Mega Rayquaza's Japanese PSA 10 had a rough fall

Pokémon's Mega Evolution Delta Reign opens in English on Friday, Nov. 6, with Mega Rayquaza ex as the card everybody will be ripping for. Delta Reign is the English version of Japan's Storm Emeralda, where the same chase card has already lived through its release. This week a PSA 10 of Storm Emeralda's Mega Rayquaza ex special art rare #110 sold for $441, less than a typical raw copy went for in August.

The slide was a top-of-the-set problem. The cheap cards have held their prices since October: the Mega Rayquaza ex #95 sells for about $25 raw while the regular #58 goes for pocket change. Raikou ex, a special art rare from the same set, sells for about $34 raw. Part of the top card's problem is how well it grades. As of Nov. 4, PSA had graded 4,757 copies of the #110 and called 4,456 of them a 10, a 94% gem rate that turns a PSA 10 into the default copy instead of the prize.

English Ascended Heroes went the same way with its Pikachu ex special illustration rare.

To give the other side its due, the very top of Storm Emeralda is still a four-figure card. The Mega Rayquaza ex mega ultra rare #113 has come down since September with the rest of the chase cards, but a PSA 10 still sold for $1,772 on Oct. 31, more than any other October sale. A collector who wants the best Rayquaza in the set and doesn't care about the English printing can argue the Japanese MUR already did its falling.

But I wouldn't pay release-week prices for the English special illustration rare. Best Buy lists a Delta Reign booster box at $161. Ripping one for fun is a fine way to spend a weekend. If what you actually want is the Rayquaza single, I'd let the first month of rippers set its price the way Japanese buyers did, then buy it from the people who opened the boxes.