The Treatment Era: in many newer games, the treatment prices the card more than the rarity
Prices as of 2026-08-12. Today's prices will differ.
Line up 14 games from Foilio's per-game studies and a pattern shows in today's prices: the most expensive cards are often treatments (parallels, alt-arts, serial numbers, stamps), and the printed rarity either is a poor guide, gets multiplied past, or names the treatment as its own top tier. This is one snapshot of prices, not a measured trend, and most of these games are under ten years old.
Three shapes
The starkest case is the inversion: the priciest Star Wars Unlimited leader ($247.75) is printed at Common. The cleanest case is the same-card multiplier: a Lorcana Enchanted runs a median 66x the standard foil of the same card, and a Gundam LR++ runs 403x its base printing. The third is formalization, where the treatment is the top named tier, as with Grand Archive's Collector Super Rare. We measured prices, not print runs or pull rates, so we can't say how scarce any of these treatments are or why they price the way they do.
Two cautions. Several multiples are against a typical card priced under $0.25, where market prices are thin and often reflect very few sales, so those ratios are rough. And in Yu-Gi-Oh the same-card premium is smaller (1.85x to 5.72x), which shows the pattern is not universal. Knowing exactly which printing you have is most of valuing it, and scanning the exact printing is the fastest way to pin it down.
Inverted: the rarity letter is a poor guide
Sorting by rarity does not find the most expensive cards. In our data they sit in a treatment the ladder does not rank.
| Game | The printed rarity | The treatment | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star Wars Unlimited | Rare leaders' chase printings median $68.57 | Common leaders' median $79.25; the game's top card ($247.75 Boba Fett) is a Common | 1.16× |
| Riftbound | the Epic rarity medians $1.92 | the alt-art Showcase medians $28.73 | 14.96× |
| Final Fantasy TCG | Legends median $2.94 | the top card is a Signature HERO at $1168.4 | 291× |
| Dragon Ball Super CG | 27 rarity tiers, typical card $0.35 | 8 God Rares median $1,500 | 4286× |
| Godzilla Card Game | a Secret Rare medians $3.31 | the ++ SSSP parallels median $2,449 | 740× |
| UniVersus | the ordinary ladder barely moves off $0.41 | 20 serial-numbered Chrome Rares median $301.56 | 735× |
Floating: the same card, multiplied
One card, several printings. The treatment version of the same card prices far above the base printing.
| Game | The printed rarity | The treatment | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gundam Card Game | a base Legend Rare medians $1.92 | its LR++ double parallel medians $774.32 | 403× |
| Union Arena | a base Super Rare medians $1.39 | its 3-Star parallel medians $574.62 | 413× |
| Disney Lorcana | the standard foil of the same card medians $1.23 | the Enchanted version medians $101.88 | 66× |
| Elestrals | a plain SR medians $2.99 | its serialized parallel medians $200 (only 8 exist) | 67× |
| Yu-Gi-Oh | the same card's Common/Rare baseline | Super 1.85x, Ultra 2.18x, Secret 3.8x, Prismatic 5.72x, Ultimate ~18.65x | 18.65× |
Formalized: the treatment is the top tier
These games print the treatment as its own named rarity, and it prices far above the tiers below it.
| Game | The printed rarity | The treatment | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shadowverse Evolve | Legendary, the top in-game rarity, medians $2.06 | the cosmetic SSP tier medians $241.9 | 117× |
| Grand Archive | an Ultra Rare medians $8.73 | the Collector Super Rare medians $301.72 | 35× |
| hololive OCG | a high floor, typical card $1.27 | the 11 SEC full-arts median $999.99 | 276× |
Method & sources
- A synthesis of 14 Foilio per-game studies (rarity ladders, same-card premium indexes, treatment and parallel studies), no new data pull; every figure on this page is imported from its source study, and each source page documents its own data source, sample and caveats.
- Each multiple compares medians within ONE game and ONE source (a treatment tier vs a rarity tier, or the same card across printings). Nothing here compares absolute prices across games.
