Surging Sparks Chase Cards: What's Still Worth Grading

Surging Sparks Chase Cards: What's Still Worth Grading

Surging Sparks came out on November 8, 2024, and it is still one of the biggest Scarlet and Violet era sets by card count, at 252 cards including secret rares. Twenty one months later, the hype has faded but the data has not: raw prices have settled, PSA 10 comps exist for every real chase, and the population reports finally tell you which cards actually hold a gem grade instead of you guessing from pull-rate hype. This guide prices the Surging Sparks chase list as the market sees it today, not as it looked on launch week, and tells you which cards still clear the grading math.

Why This Set Still Comes Up

Surging Sparks is the set most people mean when they say "the Pikachu ex set." It printed three separate Pikachu ex cards across three rarity tiers, which is unusual even by modern Pokemon standards, and it turned Pikachu into the chase mascot for an entire Scarlet and Violet wave. That alone keeps the set searched and traded well past its release window. It also landed right as pull rates across the block started tightening, a trend that carried into later sets like Journey Together and Destined Rivals, which is one reason collectors still compare newer releases back to this one.

For grading purposes, an aged set like this is actually easier to evaluate than a set that just dropped. You are not projecting a PSA 10 price from Day 1 eBay sales of raw cards. You have real graded comps, a real population report, and a raw market that has already absorbed the initial hype dump. That is exactly the data this guide uses.

The Surging Sparks Chase Tier List (August 2026 Prices)

Card	Rarity	Raw (approx.)	PSA 10 (approx.)	Grading verdict
Pikachu ex #238/191	Special Illustration Rare	~$290	$450 to $600	Grade if centering is clean
Pikachu ex #247/191	Gold Hyper Rare	~$80	$100 to $400	Thin comps, high variance
Latias ex #239/191	Special Illustration Rare	~$180	$445 to $850	Strong grade candidate
Alolan Exeggutor ex #242/191	Special Illustration Rare	~$40	$190 to $255	Best multiple in the set
Milotic ex #237/191	Special Illustration Rare	~$133, rising	Comps still thin	Watch, grade once comps firm up
Hydreigon ex #240/191	Special Illustration Rare	~$35 to $40	Comps still thin	Set completion, skip grading

Prices move week to week, so treat the table as a snapshot, not a guarantee. What does not move as fast is the grading math underneath it: PSA charges $25 to $50 per card depending on your service tier, so a card needs real separation between raw and PSA 10, not just a nonzero one, before it clears the fee.

Pikachu ex #238/191: The Set's Signature Chase

Pikachu ex (Special Illustration Rare, 238/191). The card most people search for when they think of this set. Raw copies sit around $290, and PSA 10 examples have traded anywhere from roughly $450 up to $600 depending on the week, with a few outlier sales well above that on thin volume. The grading risk here is centering: the Special Illustration Rare full art bleeds artwork to the edge with almost no border, and PSA's tighter centering tolerance on modern SIRs means a card that looks fine to the eye can still miss a 60/40 measurement. Scan front and back before you submit. If the centering reads clean, the multiple still supports a grading fee comfortably.

Pikachu ex (Gold Hyper Rare, 247/191). The set's secret-rare chase, printed on the gold foil treatment. This is the card where price research gets messy: raw copies run close to $80, but PSA 10 listings range from about $100 on the low end to $400 or more on a good week, because gold foil secret rares are notoriously inconsistent graders and true gem copies are scarce enough that comps swing hard sale to sale. Treat any single listing you see for this card as a data point, not a price. If you already own a raw copy that looks pack fresh, it is worth a submission. It is not a card to chase raw at a premium hoping the grade covers the spread.

Latias ex #239/191: The Best Payoff in the Set

Latias ex (Special Illustration Rare, 239/191). This is the strongest grading play in Surging Sparks right now. Raw sits around $180, while PSA 10 comps run from roughly $445 to as high as $850 on the strongest sales. That is a real multiple after fees, and it holds up because the card's dragon-type appeal keeps demand steady even as the set ages. The main defect to watch is surface: the light blue background shows fingerprint oil and scuffing more readily than a darker card, so handle raw copies with gloves or by the edges before you scan them.

Alolan Exeggutor ex #242/191: The Value Grade

Alolan Exeggutor ex (Special Illustration Rare, 242/191). Raw copies trade in the $35 to $45 band, and PSA 10 examples sell for $190 to $255. That is close to a 5x multiple on a sub-$50 raw card, which makes it the best cost-to-reward grading candidate in the set even though it is not the headline chase. The card's biggest risk axis is corners: the illustration extends close to all four edges, and whitening on any one corner is enough to cap a PSA submission below Gem Mint. Check corners under a raking light before you send it in.

