| RECON // NEWSLETTER NO. 010 |
WED OCT 28, 2026 |
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Know the market. Collect with conviction.
TCG · VIDEO GAMES · ANIME
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 | | IMAGE: GOLDIN · THE $3,080,500 TROPHY PIKACHU |
A PSA 10 2015 Art Academy Mudkip sold for $4,880,000 on 73 bids to lead Goldin’s Pokémon 30th Anniversary Auction, 31% above the $3,720,000 another PSA 10 made at Fanatics a month earlier, and a 1997 Trophy Pikachu PSA 8 set the record for its card at $3,080,500
| SOLD | $4,880,000 · 73 BIDS · GOLDIN · OCT 25 |
| LAST COMP | $3,720,000 · PSA 10 · FANATICS · SEP 25 |
| POP | 3 GRADED, ALL PSA 10, PER GOLDIN |
$4,880,000 +31% VS LAST COMP
Goldin’s Pokémon 30th Anniversary Auction closed Oct 25 with a PSA 10 2015 Art Academy Mudkip at $4,880,000 on 73 bids, the most of any lot, per Chase Society. Goldin counts three graded copies, all PSA 10, and they have sold for $42,000, $3,720,000 (Fanatics, Sep 25) and now $4,880,000 inside two years. The same night a 1997 Gold 1st Place Trophy Pikachu PSA 8 made $3,080,500, which Goldin calls the highest public sale for any Trophy Pikachu, after a different PSA 8 made $982,100 there in March, per Collectibles News. Two cards with tiny counts reset their own ladders within weeks of their last sale, so the price of the next copy is being set by the last buyer who lost, not by the grade.
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Three sealed Pokémon booster boxes topped $340,000 at Goldin on Oct 25, led by EX Team Rocket Returns at $384,300, and a Call of Legends box made $341,600, five times the $62,906 one made at Goldin in May
EX Team Rocket Returns (2004) made $384,300 on 21 bids, EX Deoxys (2005) $378,267 on 17 and Call of Legends (2011) $341,600 on 35, with EX Unseen Forces (2005) at $183,001, all at Goldin on Oct 25, per Chase Society. The Call of Legends box had a $62,906 comp from Goldin in May, and Alt sold a Legendary Collection box for $381,000 two weeks earlier. A factory-sealed case of six Evolving Skies boxes made $14,200 on Oct 20, so one 2004 box now prices like 27 modern cases: the premium sits in boxes from finished, small runs, the same split the in-print shelf has shown all month.
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A Pokémon Red prototype development cartridge with a handwritten “Red P” label sold at Goldin for $123,220 with fees on 20 bids from a $25,000 opening, about level with the $124,000 a sealed PSA 9.8 retail copy made there in February
The clear-cased development cart, which Goldin called previously undocumented and PSA authenticated after recovering its first 32KB of data, hammered at $101,000 and came to $123,220 with fees, per Dexerto (Oct 26); it sat at a single $25,000 bid on Oct 22, per Time Extension. A sealed PSA 9.8 A++ Pokémon Red Version made $124,000 in Goldin’s February auction, per AuctionReport. A cart that doesn’t boot in a Game Boy priced level with the best sealed retail copy, so in graded games the story of an object can price like condition.
