Charizard ex 151 pop report: a hundred thousand grades, one in four gems

Published August 15, 2026 · Pop figures refresh with every site build; the current pull is August 13, 2026

The modern grading machine has a favorite meal, and it is this card. 102,881 Charizard ex Special Illustration Rares from Scarlet and Violet 151 have passed through PSA since September 2023, a pace that puts it within reach of the unlimited Base Set Charizard's quarter century census. The machine's verdict so far: 28,379 tens, and a wall of 49,732 nines.

What the machine has counted so far

The August 13, 2026 numbers: 102,881 graded, 28,379 PSA 10s, 49,732 PSA 9s, 19,246 PSA 8s. Gem rate: 27.6 percent, with nines outnumbering tens nearly two to one. Last period added 1,735 grades. For a card you could pull from a booster at Target two years ago, the census scale is remarkable; for submitters, the shape of it is the warning.

Now the comparison that explains everything: the Japanese Special Art Rare of this same artwork gems at 84 percent. Same painting, same design, different factory. English SV era foil comes out of the pack with surface scratches, print lines, and edge silvering on the dark frame, the explanation collectors converge on, and the three-fold gem gap between the two printings is the measured result. When a card exists in two printings this different, the pop report's separate rows are the only honest way to read it; our guide on how pop reports work covers why those rows never merge.

The card itself

151 released September 22, 2023, an entire set built on Kanto nostalgia, and miki kudo drew its crown: Charizard over a volcanic canyon at dusk, trailing flame past pink cloudbanks. kudo's TCG history goes back to Butterfree in Generations, 64 cards and counting. TCGplayer's authentication team measured a specific SIR at roughly 1 in 549 packs at release, hard enough to hurt, common enough that product volume built this census anyway.

Costs against a two to one field

Almost every line in there loses to the fee. The modal outcome, the 9, clears raw by $42 before the $80 fee takes it negative. The 8 is a straight loss. Everything rides on a 27.6 percent event, and unlike vintage, you cannot blame your childhood: the copies failing were failed by the printer. The October 2024 spike that pushed 10s toward $700 has since doubled, so at least the prize keeps growing while the odds hold still.

Send it in or slab shop?

Pre-screen ruthlessly or buy the slab. If the surface stays clean while you rock it under a bright bulb and the centering beats the frame's tight tolerances, the 4x multiple on the 10 justifies the swing; anything less and you are donating $80 to the census. This card is the direct heir of the arc that started with the Base Set Charizard PSA 10 pop, and its census cousin is the Celebrations Charizard, the reprint that shows what this row would look like if the English factory matched the Japanese one. All three sort together in the BetterPop gallery.

Sources

• PSA population via the GemRate pull of August 13, 2026; figures refresh with each site build
• PriceCharting: Charizard ex #199, read August 15, 2026
• TCGplayer Authentication Center pull rate study (1,500+ packs, September 2023)
• Japanese sv2a sibling gem rate from the same census pull; artist credit verified on the card scan and the pokemontcg.io record