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 Silver Tempest pack weight analysis.
Our Sample Packs
The Silver Tempest expansion set was released on 11th November 2022. Booster boxes for this set retailed at around £105 or $100.
We purchased two sealed booster boxes to use for our test. Although a huge number of packs should be opened to get a truly definitive answer to this question, most people only buy one or two booster boxes and we wanted to emulate the experience of the average Pokémon fan.
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.
Silver Tempest Pack Weight
We used a highly sensitive digital scale to get an accurate weight for each pack.
The Silver Tempest pack weight ranged from 22g to 24g.
22g – 20 packs
23g – 36 packs
24g – 16 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 can be found in any pack in place of the reverse holo cards.
The 22g Packs
The first Silver Tempest packs to be opened were the 20 x 22g weight packs. 7 packs had no special art or holo cards. The remaining 13 packs had the following cards:
3 Holo Rare
2 x Terrakion 097/195
1 x Metagross 119/195
1 Radiant Cards
Radiant Tsareena 016/195
2 Half Art V / VSTAR Cards
Magearna V 128/195
Ho-Oh V 140/195
1 Full Art VMAX Card
Regieleki VMAX 058/195
2 Ultra Rare Card
Alolan Vulpix V 173/195
Wallace 194/195
1 Secret Rare Rare Card
Serperior VSTAR 196/195
3 Trainer Gallery Cards
Jynx TG04/TG30
Malamar TG06/TG30
Corviknight VMAX TG19/TG30
The 23g Packs
The next Silver Tempest packs to be opened were the 36 x 23g weight packs. 18 packs had no special art or holo cards. The remaining 18 packs had the following cards:
5 Holo Rare
2 x Ariados 004/195
Reuniclus 078/195
Metagross 119/195
Forest Seal 156/195
3 Radiant Cards
Radiant Tsareena 016/195
2 x Radiant Alakazam 059/196
5 Half Art V / VSTAR Cards
Alolan Vulpix V 033/195
Omastar V 035/195
Mawile V 070/195
Regidrago V 135/195
Regidrago VSTAR 136/195
2 Secret Rare Cards
Unown VSTAR 199/195
Energy Switch 212/195
6 Trainer Gallery Cards
Braixen TG01/TG30
Gardevoir TG05/TG30
Rockruff TG07/TG30
Altaria TG17/TG30
Professor Burnet TG26/TG30
The 24g Packs
Finally the 16 x 24g weight packs were opened. 7 packs contained no art or holo rare cards. From the remaining 9 packs we pulled.
4 Holo Rare
Ariados 004/195
Rapidash 022/195
Archeops 147/195
Earthen Seal Stone 154/195
2 Half Art V Cards
Chesnaught V 015/195
Ursaluna V 102/195
Full Art VMAX Card
Regieleki VMAX 058/195
Ultra Rare Card
Chesnaught V 171/195
Trainer Gallery Card
Braixen TG01/TG30
Conclusion
From the 20 x 22g packs we pulled 3 Holo Rare cards, 1 Radiant card, 2 Half Art V cards, 1 Full Art VMAX Card, 2 Ultra Rare, 1 Secret Rare and 3 Trainer Gallery cards – a 65% pull rate.
From the 36 x 23g packs we pulled 5 Holo Rare cards, 3 Radiant cards, 4 Half Art V, 1 Half Art VSTAR, 2 Secret Rare, 6 Trainer Gallery Cards – a 58% pull rate.
From the 16 x 24g packs we pulled 4 Holo Rare cards, 2 Half Art V, 1 Ultra Rare card and 1 Trainer Gallery card – a 50% pull rate.
From this it would seem that the lighter weight packs give a better pull rate than the heavier packs.
Excluding Holo Rares from the results gave the same Silver Tempest pack weight result, with the lighter packs having the best pull rate
20 x 22g packs gave us 1 Radiant card, 2 Half Art V cards, 1 Full Art VMAX Card, 2 Ultra Rare, 1 Secret Rare and 3 Trainer Gallery cards – a 50% pull rate.
From the 36 x 23g packs we pulled 3 Radiant cards, 4 Half Art V, 1 Half Art VSTAR, 2 Secret Rare, 6 Trainer Gallery Cards – a 44% pull rate.
From the 16 x 24g packs we pulled 2 Half Art V, 1 Ultra Rare card and 1 Trainer Gallery card – a 25% pull rate.
It should be remembered that only 72 packs were used for this experiment. Using a greater number of packs may give a different result.
“highly sensitive” but isn’t an 0.01 scale.
these tests are way off and the difference in weight cannot be actually noticed with these scales.
Thank you for taking the trouble to leave feedback and making a great point. A 0.01 scale has now been ordered and will be used for all future sets.
Pokémon has taken this into consideration and try to make up the difference in weight by using the white code card that weighs more than the black/white code card in packs without a hit. This is why you may see more hits in lighter packs. This is still not a perfect system, however on older sets with green code cards iv found it to be a little more accurate. I weigh my packs so I can put some aside for my sealed collection. But bc it’s not a perfect system, i only keep packs that have the exact same weight as another pack and one of em dosnt have a hit. Also they have to come from the same product purchased at the same time. Cards can be printed at different locations on different printers and this could change the weights. Hope this helps you a little on your next pack weighing adventure lol.
Thank you for taking the time to post this information. Its very helpful and interesting and we will definitely bear it in mind when we analyse the pack weights of future sets.