| RECON // NEWSLETTER NO. 006 |
MON OCT 19, 2026 |
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Know the market. Collect with conviction.
TCG · VIDEO GAMES · ANIME
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A PSA 10 Tamamushi University Magikarp sold for $1,056,000 at Alt, 5.7 times the last public PSA 10 sale eight months ago
| GRADE | PSA 10 · 16 AT 10 · 34 AT 9 |
| VENUE | ALT · REPORTED OCT 17 |
| LAST PSA 10 SALE | $186,000 · GOLDIN · FEB 16, 2026 |
$1,056,000 +468% VS LAST PSA 10 SALE
A 1998 Japanese Tamamushi University Prize Magikarp, PSA 10, sold for $1,056,000 at Alt, which calls it the most expensive Magikarp ever sold, per Collectibles News (Oct 17); the coverage gives no close date or lot link. The last public PSA 10 sale was $186,000 at Goldin on Feb 16, per PriceCharting’s sales history, and a pop-1 BGS Pristine 10 brought $210,800 the same day; PSA counts 16 copies at 10 and 34 at 9. Since that February pair, a PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator made $5 million at Heritage, a PSA 10 Torchic Gold Star $2.7 million at Alt and a PSA 10 Legendary Collection Snorlax $651,001 at Alt two weeks ago, so the Magikarp’s comp was stale by the time this lot closed, and the other 15 PSA 10s now carry a seven-figure comp with no second sale behind it.
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Fanatics Collect’s $8.4 million Art Academy Pikachu sale read unpaid for 16 days, was deleted on Oct 14 and came back flagged paid on Oct 15, while the lot page still says cancelled
The PSA 10 Raincoat Pikachu closed Sept 27 with 64 bids and sat unpaid in Fanatics’ public feed until the row vanished on Oct 14 and returned flagged paid at 1:09 PM ET on Oct 15, in a bulk update shared by at least 64 other lots, per Chase Society (Oct 16, updated Oct 17); the lot page still read cancelled on Oct 16, and Fanatics did not answer its questions. The same feed shows 15 lots of $40,000 or more deleted since Oct 8, all unpaid when last seen, and 34 of the Oct 11 night’s 54 lots over $100,000 still unpaid, $7.54 million in all, while Alt’s 48 readable lots all read paid. Fanatics’ FAQ gives buyers five days to pay and its terms ten business days, so the Oct 4 lots, a $960,000 Cresselia and an $840,000 Southern Islands Mew among them, reach that deadline between Oct 16 and 20; Fanatics’ own value for the Pikachu is $1,037,000, the price a second PSA 10 made at Goldin on Oct 11.
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Konami’s full emergency Yu-Gi-Oh! list is out: 34 cards forbidden, 8 limited and 1 semi-limited from today, the largest list since September 2013
The five parts revealed at YCS Houston from Friday night to early Monday name 34 newly forbidden cards, Called by the Grave, Crossout Designator, Triple Tactics Talent, Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier and Anti-Spell Fragrance among them, plus eight limited (Droll & Lock Bird, Branded Opening and Toon Table of Contents included) and Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage semi-limited, all effective Monday, Oct 19, per YGOrganization. YGOrganization calls it the largest list since September 2013’s 47 changes, and Perfectron Hydradrive Dragon is the first OCG-only card limited in the TCG since Sixth Sense in October 2013. The generic hand traps and floodgates had buyers in every deck, so they carry the widest exposure; Magnificent Maestros, the set the list clears room for, lands Nov 13 per ICv2, and the first prices under the new list are set this week.
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| TCG |
Three 2001 Southern Islands promos, all PSA 10, made $972,000 in Fanatics Collect’s Oct 11 weekly, per ComicBook.com (Oct 17): the reverse-holo Mew $660,000 on 33 bids, 21% under the $840,000 record set a week earlier, Togepi #4 a record $192,000 on 46 bids against $168,000 on Oct 5, and Slowking a record $120,000 against $108,000 the week before. PSA counts 20 Mew, 18 Togepi and 54 Slowking at 10; the $840,000 Mew is among the Oct 4 lots Chase Society reads as unpaid (Big News). (ComicBook.com, Oct 17) |
| TCG |
Santa Cruz’s $139.95 Pokémon TCG blind-bag skateboard decks sold out on their Oct 17 launch day, per Collectibles News (Oct 18): 30 designs plus three gold-glitter chase variants, two per customer. NHS Skate Direct’s listing says bot orders are being cancelled and more units may rerelease to the public on Monday, Oct 19, with no quantity or time given. (Collectibles News, Oct 18) |
| Video Games |
The Graded Games Report’s Oct 6–13 week was led by a sealed Pokémon Sapphire (GBA) at PSA 9.8 A++ for $35,100 on eBay, ahead of a first-print Final Fantasy VIII at PSA 10 A++ ($25,000) and a sealed Final Fantasy VII at CGC 9.8 A+ ($20,000): 698 tracked sales, down 4%, with the median up 13% to $355 and the average up 36% to $872. A Sapphire at CGC 9.6 A+ made $7,522 two weeks earlier. (The Graded Games Report, week of Oct 6–13) |