Milotic ex and Hydreigon ex: The Ones to Watch, Not Chase

Milotic ex (Special Illustration Rare, 237/191). Raw price has actually moved recently, up about 21% over the last 30 days to roughly $133, which is the kind of signal worth watching if you already own a copy. PSA 10 comps are still too thin to call a reliable number, so this is a card to hold and revisit once the graded population catches up to the raw demand, not one to submit blind today.

Hydreigon ex (Special Illustration Rare, 240/191). Pulls at roughly 1 in 960 packs, but the raw price has settled at just $35 to $40 and graded comps remain sparse. That combination, a real pull rate but a soft raw price and no liquid PSA 10 market, is the signature of a set-completion card rather than a chase. Keep it in a binder. Do not spend a grading fee on it unless you are submitting a bulk batch where the marginal cost per card is near zero.

The Grading Axes That Decide a Surging Sparks PSA 10

Every Special Illustration Rare in this set shares the same modern full-bleed layout, which means the same four axes decide most PSA outcomes:

Centering. The full-bleed SIR frame gives you almost no white border to measure against, so small print-run shifts read as bigger centering misses than they would on a bordered card. This is the single biggest reason a pack-fresh SIR misses Gem Mint.

Corners. Illustration extends to the card edge on every SIR in the set, so any whitening shows immediately against the art rather than against a white border. Sleeve these cards the moment they come out of the pack.

Surface. Light backgrounds like Latias ex show fingerprints and scuffs faster than dark ones. Handle by the edges and scan before you decide to submit.

Edges. Standard risk for a modern glossy card: rough shuffling and top-loader friction show up here first. A card that has lived loose in a binder pocket for 21 months is more likely to show edge wear than one pulled straight into a sleeve.

If you are not sure where a specific card stands on these four axes, run it through a quick scan before you commit to a grading fee. That is the whole point of catching a defect before PSA does, not after.

Sealed vs Singles: Is a Surging Sparks Booster Box Still Worth Buying

Sealed Surging Sparks product has already gone through its post-release price run and its cooldown. At this point in a set's life, buying a booster box to chase the Pikachu ex line is a weaker bet than buying the specific singles you actually want. The set's headline SIRs are all identified and priced, so there is no more discovery premium left in a fresh box, and pull rates on the tightest chases were never generous to begin with. If you want Latias ex #239 or Alolan Exeggutor ex #242, buying the raw single directly is the more capital-efficient path than gambling on a box to hit them.

The ZeroPop Verdict

Twenty one months in, Surging Sparks has settled into a normal shape for an aging chase set: two or three cards with real grading upside, one volatile secret rare that is not worth chasing at a premium, and a long tail of set-completion cards that will never justify a submission fee on their own. Latias ex #239 and Alolan Exeggutor ex #242 are the two clearest grade-it calls in the set right now, on multiple and on defect risk. Pikachu ex #238 still works if your copy is genuinely centered. Everything below that tier belongs in a binder, not an envelope to PSA, until the market tells a different story.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Surging Sparks still worth grading in 2026?

Selectively, yes. The set has a handful of cards, led by Latias ex #239/191 and Alolan Exeggutor ex #242/191, where the gap between raw and PSA 10 comfortably covers a grading fee. Most of the set's commons and lower-demand Special Illustration Rares do not clear that bar and are better kept raw.

What is the most valuable card in Surging Sparks?

Pikachu ex #238/191 (Special Illustration Rare) and the #247/191 Gold Hyper Rare are the two most searched and most valuable cards in the set, with PSA 10 copies of the SIR reliably trading in the $450 to $600 range as of August 2026.

Why do Surging Sparks prices look different across price trackers?

Graded card prices for a 21-month-old set are thinner than they look, especially on secret rares, so a handful of high or low outlier sales can swing a tracker's average significantly week to week. Treat any single number as a snapshot and check recent sold listings before you submit or buy.

How many Pikachu cards are in Surging Sparks?

The set includes multiple Pikachu prints across different rarities, most notably the Special Illustration Rare at #238/191 and the Gold Hyper Rare secret rare at #247/191, alongside more common Pikachu prints earlier in the set.

Should I buy a Surging Sparks booster box in 2026?

Probably not for the chase cards specifically. This far past release, the set's biggest hits are fully priced and identified, and box pull rates on the top Special Illustration Rares were never high enough to make a box a reliable way to land them. Buying the exact singles you want is the more efficient path now.

What should I check before submitting a Surging Sparks card to PSA?

Centering on the full-bleed Special Illustration Rares, corner whitening on cards where the art runs to the edge, and surface cleanliness on lighter-background cards like Latias ex. A quick scan of front and back before you pay a grading fee catches most of what would otherwise cap the grade.