The 20 most expensive rare Pokémon cards of all time

What are the most expensive Pokemon cards in the world? After over 25 years of regular Pokémon TCG releases, there are quite a few staggeringly valuable cards out there. YouTuber Logan Paul famously blew over $5 million on a Pikachu Illustrator in 2022, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve searched online auction houses and scoured niche bits of Pokémon history to find the 51 most valuable rare Pokémon cards ever sold.

First, a friendly warning: if you’re just now getting into the Pokémon TCG hobby, you’ll have more fun playing than seeking the world’s most most valuable Pokémon sets. As a starting point, we recommend our beginner guide to Pokémon card collecting, our tutorial on how to play Pokémon cards, and our up-to-date picks of the best Pokemon packs to buy right now.

Still, it is exciting to see just how much the rarest Pokémon cards cost for the top-tier collectors – and the reason these Pokémon cards are worth money can be fascinating in itself. For details on how we track card sales for this guide, and expert tips on finding your own cards’ value, check out the FAQ section at the end of this guide.

As of 2025, the 20 most expensive rare Pokémon cards are:

20. Pokémon Snap Contest Gyarados

This Gyarados is one of ten successful entries to the Pokémon Snap photo contest in 1999, run by the Nintendo-focused Japanese TV show 64 Mario Stadium. Participants were asked to send in their greatest Pokémon snapshots from the game, and the best five were made into real Pokémon cards. The manga magazine CoroCoro Comic ran the same competition – also creating five cards.

This special version of Base Set Gyarados was reprinted with a Pokémon Snap photo for its art.

According to Heritage Auctions, where a copy of the Pokémon Snap contest Gyarados card was sold for $87,500 on July 7, 2023, only 15 copies of each of the prize-winning cards were created, and it’s not clear how many have survived to present day, making this one rare sea beastie.

Gotta admit, we’re not a hundred percent sure why this picture, in which the Gyarados is only recognisable if you already know what you’re looking at, won the competition. Perhaps there weren’t very many entries?

19. Japanese Beta Presentation Charizard

Old Pokemon cards tend to be some of the most costly, and it doesn’t get much older than the 1996 Beta Presentation cards created before the Pokemon TCG was even released in Japan.

It does get a little older, however, as the Presentation cards are actually the third version of early Pokemon cards. They’re not to be confused with the earlier black and white prototype cards, which featured Gameboy sprites, or the beta playtest cards used to try out the rules. Their history was uncovered in 2024, when one of the game’s founders Takumi Akabane, shed light on the cards and helped verify a number of them.

Beta Presentation Charizard features the now-classic watercolor artwork by Ken Sugimori. As you can see, the card’s rules were changed before October 1996 when Base Set released. The Charizard seen here still has his four energy Firespin attack, but rather than the Energy Burn ability which lets you treat all energy as fire, he instead has a less powerful move that uses four energy of any color.

For obvious reasons, these early cards are of interest to anyone curious about the history of the Pokemon TCG, and it only makes sense that Charizard would be the costliest. A Beta Presentation Charizard sold on Fanatics Collect in September 2024 for an impressive $99,000.

It’s worth comparing the card to English-language Presentation Blastoise – another costly card. This older Pokemon card not only lacks a rarity symbol, it has a very different layout to what was eventually used.

18. Japanese Extra Battle Day Full Art Lillie

Lillie is a popular card for her character alone, a beloved companion who appears in Pokémon the Series: Sun and Moon and Pokémon Journeys: The Series, so there’s already a slight ‘waifu tax’ associated with all versions of her card. But the Extra Battle Day Full Art Lillie promo variant is incredibly rare.

The Extra Battle Day was a limited event originally planned to run in October and November 2019, and January and February 2020, but the Coronavirus pandemic meant that only the first two events ever ran.  Players had to win a lottery just to enter the Extra Battle Days, and their score was scrutinized on everything from wins, to ratio of prize cards won to lost, to the outcome of a game of rock-paper-scissors.

So the winners got the promo Full Art Lillie, right? Wrong! Winners got booster packs which had a chance of pulling one of three full art rares, of which Lillie was the rarest. Small wonder, then, that a PSA graded Gem Mint 10 copy of this promo sold for $108,000 on Fanatics Collect in July 2023 – and reportedly, a copy sold on Chinese auction market Xianyu for $170,000 in August 2023. 

17. 2006 World Championships No. 2 Trainer Promo

As the name implies, the 2006 World Championships No. 2 Trainer Promo card was only available at the Pokémon World Championships of that year. It was hosted in California’s Hilton Anaheim hotel in August 2006.

It wasn’t enough just to qualify for these championships – you also needed to have an impressive win streak. You had to go 6-0 in the qualifiers on day one, survive the second day of matches, and reach the finals in your division on the last day. Your reward was this unique promo, which features Pikachu proudly displaying a silver trophy.

According to the auction house, the copy that sold in 2021 for $110,100 is the only one currently graded by PSA, and it’s “thought to be one of only three to have been given out”. As all hardcore Pokémon collectors know, rare cards get their value from stunning art of popular Pokémon, combined with a scarce number of copies. This promo has both these qualities in spades.

16. Snap Magikarp

This is another card from the competition to promote Pokémon Snap,  Pokémon’s strange photography-based safari spin-off on the N64. Fans were asked to submit photographs of their favorite ‘mons, and ten winners were chosen, each of whom won twenty copies of a single promo card that illustrated with their photograph.

Snap Magikarp is by far the rarest of these promos. As of 2022, only one copy had ever surfaced on the secondary market, selling on Yahoo! Auctions Japan for $136,000. The video above, by YouTuber smpratte, shows that exact card shortly after its sale.

The card gives photo credit to the competition winner, Yuka Matsubara. As Matsubara was the only person in the world to receive copies of the card, his decision to hang onto the copies for as long as he did gave this unassuming Pokémon incredible rarity.

15. 2000 Super Secret Battle No. 2 Trainer

The Super Secret Battle No.2 Trainer card was specially created for Toshiyuki Yamaguchi, a young trainer who took second place in the Secret Super Battle – Best in Japan finals in August 2000. This was the culmination of the 2,000 World Summer Challenge, and the ‘Deciding Match’ tournament took place in the Pokémon Center Tokyo on August 19.

This is a one-of-a-kind card, featuring Yamaguchi’s portrait as well as Chansey, Doduo, Growlithe and Pikachu on a holo background. It sold on July 7 2023 via Heritage Auctions, for a mighty $137,500. Not bad for second place!

14. First Edition Neo Genesis Holo Lugia

Lugia has a firm place in popular Pokémon history. A legendary bird that first appeared in Generation II, it quickly became a fan-favorite among players of the franchise’s videogames and trading card game alike. It even made an appearance on the front cover of Game Boy game Pokémon Silver, so you know it’s not playing around.

Unsurprisingly, the Pokémon’s popularity hasn’t waned. Back in May 2021, a Holographic Lugia Neo Genesis First Edition card, graded as a Pristine 10 by grading agency BGS, sold for $144,300 (£105,200) on PWCC, now Fanatics Collect. That’s no pocket change.

Fanatics Collect reckons only 41 PSA 10 copies of the card have ever been graded, and only three have received the BGS 10 Pristine label. The card’s scarcity and Lugia’s continued popularity will keep the value of this Pokémon card high for years to come.

13. 1999 Secret Super Battle No. 1 Trainer

Perhaps the rarest of all Pokémon cards, No.1 Trainer is the real deal. A promotional card awarded to finalists of the 1999 Secret Super Battle Tournament – also functioning as the entry ticket to the tournament’s finals – it’s said that only seven copies were made.

Six of them remain in perfect Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) Gem Mint 10 condition, with one selling for a whopping $156,000 in September 2022 via Heritage Auctions.

The holographic card features a silhouetted Mewtwo and, according to the auction house responsible for a sale in 2020, Heritage Auctions, the card’s description translates to: “The Pokémon Card Game Official Tournament’s champion is recognized here, and this honour is praised. By presenting this card, you may gain preferential entry into the Secret Super Battle”.

12. Family Event Trophy Kangaskhan

The Kangaskhan Family Event Trophy card was given as a reward to participants of a 1998 Pokémon TCG battle tournament. This was no regular tournament, however, as each team was made up of both a parent and child, bringing some family spirit to the game. Those teams that reached a certain spot in the contest’s ladder were rewarded this trophy card.

Let’s hope they hung onto it. The card was never printed outside of the tournament, and features the original Pocket Monsters Trading Card Game logo as a set symbol (instead of the regular Pokémon TCG logo), making it quite the rarity.

Collector’s seem to think so, too. In October 2020, a PSA 10 ‘gem mint’ copy of the card was auctioned for $150,100 (£109,350) on eBay, making it one of the most expensive Pokémon cards to sell in recent years. That price was beaten in a Heritage Auctions sale in July 2023 however, setting a new highest price of $175,000. 

11. 2005 Play Promo Holo Umbreon

The 2005 Play Promo Holo Umbreon Gold Star card was only awarded to members of the Pokémon Player’s Club, and they’d need to earn 70,000 EXP points (through various activities and competitions) to get their hands on a copy. Considering members start out with only 1,000 points, catching this one was no small feat.  It’s one of the most notoriously difficult Player’s Club promo cards to acquire.

This alone makes this Umbreon rare and desirable, but there’s more: the holo version of the card was never released in English. Combine that with adorable art of a beloved Eeveelution, and you’re talking real value. In a 2021 Fanatics Collect auction, this Pokémon card sold for $70,000 (£55,700) – that’s one dollar for every EXP point it’s worth.

But this was smashed in September 2023, when a GEM MT 10 copy of the card sold for $135,209 – followed swiftly by another sale for $180,000 in February 2024 via Fanatics Collect. 

10. Test Print Gold Border Blastoise

When Wizards of the Coast first attempted to localize the Pokémon card game for the English language market, they experimented with a variety of different in-house layouts before settling on the final version. This test print has a variety of unusual features – its back is a Magic the Gathering Card, the border is gold rather than yellow, and the front of the card is foiled, a new technique for Wizards of the Coast at the time. 

9. Snap Pikachu

Just like the Snap Magikarp, the Snap Pikachu was created as a promo prize for one of ten competition winners, featuring a virtual Pikachu photograph taken inside the strange photography / safari videogame Pokémon Snap. 20 copies were given to a single prize winner in the late ’90s, but never surfaced on the open market.

That was until June 2023, when Pro Retro X published the video above, showing two collectors hunting down a copy of the card at Japanese TCG and sneaker marketplace Magi, and purchasing it for an eye-watering $270,000.

8. Ishihara GX Promo

A little different from the others on this list, the Ishihara GX Promo card doesn’t actually feature a Pokémon, but the president and founder of The Pokémon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara. The promotional card was printed to celebrate his 60th birthday, and handed to the company employees who attended the event  – quite the corporate treat. The card’s ‘Red Chanchanko’ ability is a reference to the traditional Japanese garment often given to men when they turn 60 years old.

Copies of the card have sold at auction for as much as $50,000 (£36,450), but that’s peanuts compared to what a signed copy can fetch. In April 2021, an autographed PSA 7 Ishihara GX Promo card went for $247,230 (£180,200). It’s unlikely we’ll see many more of these pop up, though. It’s rumored that only a handful were ever printed, and only one signed copy has ever been shown to the public.

7. Trophy Pikachu No. 3 Trainer

One of the most expensive prize card on our list comes all the way from June 1997, less than one year into the Pokémon TCG’s lifespan. This was the very first Pokémon tournament, and it looked very different to modern competitive play. According to the ‘museum’ website Pokumon, the competitors were 1,000 children (aged up to 15) chosen by lottery. Since skill wasn’t required to compete, the power level was really low, with all sorts of wild and wacky decks showing up.

The first ever prize cards, each featuring different Pikachu pics, were awarded to the winners, with the No. 3 Trainer Cards given to third and fourth place competitors in each of the four tournaments. When we first wrote this guide only four of the Trophy Pikachu No. 3 Trainer cards had been PSA certified, but as of February 2025 all eight copies were accounted for.

How much does this slice of Pokémon history cost? In April 2023, a copy sold on Heritage Auctions for $300,000 and before that, one went on Fanatics Collect for $324,000. A pricey Pika!

6. Signed Base Set No Rarity Holo Charizard

5. Presentation Blastoise

Presentation Blastoise was briefly the most expensive Pokemon Card ever sold, when it went for $360,000 (£260,000) at auction in January 2021. This is no normal card: Presentation Blastoise was originally printed by Wizards of the Coast as a demonstration piece for its pitch to Nintendo to get the rights to make an English language version of the card game.

Because it’s a prototype, this card features different fonts, a missing water energy symbol, and misspellings – which only makes the card more prized. Presentation Blastoise has a place at the center of the Pokémon TCG’s history. Only two Presentation Blastoise cards were produced, one of which may be lost forever.

4. First Edition Base Set Holo Charizard

Ah, First edition Charizard. Ask a casual fan what the most sought-after Pokémon card is, and there’s a good chance they’ll answer: shiny Charizard. Perennially popular since its release in 1999, holographic Charizards have been a staple on the wish lists of collectors and fans for over 20 years, and a legend of playgrounds everywhere.

The first edition holo Charizard is particularly valued for its age, limited availability, and the recognisable image of one of Pokémon’s much-loved mascots. Like all first edition Pokémon cards, this card is shadowless, printed without the dark border on the frame that was added later. There are a very few shadowless cards that aren’t first edition, but it’s the combination of the shadowless border and first edition logo that’s the real certification of excellence.

In October 2020, a PSA 10 mint condition first-edition shadowless holographic Charizard was bought by ex-rapper Logic at auction for a sizeable $220,000 (£173,000), only to be surpassed a month later when another Charizard of the same specifications sold for $295,000 (£210,000).

But that’s nothing compared to the mint, PSA 10 copy that sold in 2022 for $420,000 (£334,000). That sale currently places the First edition Charizard as the third most expensive (playable) Pokémon card in the world. 

3. Trophy Pikachu No. 2 Trainer

The Trophy Pikachu No. 2 Trainer was given to second place winners at the first two Pokémon tournaments ever, in 1997 and 1998. It features an illustration by card artist Mitsuhiro Arita of a happy Pikachu holding a trophy.

On September 7 2023 a copy of this card from the second (1998) tournament, known as Lizardon Mega Battle or Charizard Mega Battle, sold for an outstanding $444,000 on auction site Goldin. Weirdly, the only difference between the prize cards is that those from the second tournament have a line specifying they’re from the first ever Pokémon tournament. A heinous lie! The second tournament was on a much larger scale than the first, as Pokémania began to take root.

Only 15 copies of the card were made, and only four examples of the card have survived to become PSA graded. The real clincher that makes this copy so valuable is that this is currently the only copy to have achieved the perfect PSA 10 rating. Presumably 11 cards are lying crumpled in a drawer somewhere, their owners none the wiser.

2. Topsun Blue Back Charizard

The Topsun Charizard Blue Back card would be the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold, if it could really be counted as a Pokémon card at all, that is. It features Charizard on the front and has all the right text, but this pick isn’t actually part of the official Pokémon TCG. Before Creatures Inc. developed the version of the trading card game we’ve come to know, Topsun gave it a go, and printed a few prototype cards.

This is one of them, and not just any one of them. Its blue back and unnumbered printing make it even more scarce. Rumored to have originally been distributed in packets of gum in Japan in 1997, despite being printed with a 1995 trademark date.

As you might expect, there’s not many of these left lying about; only 31, according to trading card authenticator PSA’s last count.

That’s why in January 2021, a PSA 10 version of the blue-backed, unnumbered, Topsun Charizard card sold for a mega $493,230 (£392,325) at auction. It just goes to show, even unofficial products can be gold for some. 

1. Pikachu Illustrator

Pikachu Illustrator is a promo Pokémon card originally handed out to winners of a 1998 illustration competition run through Japanese magazine CoroCoro. Only 39 copies were ever created. It’s the only card to feature the ‘Illustrator’ title instead of ‘Trainer’. The artwork was drawn by esteemed Pokémon illustrator Atsuko Nishida, creator of Pokémon’s main mascot, Pikachu. There’s even a unique pen icon in the bottom-right corner, seen on no other card.

It’s unknown exactly how many Pikachu Illustrator cards are still in existence, but ten PSA certified copies have been graded as ‘mint’. Until January 2021, it was the most expensive Pokémon card to ever have been sold at auction, with a PSA 9 Mint condition card selling for a whopping $233,000 (£167,600).

Though it lost the title briefly, in July 2021 Logan Paul (yeah, that guy) spent $4 million on the only existing PSA 10 version of the card, getting the purchase accredited by Guinness World Records as the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold. But the value of the card is actually even higher: to secure the trade, Paul also handed over a lesser PSA 9 version of the card, which he’d previously purchased for $1,275,000 (around £1,000,000).

It’s a pity it’s so rare: Pikachu looks even cuter than usual holding an oversized fountain pen.

Bonus – Black Triangle Base Set Booster Pack

We’re including a bonus curiosity because it’s just too interesting not to mention. When Wizards of the Coast realized they had accidentally printed too many Base Set booster packs branded with the first-edition logo, they covered the errant symbol with a small black triangle. A simple attempt to avoid wasting resources has generated a much-prized collector’s item, as fans now clamor for a rare Black Triangle Base Set Booster Pack.

It’s the packaging itself that’s valuable here, not the cards inside, so don’t go cracking one of these black triangle packs open if you happen to find one sitting in the back of a drawer. They’re occasionally found in standard Base Set booster boxes – so you’ll have to weigh up whether to gamble on the chance discovery of one of the black triangle booster packs, or whether it’s best to leave the box unopened for its pristine value. Some of the black triangle booster packs have fetched over $2,700 (£2,000) on eBay, depending upon their condition and which Pokémon is displayed on their cover.

Rare Pokémon cards FAQ

How we find the most expensive Pokémon cards

To compile this list, we regularly trawl the latest sales on global trading card and collectibles auction houses like Fanatics Collect (formerly PWCC), Heritage Auctions, and Goldin Auctions. We aim to keep the rankings and prices as up to date as possible.

However, remember that, like all collectibles and investments, the Pokémon card market is very volatile, and prices can change fast and often. If you’re looking to buy and sell high value Pokémon cards, you need to take care to double check the latest prices, being very conscious of the website or auction house’s commission rates and fees.

What are rare Pokémon cards, and do I have any?

The most valuable Pokémon cards normally command high prices because they’re old and there are very few copies in circulation. Most originate from the earliest Pokémon sets, or are one-off tournament prize cards printed in very low numbers. First edition Pokémon cards, peculiar misprints, and desirable variants like shadowless Pokémon cards all fetch very high prices.

If you’ve got a huge stash of really old cards, it’s definitely worth reviewing our Pokémon card rarity spotter’s guide and having a trawl through – but your chances of finding one of the top 50 are (we regret to inform you) incredibly low. You should keep our guide to spotting fake Pokémon cards handy, too, so you don’t fall for a counterfeit.

How to sell rare Pokémon cards

We have a dedicated guide on how to sell Pokémon cards, so we recommend you read that if you’re considering trading – but here’s the short version.

If you think you’re holding a truly valuable Pokémon card, your first port of call is to get it protected by placing it in a thin, soft-plastic sleeve, then into a protective, hard-plastic ‘toploader’ case. Before spending any more money on the card, it’s usually a good idea to show it to an expert personally, to get their opinion on its condition and potential value – a specialist at your local games store may be able to help.

Then you should get it graded by a well-regarded, expert grading service – PSA Pokémon card grading is the most popular in the USA. Once you get the card back with an official grading from 1 to 10, and stored in a professional PSA protective case, you should have a good idea what price range you’re likely to get for it.

Bear in mind that there’s usually a huge difference in value between a PSA grade 7, 8 or 9 card (generally mint condition to the naked eye) and a perfect PSA 10 card (absolutely faultless, even when viewed under a microscope from every angle). The really high prices paid by top level collectors are only for PSA 10 cards, and a PSA 10 card is very often worth more than twice as much as the exact same card at PSA grade 8 or 9.

If you don’t find any ultra valuable Pokémon cards in your collection, it’s really not the end of the world. This is a game, remember – what you have got is a delightful collection to treasure and play with.

That’s all for our list of the most expensive Pokémon cards for now! For more high value trading cards, read our guides to the most expensive Yugioh cards ever printed, and the most expensive Lorcana cards in Disney’s new TCG.

If you’d rather do your Pokémon training on the move, take a look at our sister site Pocket Tactics’ guide to the latest Pokémon Go promo codes.

Source: Wargamer