Category: Dragon Ball

A Dragon Ball card that has been graded carries a plastic case, a label and a number. Which case and which number depend on where it was sent, and in 2026 that choice is less neutral than it used to be. The grading industry has consolidated, and the consolidation is the subject of live litigation. CardSpicy sets out who the graders are, what separates them, and what has actually changed — without pretending the outcome is known.

Quick answer

Four companies dominate trading-card grading: PSA, Beckett (whose grading arm is usually written BGS), CGC and SGC. PSA handles the great majority of submissions, reported at roughly four fifths of the market, which is why a PSA label is the one most buyers recognise on sight. Beckett has traditionally been valued for its sub-grade breakdown and for its stricter top grade. CGC has grown fastest of the four. The practical question for a Dragon Ball collector is not which grader is best in the abstract but which label the buyers of that particular card recognise — and on thin, thin Dragon Ball population data, that is nearly always PSA.

What each grader is known for

PSA is the volume leader, and it publishes the population report that most of the market quotes. A PSA 10 is the top grade in its scale, and the site’s own Dragon Ball tracking is built on PSA data for that reason.

Beckett grades on a scale that reports four sub-grades — centring, corners, edges and surface — alongside the overall number, so a Beckett label tells you more about why a card scored what it did than a single-number label does. Its top grade is harder to earn than most, which is why a perfect Beckett example carries weight with collectors who follow the detail.

CGC entered trading cards later than the others and grew quickly, reported at roughly a quarter of the TCG grading market and growing about 121 per cent year on year in the most recent figures we have seen. Its labels are widely accepted; the population counts built on them are simply shorter.

SGC was a specialist grader with a following among vintage collectors. It is no longer independent, which brings us to what changed.

The consolidation, and the litigation

PSA is owned by a group that also acquired SGC in early 2024 and Beckett at the end of 2025. Three of the four names in this article are therefore under one owner, and that has drawn legal challenges: a California antitrust action filed in April 2026 that seeks to force the group to divest SGC and Beckett, a Maryland action filed in July 2026, and a separate California claim about population control. The company has called the allegations baseless and said the independence of its grading is not negotiable. Arguments on whether to dismiss or move the claims to arbitration were heard on 11 September 2026, and at the time of writing no ruling has been issued.

CardSpicy takes no position on the merits, and a reader should not read this page as an argument for or against any grader. What matters practically is narrower: if you are submitting cards now, the structure of the company you are sending them to is in flux, and a policy that seems settled may not be. The Dragon Ball grading overview covers the mechanics of submitting a card; this page covers who you are submitting it to.

What grading does and does not give you

Grading authenticates a card, quantifies its condition and seals it. In survey work on collector behaviour, about two thirds of collectors say they prefer graded cards and about 61 per cent say a card should be graded before it is resold. Those are preferences, not returns.

The return side is where a guide has to be careful. Reports put the premium on a modern card in a top grade at roughly two to three times the raw price, and far more for genuinely vintage material. But a premium is a comparison between two prices that both move. For Dragon Ball specifically, the population of graded cards is thin, and a thin population cuts both ways: fewer examples means less competition for the grade you are buying, and also a smaller set of comparable sales to price it from. Reading population data explains how to check that before you pay a graded price for anything.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not tell you which grader to use, and we will not put a number on the premium a grade is worth. Turnaround times in North America have been reported at roughly twenty to forty-five days, but those are averages across companies and service tiers, not a promise about your submission. The litigation described here has not been decided, and any statement about what it will mean for collectors is speculation. Treat everything above as a summary of what has been reported at the date in the source line, not as a forecast.

Frequently asked questions

Which grading companies grade Dragon Ball cards?

The same four that grade trading cards generally: PSA, Beckett, CGC and SGC. PSA is the volume leader and the source of the population data the site quotes; Beckett reports sub-grades as well as an overall grade; CGC has grown fastest of the four; SGC specialised in vintage before it was acquired.

Is PSA the best grader for Dragon Ball cards?

There is no single best, but there is a most recognised. Buyer familiarity is what a label is worth at resale, and on thin Dragon Ball population data PSA is the label most buyers know. If you are grading to resell rather than to keep, that recognition is the relevant test.

Who owns PSA, SGC and Beckett?

PSA and the same owner group acquired SGC in early 2024 and Beckett at the end of 2025, so three of the four names in this article sit under one owner. That consolidation has drawn litigation which, as of the date stated, has not been decided.

Does grading increase a card’s value?

It can, and never automatically. Reports put the premium on a modern card in a top grade at roughly two to three times the raw price, but that is a comparison between two moving prices rather than a return. Grading also costs money, takes time and adds a selling fee when you exit, all of which come out of whatever the premium is.

Is Beckett stricter than PSA?

Beckett reports four sub-grades alongside the overall number and its top grade is harder to earn, which gives its labels more detail and a stricter ceiling. Whether that makes it better depends on what you want the label for. A strict grade is useful if you are proving condition; a familiar grade is useful if you are selling.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

A Dragon Ball card is card stock, a printed image and, on most of the cards that matter, a foil layer. All three react to their surroundings, and the reaction is slow enough that most collectors only notice it after a card has already changed. CardSpicy sets out what actually damages a stored card, in the order it is likely to happen, and what to do about it.

Quick answer

The two causes that do the most damage are varying humidity and high temperature, and they do it together. Card stock absorbs and releases moisture, and a foil layer does not, so a card that cycles between damp and dry air curls — the paper moves, the foil does not. Light is the third cause, and it works differently: it fades the printed image rather than deforming the card. Physical damage from handling and crowding comes fourth. Everything a storage routine needs to do follows from that list.