| Anime |
Art Animation VII, 185 lots of villain-themed anime production art, went under the hammer on Drouot on Sunday, Oct 18, with estimates from €50; the top anime estimate was a Castle in the Sky lot at €1,500–2,000, with Dragon Ball Z lots at €150–600 and Saint Seiya at €350–800, per the Drouot catalog. Results were not out in the sources we read by press time. (Drouot · im-a-collector (sponsored), Oct 12) |
| TCG |
Chase Society’s 14 tracked Mickey Mouse Lorcana cards went from $12,420 combined on Aug 19 to $13,312 on Oct 17, up about 7%, while the rest of Lorcana above $50 fell about 2%, the pre-release lift it first measured in Pokémon; the new Hyperia City Mickey Mouse, Best in Town sold for $2,500 and $2,900 on eBay in the two days after release. Tracked values, not sales, except the eBay results; Chase Society says the same run-up is due for older Rayquaza cards before Delta Reign lands Nov 6. (Chase Society, Oct 17) |
| Comics |
ComicConnect sold two copies of Action Comics #1 on Friday morning at New York Comic Con for $2.125 million combined, a restored CGC 9.0 for $1.3 million and a raw low-grade copy for $825,000 to John Dolmayan of Torpedo Comics, per Collectibles News (Oct 17), the first time the company has sold two at one convention. It has sold six copies in 2026, including a CGC 9.0 at a record $15 million privately. (Collectibles News, Oct 17) |
| Tech |
A working, Wozniak-signed ‘Hatfield’ Apple-1 (No. 48 on the Apple-1 Registry) with a January 1978 letter signed by Steve Jobs sold for $1,148,200 with premium at Bonhams on Oct 14 against a $500,000–800,000 estimate, a record for a commercially sold Apple-1 per Bonhams; the same machine made €516,461 (about $671,400) at Auction Team Breker in May 2013, per Collectibles News (Oct 16). Bonhams counts fewer than 75 verified survivors of about 200 built. (Collectibles News, Oct 16) |
| TCG |
Five Ascended Heroes cards sit among TCGplayer’s ten biggest 30-day Pokémon price drops for Sept 7 to Oct 6: Pikachu ex 276/217 down $110.87 to $877.35 Market Price and Mega Dragonite ex 290/217 down $101.40 to $506.15, behind only Prismatic Evolutions’ Umbreon ex 161/131, down $119.04 to $1,323.45, per TCGplayer’s seller blog (Oct 13). Near Mint cards with at least ten sales; TCGplayer Market Price, not completed sales. (TCGplayer, Oct 13) |
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LIVE OCT 9–22 |
Christie’s anime & manga sale (online) → Featured in No. 004 · about 130 lots, an Akira Kaneda cel est. $5,000–7,000 · online bidding closes Oct 22 |
EST $344K–$523K |
LIVE THRU OCT 25 |
Goldin Pokémon 30th Anniversary auction → The PSA 8 1997 Gold 1st Place Trophy Pikachu stood at $2,348,500 with premium on Oct 8, per Star City Games; only the Oct 25 close is confirmed |
LEAD LOT $2.35M BID |
LIVE NOV 20–21 |
Heritage Video Games Signature Auction #7455 (Dallas) → Internet bidding open since about Oct 15 ahead of the live sessions, per Heritage’s video games schedule; a PC Video Games Showcase follows Dec 10 (consignments close Oct 27) |
BIDDING OPEN |
STARTS OCT 19 |
Propstore: Space Jam 30th Anniversary animation art → Timed online sale of original animation art, prints and one-off pieces from the Warner Bros. Archives; opens 9 AM PT Oct 19, closes 9 AM PT Nov 2; no lot count or estimates on the page yet, per Propstore |
CLOSES NOV 2 |
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| UPCOMING RELEASES |
DROP DATES |
| NOV 6 |
Delta Reign (Pokémon TCG, English), the Mega Rayquaza set LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
POKÉMON TCG |
| NOV 6 |
Cyberpunk TCG: Welcome to Night City Retail Edition (Weird Co.): booster displays with 31 exclusive alt-art Iconic Rares; prerelease events from Oct 30 LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
PRERELEASE OCT 30 |
| NOV 13 |
Pokémon Card Game Special Deck Set (Japan): three 60-card decks led by alternate-art Mega Gengar ex, Mega Dragonite ex and Mega Feraligatr ex, with playmat and deck box, 5,500 yen |
JAPAN |
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FIELD NOTE
Grails reprice as a tier. February was stale.
A prize card’s last sale stops being its comp when the cards beside it move. The Tamamushi Magikarp had a $186,000 PSA 10 sale in February; between then and its $1,056,000 at Alt, a PSA 9 Illustrator made $5 million at Heritage, a Torchic Gold Star $2.7 million and a Legendary Collection Snorlax $651,001 at Alt, and a PSA 8 Trophy Pikachu was bid to $2,348,500 at Goldin. Buyers at this level price a card against what the other grails just did, so the next result in the tier moves every comp in it, and Goldin’s Trophy Pikachu closes Oct 25.
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