Pokémon card market movers — week of Sep 22, 2026

Most price talk quotes what a seller is asking. These are moves in what buyers actually paid — the recency-weighted median sold price for each card, over the last 30 days, across every market Hoshino reads. Every figure links to that card’s live market, dips and all.

Every card below is backed by its own sold history: 508 individual sales across the 5 cards in this roundup, drawn from 15 sources in 7 regions, Asia included. Every one of them is a sale that happened — asking prices and catalog list prices never enter the number.

The Hoshino Index this week

Median % move across 5,702 cards with ≥ 45 days of real sold history and a market price ≥ $5. A median, not a weighted index — a fact, not a projection.

The median tracked card moved +0.7% over 30 days and +10.5% over 90, with the year at +65.5%. That is the number to hold the movers against: when the board is close to flat and individual cards are up double digits, the action is card-specific, not a rising tide. A median is deliberately dull — half the market did better, half did worse.

Biggest 30-day gainers

The largest upward moves in our tracked market — cards priced over $40 with a real sold history behind the number.

GengarFossil · #5$601+61.8%Hypno 🇯🇵Aquapolis · #042$100+53.9%

Why these moved

A percentage on its own is a headline. Below is the evidence under each: how many real sales sit behind it, where in the world they cleared, which grades moved, and whether the move is broad or one hot venue.

Gengar Fossil · #5

At $601, Gengar is +61.8% over 30 days. The last 7 days are flat — the move has settled rather than accelerated. Wider windows: +66.0% over 90 days and +110.0% over a year.

Behind that number are 87 recorded sales in the last 90 days, 51 of them inside the 30-day window, across 11 sources (eBay, eBay UK, eBay Canada and eBay Australia). 6 of those closed without a published final price, so the amount is inferred rather than confirmed. The recent buying is spread across 10 separate venues — broad, not one hot listing. Across all grades and conditions, the middle 80% of those sales ran $125 to $400.

By grade over the same window: ungraded copies at a $150 median across 39 sales, PSA 8 at a $331 median across 17 sales and PSA 7 at a $210 median across 7 sales. A PSA 8 copy clears roughly 2.2× an ungraded one — the grade is doing much of the work.

3 of those sales cleared in Southeast Asia (Carousell) — the side of this card’s market a US-only tracker never records. See the full sold history for Gengar →

Hypno 🇯🇵 Aquapolis · #042

At $100, Hypno 🇯🇵 is +53.9% over 30 days. The last 7 days are flat — the move has settled rather than accelerated. Wider windows: +48.2% over 90 days and +66.7% over a year.

Behind that number are 8 recorded sales in the last 90 days, 8 of them inside the 30-day window, across 2 sources (Yahoo! Auctions Japan and Mercari Japan). Across all grades and conditions, the middle 80% of those sales ran $38.86 to $311.

By grade over the same window: ungraded copies at a $48.33 median across 6 sales and PSA 10 at a $625 median across 2 sales. A PSA 10 copy clears roughly 12.9× an ungraded one — the grade is doing much of the work.

8 of those sales cleared in Japan (Yahoo! Auctions Japan and Mercari Japan) — the side of this card’s market a US-only tracker never records. See the full sold history for Hypno 🇯🇵 →

Cooling off

A market that only goes up is marketing, not data. These pulled back the hardest over the same window.

SuicuneNeo Revelation · #14$347-24.8%VileplumeAquapolis · #H31$106-23.3%AlakazamBase · #1$66.65-23.0%

Suicune Neo Revelation · #14

At $347, Suicune is -24.8% over 30 days. The last 7 days are flat — the move has settled rather than accelerated. Wider windows: -24.9% over 90 days and -24.6% over a year.

Behind that number are 106 recorded sales in the last 90 days, 35 of them inside the 30-day window, across 4 sources (PokemonPriceTracker (US sold feed), Whatnot, Mercari Japan and Carousell). 2 of those closed without a published final price, so the amount is inferred rather than confirmed. But 94% of them cleared on PokemonPriceTracker (US sold feed) alone: a single-venue move, not a broad one. Across all grades and conditions, the middle 80% of those sales ran $135 to $1,150.

By grade over the same window: PSA 8 at a $450 median across 26 sales, PSA 7 at a $299 median across 18 sales and PSA 9 at a $1,500 median across 15 sales.

2 of those sales cleared in Japan and Southeast Asia (Mercari Japan and Carousell) — the side of this card’s market a US-only tracker never records. See the full sold history for Suicune →

By character

By character, the strongest 30-day baskets were Cherrim (+65.7% median across 3 cards), Tangela (+26.0% median across 3 cards), Dark Gyarados (+23.3% median across 3 cards). A character basket is a median across that character’s tracked cards, so it moves slower — and means more — than any single card.

What this actually means

A big 30-day move tells you where attention and money went. It does not tell you where they go next, and nothing here is a prediction. What the evidence above lets you do is separate the two kinds of move that look identical in a percentage column.

A broad move shows many sales, several venues, and more than one grade tier participating — a repricing, where the next seller can reasonably expect something near the new number. A thin move is two or three sales, often on one venue. The percentage is real, but it describes a moment rather than a market. We say which is which above instead of hiding it.

Grade context decides the rest. When a graded copy clears several times an ungraded one, you are reading a grading story, not a card story. And when the sales cleared in Japan or Korea, the US comp you would otherwise anchor to is the wrong reference price.

How we measure this

The method is fixed before the data is pulled, so the article cannot be tuned toward a conclusion:

• Sold prices only. Every figure comes from a sale that cleared — catalog list prices and asking prices are excluded.
• Recency-weighted median. The headline price leans on recent sales, so no single outlier, old or new, can anchor it.
• Minimum evidence. A card needs at least 3 real sales, 45 days of sold history, and a market price over $40. Cards that fail are dropped, not written around.
• Inferred prices are labeled. A few venues close a sale without publishing the final price. We record those as inferred, say so wherever they are counted, and never present them as confirmed.
• Implausible moves are fenced. Moves past our plausibility ceiling are treated as data errors, not published as records.
• Global by default. Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, European and US sales all count, each converted to USD at the rate on the day it cleared.

The Hoshino Index tracks the whole board live, and this piece explains how we compute each number. You can also browse every tracked card or every set.

Disclaimer. Hoshino publishes market data, not investment advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any card, and trading cards are not a regulated investment. Prices move, and past moves do not predict future ones — do your own diligence before spending money. Figures are the recency-weighted median sold price as of Sep 22, 2026 and will drift after publication.