MATHEMATICS. Every number on this terminal is reproducible from the definitions below. Notation: I(t) index level, P(t) PSA 10 price, rₘ monthly return, n months since base, POP(g) PSA population at grade g.
AUDIT. Every scheduled refresh writes an entry to the Data Log — which marks moved, how many sales and asks were added or removed, and which sources could not be reached — so the automation can be checked rather than trusted.
SOURCES OF EVERY NUMBER. Open any card (click a row) and the modal lists each dated sale behind its chart with the grade and price; the Set Desk box chart shows every box sale as a dot; the tape links every record to its source page. Nothing on the terminal is typed in from memory — if a number cannot be traced to a dated listing or a named auction result it is shown as '—' or flagged §.
VPI COMPOSITE. .VPI blends sixteen vintage legs with fixed weights: GLDSTR 16%, Base Set 14%, Skyridge 10%, Aquapolis 8%, Neo Genesis 7%, Gym Challenge / Team Rocket / Neo Destiny 6% each, Gym Heroes / Expedition 5% each, Legendary Collection / Neo Revelation 4% each, Jungle / Fossil 3% each, Neo Discovery 2%, Base Set 2 1% — the full WotC run plus the Gold Star era. The GLDSTR leg carries documented sale anchors; the six set legs are anchored at current PriceCharting chase marks with October 2022 levels estimated from the vintage-market narrative (flagged §) — treat .VPI history as indicative until per-chase sale anchors are sourced. PONCHO is a modern-promo satellite index and sits outside the composite.
CURRENCY. The CCY toggle converts displayed prices at 31 Aug 2026 spot (1 USD = 0.7381 GBP · 0.8629 EUR · 159.76 JPY). Index levels are ratios of USD prices, so they are identical in every currency — the hedged view. An unhedged GBP/EUR/JPY index would also carry FX drift; spot-converting prices while keeping USD-based levels is equivalent to a fully hedged benchmark.
WHY .AGG SITS BETWEEN ITS LEGS. .AGG is a weighted average of level relatives — 0.60 × .VPI + 0.25 × .GLDSTR + 0.15 × .PONCHO — so it can never be above its strongest leg or below its weakest. With .GLDSTR at ~5× base, .PONCHO at ~4× and the 15-set WotC composite at ~2×, the 60% WotC weight pulls the aggregate to roughly 3×. That is arithmetic, not a data problem; the Gold Star and Poncho legs are the outperformers and the composite says so.
CONSTRUCTION. Each index is a weighted basket of PSA 10 price relatives, rebased to 1,000 at October 2022, using fixed PGX weights set September 2026 (shown in the WT column) and applied across the full history — a backtest-style construction, not a rebalanced index. PONCHO holds ten Poncho-Pikachu XY-P/SM-P promos — the poncho full arts (Rayquaza ×2, M Charizard X/Y, Alolan Vulpix), the Pretend pair (Gyarados/Magikarp), the Mario & Luigi full arts and Poncho-Wearing Eevee. GLDSTR holds the complete 27-card English Gold Star roster from the 2004–2007 EX era, led by Rayquaza, Torchic and Treecko.
ANALYTICS. CAGR is annualized from monthly marks since base. Volatility is the standard deviation of the trailing twelve monthly log returns, annualized (×√12). Max drawdown is the deepest peak-to-trough fall in index level. RET/VOL is CAGR divided by annualized volatility — a Sharpe-style ratio with the risk-free leg omitted. The relative-value line is the ratio of the two index levels; above 1.0 means Gold Stars have outperformed ponchos since October 2022. The market map sizes tiles by last PSA 10 price and colors by one-month change. MCAP (10) on the Grade Desk multiplies the last PSA 10 price by the PSA 10 population, valuing the gem-mint float only; populations are shown solely where a source states them (Card Ladder, SI.com) and are never estimated. The grade ladder plots sourced marks for raw and PSA 6–10 (Card Ladder full ladders for Rayquaza ★, Charizard ★ and Base Charizard 1st Ed; PriceCharting ladders otherwise), with modeled PSA 6 rungs hollow, and documented PSA 1–5 sales as diamonds.
DATA. PSA 10 marks for the flagship names are Card Ladder last sales (Sep 2 '26 pull: Rayquaza ★ $682.5K Jul 9, Charizard ★ $276K Aug 20, Base Charizard 1st Ed $462.5K Jun 26, Neo Genesis Lugia 1st Ed $205.8K Jun 4, Aquapolis Lugia $132K Aug 23), with PriceCharting guides used where Card Ladder has no page. This terminal is a research snapshot, refreshed on request — the artifact cannot poll auction houses on its own. Levels are marked monthly. Diamond markers on the chart are documented transactions or dated guide values gathered from eBay sold data via PriceCharting, Card Ladder, Goldin and Fanatics Collect auction results, and dated price-guide snapshots. Every monthly path is now built from observed trades: 16,837 dated sold listings harvested from PriceCharting's eBay sold data (every grade tier, 128 cards), 354 sealed-box sales (eBay, Heritage, Fanatics, Landry), and Card Ladder / auction-house marks. PSA 10 levels are anchored on PSA 10 sales; between anchors the path follows the card's own PSA 7–9 monthly moves, and where a card had no graded sale in a month it follows the observed market factor (MATHEMATICS). Coverage is thin in 2023 (0–8 series per month) and dense from mid-2025 (50–120 series per month) — the coverage strip under the index chart shows the observation count month by month. What is still a model: the monthly median itself (one number for a month that may hold several sales), and the assumption that a card's PSA 10 moves with its PSA 7–9 in months where no PSA 10 traded. Rows flagged § include estimated early-period anchors where no dated sale could be sourced; treat pre-2024 levels for those names as indicative, and interpolation smooths the computed volatility and drawdown figures.
WHEN AN ASK SELLS. Every listing on the Live Asks & Bids board is re-opened every eight hours. If a tracked listing has SOLD, the refresh records the sale (price, date, source) and the terminal treats it exactly like any other print: it becomes that grade's last sold in the card's order book, sets the PSA 10 / PSA 9 / lower-grade mark on every board, updates the card's monthly series and the last month of .GLDSTR / .PONCHO / .AGG, adds a box sale and re-marks the box (with the 1st Edition floor rule), posts to the tape flagged "sold from a tracked ask", and removes the listing. Set legs pick the sale up on the next daily rebuild.
ASKS. The Live Asks board on the tape lists active listings actually seen on the cited page (Loose Packs, DA Card World, eBay item pages, Fanatics Collect buy-now, TBC Games) with the price, the date seen and a link. Asks never set a mark. Sources that refuse automated reads — eBay search results, Fanatics and Goldin search, TCGplayer, Collectors Cache, Potomac — are simply absent rather than guessed. 1st Edition box marks apply a floor at the same set's Unlimited mark: PriceCharting's "1st Edition" pages carry resealed and mislabelled boxes at Unlimited-level prices, and a sealed 1st Edition box does not trade below its Unlimited twin, so sub-floor comps are treated as mislabelled.
CAVEATS. Thin markets: several constituents trade a handful of times per year, so single prints move the mark, and computed volatility understates true trade-to-trade dispersion. Japanese marketplace asks (e.g. ¥8.35M Mario 294 PSA 10) are listings, not sales, and are excluded. Outlier grades and lots (the $1.02M CGC Pristine 10 Rayquaza ★, BGS Black Label ponchos) appear on the tape but do not set constituent marks, which follow the PSA 10 population. Not investment advice.