Pokemon First Edition Chansey
Sold in November, 2020 for $36,877
Fewer than fifty examples of the First Edition Holographic Chansey have received the elusive PSA 10 distinction, making it one of the most difficult ;First Edition Holos to find in that grade.
Chansey is a lovable pink, normal-type Pokémon that uses the egg held in its pouch to complete its signature move known as “Soft-Boiled” to help heal people and other Pokémon.
Many believe that Chansey can bring joy and happiness to those who catch it in the Pokemon world, while this card in high grade will bring lots of money to those who own it in the real world.
Base Set Pokmon Booster Pack With Black Triangle Error
This one is not actually an individual card, but rather an entire pack. Wizards of the Coast accidentally printed some Base Set packs with the first edition logo on the front, so to avoid wasting these packs, the logo was covered with a black triangle.
The cards inside these booster packs are far less rare than the packaging, so collectors recommend leaving them sealed to maintain value. The packs can be found inside standard Base Set booster boxes, but there is no way of knowing if you have a rare pack without opening the box.
A PSA 10 condition booster pack with the black triangle error goes for around $2,500 on eBay.
Pokemon Ex Team Rocket Returns Torchic Gold Star
Sold in December, 2020 for $25,400
Released in 2004, the EX Team Rocket Returns set marked the seventh expansion from the EX Series and featured 111 cards in its checklist.
Three of the cards, #107 , #108 , and #109 , are special holographic shiny rare cards noted by the gold star next to their name.
First introduced in the third generation of Pokemon games, Torchic is one of the three starter Pokemon that originate in the Hoenn region.
This orange and yellow chick may look cute and cuddly, but make no mistake, this fire-type Pokemon can shoot fireballs at its enemies that will instantly leave them burnt to a crisp.
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Pokemon First Edition Venusaur
Sold in December, 2020 for $22,615
Venusaur, notorious for the large flower that protrudes from its back, is the final evolved form of one of the original starter Pokémon, Bulbasaur.
That flower serves more than just a decorative purpose, though, as Venusaur uses it to absorb energy from the sun’s rays.
Like Charizard and Blastoise, who derive extra notoriety for appearing on video game box art, Venusaur was the mascot of the Pokémon Green video game released for the Nintendo Game Boy in Japan in 1996.
As one of the most recognizable Pokémon, collectors are willing to pay hefty price tags for 1st edition examples of this card in high grade.
Pokemon First Edition Hitmonchan
Sold in November, 2020 for $23,100
Packing tremendous punching power, the fighting-type Hitmonchan is another collector favorite who can strike with extreme quickness and precision.
Ken Sugimori delivered an excellent design for this card as Hitmonchan’s boxing gloves, shoulder pads, and five protrusions on the top of its head create an aura of a Pokemon that you don’t want to face.
Hitmonchan cards were some of the most commonly used cards in competitive play, making them tough to find in top condition.
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Pokmon Secret Super Battle Number 1 Trainer Card
During the Challenge Road ’99 SUMMER event , the Secret Super Battle and the Tropical Mega Battle were early side tournaments which invited elementary school students to compete. The Super Secret Battle played host to kids from third grade up to high school . The Secret Super Battle cards featured a Mewtwo silhouette and the event logo artwork by Hideki Kazaa. Along with the Tropical Mega Battle cards, the Secret Super Battle cards represented the first trainer cards with new artwork breaking away from the Trophy Pikachu for the first time.
What’s it worth? If you have an extra $150,000 to splurge, you can add this rare Pokemon card to your collection via Heritage Auctions. One is listed for sale there now at the time of this publication.
Ex Dragon Frontiers Charizard Gold Star
Sold in November, 2020 for $30,300
Released in November 2006, the EX Dragon Frontiers set marked the fifteenth main expansion of the EX Series.
Of the 101 cards in the set checklist, there are two rare Gold Star cards: Charizard and Mew .
With the odds of pulling a Charizard thought to be roughly 1 in 144 packs, many collectors never had the fortune of pulling this card from a pack, giving it a reputation as one of the toughest Charizard pulls of any set.
Featuring a stunning image penned by the gifted hands of Masakazu Fukuda, the eye-appeal of this card is also tough to match as the powerful creature breathes fire onto the edge of the card.
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Pokemon Spanish First Edition Charizard
Sold in October, 2020 for $35,100
To help promote the Pokemon Trading Card Game throughout the world, Wizards of the Coast printed the base set in several different languages.
The Spanish version offered native Spanish speakers throughout Europe and Latin America a much more enjoyable way to play their favorite card game.
You can see the Spanish translation throughout this card, but the Spanish version does leave the name “Charizard” as-is.
Other versions, such as the French and German, presented the Charizard character with a unique name altogether.
To verify the card is indeed a First Edition, look to the lower-left of the character box and you will find the “Edicion 1” symbol.
Just seven examples of this card have achieved a PSA 10 grade, making it one of the toughest multi-language First Edition Charizards to find in that condition.