Why humidity is the main problem

Paper is hygroscopic, which means it takes on water from the air and gives it back. A foil card is a paper sheet bonded to a film, and the two do not expand at the same rate. In steady conditions that is fine. In conditions that swing — a room that is humid in summer and dry in winter, or a card moved from a cold car into a warm house — the paper side and the foil side disagree, and the card curls toward the drier side.

The practical consequence is that stability matters more than the average reading. A card stored in a room that sits at a consistent level is safer than a card stored in a room that averages lower but swings. This is why attic, garage and basement storage is a bad idea despite being convenient: all three are the rooms whose conditions change most.

Heat, and the special case of a sealed pack

Heat accelerates everything. It speeds up the moisture exchange, it softens the adhesive used on laminated stock, and left long enough it can affect the inks. A hot car is the classic way to ruin a card in a single afternoon, because a car interior reaches temperatures far above the outdoor reading.

A sealed booster pack or box adds a second consideration. Sealed product is stored for its seal as much as its contents, and adhesive that has been softened and re-set can leave a wrapper looking altered even when the pack has never been opened. If you hold sealed Dragon Ball product — and the sealed-product guide sets out why you might — store it the same way you store the cards: steady, cool, out of the sun.

Light, and what it does differently

Light does not warp a card, it fades it. Ultraviolet light breaks down the dyes in the printed image, and the effect is cumulative: a card does not recover when it is moved out of the light. Foil and textured areas suffer differently from flat print, which is why a faded card can look uneven rather than uniformly washed out.

For a display card this is the real trade-off. Display is not decoration for a large share of collectors — survey work puts the proportion who display cards physically at around 44 per cent, against about 28 per cent who store them for the long term — so the honest advice is not to keep cards in a drawer. It is to display them where direct sun does not reach. The display guide covers frames and stands in more detail.

What a storage routine looks like

Three layers, each doing one job. An inner sleeve keeps the card from being touched and from abrading against its neighbours. A rigid holder takes the bending load off the card so that a curl in the air does not become a crease in the card. A box keeps the holders standing up, out of light, and away from dust. Cards should be stored upright rather than stacked flat, because a stack puts weight on the cards at the bottom of it.

If you keep cards in a room with meaningful seasonal swing, a desiccant pack in the box absorbs some of the moisture the card would otherwise take on. Change it on a schedule, because a saturated desiccant stops working and gives the moisture back. The sleeves and holders overview sets out which holder suits which card.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not publish a number for the correct relative humidity or temperature to store cards at, because the sources we have seen disagree and because the figure that matters is the swing, not the setting. We also will not claim that any storage method reverses damage. A curled card that is pressed flat will curl again, because pressing does not change the moisture content of the sheet. Storage prevents; it does not repair. For a card that has already been graded, the case is the storage and the same rules about heat and light apply to it.

Frequently asked questions

Why do my Dragon Ball cards curl?

Because card stock absorbs and releases moisture while the foil layer on top of it does not, so the two sides of the card change size at different rates. The curl follows changing conditions rather than the average condition, which is why a card in a room with a big seasonal swing curls even when the room is not especially damp.

Does humidity damage cards permanently?

A curl is not permanent and pressing a card flat can temporarily correct it, but it will return if the conditions that caused it do not change, because pressing does not alter the moisture in the sheet. Fading from light is different: that is chemical and does not reverse. Storage is a way of preventing damage, not of undoing it.

Is it safe to store cards in a garage or attic?

No. Attics, garages and basements are the rooms where temperature and humidity change the most, which is exactly the condition that curls foil cards. A closet inside a lived-in, climate-controlled part of a home is a better choice than a larger space that swings.

Should cards be stored flat or upright?

Upright. A flat stack puts the weight of every card above it onto the cards at the bottom, and the load increases with the size of the stack. Holders and a box that keeps them standing solve both the weight problem and the light problem at once.

Do graded cards need different storage?

The case protects the card from handling and from bending, so a graded Dragon Ball card is less exposed than a raw one. It is not protected from heat or light, so a graded card still belongs out of direct sun and away from a hot car. The case is storage for handling, not for climate.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

In Dragon Ball Fusion World, deck building starts with a single card, and that card constrains almost everything that follows. It is the Leader, it is held separately from the rest of the deck, and it is the reason two players can build decks from the same card pool that have nothing to do with each other. CardSpicy sets out what a Leader is, what it does, and how to read one before you build around it.

Quick answer

A Leader is a single card that sits outside your main deck and begins the game in play. It has a colour, a power value and two sides — a starting side and an awakened side — and the colour is the important part for deck building, because every Battle card and Extra card in your deck must share at least one colour with it. Choose the Leader first, then build. Nothing else in the game restricts a deck as hard as that one card does.

What makes a Leader different from a Battle card

A Battle card is drawn, played, attacks and, in most cases, eventually leaves. A Leader is always there: it starts the game in play, it does not come out of the deck, and it is not one of the fifty to sixty cards you shuffle. It is better understood as the piece of board state you begin with than as a card in hand.

Two properties of a Leader matter when you are choosing one. The first is its colour, which sets the legal colours for the rest of the deck. The second is that a Leader has two printed sides, and the second one is reached during play. The awakened side usually changes the Leader’s power and its printed effect, which is why a Leader that looks unremarkable on its front can be the centre of a deck once it flips.

How the colour rule actually restricts you

The rule is published in the rule manual and it is short: every card in your main deck must share at least one colour with your Leader. A red Leader means a red deck. A Leader that is printed in more than one colour opens up both, and that is why multi-colour Leaders are a design event rather than a cosmetic variation — the publisher brought multi-colour Leaders back with the Masters B32 anniversary set, and each time the mechanic returns it widens the pool of legal decks.

