| RECON // NEWSLETTER NO. 008 |
FRI OCT 23, 2026 |
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Know the market. Collect with conviction.
TCG · VIDEO GAMES · ANIME
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 | | IMAGE: VIA FARNHAM HERALD |
A Woking decorator’s 42 Pokémon master sets, bought for his son and left in the attic for 15 years, sold for £1.56 million at Ewbank’s on Oct 21, six times the estimate; the Legendary Collection set made £100,000
| SOLD | £1.56M (ABOUT $2.1M) · EWBANK’S, SEND, SURREY · OCT 21 |
| ESTIMATE | £250,000 · HAMMER TOTAL £1.2M |
| TOP LOT | LEGENDARY COLLECTION MASTER SET £100,000 · EST £15,000–20,000 |
£1,560,000 +524% VS £250,000 ESTIMATE
Ewbank’s sold a retired Woking decorator’s 42 complete Pokémon master sets, bought from an eBay seller in Malaysia in the late 1990s and stored in binders in his attic for about 15 years, for £1.56 million on Oct 21 against a £250,000 estimate, a £1.2 million hammer total and a house record, per the Farnham Herald; Dexerto, citing the BBC, puts it at about $2.1 million and says it passed the UK record Stanley Gibbons set on Oct 9 at about $1.17 million. The Legendary Collection Complete Master Set with a near-mint Charizard made £100,000 on a £15,000 to £20,000 estimate, a set bought for about £300 made £75,000, and Ewbank’s held £825,000 in commission bids the day before the sale, per talker.news. The estimate priced the sets on old comps and the room paid for condition: mint, unbroken 1999 to 2009 sets are a grading play, and two UK houses have now cleared seven figures on Pokémon in one month.
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Alt’s five seven-figure Pokémon sales from Oct 8 and 15 all read paid as of Oct 21, while 34 six-figure Fanatics Collect lots sit unpaid past the window and 59 results of $40,000 or more have been deleted since Oct 8, per Chase Society
The Typhlosion ($1,549,690) and 1st Edition Charizard ($1,385,274) from Oct 8 and the Magikarp ($1,056,000), Gold Star Mudkip ($1,046,250) and Daisuki Club Umbreon ($1,005,000) from Oct 15, every one a PSA 10 at Alt, showed paid with premium when Chase Society read the feed on Oct 21, closing the payment-pending flag our last two issues carried. At Fanatics Collect the same report counts 34 lots of $100,000 or more from the Oct 4 and Oct 11 sales unpaid past the five-day window, 59 results of $40,000 or more deleted since Oct 8 including the $960,000 Cresselia on Oct 20, and the $8.4 million Art Academy Pikachu flagged paid since Oct 15 with a lot page that still reads cancelled; Chase Society states what the feeds show and draws no conclusion about any lot. Its paid 1st Edition Charizard ladder runs PSA 10 $1,385,274, CGC 10 $193,502, BGS 9.5 $156,000, PSA 9 $108,000 and PSA 8 $41,700, so one grade step at the top is worth 13 times the price and the pop at 10 is the whole story.
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Twelve sheets of Castle in the Sky rough genga, listed as corrected by Hayao Miyazaki, stand at ¥3,600,000 (about $22,700) after six bids in Mandarake’s Big Web Auction No. 136, with bidding open to Nov 7
Mandarake’s lot page lists twelve 234 by 351 mm sheets from cuts B-911 and B-913 of Laputa: Castle in the Sky as “Hayao Miyazaki Corrected Rough Genga,” condition 8, with the dealer’s authenticity warranty; it opened Oct 15 at ¥3,000,000, stood at ¥3,600,000 after six bids with 63 watchers on Oct 22, and closes Nov 7 at 8 PM Japan time, before the 10% handling fee Mandarake adds to winning bids. At Pound Sterling Live’s indicative $0.0063 per yen that is about $22,700, roughly a third of the $67,100 a Princess Mononoke San cel made at Heritage’s Art of Anime Vol. VIII in May and below the $46,360 Totoro Catbus cel and $73,200 Akira cel from the same $2.5 million sale, per Heritage’s release via Anime News Network. A director-corrected genga set is the rarer object and has almost no public comps, so this lot will set one in yen; a four-sheet Dragon Ball Z genga in the same sale went from ¥15,000 to ¥460,000 on 24 bids and closes Nov 2.
