The Promo Premium: promo cards out-price set cards in every TCG we measured
The card they hand you at the event beats the card you pulled from the pack. We split 311,355 card prices into promo sets and main sets across 26 games, and in all 26 of 26 the typical promo is worth more — a median premium of ~8×.
Every game, ranked by promo premium
Median promo price ÷ median main-set price. Tap a game for its full study.
| Game | Promos | Promo median | Set median | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorcana | 160 | $14 | $0.11 | 128× |
| Grand Archive | 151 | $15 | $0.35 | 43× |
| Gundam | 259 | $12 | $0.32 | 37× |
| One Piece | 994 | $16 | $0.44 | 37× |
| Flesh & Blood | 849 | $6.93 | $0.24 | 29× |
| Dragon Ball Fusion World | 509 | $6.28 | $0.40 | 16× |
| Riftbound | 144 | $3.91 | $0.25 | 16× |
| Pokémon | 1,907 | $12 | $0.93 | 13× |
| Yu-Gi-Oh | 972 | $3.90 | $0.36 | 11× |
| Godzilla Card Game | 46 | $6.35 | $0.68 | 9.3× |
| Star Wars Unlimited | 479 | $2.24 | $0.26 | 8.6× |
| Final Fantasy TCG | 200 | $1.67 | $0.20 | 8.4× |
| Elestrals | 96 | $2.47 | $0.31 | 8× |
| Union Arena | 315 | $3.00 | $0.40 | 7.5× |
| Pokémon (Japan) | 749 | $11 | $1.50 | 7.3× |
| CookieRun Braverse | 73 | $1.00 | $0.15 | 6.7× |
| MetaZoo | 118 | $1.60 | $0.24 | 6.7× |
| Dragon Ball Super CCG | 1,931 | $1.44 | $0.27 | 5.3× |
| Magic | 4,387 | $1.71 | $0.37 | 4.6× |
| UniVersus | 354 | $1.55 | $0.36 | 4.3× |
| hololive | 84 | $4.23 | $1.06 | 4× |
| Force of Will | 351 | $2.11 | $0.55 | 3.8× |
| Digimon | 498 | $1.40 | $0.43 | 3.3× |
| Cardfight Vanguard | 1,417 | $0.82 | $0.45 | 1.8× |
| Shadowverse Evolve | 271 | $1.00 | $0.55 | 1.8× |
| Future Card Buddyfight | 167 | $1.00 | $0.60 | 1.7× |
Below the 30-promo gate and not counted in the headline: World of Warcraft (4 promos, 24×), Sorcery (23 promos, 19×), Weiss Schwarz (25 promos, 0.9×). Weiss Schwarz is the interesting one — its event-card economy lives in sets that are not named “promo”, so the strict rule barely finds any.
Scarcity by participation
A main set ships by the pallet, and roughly two-thirds of it is bulk (the Price Census). Promos are different by construction: they are earned or handed out — event participation, league prizes, buy-a-box bonuses, convention exclusives, judge programs — so nobody opens a case of them, and the pool has no ocean of commons. The result is remarkably universal: whether the game is a 30-year-old classic or a 2024 launch, the labeled promo pool prices above the main line. The chases are famous: Lorcana's Elsa – Ice Maker (D23 foil promo) (~$3,750), Magic's Gaea's Cradle (Judge Promo foil) (~$3,999), Yu-Gi-Oh's Blue-Eyes White Dragon (Dark Duel Stories video-game promo) (~$3,000). Even so, we rank games by medians, not by those trophies.
From quiet bonus to second economy
The premium spans two orders of magnitude. At the bottom, Future Card Buddyfight, Cardfight Vanguard and Shadowverse Evolve hand out promos generously enough that they stay under 2× the set card. In the middle sit the classics — Magic 4.6×, Yu-Gi-Oh 11×, Pokémon 13× — where decades of judge, league and box promos have built a steady premium tier. At the top, the modern chase-economy games turn promos into a second economy: Lorcana 128×, Grand Archive 43×, Gundam 37× and One Piece 37× — the same 2022+ cohort that dominates our chase-multiple ranking. One Piece promos carry the highest typical price of any pool we measured: a median of $16 per card.
Method & sources
- For each game we pulled the TCGplayer market price of every priced card (one price per product, the Normal printing where present) across every set, via the open tcgcsv.com dataset. Sealed product is excluded by name. Identical measurement to our chase-multiple and price-census studies.
- A card counts as a promo if its set name contains “promo” (e.g. “Judge Promos”, “One Piece Promotion Cards”, “D23 Promos”). The rule is strict and reproducible; event cards living in sets named otherwise count as main-set, which makes the measured premium conservative.
- The premium is the median promo price divided by the median main-set price. Games with fewer than 30 priced promos are shown but excluded from the headline numbers.
- TCGplayer market price via the open tcgcsv.com dataset. Valued 2026-07-06. Reference estimates for raw cards, not sold or graded records; prices move. Reproducible from the open dataset.
FAQ
Are promo cards worth more than regular cards?
Typically, yes — and remarkably consistently. Across the 26 games where we could measure at least 30 priced promos, the median promo card out-priced the median main-set card in all 26, with a median premium of about 8×. The premium ranges from 1.7× in Future Card Buddyfight to 128× in Lorcana.
Why are promo cards more valuable?
Supply, mostly. A main set ships by the pallet and is ~two-thirds bulk (see our Price Census), while promos are earned or handed out — event participation, league prizes, buy-a-box bonuses, convention exclusives, judge programs — so no one opens a case of them. A promo pool also has no ocean of commons by design: it is usually one card per program, often foil or stamped. Scarcity by participation beats scarcity by rarity slot.
Which game has the biggest promo premium?
Lorcana. Its labeled promos (D23 and Disney100 convention promos, league prizes) carry a median price of $14 against a main-set median of just $0.11 — a 128× premium. The famous case is the D23 foil Elsa – Ice Maker at around $3,750. Grand Archive (~43×), Gundam (~37×) and One Piece (~37×) follow.
How was this measured, and where does the data come from?
For each game we took the TCGplayer market price of every priced card (one price per product, the Normal printing where present) across every set, via the open tcgcsv.com dataset (TCGplayer market price via the open tcgcsv.com dataset, valued 2026-07-06) — the same measurement as our chase-multiple and price-census studies. A card counts as a promo if its set name contains "promo"; that strict, reproducible rule is conservative (event cards in sets named otherwise count as main-set). Games with under 30 priced promos are excluded from the headline. Reference estimates, not sold or graded records; prices move.
Got promos in a binder somewhere? See what they're worth.
Foilio values any card across Pokémon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, Lorcana and more, live prices in EUR & USD, your whole collection tracked. Free, no signup.
Related research
The Trading Card Price Census
The baseline the promos beat: 63% of all set cards trade under $1, median $0.45.
29 gamesThe Chase Multiple: which TCG is the biggest lottery?
The same 2022+ cohort that tops the promo premium also runs the most top-heavy main sets.
128×Lorcana: the Enchanted premium
The game with the biggest promo premium also charges 66× for its Enchanted alt-arts.
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Source: <a href="https://foilio.net/studies/tcg-promo-premium?utm_source=share&utm_medium=study_embed&utm_campaign=viral">The Promo Premium: promo cards out-price set cards in every TCG we measured, Foilio</a> · data CC BY 4.0
</p>Foilio (2026-07-06). The Promo Premium: promo cards out-price set cards in every TCG we measured. Retrieved from https://foilio.net/studies/tcg-promo-premiumThe big picture, across every game we measure: The Chase Multiple · The Price Census · The Foil Premium