GameStop's Power Packs account posted on Saturday, Oct. 10: "The biggest Power Pack yet. The new $10,000 Riptonium level features the most legendary chases in Pokémon history. Available now." The post was embedded by Dexerto, which reported the next day that the pack carried a 44.8% chance of a card estimated at $6,000 to $8,000.

That number did not last the weekend. On Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 13, the Riptonium odds table on GameStop's Power Packs site listed a different bottom band. Read beside the eight cheaper Pokémon levels on the same page, it also shows what a $10,000 pack actually is: the $25 pack, scaled up.

What the Pack Page Shows Now

Power Packs, which its FAQ describes as "a collaboration between GameStop and PSA," sells digital packs that each reveal one PSA-graded card. Cards are selected by "independent third-party statistical packages and code-based randomization algorithms," according to the FAQ. Before purchase, every level displays the chance that its card lands in each of six estimated-value bands. On Oct. 13 the Riptonium table read:

  • $7,000 to $8,499.99: 45.21%
  • $8,500 to $9,999.99: 30.23%
  • $10,000 to $19,999.99: 23.10%
  • $20,000 to $39,999.99: 1.26%
  • $40,000 to $79,999.99: 0.10%
  • $80,000 to $169,000: 0.10%

The first two bands add up to 75.44%. On GameStop's own estimates, about three Riptonium pulls in four are a card valued below the $10,000 it cost. The lowest possible outcome is $7,000.

What Changed Since Saturday

Dexerto's Oct. 11 report gives the table as it stood at launch: 44.8% for $6,000 to $8,000, 29.9% for $8,000 to $10,000, 22.9% for $10,000 to $20,000, 1.5% for $20,000 to $40,000, 0.5% for $40,000 to $80,000 and 0.4% for a card above $80,000. The top card listed then was valued at $156,000.

Set side by side, the two tables differ at both ends:

  • The floor rose $1,000. The worst estimated outcome went from $6,000 to $7,000.
  • The tail thinned. The combined chance of a card worth $40,000 or more fell from 0.9% in Dexerto's figures to 0.2%.
  • The middle barely moved. The share of pulls estimated below the pack price was about 74.7% at launch and 75.4% on Tuesday.

None of this is hidden. Dexerto reported that the site warns values can fluctuate and that the probabilities update every five minutes. GameStop's FAQ says "cards and estimated values are regularly updated to ensure that, on average over a large sample size, the estimated value of cards purchased for each pack is substantially equivalent to the price of that pack." The practical point is narrower: a screenshot of the odds is a record of one moment, and the Riptonium launch figures are already out of date.

The Same Pack at Nine Prices

On the packs page, the Pokémon category carries a one-line description: "70% Floor Distribution Pokemon Pack." Its ladder now has nine levels: Starter ($25), Silver ($50), Gold ($100), Sapphire ($250), Platinum ($500), Diamond ($1,000), Lunar ($2,500), Neutronium ($5,000) and Riptonium ($10,000).

Every one of those tables has the same shape. Each level's bottom band starts at roughly 70% of its price: $17 on the $25 pack, $700 on the $1,000 pack, $3,500 on the $5,000 pack, $7,000 on Riptonium. Each puts about 45% of pulls in its lowest band and about 30% in the next, so roughly three in four land below the price at every rung. Each level's top band reaches about sixteen times the pack price, $400 on the $25 pack and $80,000 on the $5,000 pack. Riptonium's top band runs to $169,000.

Analysis: On the published odds, buying Riptonium is buying the same distribution as a $25 Starter pack, multiplied by 400. The level adds no better chances, only bigger numbers, including bigger losses in dollars. On Tuesday's table, the most likely result was a card estimated $1,500 to $3,000 below the purchase price. The 70% floor is a property of this category, not of Power Packs in general: the same page labels its One Piece category "50% floor," and those levels start at half their price.

GameStop's FAQ has not caught up with the ladder. Its answer to "What are Levels?" still reads: "There are five pack levels: Starter, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond." When this blog compared Power Packs with Coinbase's teaser on Oct. 2 (CASE #0353), that five-level description was the company's own. The Pokémon category has since added Sapphire, Lunar, Neutronium and Riptonium.

The Exits

A Riptonium pull goes straight into the buyer's PSA Vault in Delaware, according to the FAQ. From there it can be shipped within the U.S., held, or sold. The FAQ's selling options are "Instant Buyback: Sell it back to Power Packs immediately at 90% of the card's fair market value, less a 6% Selling Fee," a listing to eBay, or offers PSA may present from partners. The buyback offer stays open for seven days after purchase. Card values are "powered by Card Ladder," and the FAQ says those estimates set the buyback offer.

Analysis: The buyback is priced off the same estimate the odds table uses. A buyer who pulls from the bottom band and sells it back immediately takes the band's discount to the pack price, then the buyback's own discount on top.

Verdict: GameStop publishes its odds before you pay. Read them, and read them again: at $25 or $10,000, three pulls in four are estimated below the price, and the $10,000 table has already changed once since launch.

Confidence note: The Riptonium post text and the launch-weekend odds and $156,000 top card are as reported by Dexerto (Zackerie Fairfax, Oct. 11, 2026). The Oct. 13 odds tables, level prices and category descriptions are from GameStop's Power Packs packs page; the level description, buyback terms, valuation source, vault location and selection method are quoted from the Power Packs About/FAQ page. Sums and percentages of the bands are this blog's arithmetic. Passages marked Analysis are this blog's interpretation, not findings in those sources.