The Pulse: Pikachu 276/217 Dropped $115

Pikachu’s decline took a bigger step

This is the forest-scene Pikachu ex from Ascended Heroes, not the 30th Celebration Pikachu featured in last week’s Pulse. The number 276/217 matters: the two printings do not share one price history.

Its English Near Mint Holofoil reading fell from $926.12 on September 28 to $810.72 on October 5: down 12.46%. That single $115.40 step was larger than the combined $33.56 decline across the three weekly steps before it.

For someone tracking this printing, the change is therefore not simply “Pikachu is still lower.” The September reference points had edged down while remaining above $900; the latest one moved much farther away. A listing compared with the older September figures would be using a noticeably different reference.

There is a reason to keep the size of the move separate from confidence in a settled price. The latest weekly entry contains twelve recorded transactions, following four in the September 28 entry. This is not a carried-forward price with no new transactions, but it is still a small record—not proof that every copy now changes hands near $811.

Pudding kept the rise, not the same pace

Charlotte Pudding’s OP08-058 Parallel finished at $87.90, up $21.34—or 32.06%—from September 14. That is the substantial change in this particular Two Legends printing, not the $1.53 increase in the final week alone.

Most of the climb came earlier: $66.56 became $76.89, then $86.37, before the October 5 reading of $87.90. The last point extended the rise without repeating the roughly $9–$10 weekly jumps that preceded it.

An asking price near $88 would be close to that latest retained reference, yet still well above the mid-September level. That is the useful distinction for a Pudding collection: a higher recent comparison point, not evidence of another sudden leap or a forecast for other Pudding cards.

The October 5 entry records thirteen transactions, after eighteen the week before. The rise had not been given back in the observed prices, but a smaller increase and fewer recorded transactions do not establish what happens next.

What the next reading can tell us

For Pikachu, the question is whether another comparable reading remains near the lower October reference. For Pudding, it is whether the higher level survives the quieter finish to its climb. Fresh transactions behind those next readings will matter as much as the displayed number.

For now, Pikachu is the abrupt change; Pudding is the substantial climb with a quieter latest week. Keep the exact printing in view before carrying either price into a collection or listing comparison.