The Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) is beloved by hardcore fans and casuals alike. Many millennials and zoomers grew up collecting the cards and battling their friends on the playgrounds. Whether the collection you still keep in the closet has some actual monetary value or just good ol’ sentimental value, millions of cards are in existence today.
Though you can go through your own cards for some of these ultra-rare cards, you probably won’t be lucky enough to find one. Unique and rare cards can be worth thousands of dollars, with some being worth between a quarter of a million and a half of a million dollars. These are among the coolest.
10 Gold Star Espeon And Umbreon Cards
These “Gold Star” Espeon and Umbreon cards are named after the little gold star beside their names in the top left. This is meant to signify that the artworks on these cards are coloured differently than the common version.
Fans will recognize that these are the shiny versions of these Eeveelutions. There are English and Japanese Gold Star Espeon and Umbreon cards. While the Japanese versions are rarer (and sell for more), either will fetch a pretty penny among collectors.
9 Pikachu Illustrator Card
There are only 41 Pikachu Illustrator cards in existence. They were given to winners of an illustration contest that was held by CoroCoro Comic (a Japanese magazine) in 1998.
These cards are not only special due to the limited number available. First of all, the artwork featured on the card was drawn by Atsuko Nishida (the original illustrator for Pokemon). It’s also the only card to say “Illustrator” instead of “Trainer.” As a bonus, there’s also a little pen icon to indicate why the owner has it.
8 Tropical Mega Battle Card
Between 1999 and 2001, a tournament known as the Pokemon Tropical Mega Battle was held annually in Hawaii. Only 50 players attended in any given year.
These lovely tropical cards were a kind of promotional card that was given to the players during the event and there are several known variations. The version that is shown above, with a Psyduck in a hammock, is particularly highly valued these days.
7 Shining Charizard – Neo Destiny Card (1st Edition)
The Neo Destiny set was the fourth expansion for the Neo Series of the trading cards. It came out in 2001 in Japanese and 2002 in English. At this point, interest in the Pokemon Trading Card Game was slightly petering off, so not many cards in this final set were made or sold.
The set included a ‘Shining Charizard’ card (so-named because the illustration was of a shiny Charizard variation) that became extremely prized by collectors.
6 No. 1 Trainer Card
No. 1 Trainer cards are given each year to winners of Pokemon tournaments, making any of them a rare find. However, in 1999, there was one entitled the Secret Super Battle Tournament that occurred in Tokyo.
This 1999 tournament had seven regional battles, so only seven copies of that No. 1 Trainer card (featured above) were made. When you won that battle and got your trainer card, it was your pass into the finals (which were held at a secret location - hence the name).
5 20th Anniversary 24-karat Gold Pikachu Card
This gorgeous card was released fairly recently - especially compared to other rare and/or valuable cards - for the Pokemon Trading Card Game’s 20th anniversary in 2016.
It’s intended to be a recreation of the first-ever Pikachu Card in all ways but with one very important difference: it’s made with 11 grams of 24-karat gold. As a result, it’s unfortunately not legal to play with it in a tournament.
4 Magikarp Tamamushi University Promo Card
Depending on who you believe, there are somewhere between 30 and 100 Magikarp Tamamushi University Promo Cards in existence - making them much less common than your average useless Magikarp, in game or card form.
It was given to the very best players in 1998 who attended a Pokemon conference in Japan - one player’s card, which is in mint condition, has been valued at 27,000 dollars.
3 Master Key Card
The Master Key Card is another that was only given to tournament players at a contest in Hawaii - the 2010 Pokemon World Championships. 36 copies theoretically exist, one for every participant of this tournament - but it’s not known where they all are. Some may have been lost over the years.
They usually sell for more than 10,000 dollars but the most recent to go on sale in November of 2019 was sold for 21,000 dollars.
2 Pokémon Blastoise #009/165R Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Hologram
There two cards like this one to exist in the world, making it among the rarest Pokemon Cards to ever exist. When the Blastoise one (featured above) sold in January of 2021, it became the most expensive Pokemon card ever sold at auction. The price was 360,000 dollars, in the end.
Why is it so rare? That’s because it was made by Wizards of the Coast in an attempt to get the rights to roll out English language pokemon cards - this card was a presentation item. The Pokemon Trading Card Game launched internationally soon after.
1 Black Star Ishihara Signed GX Promo Card
Tsunekazu Ishihara, the founder of the Pokemon Company, features on this extraordinary card. When he turned 60 in 2017, these cards were given to his staff. This means only a few are in existence and are extraordinarily valuable in and of themselves.
However, one copy was signed by Ishihara himself and recently sold for nearly 250,000 dollars. The abilities on the card are rather unique - one allows you to flip a coin 60 times and earn presents, while the other prevents all effects due to Ishihara’s red jacket.
NEXT: Scariest Pokemon Card Illustrations