- Thin-sample figures inherit their source flags (Yu-Gi-Oh's ~18.65x Ultimate tier is directional; the Godzilla SSSP median rests on its two ++ cards). Valued 2026-08-12.
What this data can't tell you
- A trend. These are current prices from studies valued at different dates. We did not track rarity vs treatment pricing over time.
- Scarcity. We did not measure print runs or pull rates for any treatment, so “rare” and “expensive” are not the same claim here.
- Magic and Pokémon. Neither is in this comparison, and both have their own long history of special printings.
- Thin samples. Some treatment tiers have only a handful of cards, and some baselines are bulk prices, so several multiples are directional.
Collect one of these games for years and see something we missed? Tell us.
FAQ
Does card rarity still determine price?
Only partly, in the games we measured. Across 14 games from Foilio's per-game studies, the printed rarity is often not where the most expensive cards sit. In 6 games it is a poor guide: the priciest Star Wars Unlimited leader ($247.75) is printed at Common, Riftbound's Epic rarity medians a fraction of its Showcase cards, and in Dragon Ball Super the 8 God Rares sit far above the rest of its many tiers. In these games the special printings (parallels, alt-arts, serial numbers, stamps) carry the highest prices. This is a snapshot of current prices, not a measured trend over time, and many of these games are only a few years old.
What counts as a treatment?
Here, a special version applied on top of a card or a tier: Gundam's + and ++ parallels, Union Arena's stars, Lorcana's Enchanted versions, Elestrals' serial numbers, UniVersus' Chrome Rares, showcase and signature printings. Each game's own naming is used. The same-card comparisons are the cleanest: the same card prices 66x higher as a Lorcana Enchanted than as its standard foil, and up to hundreds of times higher in other games' treatments.
Where does rarity still work?
In Yu-Gi-Oh, the oldest of these 14 games, rarity is the finish: a Super, Ultra or Secret Rare is the same card in a different foil treatment. There the same card runs 1.85x (Super Rare) to 5.72x (Prismatic Secret) its common baseline, a real but much smaller premium than the newer games' top treatments. In Shadowverse Evolve and Grand Archive the treatment is printed as the top named rarity, so there rarity and treatment point the same way.
How was this measured?
This capstone synthesizes 14 of Foilio's per-game studies (rarity ladders, same-card premium indexes and treatment studies) with no new data pull; every figure is imported from the source study, and each source page carries its own method, sample sizes and caveats. Multiples compare medians within one game and one source; nothing is compared in absolute prices across games. Valued 2026-08-12.
Which layer is your card in? Scan it, pin the exact printing and treatment, and see what it is really worth.
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Related research
The Gundam Parallel Premium
The cleanest floating case: the ++ parallel of the same card prices hundreds of times higher.
$248The SWU Rarity Tax That Isn't
The starkest inversion: the game's priciest leader printing carries a Common rarity.
38×The Completion Divide
The sister study: what a playable set costs vs the full collector set, game by game.
Cite or embed this study
Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Paste the embed on your site for the chart card + a link back, or grab the plain citation.
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<img src="https://foilio.net/studies/og?stat=735%C3%97&label=what%20a%20treatment%20tier%20can%20command%20over%20the%20typical%20card%20(UniVersus%20Chrome%20Rare)&title=The%20Treatment%20Era%3A%20in%20many%20newer%20games%2C%20the%20treatment%20prices%20the%20card%20more%20than%20the%20rarity" alt="The Treatment Era: in many newer games, the treatment prices the card more than the rarity, Foilio" width="600" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:12px" />
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Source: <a href="https://foilio.net/studies/tcg-treatment-era?utm_source=share&utm_medium=study_embed&utm_campaign=viral">The Treatment Era: in many newer games, the treatment prices the card more than the rarity, Foilio</a> · data CC BY 4.0
</p>Foilio (2026-08-12). The Treatment Era: in many newer games, the treatment prices the card more than the rarity. Retrieved from https://foilio.net/studies/tcg-treatment-eraThe big picture, across every game we measure: The Chase Multiple · The Price Census · The Promo Premium · The Foil Premium