Reprints: what they are, why publishers print more, and what has happened to prices

$403 → $159Lorcana's first booster box, summer to December 2023, as its reprint arrived

−57%One Piece OP-01 box in one month, April to May 2024, after reprint news

0.45×Fusion Strike box against its MSRP at its June 2022 low

12×Evolving Skies Elite Trainer Box against its $39.99 MSRP, October 10, 2026

Sources: WDWNT (TCGplayer market price, December 20, 2023); PriceCharting monthly sold prices for OP-01, Fusion Strike and Evolving Skies; MSRPs from PHD Games.

In short

• "Reprint" covers three things: more of the same product, a set's packs in a new box, and older cards printed again.
• Publishers say it's about demand. Pokémon, Ravensburger and Riot have each said they're printing more because demand outran supply.
• Prices have often dipped as reprints landed, and some later rose past their old high. Other things move prices at the same time, so a reprint is never the only cause.
• The MSRP stays the yardstick. A reprint is a chance to buy at the price on the box, not a signal about where resale prices go.

1. 01Three kindsSame box, new box, or old cards again
2. 02Why they print moreWhat Pokémon, Ravensburger and Riot said
3. 03What happened to pricesPrismatic Evolutions and four more cases
4. 04Sword & ShieldUnder MSRP first, far over it later
5. 05What ifChinese-exclusive cards in English: a scenario
6. 06Reading an announcementFive things to check

01

Three kinds of reprint

• More of the same product

  Another wave of the same box. Walmart's image for its October 7, 2026 Prismatic Evolutions drawing was even named "REPRINT-2" (archived page).

• Old packs, new box

  A new product with an older set's packs inside, like the Crown Zenith collections of 2023 and 2024 (SNKRDUNK).

• Older cards, printed again

  Chase cards from earlier sets reissued in a new product, like One Piece's "The Best" premium boosters, PRB-01 and PRB-02 (Bandai).

Pokémon Japan announces reprints by name: Pokémon Card 151 was reprinted 11 months after launch (SNKRDUNK). We found no official guide to telling an English print run from a later one. Collector tells, like the "white bottom" on later English OP-01 boxes, aren't confirmed by Bandai.

02

Why publishers print more

"We missed the mark on demand and we know availability is making it harder for players to get everything they want, especially at MSRP."

Riot Games, November 10, 2025 (playriftbound.com). In March 2026 it said it would "continue printing early Riftbound sets until the market reaches more healthy quantities" (playriftbound.com).

• Pokémon

  On Prismatic Evolutions' launch week in January 2025, The Pokémon Company said it was working to print more "as quickly as possible", and repeated it in 2025 and 2026 (Wargamer, Nintendo Life).

• Lorcana

  Ravensburger fast-tracked a reprint of The First Chapter for holiday 2023, to get "as much product into the hands of fans as possible" (StarCityGames, September 29, 2023).

• One Piece

  Bandai hasn't posted an English reprint notice we could find; fan coverage of its March 2024 stream reported reprints were coming (onepiece.gg).

• What none of them say

  How many they print, or when a print run ends. Without that, nobody outside the company knows how much supply is coming.

03

What happened to prices

Prismatic Evolutions is the clearest recent case, with a reprint promise, a re-release and later Walmart drawings. Here's its Elite Trainer Box month by month.

• 
  Pokémon · Elite Trainer BoxPrismatic EvolutionsMSRP $49.99

  The standard box, not the Pokémon Center version. The chart below follows this exact product.

The pattern repeats elsewhere, with other things moving prices at the same time:

• Lorcana
  The First Chapter packs
• One Piece
  OP-01 Romance Dawn pack
• Pokémon
  151 Elite Trainer Box
• Pokémon
  Evolving Skies booster box

1. Dec 2023
   Lorcana, The First Chapter. As the reprint reached shelves, the box's TCGplayer market price fell from a $402.63 peak to $159.07, about its MSRP. Rise of the Floodborn launched the same weeks (WDWNT). By November 2024 it was back around $300 (PriceCharting).
2. May 2024
   One Piece OP-01. $475 in April, $204 in May, five weeks after reported reprint news; $1,861 by January 2026. PriceCharting may blend first-print and reprint boxes (PriceCharting).
3. Apr 2025
   Scarlet & Violet 151. The Elite Trainer Box fell from $270 to $197 the month retailers listed new 151 products, then kept rising (VGC, PriceCharting).
4. 2021–26
   Evolving Skies. We found no dated English reprint wave, and its booster box shows no step like the others: $141 in March 2022, $2,375 in July 2026 (PriceCharting).

04

Sword & Shield: under MSRP first, far over it later

Many English Sword & Shield products sold under their MSRP for a year or more after release, then rose far above it years later. Elite Trainer Boxes then cost $39.99 at MSRP, and booster boxes $143.64 (PHD Games).

• 
  Booster box · Nov 2021Fusion StrikeMSRP $143.64

  Sold under its MSRP in 2022; its low point and latest price are in the table.

• 
  Elite Trainer Box · Feb 2022Brilliant StarsMSRP $39.99

  Also under MSRP in 2022, far over it now; see the table.

PriceCharting monthly sold prices (Fusion Strike, Brilliant Stars, Evolving Skies; latest values read October 10, 2026). Evolving Skies ETBs came in several cover designs; this is the Vaporeon cover. MSRPs from PHD Games' 2021 solicitations (Brilliant Stars, Evolving Skies).

05

What if Chinese-exclusive cards came to English?

A scenario, not a forecast

Mainland China's Simplified Chinese edition has its own Sword & Shield sets, with cards no other language has: one list counts 78 Simplified Chinese exclusives "not released in any other languages" (PokiPair, August 30, 2026). The Pokémon Company hasn't announced any plan to print them in English, and we found no case of a Chinese-only card ever being printed in English. What history does show:

• English versions of Asian-first sets. When Japan's Shiny Treasure ex came out in English as Paldean Fates in January 2024, the Japanese box went from $90 (December 2023) to $44 (March 2024), then later recovered to $117 (April 2026) (PriceCharting). That case is about the original-language box when an English version arrived, not about older English sets.
• New cards don't add supply of old boxes. A Chinese-exclusive card printed in English would be a new English card. The reprint dips above (Lorcana, OP-01, Prismatic Evolutions) came when more of the same box reached shelves.
• Some rises came without reprint news. Evolving Skies climbed from about MSRP to many times it with no English reprint wave we could date, so its price moved for reasons other than supply news.

Prices can move for many reasons at once, so none of this says what would happen. It isn't a prediction or advice to buy or sell.

06

Reading a reprint announcement

1. Check the MSRP before you pay anything for the product; our buying guides list the main ones.
2. Watch where and when it lands. Riot's 2026 Riftbound reprints reached some countries weeks before others (Riot).
3. Don't pay above MSRP for something in print. Windows shows drawings, queues and pre-orders as they open, and Deals shows shops at or near MSRP.
4. Name the exact product. A Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box and a standard one are different products with different prices.
5. Remember what reprints don't fix: an out-of-print product is still judged against its MSRP.

Prices are PriceCharting monthly sold values, read from archived copies of its pages (Wayback Machine snapshots dated October 2026) and checked against its live pages on October 10, 2026, plus the reports linked; months are the closest resolution these give, and "latest" means October 10, 2026. Several things move prices at once (new sets, rotation, demand), so the moves shown happened at the same time as reprints, not necessarily because of them. Product images: The Pokémon Company International, Ravensburger and Bandai.