Which Pokémon carry the market? I added it up.
By the person who runs Giraffe Trendz · October 2, 2026 · 4 min read
Everybody knows Charizard is the expensive one. I wanted the actual ranking. So I did the simple thing: for each Pokémon, add up the price of one Near Mint copy of every card it appears on, English and Japanese together. Call it the cost of owning the whole Pokémon.
| Pokémon | Cards | Cost of one of each | Change in nine weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charizard | 313 | $37,373 | +3.3% |
| Pikachu | 636 | $35,881 | +5.9% |
| Mewtwo | 224 | $23,069 | +14.3% |
| Gengar | 121 | $21,496 | +5.3% |
| Rayquaza | 133 | $19,858 | +20.1% |
| Mew | 132 | $16,521 | +7.4% |
| Umbreon | 101 | $12,765 | +2.3% |
| Dragonite | 137 | $12,577 | +6.0% |
| Blastoise | 111 | $11,214 | +8.4% |
| Eevee | 271 | $10,120 | +4.2% |
| Snorlax | 171 | $8,316 | +14.0% |
| Lugia | 85 | $8,054 | +14.5% |
| Gyarados | 140 | $7,829 | +17.8% |
Near Mint cards priced on both July 30 and October 1, 2026. Each condition and finish counts as its own card.
Two different ways to get there
Charizard and Pikachu are almost tied, but they got there differently. Pikachu has twice as many cards, 636 against 313. Charizard gets to the same total with half the cards because each one costs more. Pikachu is everywhere. Charizard is expensive.
Gengar is the one I'd point at. Only 121 cards, and it's fourth. Per card, Gengar is running hotter than anything else on the list.
The leaders are not the ones growing
Charizard is up 3.3% in nine weeks. Umbreon is up 2.3%. Those are the two everybody chases, and they're near the bottom of the table for growth. Rayquaza is up 20.1%. Gyarados 17.8%. Lugia 14.5%. Mewtwo 14.3%. Snorlax 14.0%.
I think the famous ones are already priced like famous ones. The money that showed up over the summer went one tier down.
The ones rising across the board
That table is about totals. A different question is where the typical card is rising, which tells you the move is broad and not just one grail. For Pokémon with at least 25 cards over $3, the leaders were Mudkip at +16.0%, Cubone at +12.0%, Slowking at +11.9%, Marowak at +11.7%, Slowpoke at +10.0% and Slowbro at +9.9%.
Yes, that's the whole Slowpoke family in the top six. I didn't expect that either. I don't have a reason for it and I'm not going to invent one.
On the other side, Ogerpon fell 7.8%, Zygarde 2.9% and Zacian 1.3%. All three are recent Pokémon that mostly live in recent sets, and recent sets have been falling.
One caveat
A sum is sensitive to the top card. Mewtwo's total includes a $3,000 Shining Mewtwo. If that one card reprices, the whole Pokémon moves. That's why I look at the typical card next to the total before I believe a trend.
Keep Reading
- Old sets went up. New sets went down. Here is how lopsided it was.Nine weeks of nightly prices across 184 sets: 119 rose, 34 fell, and almost every faller was printed in the last two years.
- Japanese or English? The same Pokémon is not the same price.For 130 of 153 Pokémon, the typical English card costs more than the typical Japanese one. Umbreon is the widest gap. Pikachu is one of the few exceptions.
- One in five cards moved 20% in nine weeks. At every price.I expected cheap cards to be jumpy and expensive cards to be steady. The data says the jumpiness is about the same from $1 to $100 and up, and the reason is how few times a card actually sells.
Market reporting, not financial advice. See how the numbers are gathered.