There is a second construction limit worth stating in the same breath: you may run no more than four copies of any card with the same card number. Between the colour rule and the four-copy rule, the decisions left open to a deck builder are which colour to play, how many of each card to run, and how the deck wins. The colour is fixed by the Leader.

The deck building basics walk through the rest of construction; this page is about the card you pick before any of that.

Reading a Leader line-up

Leaders are printed as a line within each set, and the line is fixed in size. The Fusion World set FB11, for example, prints five Leaders: Son Goku, a Trunks and Son Gohan pairing, Goku Black, a Shallot and Giblet pairing, and Bardock. A store event that restricts which Leaders are legal publishes that specific list, and a restricted format is the clearest illustration of how much a Leader defines a deck — removing five cards from legal play changes what the whole event looks like.

Leaders also carry the top of the treatment ladder. Masters introduced a Special Leader Rare tier as a distinct rarity above the ordinary Leader print, and Fusion World began printing a Super Alt-Art treatment specifically for Leader cards, marked by artwork built around the awakened side. If you are pricing a Leader, the treatment it carries is likely to matter more than the fact that it is a Leader.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not publish a tier list of which Leader is best, because that changes with the format, the ban list and the event, and because we cannot verify tournament results well enough to rank them honestly. We will not tell you which Leader to build around, and we will not put a price on a Leader print or a number on how many were produced. The rule manual states the construction rules; the event regulations state which Leaders are legal; the printed card states its own colour, power and effect. Those are the three documents that answer a Leader question, and a guide is not a substitute for any of them. An introduction to the game the Leaders belong to is on the Dragon Ball card game overview.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Leader card in Dragon Ball Fusion World?

A single card that sits outside the main deck and begins the game in play. It has a colour, a power value and two sides, and every Battle card and Extra card in the deck must share at least one colour with it.

How many Leaders can be in a deck?

One. The Leader is not one of the fifty to sixty cards in the main deck; it is held separately and starts the game in play. That is why building a deck starts by choosing a Leader rather than by collecting cards and adding a Leader at the end.

Do all cards in a deck have to match the Leader’s colour?

Every Battle card and Extra card must share at least one colour with the Leader. A single-colour Leader restricts the deck to that colour, and a multi-colour Leader opens up more than one, which is why multi-colour Leaders change what is playable when they return to a set.

What is an awakened Leader?

A Leader is printed with two sides, and the second side is reached during play. The awakened side usually changes the Leader’s power or its printed effect, so a Leader that looks modest on its front can be the centre of a deck once it turns over. Fusion World’s Super Alt-Art treatment for Leader cards builds its artwork around that awakened side.

Can you use the same Leader as another player?

Yes. Nothing prevents two players in the same event from playing the same Leader. Where events do restrict Leaders, they publish a list of which ones are legal for that season, and that list is the authority rather than any general rule about duplicates.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

Most collecting advice is about buying. The harder half is the exit, and it is harder because the costs are spread across several steps and none of them is visible when you decide to sell. CardSpicy sets out what actually comes out of a Dragon Ball card sale, and how to decide when to take one.

Quick answer

The price a card sells for is not the price you receive. Between you and the money sit a grading fee if the card is graded, a selling fee that commonly runs to around ten to fifteen per cent, postage, insurance on anything expensive, and whatever storage cost the card has accrued while you held it. That structure is the same for every collectible card, and it means a sale needs to clear all of those before it clears anything for you.

The costs, in the order they occur

Grading. If you are selling a raw card and you grade it first, the grading fee and the turnaround time are both costs. Reports put North American turnaround at roughly twenty to forty-five days, and the market moves while your card is in a queue. About 61 per cent of collectors say a card should be graded before resale, which is a preference rather than proof it is profitable on your card.

The selling fee. Marketplace and auction fees commonly run around ten to fifteen per cent of the sale price, on top of any payment processing. This is the single largest predictable cost and it applies whether the card sold well or badly.

Distribution. Postage, packaging and, on a card worth insuring, insurance. A rigid mailer, a sleeve, a holder and tracked shipping are not optional if you want the sale to complete without a dispute.

Holding cost. A card produces nothing while you hold it. Storage, sleeves, boxes and the time spent maintaining them are real, and so is the risk that the card is worth less when you sell it than when you bought it.

The difference between a price and a sale

The single most useful thing to understand about selling cards is that a card sells quickly at the market price and slowly at your price. That is not a defect of the market; it is what a market is. If you set a price above what buyers are currently paying, the listing sits, and in a falling market the buyers who would have paid your number disappear rather than wait.

Survey data on card markets is consistent on the volatility: around 41 per cent of transactions are affected by price movement, with swings of up to about a quarter inside six months, and the same card can differ by as much as 30 per cent between two platforms at the same moment. Both facts point the same way. Check what the card is fetching in more than one place before you decide what it is worth, and treat a single sold listing as one data point rather than a price.

What speeds a sale up

Two things, and neither is a trick. The first is grading: graded cards are reported to sell roughly 35 per cent faster online than raw ones, because the buyer does not have to assess condition from photographs. That speed is worth something even when the grade does not raise the price, because it shortens the period during which the card can lose value in your hands.

The second is documentation. A Dragon Ball listing is much easier to sell when it carries the card number. The buying checklist is written for buyers, and its first item is also the first thing a seller should put in a listing: the number identifies the print, distinguishes it from an alternate-art version of the same character, and lets a buyer verify it. A name-and-picture listing asks the buyer to trust you; a number lets them check.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not tell you when to sell, and we will not forecast what a Dragon Ball card will be worth. We do not publish a purchase price or a resale target. The honest summary of everything above is that selling has a structure of costs you can plan for and a price you cannot, and that the plan should start from the costs. The site’s own tracked figures are secondary-market observations at the date cited and move quickly; nothing on this page is a valuation of any card. What the extremes of the Dragon Ball market look like is on the most expensive Dragon Ball cards page.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage do card marketplaces take?

Marketplace and auction fees commonly run around ten to fifteen per cent of the sale price, on top of payment processing. That is the largest predictable cost in a card sale and it applies regardless of how the sale went.

Should I grade a Dragon Ball card before selling it?

Not automatically. Grading costs a fee and takes time, and about 61 per cent of collectors say a card should be graded before resale, which is a preference rather than a guarantee of profit on your particular card. Graded cards are reported to sell faster online, which is valuable even when the grade does not raise the price.

Why is my Dragon Ball card not selling?

Usually because the asking price is above what buyers are currently paying. A card sells quickly at the market price and slowly at a price above it, and in a falling market the buyers at your number stop appearing rather than waiting. Checking what the card fetches on more than one platform is the first step.

How much does it cost to sell a card?

The predictable costs are the selling fee, postage, packaging and insurance, plus a grading fee if you graded the card and any storage cost while you held it. Those come out of the sale price before anything reaches you, which is why a sale has to clear them all before it clears a profit.

Do graded Dragon Ball cards sell faster than raw ones?

Reported figures put the speed advantage for graded cards at roughly 35 per cent online, because the buyer does not have to judge condition from a photograph. Faster completion is worth something in its own right, since it reduces the window in which the card can change value while you are holding it.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

Dragon Ball runs two card games at once, and the publisher releases for both on separate schedules. That makes a calendar more useful than a list of sets: what a collector needs to know is which product arrives when, on which game, and which date is the one that matters for the version they buy. CardSpicy sets out the published dates for the 2026 window and the first confirmed date of 2027.

Quick answer

Three products dominate the rest of 2026. Fusion World’s FB11 Brightness of Hope reaches its English release on 16 October 2026. Masters’ anniversary set B32 follows on 27 November 2026. Fusion World’s FB12 REACH THE GOD closes the year on 18 December 2026. The first confirmed date beyond that is the Fusion World starter decks FS13 and FS14 on 22 January 2027. Japanese and English releases of the same Fusion World set are usually weeks apart, which is why a date without a region is not enough to plan from.

The rest of 2026

The three sets above are unusual in how close together they are. Any ninety-day window with three new releases in it would be busy; this one covers two games and includes the anniversary set of the older of the two, which is where the year’s most significant single card sits.

FB11 Brightness of Hope is a Fusion World booster of 123 types, and its English release on 16 October 2026 is the date that matters for a buyer in the United States. Its Japanese release came earlier, in September. The set is the one built around the DRAGON BALL LEGENDS crossover, and the crossover guide explains what that brings into print.

B32 is the Masters anniversary set, scheduled for 27 November 2026 on both sides of the release. It is larger than a Fusion World booster at 185 types, it brings multi-colour Leaders back to the game, and it is the set that introduces an Anniversary God Rare tier, printed to a stated run of 200 copies worldwide. That run is the hardest number in the year: it is published, it is small, and unlike most scarcity claims it can be checked. The B32 guide covers the tier in detail.

FB12 REACH THE GOD arrives on 18 December 2026 in English, with a Japanese release earlier the same month. At the time of writing the publisher has shown packaging art and confirmed the date; a full card list is not something we would quote before it is published.

Dates already behind us in 2026

For completeness, the releases that have already happened this year: Fusion World’s FB09 Dual Evolution in March, FB10 Cross Force in June, and the first Story Booster in August, shipped in English on 21 August 2026. Masters’ previous anniversary set, B31 Impact Beyond Dimensions, arrived in early July with 178 types. Those dates matter because a set’s age is part of what it is: whether it is still being opened, whether its singles are settling, and whether it is the newest thing on the shelf.

Why region matters as much as date

A Dragon Ball set does not have one release date. It has a Japanese date and an English date, and they are usually weeks apart, with the Japanese release first. A collector in the United States buys the English printing, so for them the Japanese date is a heads-up rather than a date they can buy on. It does affect the market, though: singles from the Japanese printing appear first, and the English printing follows.

The gap is also where confusion comes from. A listing that gives a date without a region can be describing either one, and a buyer who has seen one date quoted two ways is not looking at a contradiction. The Japanese and English comparison sets out what else differs between the two printings. The sets themselves are listed in order on every Dragon Ball set in order.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not quote a card list, a pull rate or a print run for a set that has not been released, and we will not promise a date the publisher has not published. Release dates move. The dates above are the published ones at the date in the source line, and the correct place to confirm any of them is the publisher’s own product listing. Beyond January 2027 the publisher has not announced a schedule we can write down.

Frequently asked questions

When does FB11 Brightness of Hope come out in English?

16 October 2026. The Japanese release came earlier, in September 2026. FB11 is a Fusion World booster of 123 types and is the set built around the DRAGON BALL LEGENDS crossover.

When is the Masters B32 anniversary set released?

27 November 2026. B32 is the Masters anniversary set, larger than a Fusion World booster at 185 types, and it is the set that introduces the Anniversary God Rare tier printed to a stated run of 200 copies worldwide.

When does FB12 come out?

18 December 2026 in English, with a Japanese release earlier the same month. The publisher has confirmed the date and shown packaging art; a full card list is not published at the time of writing.

What Dragon Ball sets came out earlier in 2026?

Fusion World released FB09 Dual Evolution in March, FB10 Cross Force in June, and the first Story Booster in August 2026. Masters released B31 Impact Beyond Dimensions in early July with 178 types.

Do Japanese and English Dragon Ball sets release on the same day?

No. A Fusion World set usually reaches its Japanese release first, with the English printing following weeks later. That is why a quoted date without a region is ambiguous: it can describe either printing, and the Japanese date is relevant to a market even for collectors who buy English.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

Dragon Ball Fusion World sells two kinds of product to two kinds of buyer, and the difference between them is not price. A booster pack is a random draw from a set. A starter deck is a fixed product, built to be played with. CardSpicy sets out what each contains and why the answer to which one to buy first depends on what you intend to do with it.

Quick answer

Buy a starter deck if you want to play. It is a complete, ready-to-play deck with its Leader included, priced as a single purchase, and everything in it is known before you open it. Buy a booster pack if you want cards to build with, to collect, or to open for the chase cards — with the understanding that the contents are random and the expensive card in a set is, by design, rare enough that the expected return on a box is not a profit. The two products are not substitutes; most players own both.

What a starter deck is

A starter deck is a fixed product. You know exactly which cards are in it before you buy, it includes the Leader the deck is built around, and it is constructed to be legal and playable out of the box. That last point is the reason it exists: it removes the need to own a card pool before you can play at all.

Fusion World prints starter decks in a numbered series, and the series has grown well past the first dozen. The starting decks carry a purchase price in the mid-teens of dollars, and later entries in the series extend the range to characters and pairings the earlier ones did not cover. Because everything inside is fixed, a starter deck is not a product you buy repeatedly, and its cards are not the scarce ones.

What a booster pack is

A booster pack is a randomised draw from a set. The set is fixed and published — a Fusion World booster is 123 types — but which cards are in any given pack is not. Packs are sold individually and by the box, with a box holding a fixed number of packs.

Two structural facts about Fusion World boosters are worth knowing because they change how a box should be judged. The first is that the number of cards in a pack changed during the game’s life: early sets in the series packed fewer cards per pack than later ones, and the manufacturer’s suggested retail price moved with it. A box from an early set is therefore not the same quantity of card as a box from a later one, and comparing them on box price alone compares two different things.

The second is that both Dragon Ball card games ship boxes of the same construction. Because the box size is the same across both games, the real choice between them is not which is better value per box but which set’s cards you want. The booster box guide works through what a box can and cannot tell you.

The other two pack types

The Fusion World line also sells two smaller side products that are boosters in the sense that they are randomised, but neither is a main-series booster: the Manga Boosters and the Story Boosters. They are priced between a regular booster pack and a starter deck, they are printed as their own sets, and they are not part of the main 123-type series. A collector who only tracks the main boosters will not see them on that list, which is the practical reason to know they exist.

How to decide

Start from the question you are actually asking. If it is “how do I play this game”, the answer is a starter deck, because it is a legal deck and does not require any other purchase. If it is “how do I get specific cards”, the honest answer is the single-card market rather than packs, because packs are random and buying them to obtain one specific card is the least efficient way to get it. If it is “I enjoy opening packs”, that is a legitimate reason and it is worth being clear that it is the reason. Starting a collection covers the first-purchase decision in more depth, and the sealed product overview covers what sealed product is and what it is not.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not publish a pull rate for any given card, and we will not tell you that a box is or is not worth opening. The publisher does not state individual card odds, and a number presented as though it were published is an estimate. We can state what a product contains and what it costs; we cannot state what you will get out of it.

Frequently asked questions

Should I buy a booster box or a starter deck first?

A starter deck, if you intend to play. It is a complete, legal deck with its Leader included and everything inside is known before you buy it. A booster box is the better purchase once you have a deck to modify and know which cards you want to add.

Are Dragon Ball starter decks worth buying?

They are worth buying to play with, because they remove the need to own a card pool first. They are not scarce products and their contents are fixed, so they are not a collecting target in the way a chase card is. The question to ask is whether you want to play, not whether the deck will appreciate.

How many cards are in a Dragon Ball booster pack?

It has changed during the game’s life. Early sets in the Fusion World series packed fewer cards per pack than later sets, and the manufacturer’s suggested retail price moved with the change. Because of that, a box from an early set is not the same quantity of card as a box from a later one.

What are Manga Boosters and Story Boosters?

Two smaller randomised products in the Fusion World line, priced between a regular booster pack and a starter deck. Each is printed as its own set and neither is part of the main 123-type booster series, so a collector tracking only the main sets will not see them on that list.

Is it cheaper to buy packs or single cards?

For a specific card, single cards. Packs are random, so buying them to obtain one named card means paying for many you did not want. Packs are the right purchase when you enjoy opening them or want a range of cards to build with, rather than when you want one particular card.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

Open two Dragon Ball cards that carry the same rarity code and they can look like they came from different games. One is flat, one is foil, one has texture pressed into the stock, one has a treatment the other simply does not have. CardSpicy sets out the finishes the publisher uses, and why the treatment on a card tells you more about what it is worth than the letter in its rarity slot.

Quick answer

The rarity code tells you how hard a card was to pull. The finish tells you how it was printed, and the two are independent: a set can print a run of an existing card with a different treatment and a different code, and the treated version is the one collectors chase. The three finishes that matter most in Dragon Ball are the alternate-art and Super Alt-Art printings, the textured high-rarity finishes, and the foil treatments used on the top tiers of a Masters set. When a listing gives you a rarity letter and no treatment, it has told you less than half of what you need.

Alternate art, and what makes a variant a variant

An alternate-art card is the same card with different artwork: same number, same game function, printed art that a collector recognises immediately. Fusion World has published alternate-art versions of its chase cards from early in the game’s life, and it prints them alongside the regular version rather than instead of it. The first Fusion World set carried a substantial alternate-art run on top of its standard rarity structure, and the pattern has continued.

The distinction that trips people up is that an alternate art is not a different card. It does not change what the card does, it does not get a different card number, and it does not appear as a separate line on a rarity breakdown. It is a printing of the same card, and the only place that difference lives is the artwork. The alternate-art guide covers the treatments in detail.

Super Alt-Art, and why it is reserved for Leaders

Super Alt-Art is the treatment above alternate art, and in Fusion World it is specifically a Leader-card treatment: the artwork is built around the Leader’s awakened side. It was introduced partway through the game’s run, and the set that introduced it is the one to look at if you want to see what the treatment does. Because it is applied to Leaders, a Super Alt-Art printing is a treatment of a card that is already the single most important card in any deck, which is part of why it sits near the top of a set’s values.

The top of a Masters set

Masters, the older of the two Dragon Ball card games, layers its own top-tier finishes on top of the rarity ladder. Its highest ordinary tier is the Secret Rare, and the publisher has printed a textured finish across an entire tier rather than on selected cards: one anniversary set shipped all of its Secret Rares in the same high-end finish. Masters also introduces special tiers that exist for a single set, and an anniversary set is where those appear.

The clearest example is the Anniversary God Rare introduced with B32, printed to a stated run of 200 copies worldwide. That is a finish, a tier and a print run at once, which is what the top of the ladder looks like in this game. The God Rare and Concept Rare guide explains the tiers themselves.

Why the treatment beats the letter

Here is the practical rule. The rarity letter describes the odds of a card appearing in a pack. The treatment describes how the copy in your hand was printed, and a treated printing usually has its own smaller population because the publisher prints fewer of them. Those are two different kinds of scarcity, and they are not interchangeable.

That is why a foil character card can be worth more than a plainer card with a rarer letter, and why two copies of a card with the same number can sit at very different prices. It is also why a listing that gives a character name and a rarity letter, but no treatment and no card number, cannot be priced at all: it does not identify which printing is for sale. The rarity ladder those letters come from is explained on the Dragon Ball rarities page.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not put a multiple on what a finish is worth, and we will not publish a print run for a treatment the publisher has not described. Where a number exists — the 200-copy Anniversary God Rare, for example — it came from the publisher and we quote it as such. Where it does not, we say so. A finish being hard to find is not a promise that it is worth more; it is a description of supply, and demand is a separate question that a guide cannot answer for you.

Frequently asked questions

What is an alternate art Dragon Ball card?

The same card printed with different artwork. It keeps the same card number and the same game function, and it is printed alongside the regular version rather than instead of it. The only thing that differs is the art, and the alternate art is usually the version collectors want.

What is Super Alt-Art in Fusion World?

The treatment above alternate art, and in Fusion World it is applied specifically to Leader cards, with artwork built around the Leader’s awakened side. It was introduced partway through the game’s run rather than being present from the first set.

Is a foil card more valuable than a non-foil one?

Not automatically, but the treated printing usually has a smaller population because fewer of it are printed, and that is a real supply difference. Two copies of a card with the same number can sit at very different prices for exactly this reason, which is why a listing needs to state the treatment as well as the card.

What is the rarest Dragon Ball card finish?

The top of the ladder changes with the set. The Masters Anniversary God Rare introduced with B32 is printed to a stated run of 200 copies worldwide and is the clearest example of a finish, a tier and a published print run combined. For any other finish, the publisher has not published a run, so we do not quote one.

Does an alternate art change how a card plays?

No. An alternate art is a printing of the same card, with the same number and the same game text. It changes the artwork only, which is what makes it a collecting distinction rather than a playing one.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

A card that stays in a box is safe and invisible. A card that goes on a shelf is neither, and the trade-off between those two facts is one most collectors make without thinking about it. CardSpicy sets out what display actually exposes a Dragon Ball card to, and how to get the visible result without the damage.

Quick answer

The two things display exposes a card to are light and handling, and both are manageable. Light fades printed inks and the effect is cumulative, so a display card needs to be out of direct sun. Handling bends and abrades, so a displayed card should be inside a rigid holder rather than a sleeve alone. Beyond that, the choice between a frame, a stand and a case is about how much protection you want around the card, not about which looks better.

Why display matters more than it looks

Display is not a niche behaviour. In survey work on card collecting, roughly 44 per cent of collectors say they display their cards physically, against around 28 per cent who store them for the long term. The two groups want different things from the same card, and the display group is the larger one. That is worth stating plainly because collecting advice tends to assume storage is the goal, and for most collectors it is not.

The consequence is that the honest advice is not to keep everything in a box. It is to display the cards you want to see, and to understand what that costs. The storage guide covers the environmental side; this page is about the shelf.

The three ways to put a card on a shelf

A stand or an easel. The cheapest option, and the one that leaves the card most exposed. A stand holds a sleeved or cased card upright so it can be seen, and it protects the card from nothing except being laid down. If the card is valuable enough to display, it is valuable enough to display inside something rigid rather than in a sleeve on a stand.

A rigid case. A card in a rigid holder — the kind used for shipping and for storing valuable singles — is protected from bending and from being touched, and it can be propped on a stand. This is the sensible middle of the range: the card is visible, the holder takes the handling, and the whole thing can be moved without touching the card.

A frame. A frame is the most decorative option and also the one that needs the most care, because a frame is designed to be hung, and a hung frame spends its life in exactly the place that gets the most light. A frame with a card in it belongs on a wall that never receives direct sun. Graded cards go into frames unchanged; raw cards should be in at least a rigid holder before they go behind glass.

What actually damages a displayed card

Three things, in order of how often they bite. Sunlight, which fades the printed image and cannot be undone. Handling, which is what happens when a card is picked up out of a stand to be shown to someone. Dust, which is easy to fix but which encourages people to wipe a card with whatever is to hand, and wiping is a form of handling.

The fix for all three is the same: put the card in a rigid holder before it goes on display, position the display out of direct light, and handle the holder rather than the card. A magnetic case or a graded slab makes that automatic, because the card inside is not something you take out to look at. The sleeves and holders overview covers which holder suits which card.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not claim that any display method keeps a card in mint condition, and we will not put a number on how long a card can sit in the light before it fades, because the rate depends on the light and the inks and we have not measured it. We also will not tell you what a displayed card is worth more or less than. Display is a choice about how you enjoy a collection; the value consequences of it are a separate and much smaller question. Our own sleeves, holders, frames and storage boxes are on our product pages, and nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy them.

Frequently asked questions

How do I display Dragon Ball cards without damaging them?

Put the card in a rigid holder before it goes on display, put the display somewhere direct sun does not reach, and handle the holder rather than the card. Light fades printed inks cumulatively and handling bends and abrades, so those are the two things a display routine has to manage.

Will sunlight damage my Dragon Ball cards?

Yes. Ultraviolet light breaks down the dyes in the printed image and the effect is cumulative, so a card does not recover when it is moved out of the light. A display belongs on a wall that never receives direct sun, whatever form of frame or stand it uses.

Should I display raw cards or graded cards?

Either, provided a raw card is in a rigid holder before it is displayed. A graded card already sits in a case that protects it from handling and bending, which is why it needs no extra preparation. The card inside a case or a slab is also not taken out to be looked at, which removes handling entirely.

Is it better to store cards or display them?

That depends on what you want from the collection. Survey work puts the proportion of collectors who display cards physically at around 44 per cent, well ahead of the roughly 28 per cent who store them for the long term. Storage is safer and display is the point of owning the card for most people, so the useful answer is to display what you care about and protect it properly.

Do card frames protect cards?

A frame protects a card from dust and from being touched, but a frame is designed to hang and a hung frame sits where light reaches it. The frame is not the protection; the holder inside the frame is. A raw card should be in at least a rigid holder before it goes behind glass.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

The most common way a card is damaged is not in a binder or on a shelf. It is in transit, between two people who both wanted the transaction to go well. A Dragon Ball card is a thin sheet of card stock, and a postal system is a machine for bending thin sheets. CardSpicy sets out how to pack one so that it arrives as it left.

Quick answer

Three layers, each solving a specific failure. A sleeve stops the card being touched and stops it abrading against its neighbours. A rigid holder takes the bending load, so a flex in the mail does not become a crease in the card. A rigid mailer keeps the whole assembly from being folded, and a padded envelope alone does not do that. Tape the holder closed so the card cannot slide out, and put the assembly in the middle of the mailer rather than against an edge.

The failure modes, and what stops each

Bending. The dominant risk, and the one that turns a near-mint card into a creased one. A padded envelope offers almost no resistance to bending; a rigid mailer does. The holder matters as much as the mailer, because a card in a soft sleeve inside a rigid mailer still has nothing preventing the card itself from flexing within the envelope.

Corner damage. Corners are the first thing a grader and a buyer look at, and they are the first thing a machine that handles mail catches. A rigid holder encloses the corners; a sleeve leaves them exposed inside the envelope. This is the reason a card in a sleeve alone is not a safe shipment even if the mailer is rigid.

Water. An unexpected one, and it happens. Paper absorbs moisture and a card that has been wet does not come back the same way. If the forecast or the route suggests rain, a water-resistant outer layer costs little. The storage guide explains what moisture does to a foil card.

Loss and disputes. Tracked postage for anything of value, and insurance for anything expensive. A tracked shipment converts an argument into a set of records, and the cost of tracking is small next to the cost of a refunded sale.

Packing a graded card

A graded card is easier in one way and harder in another. The case protects the card itself, so the card cannot bend or be touched — but the case is a box-shaped object with hard edges, and a case that shifts inside an envelope can crack. A slab belongs in a padded sleeve or a bubble wrap layer of its own, then in a rigid or padded box that stops it moving. Do not tape a slab directly; the residue is difficult to remove and buyers object to it.

Shipping across a border

For a buyer outside the country of the seller, two things change. The first is cost, which rises with tracking and insurance. The second is duty, and the rules have changed: the de minimis exemption that used to keep low-value parcels free of duty entering the United States has been removed, which means more cross-border card parcels now attract a charge on arrival. A buyer who has not seen that charge before will treat it as a surprise, and the honest thing to do is state it in the listing before the sale rather than after. What changed for parcels to the US explains the position; the site’s own shipping terms are set out on the shipping page, and the Dragon Ball card index collects the rest of these pages.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not guarantee that any packing method survives every route, and we will not put a number of layers or a postal service tier forward as a rule. What we will say is that packing a card is cheap relative to the cost of the transaction going wrong, and that the layer doing the work is the rigid one. Nothing on this page is a statement of our own shipping policy; that is on the shipping page, and it is the document that governs an order placed with us.

Frequently asked questions

How do I ship a Dragon Ball card safely?

Put the card in a sleeve, then in a rigid holder, then in a rigid mailer with the assembly centred rather than against an edge. Tape the holder closed so the card cannot slide out, and use tracked postage for anything of value. The rigid holder and the rigid mailer are the two layers doing the work.

Will a padded envelope protect a card?

Not on its own. Padding absorbs impact but offers little resistance to bending, and bending is the failure that creases a card. A padded envelope is acceptable as an outer layer around a rigid mailer; it is not a substitute for one.

Should I ship a card in a sleeve or a top loader?

Both. The sleeve stops the card being touched and abraded, and the rigid holder takes the bending load and encloses the corners. A sleeve alone leaves the corners exposed and the card free to flex inside the envelope, which is exactly what a rigid holder prevents.

Does shipping to the US cost extra now?

