A Reddit investing post flagged the card as up 120% since release, and even if that number is coming from community tracking rather than a formal sales report, the sentiment is clearly bullish. Early post-release spikes usually fade unless real collector demand shows up behind them. Here, the chatter says buyers are still chasing it, which keeps the move alive for now. I wouldn't call it safe at these levels, but the market is confirming the hype instead of rejecting it.

The Ancient Origins M Rayquaza EX is reportedly pushing toward its all-time high, and that fits the broader pattern we've seen in older modern grails. Buyers who got priced out of trophy-level vintage are rotating into iconic EX-era and XY-era cards with real nostalgia and lower surviving gem supply. This isn't random. Gold Star Gyarados chatter, including a reported $2,600 pickup for a raw or lightly played copy and fresh enthusiasm for a PSA 5 grail copy, points to the same thing, collectors want recognizable monsters with status.

A few anecdotal retail finds tell the story. Perfect Order packs showing up cheap at a gas station and Knock Out Collection boxes surfacing at discount retail are mild bearish signals for broad sealed scarcity. Compare that with 151, where buyers are still treating product as hard to replace. Same hobby, very different behavior. Sealed isn't dead, but lazy sealed buying is.

The First Partner Illustration Series 1 discussion got traction because the math actually makes sense if you can source clean copies. The thesis is straightforward: sealed upside is slower, but PSA 10-friendly promos with Kanto starter demand can outperform if gem rates hold. That's a real shift in collector behavior. People aren't just hoarding boxes, they're asking where the best extraction value is.