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| TCG |
Magic: The Gathering made Hasbro $616.1 million in the third quarter, its first quarter over $600 million, up 34% from $459.4 million a year earlier, per ICv2 (Oct 21) on Hasbro’s Oct 20 release; the Wizards of the Coast segment’s operating profit rose 46% to $367 million and Hasbro’s revenue 15% to $1,595 million. CEO Chris Cocks called The Hobbit the fourth-bestselling Magic set ever; Hasbro expects Magic to fall in the fourth quarter on a lighter schedule, with about $40 million of Reality Fracture shipments pulled into Q3. (ICv2, Oct 21 · Hasbro 8-K, Oct 20) |
| TCG |
Fanatics Collect’s weekly auction sold three Legendary Collection reverse holo PSA 10s for $1,344,000 combined: Charizard $576,000 (30 bids; the record is $600,000 on Oct 12), Mewtwo $384,000 (23 bids) and Dark Dragonite $384,000 (20 bids; prior high $117,000 on eBay Sept 8), per ComicBook.com (Oct 21), which gives no close date. An Aquapolis Crystal Lugia PSA 10 made $360,000 on 45 bids in the Oct 18 weekly, tying the record set earlier in October, after $336,000 on Oct 11 and $148,511 in August; PSA counts 138 at 10, per ComicBook.com (Oct 22). (ComicBook.com, Oct 21 · ComicBook.com, Oct 22) |
| Grading |
PSA’s active backlog fell to 7.2 million cards on Oct 20 from 8.2 million on Oct 6 and a 12.4 million peak on July 28, per its backlog tracker; the target is 5 million, the Value tiers paused since June 2 have no reopening date, and PSA says it will reopen services in phases with the shorter turnarounds first. (PSA backlog tracker, Oct 20) |
| TCG |
Three special-set Elite Trainer Boxes now carry about the same tracked value, per Chase Society’s Market Movers (Oct 20): the 30th Celebration ETB at $127, down 30% in 30 days from $182, Ascended Heroes at $128, down 13% from $164 at release, and Prismatic Evolutions at $131, up 7% on the week. The 30th Celebration Booster Bundle is the 30-day faller at $76, down 39% from $123, and the XY Primal Clash booster box the riser at $4,067, up 7% after sales on Oct 11 and 14. Tracked values, not sales. (Chase Society, Oct 20) |
| TCG |
Flowing Fists, the next English Mega Evolution set, releases Friday, Feb 5, 2027, with prereleases Jan 23 to 31, per PokeBeach (Oct 20); it is a near copy of Japan’s Aura Seeker (Nov 27) and is led by Mega Lucario Z ex. (PokeBeach, Oct 20) |
| Anime |
Christie’s second anime and manga sale, about 130 lots estimated at $344,350 to $523,200 with an Akira Kaneda cel at $5,000 to $7,000, closed online on Oct 22; results were not published when this issue was built. The March debut made about $1.4 million with fees, led on the anime side by an Ito Ikuko Sailor Moon sketch at $88,900, per The Art Newspaper (Sept 22). (The Art Newspaper, Sept 22) |
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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; Goldin’s site is closed to our tool, so only the Oct 25 close is confirmed |
LEAD LOT $2.35M BID |
STARTS OCT 29 |
Heritage: Tapping Into The Many Worlds Of Magic: The Gathering Vol. X (TCG Showcase #43250) → Oct 29–30; sealed Collector Booster displays (Wilds of Eldraine, Modern Horizons III, Commander Legends), an Unlimited Black Lotus signed by Christopher Rush and Richard Garfield, and the Scrye, Duelist and Inquest oversized promos, per ICv2 (Oct 22); no estimates in the sources |
SIGNED BLACK LOTUS |
LIVE THRU NOV 2 |
Propstore: Space Jam 30th Anniversary animation art → 167 lots of original animation art, prints and one-off pieces from the Warner Bros. Archives; opened 9 AM PT Oct 19, closes 8 AM PT Nov 2; no estimates on the page, per Propstore |
167 LOTS |
LIVE THRU NOV 3 |
Landry Pop Auctions: the Doug Ferguson Pokémon collection → Prebidding open; the 2019 Doug Ferguson GX 18 x 25 inch promo, one of five oversized copies, in a CGC Authentic holder, est. $30,000–50,000, with 50-plus supporting lots, per ICv2 (Oct 21); the house’s site would not open for our tool |
EST $30K–$50K |
LIVE THRU NOV 7 |
Mandarake Big Web Auction No. 136 (Zenbu) → Featured in Big News · the Miyazaki-corrected Castle in the Sky genga closes Nov 7, the Dragon Ball Z genga Nov 2; 10% handling fee, payment due Nov 30 |
¥3.6M BID |
LIVE NOV 20–21 |
Heritage Video Games Signature Auction #7455 (Dallas) → Internet bidding open since about Oct 15 with $509,526 in bids on Oct 23, per Heritage’s video games schedule; a PC Video Games Showcase (#44352) follows Dec 10 with bidding from about Nov 12 |
$509,526 IN BIDS |
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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, per ICv2; a second set, Edgerunners: Burn Bright, made with Studio Trigger, is announced for spring 2027, per ICv2 (Oct 20) LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
PRERELEASE OCT 30 |
| NOV 13 |
Magic: The Gathering – Star Trek (Wizards of the Coast): Play and Collector Boosters with seven actor-signed cards at 250 copies each, per ICv2, and four Commander decks, Federation Fleet (Picard), Landing Party (Spock), Klingon Fury (Worf) and We Are the Borg (the Borg Queen), 32 new cards each with a surge-foil Collector’s Edition, preorders open, per Collectibles News (Oct 21); the decks may slip past Nov 13 in North America, per ICv2 LIVE LISTINGS ON EBAY → |
SIGNED CARDS 250 EACH |
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FIELD NOTE
A comp is a paid result. The flag is the figure.
Alt’s five seven-figure October results now read paid, so this month’s vintage Pokémon prints stand as comps, while at Fanatics Collect 34 six-figure lots sit unpaid past the window and 59 results of $40,000 or more have been deleted since Oct 8, per Chase Society. A result that can be deleted was never a comp, and a price guide that counts results on the night is counting bids. The number that moves a market is the one that cleared, and the paid flag is now the first figure to read on any seven-figure sale.
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