Kangaskhan Family Event Trophy
- Release Date: 1998
- Grading: PSA Gem Mint 10
- Pokemon card value at auction: $150,000
Were now at the top five, and the prices of these most expensive Pokemon cards continue to skyrocket. This 1998 Trophy Pokemon card could only be obtained by participating in a special tournament in Japan. The adorable item features artwork depicting Kangaskhan with its baby in its pouch, surrounded by holo sparkles.
Fittingly, the contest required both a child and their parent to participate alongside each other in TCG battles . According to reports, there are only 11 of these currently in existence that have been graded, making it one of the most rare Trophy Pokemon cards to exist.
In October 2020, two PSA 10s of the collectible went for $150k. With its scarcity, we expect this Pokemon cards value will only continue to go up over the next couple of years.
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Booster Packs And Booster Boxes
The Pokemon TCG is a trading card game, meaning players collect cards to build unique decks and play against each other. The primary way players collect these cards is through booster packs.
A booster pack;contains 10 random cards, similar to a pack of baseball cards. Each card has a rarity, ranging from common to super rare . The standard distribution of cards in a booster pack is 6 common cards, 3 uncommon card, and 1 rare card.
Booster packs are released in sets. New sets are released roughly four times a year, each with a unique name like Sun and Moon Team Up. Each set contains a fixed number of new cards, usually around 200.
When you buy a booster pack, it will indicate the set that it is from. As you can see in the picture above, the booster packs are from the set Sun and Moon Team Up. If you bought 10 packs of Team Up, you would end up with 10 rare cards, 30 uncommon cards, and 60 common cards. While you can buy booster packs individually, they are also commonly sold in a booster box of 36 packs.
One of the best reasons to buy booster boxes is to get a better distribution of cards.;Imagine there are 220 cards in a set. In that set, there is somewhere around 70 rare cards, 70 uncommon cards, and 80 common cards. When you buy a single pack, you will get a random rare card, 3 random uncommon cards, and 6 random common cards.
Magikarp Tamamushi University Promo Card
Released only in Japan as a promotional card for the Tamamushi University Hyper Test in 1998. The contestants were separated in Pokémon gyms, then they competed with each other and the winners went on to the next day. Then, if they won during the second day, they would receive the Magikarp card.
This card can be worth at anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000, and only around a 1,000 were ever made for distribution. Its unknown if all 1,000 were distributed or if there are 1,000 left. So heads up if you have it.
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Rayquaza Gold Star Holo Ex Deoxys
- Release Date: 2005
- Grading: PSA Gem Mint 10
- Pokemon card value at auction: $45,100
An early favorite of Ruby & Sapphire, Rayquaza has seen an uptick in popularity over the last decade. So it makes sense then that its cards would also start to climb up in value over time. In 2005, The Pokemon Company released the Ex Deoxys TCG expansion featuring the Flying / Dragon-type.
As a gimmick to get Pokemon card collectors interested in the set, the Japanese company introduced Gold Star Pokemon cards into the hobby. As mentioned earlier, the incredibly rare Pokemon cards featured a special symbol next to the name of the mon. Of course, the king of these marked collectibles is the Hoenn Legendary itself.
In December 2020, a perfectly graded Gold Star Rayquaza sold at auction for $45,100. Given the Legendarys continued popularity in the franchise, and just how little of the gold Pokemon cards were actually produced, we expect this item to increase in value as time goes on.
Pokemon Japanese Hr Contest Winner Full Art Charizard
Sold in June, 2021 for $20,100
Despite the global health situation in 2020, Pokemon tournaments still took place at home and in shops throughout Japan.
From July to September 2020, contestants in the Charizard VMAX HR competition could participate in 16-player tournaments for a chance at winning two unique Charizard cards.
Winners of the first rounds consisting of four players each won the Full Art Charizard V shown here.
Those four players would then advance to the championship round for a shot at winning the Full Art Charizard VMAX HR competition card as the top prize.
The extreme difficulty of receiving the BGS 10 Pristine grade gives this card a significant boost in value.
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How To Build A Pokmon Deck Tips And Rules For Deck
Collect your cards and learn the basics of building a Pokémon TCG deck
The first step to becoming a Pokémon TCG master is building a deck. Whether youre picking up your first booster packs, or are getting ready to take the dive after years of collecting, theres a lot to learn before you can start battling.
Fortunately, that learning doesnt have to be a slog. Like the colourful pocket monsters youll be throwing down on the tabletop, the Pokémon TCG is one of the more friendly trading card games out there. With just a few key points under your belt, youll be able to whip up a competitive deck in no time at all. Accessible and streamlined, learning the basics will improve your experience of the game ten-fold.
This guide will cover everything that you need to know about building a deck in the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Well walk you through how many cards you can include in a deck, how to split that number between the various card types, and list some staple Trainers that you should always consider including. By the end, youll be prepared for any Gym Leader that comes your way.
