30th Celebration Card Values: The October 2026 Chase Ladder
Mew ex 152/128 leads the numbered 30th Celebration cards priced on same-day sales at $86.78 on Cardboard Alpha's October 15, 2026 evaluated prices, while three RGB Rare Mews sit far above it on asks and a guide value.
The three RGB Rare Mew cards sit far above every other card in Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration. Cardboard Alpha's evaluated prices for a raw Near Mint copy ran from $3,412.47 to $4,753.40 on October 15, 2026, but none of the three had a sale that day, so those figures rest on asks and a guide value.
Among the numbered cards priced on same-day sales, the leader is the Special Illustration Rare Mew ex 152/128 at $86.78, from 14 sales, ahead of Gengar ex 154/128 at $75.34 and Pikachu ex 150/128 at $57.68. The ladder below ranks only sale-backed cards, and the RGB trio and the Classic Collection, a separate 30-card set of reprints, are priced beside it.
How the ladder is built
The set was released on September 16, 2026, per The Pokémon Company International, with all-foil cards, one of 30 Pikachu Rares in every pack and a new Futuristic Rare tier illustrated by YOSHIROTTEN.
Unless another date is given, every price below is Cardboard Alpha's final evaluated price for a raw, English, Near Mint copy on October 15, 2026: one number per card per day, not one marketplace listing. A price becomes final three days after its day closes.
The ladder covers the catalog's 30th Celebration set, which holds 161 printings: the 158 numbered cards plus the three RGB Rares. Stamped and jumbo variants are excluded, and the catalog lists none for this set.
Each price rests on one of three kinds of evidence, and every table says which:
Same-day sales: five or more recorded sales that day, with outliers trimmed. The count is shown beside the price.
Ask-based: no sale that day, so the figure blends the best asking price evenly with the prior evaluation.
Guide value: a published marketplace guide price with no sale behind it.
An ask is what a seller wants, not what a buyer paid. An inferred sale is not an actual one either, so neither counts as a sale here, and only same-day sales earn a place on the ladder.
The sale-backed ladder on October 15, 2026
Nine numbered cards priced above $40 on October 15, 2026, every one of them on same-day sales.
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, English, October 15, 2026.
Below the three RGB Rares, the main set's next twelve places go to its next two rarest tiers in TCGplayer's pull study: the two Futuristic Rares and all ten Special Illustration Rares. The first Illustration Rare, Maushold 146/128, follows at $11.99, and the priciest of the 30 Pikachu Rares was $2.60. The affordable Illustration Rare guide prices that tier card by card.
Mew and Mewtwo hold four of the nine places. The two Pikachu ex printings sit three places apart, 150/128 at $57.68 and 149/128 at $45.99. Among the Special Illustration Rares the prices run from $86.78 down to $15.38 for Salamence ex 156/128.
TCGplayer's own ranking of the set's ten most expensive chase cards, updated on October 9, lists the top six cards on this ladder in the same order apart from one swap: it places Mew ex 158/128 above Pikachu ex 150/128.
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices and sales ledger, raw Near Mint, English.
That evidence does not settle their order. The blue's guide value read $1,702.50 on October 10 and $3,746.75 on October 11, with no sale behind either number, and on October 10 it sat below the green.
TCGplayer's ranking, updated October 9, puts the three first in the set and says they do not appear in the 30th Celebration Player's Guide or on the official checklist. Collider reported on September 19 that The Pokémon Company had confirmed them by adding images to the 30th Celebration card gallery and Pokémon TCG Live. This article claims no official status for the cards either way.
TCGplayer says the three colors reference the first Pokémon games, and its Authentication Center opened more than 3,000 packs before the September 16 release without finding an RGB Rare, so it could not estimate their odds. The catalog files the cards as 00R, 00G and 00B.
The red card read $5,300.42 on September 22, its first final day, and $4,753.40 on October 15, down 10.3 percent. Because an ask-based price gives half its weight to the prior evaluation, it moves slowly by construction, so the smaller fall is no evidence that the trio held its value better than the cards that rest on sales.
Even the lowest of the three October 15 figures, $3,412.47 for the green, is 39 times the top of the sale-backed ladder.
RGB Rare, red. Evaluated price, raw NM, $4,753.40 on October 15, 2026, from asking prices; no sale that day.
How the top moved since September 22
Cardboard Alpha's final series for this set begins on September 22, six days after release, so that is the earliest comparison the final data supports. The nine numbered cards above $40 rest on same-day sales on both dates, and all nine fell, by 38.7 to 52.7 percent.
Card
Place on Sep 22
Sep 22
Oct 15
Change
Mew ex 152/128
1
$165.49
$86.78
-47.6%
Gengar ex 154/128
2
$130.00
$75.34
-42.0%
Pikachu ex 150/128
4
$105.50
$57.68
-45.3%
Mew ex 158/128
3
$109.98
$51.99
-52.7%
Mewtwo ex 151/128
5
$85.99
$49.49
-42.4%
Pikachu ex 149/128
6
$83.00
$45.99
-44.6%
Jirachi ex 155/128
9
$71.00
$43.55
-38.7%
Sylveon ex 153/128
8
$73.15
$42.23
-42.3%
Mewtwo ex 157/128
7
$76.00
$40.25
-47.0%
Nine cards combined
$900.11
$493.30
-45.2%
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, English, September 22 and October 15, 2026. Place is among these nine cards.