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| TCG |
The 30th Celebration Elite Trainer Box tracked at $112 on Oct 27, from $127 a week earlier and 35% under its $173 release-week mark; nine loose packs at $11.85 (about $107) plus the roughly $5 promo now add up to the box, and Delta Reign’s booster bundle fell from $68 to $55 in a week before its Nov 6 release, per Chase Society. (Chase Society, Oct 27) |
| TCG |
The FBI has joined Santa Ana police on the Oct 13 theft of 6,451 graded cards from a FedEx truck at PSA’s shipping site; PSA says it gave investigators video, shipment manifests and item-level records, and the stolen Babe Ruth and Bronko Nagurski certs are deactivated; no arrests or recoveries, per ICv2 (Oct 26). (ICv2, Oct 26) |
| TCG |
Ewbank’s £1.56 million (about $2.1 million) attic Pokémon sale of Oct 21 reached Sinclair’s national desk (Oct 23), Nintendo Life and ComicBook.com (Oct 26); the national desk gave the total in euros and ComicBook.com put it at about $1.17 million, which is a different UK sale, so the £1.56 million in our No. 008 stands. (Nintendo Life, Oct 26) |
| VIDEO GAMES |
GoldenEye 007’s ladder for sealed N64 copies: a WATA 9.8 A++ initial-production copy made $192,000 at Heritage in October 2021, a PSA 9.8 A++ made $125,000 with premium at Heritage on Aug 29, 2026, and a WATA 9.4 A++ made $22,800 there in January 2021. (What The Slab · Overstreet Access) |
| ANIME |
Studio Ghibli’s top cel results are five months old: a Princess Mononoke San production cel made $67,100, Heritage’s best for a cel from the film, and a My Neighbor Totoro cel of Satsuki and Mei on the Catbus made $46,360 at Art of Anime Vol. VIII (May 15–17); a Totoro Catbus cel had made $13,000 at Vol. VI in March 2025. (Heritage via Anime News Network, May 20) |
| ANIME |
An Akira production cel of Tetsuo, Kaori and Kaneda’s motorcycle made $73,200 at Heritage in May, level with that sale’s record Pikachu cel; a cel of Kaneda riding through a crowd had made $48,000 at Heritage in 2023. (JustCollecting (2023) · Heritage via Anime News Network (May 20)) |
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STARTS
OCT 29 |
Heritage: Tapping Into The Many Worlds Of Magic: The Gathering Vol. X (TCG Showcase #43250) →
Session 1 Oct 29, 6 PM CT; $64,394 in proxy bids across 68 lots on Oct 26 per the sale page; headliner an Unlimited Black Lotus signed by Christopher Rush and Richard Garfield, per ICv2; no estimates |
$64,394 IN BIDS |
LIVE
THRU NOV 2 |
Propstore: Space Jam 30th Anniversary animation art →
167 lots of original animation art from the Warner Bros. Archives; closes Nov 2, per Propstore |
167 LOTS |
LIVE
THRU NOV 2 |
Mandarake Big Web Auction No. 136 (Zenbu) →
The four-sheet Dragon Ball Z genga set stood at ¥465,000 after 25 bids on Oct 26 and closes Nov 2; the Miyazaki-corrected Castle in the Sky genga was at ¥5,100,000 and closes Nov 7, per the lot pages |
¥5.1M BID |
| NOV 3 |
Landry Pop Auctions: the Doug Ferguson Pokémon collection →
The CGC-graded 2019 Doug Ferguson GX jumbo promo, est. $30,000–50,000, with more than 50 items, per ICv2 (Oct 21) |
EST $30K–$50K |
| NOV 20–21 |
Heritage Video Games Signature Auction #7455 (Dallas) →
Proxy bidding open, $689,483 in bids on Oct 26 per the sale page; floor session Nov 20, internet session Nov 21 |
$689,483 IN BIDS |
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| UPCOMING RELEASES |
DROP DATES |
| NOV 6 |
Delta Reign (Pokémon TCG, English): its Elite Trainer Box tracked at $106 and its booster bundle at $55 on Oct 27, per Chase Society
LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
ETB $106 ON OCT 27 |
| NOV 13 |
Magic: The Gathering – Star Trek (Wizards of the Coast): Play Boosters, Collector Boosters and Beam Me Up Bundles, with seven actor-signed headliner cards at 250 copies each in Collector Boosters, per ICv2 (Oct 20)
LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
SIGNED CARDS 250 EACH |
| JUN 11, 2027 |
Dragon Ball Super Card Game: Fusion World Story Booster 03 [ST-03] (Bandai): 12-card packs in 20-pack displays, 5 Leaders, 2 Secret Rares and new alternate-art cards; no price yet, per ICv2 (Oct 27) |
NO MSRP YET |
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FIELD NOTE
[DRAFT: needs David’s OK] The losing bidder sets the next price. Thin ladders reset fast.
The Art Academy Mudkip has three graded copies and they sold for $42,000, $3,720,000 and $4,880,000 inside two years; the Trophy Pikachu PSA 8 went from $982,100 in March to $3,080,500 on Oct 25. With so few copies, each sale is set by two bidders, and the one who loses becomes the first buyer for the next copy. On a card with a population in single digits, the last price is a floor for the next sale more often than a ceiling.
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