If youre more interested in learning the basics of the game, check out our guide on how to play the Pokémon TCG for all the fundamentals.
Topsun Charizard Blue Back No Number Error
Sold in January, 2021 for $493,230
As with the other Topsun cards mentioned earlier on this list, Top-Seika didn’t distribute them until 1997, even though their copyright date reads 1995.
And since they weren’t part of the official Pokemon Trading Card Game, they are considered more in the realm of novelty collectible cards.
Still, an early Pokemon card is an early Pokemon card…
And, whether you’re talking about the prism holos, green-backs, or blue-backs, collectors are willing to pay thousands of dollars for several of the Topsun cards when graded in PSA 10 condition.
But a price tag of thousands of dollars turned out to be quite an understatement in January 2021 when Goldin Auctions sold the most desirable of them all, the only “no number error” blue-back Charizard on record in a PSA 10 holder, for a whopping $493,230.
The blue-back checklist contains 150 numbered cards in total, but for some reason, about 50 of the characters were also printed with no number on them by mistake.
So, while the standard blue-back Charizard should contain a “006” on it in the upper-left of the front of the card, the “no number error” will be blank.
If you can find one and are lucky enough to have it graded PSA 10, you could be looking at life-changing money.
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Japanese Promo Pikachu Illustrator
Sold in February, 2021 for $375,000
During the late 1990s,;CoroCoro Comic, a Japanese manga magazine, held a series of illustration contests in which entrants submitted their own unique Pokémon designs and attacks.
Little did they know then that these contests would give rise to one of the rarest and most valuable of all Pokémon cards: the Pikachu Illustrator.
Not only did contest winners receive multiple copies of a card that featured their very own winning design, which was exciting in its own right, each of them also received a copy of the Pikachu Illustrator card as an additional prize.
On the card front, contestants received a special message:
“We certify that your illustration is an excellent entry in the Pokémon Card Game Illust Contest. Therefore, we state that you are an Officially Authorized Pokémon Card Illustrator and admire your skill.”
Just 39 copies were distributed to the contest winners, but anyone is welcome to guess how many still survive today.
Considering this example graded PSA 7 sold for $375,000, it’s highly likely we’d see a price tag north of $1 million for the one example in the hobby graded PSA 10.
Backless Blastoise Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Holo
Sold in January, 2021 for $360,000
Wizards of the Coast printed this extremely rare presentation card as a test run sometime during 1998 as it ramped up efforts to launch the English version of its base set in 1999.
Though it has a similar appearance to the base set Blastoise, notice it has squared corners instead of rounded corners.
Moreover, the back of the card is completely blank.
Hobby experts believe that WOTC printed only two of these “backless Blastoise” cards, so the hobby was stunned when this card came up for auction in early 2021.
Given that the market responded with a $360,000 selling price for this card, I can only imagine what it would have sold for had Charizard been on the front.
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Tamamushi University Magikarp: $50000
The Tamamushi University Magikarp card is so rare that despite the fact that it depicts a frankly awful Pokemon, it’s worth ridiculous sums of money. Why the high price? Well, the University Magikarp was a promotional card that saw very limited distribution at a Japanese tournament in the late 1990s.
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In total, 1000 of the cards were produced but far fewer were actually awarded and many were just stowed away forever. Barely any of these rare Magikarp cards are still in circulation today, and its incredibly rare to see new ones show up. At the moment, PSA Cards Price Guide chart lists perfectly-preserved cards to have sold for around $50,000, while copies with NM-MT 8 ratings still sell for amazing heights of $12,000.
Common Uncommon And Rare
First, we need to show you how to find out a cards rarity just by looking at it. This is represented by a symbol located in the bottom right corner of every card. There should be a shape that indicates what rarity the card is.
Common cards are marked with a black circle, uncommon cards have a black diamond, and rare cards always have a black star. This is the basic way to tell the rarity of a card.
Rare cards, for instance, are split into multiple different kinds of rarities. There are the standard rare plain-looking cards, but theres so much more after that.
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Pokemon Korean First Edition Charizard
Sold in March, 2021 for $40,000
Unlike some of the other first edition Pokemon cards distributed in different regions and languages in 1999, the Korean version did not debut until a year later in 2000.
Still, they can fetch colossal price tags on the open market just like the other first edition sets.
Not surprisingly, the Charizard is the most desirable of the Korean first edition series.
Pokmon Charizard 1st Edition Card #4/102
Charizard is unquestionably one of the most popular Pokémon characters. Given his presence on the original Pokémon Red game cartridge, he’s linked to the brand almost as closely as Pikachu. Due in part to that popularity, a highly graded first edition card has proven itself as one that is dependably sought out by collectors and consistently valuable.
What’s it worth? The value of sale has been widely speculated, but it can easily sell for as much as $20,000 for a high-grade example. Add to that the play value of this one and you can see why people have been on the hunt for all versions of this character’s card since the card game’s inception.
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