It is widely believed that booster packs with a higher weight are more likely to have rarer and more valuable art cards inside. Individual booster packs are frequently advertised on selling sites with the word ‘heavy’ suggesting that the weight indicates there will be special cards inside. Here are the results of our Lost Origin pack weight analysis.
Our Sample Packs
The Lost Origin expansion set was released on 9th September 2022. Booster boxes for this set retailed at around £105 or $100.
We purchased two sealed booster boxes to use for our test. We bought the boxes from two different suppliers to ensure they were completely random boxes.
Booster boxes contain 36 booster packs and are factory sealed with a plastic covering bearing the Pokémon logo.
After removing the outer sealed covering we began weighing the 72 packs.
Lost Origin Pack Weight
We used a highly sensitive digital scale to get an accurate weight for each pack.
The Lost Origin pack weight ranged from 21g to 24g.
21g – 15 packs
22g – 23 packs
23g – 27 packs
24g – 7 packs
The Results
We decided not to log the numbers of non-holo rare, reverse holo, uncommon, common or energy cards. We also decided not to log the colour of the code cards since Trainer Gallery cards and Radiant Pokémon cards could be found in any pack in place of the reverse holo cards.
The 21g Packs
The first Lost Origin packs to be opened were the 15 x 21g weight packs. 7 packs had no special art or holo cards. The remaining 8 packs had the following cards:
3 Holo Rare
Vileplume 003/196
Sableye 070/196
Arcanine 084/196
1 Radiant Cards
Radiant Sneasler 123/196
2 Half Art V / VSTAR Cards
Giratina V 130/196
Hisuian Zoroark V 146/196
1 Ultra Rare Card
Thorton 195/196
1 Secret Rare Rare Card
Arezu 205/196
2 Trainer Gallery Cards
Roserade TG02/TG30
Pikachu TG05/TG30
The 22g Packs
The next Lost Origin packs to be opened were the 23 x 22g weight packs. 10 packs had no special art or holo cards. The remaining 13 packs had the following cards:
6 Holo Rare
Vileplume 003/196
2 x Beautifly 008/196
Chandelure 026/196
Goodra 134/196
Snorlax 110/196
1 Radiant Card
Radiant Gardevoir 069/196
3 Half Art V / VSTAR Cards
Kyurem V 048/196
Drapion VSTAR 119/196
Galarian Perrserker V 129/196
1 Full Art VMAX Cards
Kyurem VMAX 049/196
The 23g Packs
The 27 x 23g weight packs were opened next. 15 packs had no art or holo cards The remaining 12 packs had the following cards:
3 Holo Rare
Trevenant 017/196
Glastrier 051/196
Cresellia 072/196
2 Radiant Cards
2 x Radiant Steelix 124/196
3 Half Art V / VSTAR Cards
Hisuian Zoroark V 146/196
Giratina VSTAR 131/196
Hisuian Goodra V 135/196
1 Ultra Rare Card
Iscan 192/196
3 Trainer Gallery Cards
Chandelure TG04/TG30
Centiskorch TG14/TG30
Cook TG25/TG30
The 24g Packs
Finally the 7 x 24g weight packs were opened next. 2 packs contained no art or holo rare cards. From the remaining 5 packs we pulled.
1 Holo Rare
Spectrier 081/196
3 Half Art V Cards
Drapion V 118/196
Delphox V 037/196
Hisuian Goodra VSTAR 136/196
2 Trainer Gallery Card
Chandelure TG04/TG30
Snorlax TG10/TG30
Conclusion
From the 15 x 21g packs we pulled 3 Holo Rare cards, 1 Radiant card, 2 Half Art V cards, 1 Ultra Rare, 1 Secret Rare and 2 Trainer Gallery cards – a 67% pull rate.
From the 23 x 22g packs we pulled 6 Holo Rare cards, 1 Radiant card, 2 Half Art V cards, 1 Half Art VSTAR, 1 Full Art VMAX Card – a 48% pull rate.
From the 27 x 23g packs we pulled 3 Holo Rare cards, 2 Radiant cards, 2 Half Art V, 1 Half Art VSTAR, 1 Ultra Rare, 3 Trainer Gallery Cards – a 44% pull rate.
From the 7 x 24g packs we pulled 1 Holo Rare cards, 2 Half Art V, 1 Half Art VSTAR card and 2 Trainer Gallery cards – an 85% pull rate.
Excluding Holo Rares from the results gave the same Lost Origin pack weight result, with the heavier packs having the best pull rate
15 x 21g packs – 1 Radiant card, 2 Half Art V cards, 1 Ultra Rare, 1 Secret Rare and 2 Trainer Gallery cards – a 47% pull rate.
From the 23 x 22g packs – 1 Radiant card, 2 Half Art V cards, 1 Half Art VSTAR, 1 Full Art VMAX Card – a 22% pull rate.
From the 27 x 23g packs – 2 Radiant cards, 2 Half Art V, 1 Half Art VSTAR, 1 Ultra Rare, 3 Trainer Gallery Cards – a 33% pull rate.
From the 7 x 24g packs we pulled 2 Half Art V, 1 Half Art VSTAR card and 2 Trainer Gallery cards – an 71% pull rate.
The results of our Lost Origin pack weight experiment appears to show that heavier packs have a better pull rate than lighter packs.
It should be remembered that only 72 packs were used for this experiment. Using a greater number of packs may give a different result.
