Reddit Roundup Pokémon TCG Reddit: 151 Charizard Is 40% Off Its High While Low-Pop Vintage Runs Hot

Each week we read the busiest Pokémon TCG corners of Reddit and put verified Catchinary price data next to the conversation. This week of October 25, 2026, Pokémon TCG Reddit argued about whether modern is on sale or still falling, and the 151 Charizard ex special illustration rare became the exhibit. It reads $295.70 on Catchinary today, 40 percent below its June high. The money that commenters think left modern showed up in low-pop vintage slabs and a $2.1 million UK auction, and the most commented thread of the week came from a 20-year-old asking what to do with $150,000.

Key takeaways

• The 151 Charizard ex special illustration rare reads $295.70, down from $493.44 in mid-June and $346.38 on September 25.
• The 151, Phantasmal Flames and Prismatic Evolutions chase cards fell 24 to 40 percent from their 2026 highs, while the Sword and Shield Giratina V and Umbreon VMAX alt arts stayed within 7 percent of theirs.
• r/PokemonInvesting blamed low-pop vintage for pulling money out of modern, and a Legendary Collection master set hammered at $134,000 in the UK against a $26,800 top estimate.
• The week's biggest thread, at 1,203 comments, was a seller asking how to handle a $150,000 card sale. The IRS taxes collectible gains at up to 28 percent.
• The 30th Celebration RGB Mews that 5,912 upvoters called ugly read $3,581 to $4,824.92, and the Jirachi ex special illustration rare fell 65 percent in a month to $40.97.

151 Charizard is 40% off its high, and Reddit can't agree on what that means

"151 Charizard down to previous high" was a chart post on r/PokemonInvesting that pulled 122 comments on 41 upvotes, nearly three comments for every vote. The top reply, at 46, called it a correction and said prices had been detached from reality. The longest reply, at 41, called it one of the biggest modern drawdowns since the Covid run began and blamed vintage: the money that usually comes back to modern after the summer slump, the commenter wrote, is busy chasing PSA 7 reverse holo Flygons. They admitted it was all conjecture. A smaller reply asked whether this card was really a $100 card at one point.

It was. Catchinary's monthly history puts the raw 151 Charizard ex special illustration rare between $90.56 and $117.50 from September 2023 through September 2024. Its daily TCGplayer market reference peaked at $493.44 on June 12, 2026, read $346.38 on September 25 and reads $295.70 today. That is 40.1 percent off the high and 14.6 percent lower than a month ago. We ran the same check on the other modern chase cards Reddit kept naming this week.

2026 high is the top daily TCGplayer market reference since Catchinary's daily snapshots began on April 25, 2026.

The split is clean. The cards that ran hardest this spring gave back the most, with the 151 Charizard, the Mega Charizard X ex and the Prismatic Evolutions Umbreon ex sitting 24 to 40 percent off their highs. The two Sword and Shield alt arts that collectors call Moonbreon and Tina are within 7 percent of theirs. The Bubble Mew from Paldean Fates sits in between: 20 percent off its July high, yet only 1.8 percent lower than a month ago, so its slide looks like the first one to stall.

The pushback came from "Can't wait to buy more modern during this fire sale," which drew 194 comments on 89 upvotes. The poster mocked the sub for flipping from modern to vintage and said they buy whatever nobody else is buying. The top reply, at 42, said holding for ten years does not fix a bad entry price, and that a gain under about 28 to 30 percent over that stretch would not beat inflation. Another, at 31, pointed out that Evolving Skies was reprinted three times during the Covid boom and barely sold for MSRP back then. One commenter said they bought a Bubble Mew and the Mega Charizard X on the drop, and another called the Perfect Order Meowth ex special illustration rare crazy cheap. It reads $84.63, down 13.4 percent since September 25.

Threads: "151 Charizard down to previous high" · "Can't wait to buy more modern during this fire sale"

Where Reddit says the money went: low-pop vintage and a $134,000 master set

The fire sale thread had its own theory about vintage. A reply at 17 posted a PSA 10 reverse holo Metapod from Legendary Collection and said it went from under $1,000 to $10,000 in a year, with heavy sarcasm about how organic that was. Another, at 21, said most low-pop vintage is low pop because nobody thought those cards were worth grading, then joked about sending a random Ogerpon ex to PSA today and calling it valuable in 20 years.

The raw card tells a quieter story. Catchinary's TCGplayer market reference for a raw reverse holo Legendary Collection Metapod has read $125.00 every day since our daily tracking began in April, which means raw copies are barely changing hands. When a slab goes up tenfold and the raw card sits still, a handful of buyers are setting the slab price. The same pattern showed up in "I didn't expect to 'double' my money in 3 weeks...," a Zapdos post at 168 upvotes. The top reply, at 64, said nothing is doubled until it sells. Another commenter claimed GameStop has been paying two or three times the last sale on cards like this to stock its Power Packs, without offering proof. It was the second week running that theory came up on the sub.

The mainstream version arrived on October 21. A retired decorator's collection sold for $2.1 million at Ewbank's in Surrey against a pre-sale estimate of up to $361,800, according to IBTimes UK. A Legendary Collection complete master set hammered at $134,000 against an estimate of $20,100 to $26,800, and a set the seller bought for about $400 went for $100,500. On r/PokemonInvesting, one commenter worked the master set out to about $1,165 per card and remembered seeing a complete set on eBay for around $10,000 a year ago. The highest-voted reply, at 13, was one word: bubble.

