How Drop Sheet works

Drop Sheet does two things. It tracks Pokémon prices every day (the Pokémon Era Indexes, the Pokémon Sealed Era Indexes and Pokémon Movers) and graded sports card prices every week (the Sports Card Era Indexes), and it puts every drop that matters (Pokémon TCG, sports cards, Supreme and sneakers) on one weekly calendar with retail, resale and a straight call. This page explains exactly how each number and each call is made.

• The call
• Resale numbers
• Pokémon Era Indexes
• Sealed Era Indexes
• Set Indexes
• Sports Card Era Indexes
• Movers
• House rules

How a Cop / Maybe / Skip call is made

1. Retail. We start from the retail price (MSRP) on the brand's or a retailer's page. If a manufacturer doesn't publish one on a page we can read, the card says "Not published".
2. Resale. Next to it goes the current resale number, labeled by type (see below), with the date we read it. No real number means "No resale data yet".
3. The evidence. An editor weighs the gap between resale and retail with the evidence behind it: pre-release asks, the presale market and comparable past drops. An ask barely over retail can still be a loss once selling fees come out, and a single thin ask isn't a market.
4. The call. One of three, with a one-line reason on every card:
   • Cop Evidence says it holds above retail, or it's an unusually good price for what's inside.
   • Maybe Buy it if you'll use, wear, rip or play it. Don't count on flipping it.
   • Skip Overpriced for the market, plentiful, or already asking under retail.
5. After the drop. Resale numbers refresh every morning, and price-quoting reasons are re-filled from the fresh numbers so they can't go stale. The call itself only changes when an editor changes it. Last week's results check recent drops against retail, and the Below retail board lists anything trading under MSRP, so the calls are graded in public.

Calls are editorial opinion based on the data we link. They aren't financial advice.

Resale numbers and where they come from

A resale number is a point-in-time reading of one stated type: a lowest ask is what a seller wants, a market price reflects recent sales, and a retailer listing is what shops charge. A lowest ask is not a sale price, so every number says which type it is.

• Pokémon TCG: release dates from official product announcements; MSRP and the daily market price for sealed product.
• Sports cards: release dates from manufacturer and hobby release calendars; average or median retailer listings per box. When a manufacturer doesn't publish an MSRP on a readable page, the card says "Not published".
• Supreme: the weekly droplist and item prices. There's no reliable public resale feed for Supreme apparel, so most Supreme items show no resale number.
• Sneakers: release dates, times (ET), retail, SKU and the lowest current ask across the major resale marketplaces, cross-checked against a second release calendar.

How the Pokémon Era Indexes are built

Think of the Dow, for Pokémon cards: Drop Sheet Vintage 10, Drop Sheet Mid-Era 10 and Drop Sheet Modern 10 show where a whole era is heading, not just one card. See them on the homepage under Pokémon Era Indexes.

• The eras. Vintage is the WOTC era, 1999–2003: Base Set through Skyridge, including Jungle, Fossil, Team Rocket, Gym, Neo, Legendary Collection and e-Card. Mid-era is 2003–2016: the EX series, Diamond & Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold & SoulSilver, Black & White and XY. Modern is 2017 onward: Sun & Moon, Sword & Shield, Scarlet & Violet and Mega Evolution.
• The basket. Each index holds 10 fixed, hand-picked raw near-mint cards in their exact printing: 3 grails, 4 mid-price fan favorites and 3 affordable but very popular cards. A card only changes when we edit the list by hand.
• Base 1,000. The base date is the earliest date on which all 10 cards have a real USD price. On that day each index is 1,000.
• The math. Equal-weighted. Each day, each card's price is divided by its price on the base date; the index is the plain average of those 10 ratios × 1,000. A $2,000 card and a $10 card count the same.
• The prices. Daily market price (USD), raw near mint. Early history comes from daily price history, accepted only when it matches our own price for that exact printing; after that, from our own daily snapshots.
• Gaps. If a card misses a day, its last real price is carried forward for at most 3 days. A longer gap means no index point that day. Nothing is estimated or interpolated.
• 1D, 7D, 30D and 1Y change. The latest value against the last index point on or before 1, 7, 30 or 365 days earlier. If that point is more than 3 days older than the target date, the change is left blank until there's enough history.

How the Pokémon Sealed Era Indexes are built

Drop Sheet Vintage Sealed, Mid-Era Sealed and Modern Sealed use the same eras and the same equal-weighted math (value = 1,000 × the average of price ÷ base-date price). Each one tracks a fixed basket of iconic, liquid sealed products, each an exact product with a real market price: Vintage 12 (WOTC booster packs), Mid-era 14 and Modern 15 (booster boxes, Elite Trainer Boxes, booster bundles and packs). Vintage is packs only, because no WOTC booster box has a reliable market price.

History is our own daily snapshot of market prices (USD), starting Oct 19, 2026. Nothing is backfilled, so the 7-day change and the sealed movers appear once we have a week of snapshots. See them under Pokémon Sealed Era Indexes.

How the Pokémon Set Indexes are built

The Era Indexes show where a whole era is heading. The Pokémon Set Indexes go one level down: every English Pokémon TCG expansion from Base Set to today gets its own page with three numbers, all from our own daily market prices in US dollars. See them all at Pokémon Set Indexes.

