The secret rare hits from the next standard English Pokémon card set, Delta Reign (releasing on November 6th), have finally been revealed. And, as expected, the set featuring Mega Rayquaza looks amazing.
The standout card is the Mega Rayquaza ex SIR, but despite being another small set, there's plenty of cards to like here. Personally, I love the Raikou ex SIR, Zinnia's Trust SIR, and the Growlithe IR. Honorable mention goes to the Kecleon IR because the illustrator, Tomokazu Komiya, is GOATed.
Example hits from the upcoming Pokémon card set, Delta Reign.
This news comes as the market struggles with a summer market slump, where even great products like the Destined Rivals ETB have crashed 50% from nearly 6 times MSRP to... well... still almost 3 times MSRP.
Price history on TCG Player for Destined Rivals ETBs, which have fallen 50% in the past 3 months.
Yes, a 50% drop is a dramatic move for any Pokémon product... but the ETB is still selling for $140 on TCG Player, when its MSRP price is only $50. For a set that's only 1 year old, these are still incredibly high prices. My read: the market is still strong, even if the price continues to slide.
The English Pokémon market does appear to be in the midst of a consolidation, with many products trending sideways or down and new sets seeing their prices fall closer to, or even below, MSRP. As I wrote last week, Perfect Order and Chaos Rising have been underperforming while Pitch Black, Pokémon's most recently released set, appears to be trending in a similar direction.
So: is Delta Reign the savior we've been waiting for?
In my humble opinion, yes. When combined with the 30th Celebration set I believe these are very strong releases to close out 2026 that should drive continued high demand for Pokémon. In fact, I think the excitement for the 30th Celebration set, in particular, is so strong, collectors are saving their hard-earned collecting dollars for it, instead of spending as much on the most recently released sets, causing prices for these new sets to stay low.
The variable we can't know in advance is just how much supply is being printed. I'd love to be proven wrong, I still don't think The Pokémon Company International will be able to produce enough 30th Celebrations or Delta Reign to keep prices low.
Instead, I expect these sets to sell out quickly and, while there are likely to be reprints that help manage the price in the short-term, I'll be surprised if we end up with the kind of widespread availability and low prices of the 25th anniversary Celebrations set.
But, here's the thing: all of this is short-term speculation. We all went to get the most bang for our buck when we're buying new collectibles, and the price movements we could see in the months and years after release can be significant.
But, over enough time, all of these products tend to appreciate. Will you really care if you spent $50 vs $100 on an ETB when that same ETB is worth hundreds of dollars? For example, I just sold an XY Evolutions booster box for more than $2,000 USD. Of course, I wish I had paid $100 or less for that box, a price that was available for years after the set released. Instead, I paid $500: a price that was seen as absurd at the time as the box hit new all-time high prices.
But 5 years later, I don't really care. I never had a chance to buy it for less and the box appreciated all the same.
Price history for the XY Evolutions booster box on TCG Player showing large gains over the past year.
Over the long-term, all of these sets will be valuable, so maybe we tend to stress these details a little too much every time a new set releases...
Lets remember to have some fun instead.
As usual,
Thanks so much for reading the TCG Buyers Club newsletter. My name's Grey, I buy cardboard, and I'm on a mission to make collecting and investing in Pokémon simple.
Cheers 🍻