Which card games hold value after launch? Star Wars and Lorcana held, Japanese Pokémon lost 36%
Four Bandai games sit near the bottom of the table. Lorcana is the only game where the typical new card went up, and that is one set: Wilds Unknown.
Do some card games hold their value better than others after a new set comes out? We took every set released from March to early September 2026, 76 sets from 18 games, and measured the same thing for each: how a card worth $20 or more at the end of launch week was priced 30 days later.
In 17 of the 18 games, the typical card got cheaper. The spread between them is wide: from a 36% loss to a 5% gain.
The full table
| Game | Sets | Cards | Day 30 | Cards down | Day 60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon (Japan) | 3 | 26 | −36.0% | 96% | −56.1% |
| Dragon Ball Super Fusion World | 3 | 101 | −28.5% | 98% | −39.4% |
| One Piece Card Game | 3 | 104 | −21.6% | 89% | −30.0% |
| Gundam Card Game | 3 | 80 | −19.1% | 88% | −36.0% |
| Digimon Card Game | 4 | 83 | −18.7% | 87% | −23.4% |
| Pokémon | 3 | 27 | −16.7% | 85% | −32.4% |
| Grand Archive | 3 | 55 | −14.7% | 80% | −30.0% |
| Magic: The Gathering | 12 | 376 | −11.5% | 79% | −21.7% |
| Shadowverse: Evolve | 4 | 42 | −10.5% | 90% | −22.0% |
| Dragon Ball Super Card Game | 2 | 65 | −10.1% | 78% | −22.1% |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! | 9 | 200 | −9.9% | 76% | −17.8% |
| Union Arena | 8 | 137 | −7.8% | 74% | −26.9% |
| Flesh and Blood | 3 | 68 | −6.5% | 72% | −14.4% |
| Cardfight!! Vanguard | 6 | 109 | −5.4% | 76% | −14.6% |
| Riftbound | 2 | 85 | −4.3% | 64% | −9.2% |
| Weiß Schwarz | 4 | 36 | −3.3% | 67% | not enough data |
| Star Wars: Unlimited | 2 | 58 | −1.4% | 57% | −3.1% |
| Disney Lorcana | 2 | 42 | +4.8% | 43% | −0.8% |
"Day 30" and "Day 60" are the median change from the end of launch week. Day 60 counts only cards we could follow that long.
Japanese Pokémon fell fastest
Japanese Pokémon sets lost the most: 25 of 26 cards were down after a month, the median by 36%. Mega Darkrai ex 114/081 from M5: Abyss Eye went from $562.48 to $394.31 in 30 days and to $282.85 in 60. English Pokémon sets lost less in the first month, 16.7%, but their loss nearly doubled by day 60, to 32%.
Four Bandai games near the bottom
Places two to five belong to games made by Bandai: Dragon Ball Super Fusion World, One Piece, Gundam and Digimon. In Fusion World, 98% of the cards we followed were down after a month. Two other Bandai games did better, though: Union Arena lost 7.8% and the older Dragon Ball Super Card Game 10.1%. So the publisher alone does not decide it.
Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! in the middle
Magic has the largest sample, 376 cards from 12 sets, and lands near the overall median: down 11.5% at day 30 and 21.7% at day 60. Yu-Gi-Oh! is close, at 9.9% and 17.8%.
Star Wars: Unlimited barely moved
After two months, the typical Star Wars: Unlimited card was down just 3.1%. Only 57% of its cards were cheaper after the first month, the lowest share of any game apart from Lorcana.
Lorcana went up, but that is one set
Lorcana's +4.8% comes from Wilds Unknown, where 20 of the 21 cards we followed were up after 30 days. The other Lorcana set, Attack of the Vine!, fell 11.7% in the same window. Two sets are too few to call a whole game.
Wilds Unknown also shows why a rising price needs a second look. Buzz Lightyear - Jungle Ranger (Iconic) went from $1,373.19 to $3,529.34 in the first month. Since July its market price has hardly changed, but on October 25 the cheapest copy for sale was $1,799.99, about half of that market price.
What the table does and does not say
The table measures how fast new cards lose value in each game. It does not explain why. Most games have only two to four sets in this window, so one unusual set can move a whole row; Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Union Arena and Vanguard have more. We will update these numbers as more sets come out. For the overall picture across all games, see how much new sets lose after launch.