• Which sets. Every main English expansion and special set (for example Hidden Fates, Celebrations, Crown Zenith, 151 and Prismatic Evolutions). Subsets that come in the same packs, such as Trainer Gallery, Galarian Gallery, Shiny Vault, Radiant Collection and Classic Collection, count as part of their set. Trainer kits, theme-deck and starter products, POP Series, McDonald's and other giveaway cards, prize-pack and league cards, energies and jumbo cards aren't indexed. A new set joins on its release day.
• Black Star Promo Indexes. The ten numbered Black Star promo lines (Wizards, Nintendo, Diamond & Pearl, HeartGold & SoulSilver, Black & White, XY, Sun & Moon, Sword & Shield, Scarlet & Violet and Mega Evolution) are indexed like sets, one page each, with the same Chase Index and Master Set Cost. A promo line's checklist is its official promo numbering (Best of Promos counts with the Wizards promos): one entry per promo number at its plain version, or its stamped version when that's the only way it came out, as with prerelease promos. Staff, prize, placement and championship versions aren't counted. We keep one index per promo line rather than one big promo index, because each line is its own numbered checklist from its own era. Promos come in collection boxes, tins, blisters and at events rather than in packs of their own, so promo pages have no sealed block or rip guide.
• Chase Index: the cards. On the launch date we take the set's 10 most valuable raw singles (fewer for small sets: a quarter of the priced cards, at least 3), one entry per card number in its main printing: Unlimited for WOTC sets that also have a 1st Edition, holofoil for holo cards, otherwise the regular print. Sealed product, code cards, oversized cards and stamped or pattern variants never count.
• Chase Index: the math. The same as the Era Indexes. Equal-weighted: 1,000 × the average of each card's price divided by its price on the base date, so the set's $2,000 grail and its $60 favorite count the same. Base 1,000 on the launch date (Oct 24, 2026 for the first sets; a newer set starts on its first day of prices).
• Chase Index: changes. The cards are frozen. On the first update of each month, any card that has fallen out of the set's top 20 is swapped for the most valuable card not already in the index, and a card with no price for more than 3 days is swapped at the next update. Swaps are linked in on the swap date, so the index level doesn't jump, and each set page lists them.
• Master Set Cost. What it costs today to own one copy of every card number in the set (its subsets included), at the market price of each card's cheapest standard printing. Reverse holos, 1st Editions and stamped or pattern variants aren't counted, unless a card only exists that way. Each page shows how many cards have a price today; a card without one is left out of the total, never guessed.
• Sealed. Today's market price for the set's key sealed products where they trade: booster box, Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box, Elite Trainer Box, booster bundle, booster pack and Ultra-Premium Collection. Retailer-exclusive bundles and cases are left out. Products that are also in the Sealed Era Indexes use that history for their 7-day change.
• The rip guide. A box's price next to what the set's chase cards and the full master set cost as singles. It ignores pull rates and the rest of the cards you'd pull, so it's a rough guide, not an expected value.
• Changes and gaps. 7-day, 30-day and 90-day changes work like the Era Indexes and appear once we have that much of our own daily history; until then the page says "Trend starts building". A missing price is carried forward at most 3 days. Nothing is backfilled, estimated or interpolated.

How the Sports Card Era Indexes are built

Drop Sheet Vintage 12, '80s & Junk Wax 12, Modern 12 and Ultra-Modern 12 track graded sports cards the way the Pokémon Era Indexes track raw Pokémon cards. See them on the homepage under Sports Card Era Indexes.

• The eras. Vintage is 1979 and earlier. '80s & Junk Wax is 1980–1993. Modern is 1994–2019. Ultra-Modern is 2020 onward. Each era mixes baseball, basketball, football and hockey.
• The basket. 12 fixed cards per era, each tracked at one exact PSA grade (for example a 1986-87 Fleer Jordan in PSA 9). We pick grades that sell often enough to price every week.
• The price. Each card's price is the median of its recent sold prices in US dollars: the sales of the last 30 days, or, if it sold fewer than 3 times in that window, its last 5 sales (within 90 days). A median keeps one strange sale from moving the card.
• What counts as a sale. Only the exact card at the exact grade. We leave out half grades, qualified grades (OC, MC, ST), autographs, other graders, raw cards, lots, reprints and parallels (a Silver Prizm only counts for a Silver Prizm basket card, and a base card never counts a color). Auctions and fixed-price sales both count. Accepted best offers don't, because the final price isn't shown.
• Outliers. A sale under half or over twice the card's recent median price is dropped.
• The math. Equal-weighted, same as the Pokémon indexes: the value is 1,000 × the average of each card's price divided by its base price, so a five-figure grail and a $30 rookie count the same.
• Base 1,000. Oct 22, 2026, the launch date, for all four eras. The base prices are frozen and never recalculated.
• Weekly, no backfill. The indexes update every Thursday. History starts at launch, so the 7-day change appears with the second reading (Oct 29, 2026). Nothing is estimated or interpolated.
• Rebalancing. A card or grade only changes by hand, when it stops selling often enough to price. The new card is chained in on the swap date (its base is set so the index value doesn't move), and the swap is logged.

How Pokémon Movers are picked

• The watchlist. A fixed list of raw Pokémon singles across the three eras, each matched to its exact printing, priced every day at its market price (USD).
• The move. The 7-day change in that price. It comes from our own daily snapshots once they cover about a week; before that, from daily price history, used only when it matches the exact printing we track. A card with no real price a week earlier can't be a mover.
• The board. The 10 biggest moves in each era (Modern, Mid-era, Vintage), up or down, ranked by size of move. Cards under $10 and moves under $1 or 1% are ignored.
• Graded cards. Not shown. There's no graded price source we can back up yet.

House rules

• US dollars only. Every price on the site and in The Thursday Sheet is in USD.
• No guessed numbers. If we couldn't find a real number, the spot stays blank. Every date and price links to where we read it.
• Calls are human. Scripts refresh prices; only an editor makes or changes a call.
• Money never changes a call. Drop Sheet earns from affiliate links and limited sponsor spots each week, always clearly marked. How we make money.

More about the site, the FAQ and the fine print: About Drop Sheet.