For anyone who wanted history instead of predictions, "Tell me more about the 2020-2021 boom bust cycle" drew 41 comments. The top reply, at 23, said the last modern bust came when print capacity caught up during Battle Styles and Chilling Reign, and that the panic bled into vintage boxes too. A reply at 15 posted the Umbreon VMAX PSA 10 chart and said this crash looks like a hill on a long climb. The raw card agrees for now: it is 7 percent off its July high in the table above.

Threads: "Can't wait to buy more modern during this fire sale" · "I didn't expect to "double" my money in 3 weeks..." · "Retired Decorator Becomes Millionaire as $400 Pokémon Set Sells for $100,500" · "Tell me more about the 2020-2021 boom bust cycle"

A $150,000 sale, a pop 25 Snorlax and the tax question

The most commented thread on r/PokemonInvesting this week had no price chart in it. "I recently sold a 150,000$ card..." drew 1,298 upvotes and 1,203 comments, more than six times the comments on anything else in the sub. The poster said they are 20, have never had more than $2,000 at once and got an IRS notice they were scared of. They never named the card. The top reply, at 204, said to stop telling people. A commenter who said they work in wealth management, at 121, suggested parking $75,000 for taxes in a money market fund, and another at 29 used 40 percent as a tax reserve.

"Snorlax might help me build an in-law suite for my mom" (166 upvotes, 74 comments) asked the same question at a smaller scale, about a Snorlax slab that one commenter said has a PSA population of only 25. Replies brought up a 28 percent collectibles rate, 1099-K forms from auction houses and the point that an LLC does not change the math. The 28 percent figure checks out: the IRS Topic 409 page says net capital gains from selling collectibles are taxed at a maximum 28 percent rate. Reddit commenters are not tax professionals, so talk to one before a sale this size. Your gain is the sale price minus what you paid, and if the receipt is long gone, a Catchinary card page with years of monthly history will at least show what the card was trading for when you bought it.

Shipping is the other risk at this level. Santa Ana police estimated $963,000 in trading cards belonging to PSA were stolen from a FedEx truck, with the theft reported on October 13, according to NBC Los Angeles. No arrests had been made. On r/PokemonInvesting the top reply, at 28, said the poster never had a package stolen or tampered with until they started ordering Pokémon cards.

Threads: "I recently sold a 150,000$ card, the card arrived and the payment is about to be released." · "Snorlax might help me build an in-law suite for my mom" · "Pokémon, sports cards worth nearly $1 million stolen from FedEx truck"

30th Celebration: the "ugly" RGB Mews cost $3,500 and up

"We can all agree these are ugly, right?" was r/PokemonTCG's top post of the week at 5,912 upvotes and 727 comments, aimed at the red, green and blue Mew cards from 30th Celebration. The top reply, at 1,292, said they need to see them in person first, and a reply at 257 said they look much better in hand, the same way the full gold cards do. Someone called them Four Loko Mew. Another commenter liked the nod to the original Red, Green and Blue games and wished Yellow had gotten one too.

Ugly or not, they are the most expensive cards in the set. Catchinary reads the Red Mew at $4,824.92, the Blue Mew at $4,041.75 and the Green Mew at $3,581.00. Red leads, which fits the commenter who planned to trade away a green or blue pull for a red one. Few copies sell, and the daily numbers show it: the Red Mew read $6,000.27 on October 18, $3,249.64 the next day, $5,250.63 on October 21 and $4,824.92 by Friday. One sale can move these by a couple thousand dollars, so treat any single price as a rough guide.

"Pulled Green Mew and Lugia in 12 packs" got 857 upvotes, and a reply said they hit the blue one on their very last pack. The Classic Collection Lugia reads $207.49, up 9.4 percent from $189.70 last Sunday, after losing 36 percent between September 25 and October 11. The bigger move went the other way. "Anyone else think this Jirachi SIR art is simply beautiful????" took 2,064 upvotes, with the top reply, at 145, calling it their favorite special illustration rare in the set and others crediting the artist, Akira Egawa. The Jirachi ex special illustration rare reads $40.97, down 64.7 percent from $116.18 on September 25, the steepest drop of any card in this roundup.

Threads: "We can all agree these are ugly, right?" · "Pulled Green Mew and Lugia in 12 packs" · "Anyone else think this Jirachi SIR art is simply beautiful????"

Away from the spreadsheet

r/PokemonTCG's second biggest post was a background Wooper staring at a shiny Gardevoir, at 5,204 upvotes, and commenters swapped other background cameos they love. A childhood photo titled "just so everyone knows I'm an OG" took 4,839 upvotes. The top reply, at 1,003, was another commenter's photo from 1998, and a reply at 176 pointed out that the original was taken in 2008. Two more posts cleared 1,500: a Walmart lottery bundle opening from someone with nobody in real life to share the hobby with (2,888), and "The homework reward cabinet has gotten out of control" (1,602).

On r/pkmntcgcollections, a complete run of every Ninetales card took 1,003 upvotes and 269 comments, and the top reply, at 52, admitted they kept waiting for the no damage Ninetales error at the end. Over on r/PokemonInvesting, "Ended up sniping Tina over Moonbreon" drew replies teasing the poster for skipping a low-pop vintage slab instead. Both cards sit near their highs: the raw Giratina V alt art reads $855.69 and the Umbreon VMAX alt art $2,236.75. r/PokemonTCGDeals had no posts at all this week, and its newest one is from October 14. Before you pay for a single, the markets page shows this week's biggest movers.

Threads: "It's funny how in awe is that Wooper of shiny Gardevoir" · "just so everyone knows I'm an OG" · "I have noone in real life that cares about this hobby..." · "The homework reward cabinet has gotten out of control" · "I have collected ALL of the Ninetales. All of them." · "Ended up sniping Tina over Moonbreon"

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