Whether Pokémon cards lose resale value when they rotate out of the standard tournament format

What this is

Whether Pokémon cards lose resale value when they rotate out of the standard tournament format: top cards show no discount; mid-tier playable cards lag 4–10 points.

How it’s built

1. Took month-end sold prices for ungraded cards from PriceCharting, a price-tracking site.
2. For groups of 48–75 cards, compared the median price change of rotated cards with that of still-legal cards over each rotation window, in English and Japanese.
3. Top English cards: −1.8 points at rotation; mid-tier: −4 to −10 points over the following season.

What we assumed

• PriceCharting’s sold prices represent the resale market.It is a vendor estimate of prices, not sales volumes; the research uses it as given.
• Rotated and legal cards differ mainly by legality.They also differ in set age and theme, which the research flags as a confounder.
• Hand-picked comparisons of 1–4 cards are ignored.They swing widely (+9 to +46 points) and are mostly noise; the larger groups govern.

Sanity check

In Japan, the 2026 window also contained a big new set launch on the same day, which muddies that result.

Where it comes from

Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes.