cards with 20 to 40 verified sales" }, { "value": "56.1%", "measures": "of cards where a PSA 9 beat the cheapest PSA 10", "basis": "55 of 98 English cards with 20+ sales in both grades" }, { "value": "12.51x", "measures": "widest deep tape we hold", "basis": "$112 to $1,401.26 across 215 verified PSA 10 sales" }, { "value": "146 of 261", "measures": "English PSA 10 windows holding fewer than 20 sales", "basis": "and they are excluded from every table here" } ], "tables": [ { "title": "PSA 10 high-to-low ratio by tape depth, English cards", "columns": [ "Verified sales in window", "Cards", "Median high/low", "25th percentile", "75th percentile" ], "rows": [ { "Verified sales in window": "20 to 40", "Cards": "33", "Median high/low": "4.00x", "25th percentile": "2.95x", "75th percentile": "6.04x" }, { "Verified sales in window": "40 to 80", "Cards": "17", "Median high/low": "3.56x", "25th percentile": "3.02x", "75th percentile": "5.00x" }, { "Verified sales in window": "80 to 160", "Cards": "20", "Median high/low": "4.00x", "25th percentile": "3.37x", "75th percentile": "5.53x" }, { "Verified sales in window": "160 to 400", "Cards": "31", "Median high/low": "5.99x", "25th percentile": "4.27x", "75th percentile": "6.99x" }, { "Verified sales in window": "400 or more", "Cards": "14", "Median high/low": "4.69x", "25th percentile": "4.11x", "75th percentile": "6.16x" } ] }, { "title": "Where the ladder inverts: six of the 55, chosen for depth (verified sold windows, tape through late August 2026)", "columns": [ "Card", "PSA 10 median (low, sales)", "PSA 9 median (high, sales)" ], "rows": [ { "Card": "[Squirtle](/card/sv07-148), [Stellar Crown](/set/stellar%20crown)", "PSA 10 median (low, sales)": "$407.14 (low $120.50, 542)", "PSA 9 median (high, sales)": "$127.50 (high $505.76, 571)" }, { "Card": "[Charizard ex](/card/sv03-125), [Obsidian Flames](/set/obsidian%20flames)", "PSA 10 median (low, sales)": "$86.00 (low $22.99, 161)", "PSA 9 median (high, sales)": "$24.99 (high $89.99, 123)" }, { "Card": "[Psyduck](/card/me02.5-226), [Ascended Heroes](/set/ascended%20heroes)", "PSA 10 median (low, sales)": "$480.00 (low $129.99, 830)", "PSA 9 median (high, sales)": "$121.50 (high $404.00, 353)" }, { "Card": "[Mega Charizard X ex](/card/mep-023), MEP promo", "PSA 10 median (low, sales)": "$228.50 (low $59.99, 1,028)", "PSA 9 median (high, sales)": "$57.00 (high $157.00, 637)" }, { "Card": "[Jessie & James](/card/sm115-68), [Hidden Fates](/set/hidden%20fates)", "PSA 10 median (low, sales)": "$190.00 (low $103.85, 521)", "PSA 9 median (high, sales)": "$70.00 (high $250.00, 286)" }, { "Card": "[Charizard V](/card/swshp-SWSH050), SWSH promo", "PSA 10 median (low, sales)": "$89.99 (low $38.00, 381)", "PSA 9 median (high, sales)": "$28.99 (high $90.72, 177)" } ] }, { "title": "The widest six and the tightest three PSA 10 windows on English cards with 100 or more verified sales", "columns": [ "Card", "Low", "Median", "High", "Sales", "High/low" ], "rows": [ { "Card": "[Pikachu](/card/swsh12.5gg-GG30), [Crown Zenith Galarian Gallery](/set/crown%20zenith%20galarian%20gallery)", "Low": "$112.00", "Median": "$378.17", "High": "$1,401.26", "Sales": "215", "High/low": "12.51x" }, { "Card": "[Charizard ex](/card/sv03-125), [Obsidian Flames](/set/obsidian%20flames)", "Low": "$22.99", "Median": "$86.00", "High": "$269.95", "Sales": "161", "High/low": "11.74x" }, { "Card": "[Clefairy](/card/me03-094), [Perfect Order](/set/perfect%20order)", "Low": "$53.00", "Median": "$195.01", "High": "$520.00", "Sales": "362", "High/low": "9.81x" }, { "Card": "[Rayquaza VMAX](/card/swsh7-218), [Evolving Skies](/set/evolving%20skies)", "Low": "$1,094.00", "Median": "$2,700.00", "High": "$10,000.00", "Sales": "371", "High/low": "9.14x" }, { "Card": "[Umbreon V](/card/swsh9.5tg-TG22), [Brilliant Stars Trainer Gallery](/set/brilliant%20stars%20trainer%20gallery)", "Low": "$70.00", "Median": "$259.79", "High": "$600.00", "Sales": "237", "High/low": "8.57x" }, { "Card": "[Mega Gardevoir ex](/card/me01-187), [Mega Evolution](/set/mega%20evolution)", "Low": "$260.00", "Median": "$660.00", "High": "$2,080.00", "Sales": "169", "High/low": "8.00x" }, { "Card": "[Victini](/card/sv10.5w-172), [White Flare](/set/white%20flare)", "Low": "$750.00", "Median": "$1,275.00", "High": "$2,000.00", "Sales": "272", "High/low": "2.67x" }, { "Card": "[Eevee](/card/sv06-188), [Twilight Masquerade](/set/twilight%20masquerade)", "Low": "$170.50", "Median": "$305.00", "High": "$450.00", "Sales": "477", "High/low": "2.64x" }, { "Card": "[Machamp V](/card/swsh10-172), [Astral Radiance](/set/astral%20radiance)", "Low": "$254.61", "Median": "$420.00", "High": "$599.99", "Sales": "201", "High/low": "2.36x" } ] } ], "charts": [], "sections": [ "Comparing ranges honestly means comparing at equal depth", "The grades overlap, and not by a little", "The widest and the tightest, at comparable depth" ], "method": [ "Source: the moonstone graded ladder cache, 2,870 payloads covering 1,550 distinct cards, each storing per company and grade the verified sold median, sale count, minimum and maximum of the same window; where a card carries more than one payload the most recently written is used. Payloads were written between August 19 and September 2, 2026, with 88% stamped on August 20 and 21, so the windows age by up to two weeks across cards; low, median, high and count always come from one window on one card, never spliced. This study uses the 261 PSA 10 records that resolve to a named English card in our catalog, of which 115 carry 20 or more verified sales and enter the depth table, and the 98 English cards holding 20 or more verified sales in both PSA 10 and PSA 9. High-to-low ratios are order statistics and grow with sale count for mechanical reasons, which is why every comparison is made inside a depth band and why the full band table is published rather than a single headline ratio. Quartiles use linear interpolation between order statistics, the standard convention; an earlier version of the depth table used a different convention that understated the deepest band's upper quartile as 4.92x against a corrected 6.16x. Residual width has several causes we cannot separate with the fields we store: auction versus fixed-price venue, shipping-inclusive prices, sale timing inside the window, qualifier labels such as OC on an otherwise gem slab, and same-name printings that pass a title check. We can bound one of them: 11.7% of candidate sold listings were rejected by the verifier before any figure here was computed. Rejection counts are recorded per record by the graded feed and are reported as recorded. Nothing here restates a median as wrong; it reports how wide the distribution behind each median is. 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." }