30th Celebration reprints: all 9 Pokémon cards worth $20+ fell since launch week
Lugia went from $304 to $198 in a month. Even the reprinted Base Set Charizard lost 20%, and the median card is down 27%.
The 30th Celebration Classic Collection came out on September 16: reprints of famous cards from Pokémon history. We leave its first two weeks out, because launch prices are set before real supply arrives. From September 30 to October 25, all 9 cards worth $20 or more got cheaper, and the median card lost 27%.
Lugia led the slide
Lugia opened at $210.79 on its first trading day and spiked to $389.31 on September 28, still inside launch week. By the end of launch week it was $304.38. On October 25 it was $197.65, a 35% drop in less than a month.
The lowest point so far was $175.52 on October 15. Since then it has bounced back to around $198, so the slide has at least paused.
The Base Set Charizard reprint lost a fifth
The reprint of the original Charizard from Base Set went from $196.57 to $156.67, down 20%. Magikarp fell harder, from $120.65 to $81.93, a 32% drop.
Mew VMAX barely moved
The mildest drop belongs to Mew VMAX: $23.70 then, $23.11 on October 25, down 2.5%. It was already cheap at the end of launch week, so there was less hype to burn off.
All nine cards
| Card | Sep 30 | Oct 25 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lugia | $304.38 | $197.65 | −35.1% |
| Charizard | $196.57 | $156.67 | −20.3% |
| Magikarp | $120.65 | $81.93 | −32.1% |
| Gengar (Prime) | $75.82 | $55.12 | −27.3% |
| Pikachu & Zekrom GX | $40.21 | $27.93 | −30.5% |
| Shining Celebi | $33.55 | $23.01 | −31.4% |
| Darkrai & Cresselia Legend (Top) | $27.60 | $21.02 | −23.8% |
| Rayquaza EX | $24.47 | $21.30 | −13.0% |
| Mew VMAX | $23.70 | $23.11 | −2.5% |
Why reprints drop after launch
Reprint sets sell on nostalgia, and the first buyers pay for being first. Once boxes are opened at scale, the same cards keep arriving, and prices settle where collectors who want a copy, not the first copy, are willing to buy. We saw the same thing with The Hobbit, where 36 of the 37 big cards fell.