The combined price fell 13.8 percent by September 30, then 28.7 percent from September 30 to October 4. October 3 alone took 14.0 percent: all nine cards fell that day, six of them by more than 10 percent. From October 4 to October 15 the combined price slipped a further 10.9 percent.
The ledger shows when prices moved, not why.
The order shifted less than the prices. Mew ex 152/128 and Gengar ex 154/128 held first and second, Pikachu ex 150/128 passed Mew ex 158/128, and Jirachi ex and Sylveon ex passed Mewtwo ex 157/128. Release-window price moves across other sets are covered separately.
Futuristic Rare. Evaluated price, raw NM, $51.99 on October 15, 2026, from 18 same-day sales; $109.98 on September 22.
The Classic Collection beside the ladder
The Classic Collection is out of the ladder. The catalog files its 30 reprints as a separate set.
Per TCGplayer, they keep the numbers and set symbols of the cards they copy, and a Classic Collection card turns up in about one regular pack in ten. TCGplayer's buyer's guide places dedicated Classic Collection packs, three reprints each, only inside the Ultra-Premium Collections, listed for November 6.
All 30 reprints rested on same-day sales on October 15, from 10 to 24 each. Ranked beside the main set, Lugia and Charizard would sit below only the three RGB Rares, above every card on the ladder. The Classic Collection set page lists all 30.
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, English, October 15, 2026.
Over the same weeks all four fell less than any of the nine ladder cards. TCGplayer identifies Lugia as the Aquapolis card and Charizard as the Base Set card.
Base Set Charizard reprint. Evaluated price, raw NM, $136.65 on October 15, 2026, from 24 same-day sales.
Pull odds beside the prices
TCGplayer's Authentication Center opened more than 3,000 packs before release and published per-pack odds for one specific card in each tier. The table sets them beside each tier's highest evaluated price on October 15, 2026.
Tier
One specific card, per pack
Highest price in the tier
RGB Rare
None found in 3,000+ packs
Up to $4,753.40 (asks and a guide, no sale)
Classic Collection
0.34% ± 0.20%
Lugia, $176.79
Futuristic Rare
0.42% ± 0.22%
Mew ex 158/128, $51.99
Special Illustration Rare
0.49% ± 0.24%
Mew ex 152/128, $86.78
Illustration Rare
1.10% ± 0.36%
Maushold 146/128, $11.99
Odds: TCGplayer's September 24, 2026 study, 95 percent intervals, cards in a tier assumed equally common. Prices: Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, October 15, 2026.
Down the table the top price falls as the odds improve, except between the Futuristic Rare and the Special Illustration Rare. Their intervals overlap, so the sample cannot tell their odds apart, yet the top Futuristic Rare costs 40 percent less than the top Special Illustration Rare. How pull-rate studies work covers the method and its limits.
What the ladder does not show
Release week: the final series starts September 22, so the first six days after release carry no final price.
Graded copies: every price is raw. No graded evaluated price existed for any card on this ladder on October 15.
Direction: a dated read is history, not a forecast, and nothing here rates a card as cheap or dear.
The three RGB Rare Mew cards. Cardboard Alpha's evaluated prices for a raw Near Mint copy ran from $3,412.47 to $4,753.40 on October 15, 2026, but they rested on asks and a guide value, with no sale that day for any of the three. The most expensive numbered card backed by same-day sales was Mew ex 152/128 at $86.78, from 14 sales.
Is the Classic Collection part of this ranking?
No. The catalog files its 30 reprints as a separate set, so they are priced beside the ladder. On October 15, 2026, Lugia at $176.79 and Charizard at $136.65 sat above every numbered card backed by sales, on 16 and 24 same-day sales.
Do the RGB Mew prices come from sales?
Not on October 15, 2026. The red and green cards were priced from asking prices blended with their prior evaluation and the blue from a published guide value, with no same-day sale for any of them. Between September 22 and October 15 Cardboard Alpha's ledger recorded six sales of the red, one of the blue and nine of the green.
How far did 30th Celebration prices fall after release?
Cardboard Alpha's final series starts on September 22, 2026, so release week is not covered. From that day to October 15, the nine numbered chase cards fell between 38.7 and 52.7 percent, and one copy of each fell from a combined $900.11 to $493.30. That is a record of past prices, not a forecast.
Does this ranking include graded cards?
No. Every price is for a raw, English, Near Mint copy, and no graded evaluated price existed for any card on the ladder on October 15, 2026. Stamped and jumbo variants are excluded.
Jackie Chung covers the Pokémon TCG secondary market for Cardboard Alpha, with a focus on grading economics and set value guides. She spends most of her research time in population reports and grade-spread data, tracing how submission volume, print runs, and grading-company standards shape the premium between a raw card and its graded counterparts across different eras. Her set guides are built the same way: grounded in published pricing and pop data first, with market narrative kept separate from the numbers behind it.
Jackie Chung's articles describe market history and mechanics using published population and pricing data. They are informational and are not personalized investment advice.
Price Guides
Celebrations Card Values: The Complete Guide
Celebrations' value sits in its Classic Collection reprints. This guide prices all 50 cards on Cardboard Alpha's evaluated prices for October 11, 2026, compares 14 reprints with their original printings, and sets the 2021 Charizard beside the 2026 30th Celebration one.