It can. The de minimis exemption that used to keep low-value parcels free of duty entering the United States has been removed, so more cross-border card parcels now attract a charge on arrival. A seller should state that in the listing so the buyer is not surprised by it later.

Can you tape a graded card slab?

Avoid taping the slab itself. The residue is difficult to remove and buyers object to finding it. Wrap the slab in a padded layer and put it in a box that stops it moving, which protects the case from cracking without leaving anything stuck to it.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

Dragon Ball card collecting runs on two vocabularies at once. One belongs to the game: Leaders, energy, colours and turn phases. The other belongs to the market: slabs, populations, gem rates and raw copies. A new collector meets both in the same listing and neither is explained there. CardSpicy defines the terms in the order you are likely to encounter them.

Quick answer

If you only learn six terms, learn these. A Leader is the single card a deck is built around. A card number identifies the exact printing of a card and is the only reliable identifier in a listing. Raw means ungraded. A slab is the plastic case a graded card comes in. A population is how many copies of a card have been graded. A gem rate is the share of submitted copies that reached the top grade. Everything else follows from those six.

Game terms

Leader. The one card that sits outside the main deck and begins the game in play. It has a colour and two printed sides, and every other card in the deck must share a colour with it. It is the first decision in deck building and the hardest constraint on the result.

Battle card. The ordinary card type: drawn, played, and used to attack or defend. The bulk of a deck is Battle cards.

Extra card. A card type that is played for its effect rather than as a fighter. It is subject to the same colour rule as a Battle card.

Energy marker. A physical token used to track the energy you spend during a game. It is a game accessory, not a card you play, which is why the most expensive item in Dragon Ball collecting being an energy marker is less strange than it looks: it is a printed collectible that happens to be a game piece. The energy marker overview covers them in full.

Charge, main and end turn. The three phases a turn is divided into, in the order they are played. The publisher’s rule manual defines them and the sequence is fixed.

Awakened side. The second printed side of a Leader card, reached during play. It usually changes the Leader’s power or effect, so a Leader is really two cards for the price of one.

Colour rule. Every Battle card and Extra card must share at least one colour with the Leader. It is the rule that makes a Leader choice binding on the whole deck.

Ban and restricted list. A published list of cards that may not be played, or that may be played only in a limited number of copies. It is updated periodically and applies to organised play, not to collecting.

Collector terms

Raw. An ungraded card, in whatever condition it is in. The term is neutral: a raw card is not a worse card, it is a card whose condition has not been independently assessed.

Slab. The sealed plastic case a graded card is returned in, with a label identifying the card, the grade and the grader. The slab is part of the product: a graded card is bought and sold in its case, and removing a card from a case destroys the grading.

Population, or pop. The number of copies of a particular card that a grading company has graded. A low population means few copies exist in a case; it does not mean few copies exist, because ungraded copies are not counted.

Gem rate. The proportion of submitted copies of a card that received the top grade. A low gem rate means the card is hard to find in top condition, which is a different kind of scarcity from a low print run.

Alternate art. A printing of an existing card with different artwork. Same number, same game function, different picture.

Chase card. The card in a set that collectors most want, usually the one at the top of the rarity ladder or the one carrying the highest-end treatment. It is a description of demand, not an official category.

Sealed product. Unopened packs or boxes, bought and sold as such. Its value rests on the seal being intact as much as on the contents.

Chase versus need. Two different reasons to buy the same card. A need completes a deck or a set; a chase is wanted for itself. The buying checklist puts that distinction to work before a purchase.

What we will not tell you

CardSpicy will not define a term the publisher defines differently, and we will not invent shorthand for a mechanic. Where a term above is a game term, its authority is the rule manual; where it is a collecting term, it is a convention rather than a rule and different sellers use it loosely. If a listing uses a term in a way that changes what you are buying — particularly a card number, a grade or a treatment — the listing is the thing to interrogate, not the glossary. Nothing on this page is a valuation of any card.

Frequently asked questions

What does raw mean for a Dragon Ball card?

Ungraded. A raw card has not been sent to a grading company and has no case or grade attached to it. The word describes the card’s status rather than its condition: a raw card can be in excellent condition, it simply has not been independently assessed.

What is a slab?

The sealed plastic case a graded card is returned in, carrying a label with the card, the grade and the grading company. The case is part of the card’s value and removing a card from it destroys the grading, which is why graded cards are bought and sold in their cases.

What is a gem rate?

The share of submitted copies of a card that received the top grade from the grading company. It measures how hard the card is to find in top condition, which is a different thing from how many were printed. A card can be common and still have a low gem rate.

What is an energy marker in Dragon Ball?

A physical token used to track energy during a game. It is not a card you play, which is why it is worth being precise about it: the most expensive item in Dragon Ball collecting is an energy marker, and it is expensive as a printed collectible rather than as a play piece.

What is a chase card?

The card in a set that collectors most want, usually the top of the rarity ladder or the one with the highest-end treatment. It is a description of what buyers are chasing rather than an official category, so which card it is can change as a market changes.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Bandai — the official DRAGON BALL SUPER CARD GAME Fusion World rule manual (Version 1.20), which sets out deck construction, the colour rule, the Leader card and the charge, main and end turn structure referred to on this page.
2. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters product listings and published release dates for the sets named here, and the official card-list finder, which is the source of every set make-up quoted.
3. Bandai — the official Fusion World and Masters tournament regulations and the published banned and restricted card list, which is the source of the format statements made here.
4. CardSpicy — the Dragon Ball card index, which tracks how many cards each character has and how many carry a graded value.

Set contents, release dates and event regulations are taken from the publisher’s own announcements at the date stated and can change without notice. Prices quoted anywhere on this site are secondary-market observations and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.