This week: a $348,000 Kyogre that one grader has never given a 10, a Lugia bidding at $3.7 million with a day to go, and three LV.X cards whose PSA 10s just closed at six figures.

  • Free Pick: Team Aqua's Kyogre EX, a PSA pop 11

  • Insider: Lugia EX (Plasma Storm 134) and the LV.X wave: Garchomp, Gliscor and Empoleon

  • Pop-1 Watch: 731 pop 1 and pop 2 slabs got company this week

Free Pick: Team Aqua's Kyogre EX

Team Aqua's Kyogre EX, Double Crisis 6. Verdict: REALLY RARE. Tens: PSA 11, CGC 0. TAG and Beckett not found.

Pokémon · Double Crisis · 6/34 · 2015

On the label: PSA pop 11
Across PSA and CGC: 11 tens

Is it really rare? REALLY RARE ■■■□

Grader

Top grades

Tens / graded

PSA
as of Oct

10: 11

11 of 5,990

CGC

Perfect 10: 0
Pristine 10: 0
Gem Mint 10: 0

0 of 543

TAG

not found

not found

Beckett

not found

not found

Data: CGC read live on 9 Oct. PSA from its pop report as published by PriceCharting (updated monthly), because our usual PSA source has no report for this card. TAG and Beckett do not have it linked, which is not the same as zero.

❝

Verdict: REALLY RARE. Eleven tens from more than 6,500 graded copies. CGC has graded 543 and has never given this card a 10, or even a 9.5. PSA gives one about once in every 545 tries.

What is possible

  • If you own a CGC 9: you hold one of CGC's top copies of this card. Nothing CGC has graded sits above a 9.

  • If you just want a ten: PSA is the only route we can see, and there are 11. Patience is not much of a strategy with 11.

  • If you are cracking a PSA 9 to chase a 10: PSA has given a 10 about once in 545 copies. That is a lottery ticket, not a plan, however good the centering looks.

Recent sales for Team Aqua's Kyogre EX are in the Insider section below.

Stat of the week

0 of 360. CGC has graded 360 Arceus LV.X promos (DP53, the Arceus tin) and has never given one a 10, or a 9.5.

The Lucario LV.X promo from the same era is 0 of 159. LV.X promos came in tins, and the tins were not kind to them.

This week's Insider picks

Lugia EX, Plasma Storm 134. PSA pop 21. Verdict for Insiders.

Lugia EX 134 · Plasma Storm

On the label: PSA pop 21. A PSA 10 is bidding at $3.7 million on Fanatics with a day left, and its PSA 9s went from $4,338.37 to $30,000.00 in three weeks. The other big grader tells a different story.

Inside: the four-grader count, the verdict, five recent sales and what the Sunday close does and does not mean.

Garchomp LV.X, Majestic Dawn 97. PSA pop 7. Verdict for Insiders.

The LV.X wave: Garchomp, Gliscor and Empoleon

On the label: PSA pop 7, 14 and 5. A Garchomp LV.X PSA 10 closed at $900,000 on 20 Sep. CGC's count on one of the three is not what you would guess.

Inside: the count for all three across graders, a verdict for each, the closing prices and the PSA 9 gap.

Pop-1 Watch: 731 pop 1 and pop 2 slabs gained a copy this week. One is a 1st Edition Team Rocket card that was the only CGC Pristine 10 out of 960 graded.

The verdicts are for Insiders

This week that means:

  • Is Lugia EX really rare, and what its slabs have sold for

  • Verdicts and closing prices for all three LV.X cards

  • Recent sales for Team Aqua's Kyogre EX

  • The full Pop-1 Watch, plus the archive

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