Mew ex #205 (Japanese 151): 21,198 PSA 10s Exist — and the Price Still Holds

Verdict up front: GRADE IT. A mint raw copy of Mew ex #205 is one of the rare modern cards where the grading math is not close. The Japanese print gems at an 81.7% rate, the PSA 10 sells for roughly 2.4× raw, and even the PSA 9 downside lands above your raw cost. The full math is below.

Published Aug 11, 2026 · Prices as of Aug 11, 2026 (PriceCharting) · Population as of SlabVerdict snapshot Jul 13, 2026 · JP market reference as of Jul 26, 2026

Mew ex #205 is the Special Art Rare of the set’s mascot — the card most collectors think of when they think of Japanese Pokemon Card 151 (SV2a). It is also one of the most-graded modern cards in existence. That combination — enormous supply meeting enormous demand — makes it the cleanest case study we know of for how population and price actually interact on a modern chase card.

The population: big, and almost entirely PSA

According to SlabVerdict population data (snapshot Jul 13, 2026), 27,979 graded copies of this card exist across the four major graders:

Grader	Total pop	Grade 10	Grade 9	Share of pop
PSA	25,945	21,198	3,694	92.7%
CGC	1,235	579	142	4.4%
Beckett	761	—	121	2.7%
SGC	38	26	3	0.1%

Two things stand out. First, this is effectively a PSA card: nearly 93% of all graded copies sit in PSA slabs, which is why PSA 10 is the only tier with deep, daily liquidity. Second — and this is the number that drives every conclusion in this article — 21,198 of 25,945 PSA-graded copies came back a 10. That is an 81.7% gem rate.

That gem rate is typical of modern Japanese print quality and it cuts both ways. It means grading a clean raw copy is a strong bet (more on the math below). It also means the PSA 10 is not scarce and never will be — the “population” argument for long-term appreciation does not apply here. What holds the price up is demand, not rarity.

The price ladder

Current levels, per PriceCharting (Aug 11, 2026):

Tier	Price	Note
Raw (ungraded)	$219.50	Recent sales $216–300 (late Jul)
PSA 9	$274.99	Recent sales $275–400 (May–Jul)
Grade 9.5	$275.00	Thin volume
PSA 10	$520.00	Recent sales $430–720 (spot-checked Aug 9)

Our own cross-check on the raw level: SlabVerdict’s Japanese market sweep (Jul 26, 2026) recorded a TCGplayer JP market price of $216.42 for this card — within 1.5% of PriceCharting’s ungraded figure. Two independent sources landing on ~$215–220 raw gives us high confidence in that number.

The ladder’s shape is the story. Raw to PSA 9 is a shallow step: about +$55, or +25%. PSA 9 to PSA 10 is a cliff: +$245, or +89%. All of the grading value in this card lives in the last half-grade. And unlike most modern cards, the PSA 10 multiple (2.4× raw) has held while more than twenty-one thousand PSA 10s exist — demand for the set mascot keeps absorbing supply. According to SlabVerdict tracking, PSA 10 copies of this card have been selling at a pace of roughly one every other day since mid-July (13 sales tracked Jul 14–Aug 9), with the recent sale band at $430–720 — stable, not spiking.

The grading math

Take a mint raw copy at $219.50 and grade it through PSA. One important caveat on fees first: PSA’s Value tiers ($24.99–$64.99) have been paused since early June 2026 and remain paused as of Aug 11 — the cheapest live service is Regular at $79.99 per card (declared value up to $1,500, 40–50 business days). Using the pop-snapshot gem rates as outcome odds:

Outcome	Odds	Value
PSA 10	81.7%	$520.00
PSA 9	14.2%	$274.99
PSA 8 or lower	4.1%	~$62

Expected graded value: ~$466. Net of the $79.99 fee: ~$387 — against $219.50 for selling the same copy raw. That is roughly +$167 of expected value per copy, before shipping and marketplace fees, which affect both paths. Run it net of eBay’s marketplace fee — 13.6% plus $0.40 per order for non-store sellers, effective Jan 5, 2026 — and the gap remains: ~$323 graded vs ~$189 raw.

The full framework behind this calculation — including when the simpler break-even test is enough — is in our guide: Is your Pokémon card worth grading?

The downside case is what makes this card unusual: a PSA 9 at $275 still clears your $219.50 raw basis before fees. On most modern cards the 9 is a loss. Here the floor is shallow — only an 8-or-worse (a ~4% outcome on this print run) puts you meaningfully underwater.

One honest caution on those odds: pop-derived gem rates describe cards people chose to submit, which skews toward pre-screened copies. If your copy has centering or surface doubts, your true odds are worse than 81.7%. Judge the card in hand first.

What about CGC? The fee is far lower (Bulk $17 with a 25-card minimum, Economy $20, as of Aug 11), but the CGC 10 market on this card is thin — 579 CGC 10s exist against 21,198 PSA 10s, and sales are sporadic. For this particular card, the liquid exit is a PSA slab.

Verdict

GRADE IT — for mint, well-centered raw copies. The 81.7% gem rate and the $245 gap between PSA 9 and PSA 10 make this one of the highest-expected-value grading candidates in modern Japanese. Expected value is roughly +$167 per copy at today’s $79.99 Regular fee — and the math survives even a PSA 9. HOLD if your copy has visible centering or surface issues: below a 9, you are buying a $79.99 slab for a $62 card. Not investment advice — this is what our data says the market is paying today.

Data sources: SlabVerdict population snapshot (Jul 13, 2026) and JP market sweep (Jul 26, 2026); price levels cross-referenced against PriceCharting (Aug 11, 2026). Card-level prices and live sales tracking: Mew ex #205 on SlabVerdict. Compare graders on this card: SlabVerdict Compare. Run your own numbers with the break-even calculator on the card’s detail page.