Pokemon First Edition Raichu
Sold in March, 2021 for $17,100
As Pokemon skyrocketed in popularity over the years, one character became almost synonymous with the franchise as its de facto mascot.
Much of Pikachu’s popularity originates from the first episode of the Pokemon anime series entitled “Pokemon – I Choose You!” when the main protagonist of the series, Ash Ketchum, a trainer, receives Pikachu as his Pokemon from Professor Oak.
However, when exposed to a Thunderstone, the lovable, yellow, furry, rodent-like creature evolves into the final form of Raichu.
Raichu looks quite similar to Pikachu, but with a few distinct characteristics, namely its tail, ears, and dark coloration of the tip of its paws.
What Makes A Pokmon Error Card Valuable
Not every card printed incorrectly is a hidden treasure. It takes a combination of factors for misprinted cards to end up valuable. As youll see, popular Pokémon dominate the list below. The chance of an error card being valuable increases substantially when its a well-known monster like Charizard or Pikachu.
Additionally, there are two major distinctions in error cards. Uncorrected errors are typically lower in value since they never stopped printing them. This makes them pretty common and not as appealing to collectors.
On the other hand, corrected errors were fixed and therefore had a shorter print run which leads to higher card values.
Pokemon Japanese Promo Wonder Platinum Trophy Card
Sold in November, 2020 for $25,100
Held at the Prince Park Tower Tokyo on May 4, 2009, the final round of the 2009 Japan World Championship pitted finalists against each other in fierce competition.
Each of the twenty finalists across three different age divisions received one of these Wonder Platinum cards, so one can assume that only twenty of these cards made their way into collectors’ hands.
How many still exist today is unknown, but finding one graded in a BGS 9.5 holder is incredibly rare.
What is known is that this trainer card is one of the most highly coveted DPt-P promotional cards, and its imagery makes for an incredibly well-designed card.
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Blastoise 1st Edition Shadowless Base Set
- Release Date: 1999
- Grading: PSA Gem Mint 10
- Pokemon card value at auction: $45,100
Not only is Blastoise one of the most beloved characters in the Game Freak RPG, but the Water-type starter has also become one of the most valuable Pokemon cards currently on the market.
Those who grew up with the 1999 Base Set easily equated the turtle on the same level as the highly sought-after Charizard, so it makes sense that decades later, many are willing to bust out their wallets for the iconic mon.
While its 1st Edition Shadowless Pokemon card from 1999 has always brought in good money, the popular item has seen a massive jump in value recently. In a PWCC auction held in November 2020, the rare Base Set Blastoise sold for $45,100.
Identify The Card With The Name And Number In The Set
Finally, identify the card by looking up its name and card number on eBay.
As previously described in step one, the name will be located above the illustration on the top left of the card. The number is on the bottom right of the card. This is the identifier for each year and set. For instance, there are 102 cards in the 1st Edition base set. Charizard is the 4th card in the set, so it’s listed as #4/102 on the card. In the above photo, Machamp is #8/102.
After checking all three of these steps, you should easily be able to identify every card, even if you dont know exactly what set it is in.
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Black Star Ishihara Gx Promo Card
Sold in April, 2021 for $247,230
As a gift to top-level employees, Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokémon Company, gave out an estimated thirty copies of this card during his 60th birthday party at the 2018 Pokémon World Championship.
As of this writing, only eight copies have ever been submitted to PSA for grading, making this one of the rarest Pokemon cards in existence.
Making this particular example even rarer is the fact that Ishihara personally signed it as well.
The artwork on the card is fantastic and the “60 Congratulations!” and GX attack of 1060 damage are nice touches to help commemorate his 60th birthday.
Ishihara has been instrumental, to say the least, in building the Pokémon brand by contributing to the development of multiple video games and even initiating the creation of the Pokémon Trading Card Game itself.
St Edition Charizard Holographic Sgc Gold Label Pristine 10
Sold: in Dec, 2020 Price: $369,000
What pokemon cards are worth the most cant be perfect because of the lack of 1st Edition Charizard, Holographic. Almost all cards have shadows, but this Charizard is a shadowless holographic first edition card. Super early cards dont have shadows behind art or text. In addition, Charizard is a favorite dragon of many players, even some influencers join in to collect this card. The Charizard cards tend to become popular recently, which makes many desire to own at least one in their collection.
1st Edition Charizard, Holographic SGC GOLD LABEL PRISTINE 10
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Wonder Platinum Trophy $25100
The Wonder Platinum trophy card, which shows a Giratina with a platinum pendant as its artwork, was given out to the best contestants at the Japanese National Championship in 2009. According to estimates, just 36 copies of the card exist, but only eight have been graded by the PSA, and only six have achieved a perfect score.
A copy of the card sold for a little over $25,000 at auction in November 2020, despite the fact that it hadnt been graded by the PSA. Beckett, on the other hand, evaluated the card and gave it a perfect score of 9.5. At the time of writing, a perfect 10 copy was listed on eBay for $200,000, but despite the fact that 90 individuals were following the listing, no one seemed eager to bite at that price.
Top 100 Most Expensive Pokemon Cards List
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Pokemon Pop Series 5 Gold Star Umbreon
Sold in December, 2020 for $20,000
To help boost participation in Pokemon leagues and Pokemon Organized Play events, players were treated to exclusive POP series cards released on a regular basis over roughly a five-year span.
POP Series 1 kicked things off around September 2004 with POP Series 9 bringing things to a close around September 2009.
Released between March 2007 and September 2007, POP Series 5 was the last EX Series promotional set and featured Espeon and Umbreon, two of the eight Pokemon that evolve from Eevee.
The POP Series 5 checklist contained seventeen cards in total with Epseon and Umbreon being the most elusive of them all, noted by the gold star distinction next to their name on the card fronts.
As of this writing, just fifty examples of this Umbreon card have achieved PSA 10 status.
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.
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Pikachu Illustrator Card Psa 10
Price: $5.3 Million
Now, he is offering co-ownership of an #NFT of the card through his NFT platform, Liquid Marketplace.
Crypto General
But the most expensive Pokémon card on record makes all the other cards on this list look affordable. The Illustrator, CoroCoro Comics Promo, issued a Pikachu Illustrator card in 1998. The card resulted from a competition that encouraged aspiring artists to submit designs for Pokémon cards.
The outrageous price of nearly $6 Million puts it in the top 5 of the most expensive trading cards ever sold.
Winners received a set of cards featuring their competition-winning design and the Pikachu Illustrator card featuring artwork by original Pikachu designer Atsuko Nishida. While the Pikachu Illustrator card has no value in the game, that doesnt stop collectors from wanting one of their own.
Only 39 of these cards exist, and surprisingly less than a quarter of those cards are close to mint condition.
Despite this, for years, it held the top ranking as one of the most expensive Pikachu cards and overall Pokémon cards, with a value of around $350,000 in early 2021.
Then in 2022, it broke its previous record not once but twice. First, it sold for almost a million dollars and then went on to break it again, selling for over six million dollars.
Pikachu Yellow Cheeks Pokmon Base Set 1st Edition 58/102 Psa 10
https://www.psacard.com/
While the name of the Pikachu Yellow Cheeks Pokémon Base Set 1st Edition 58/102 suggests that it is the first-ever Pikachu card to be included in an English Pokémon set, in reality, it is not. The first Pikachu card printed by Wizards of the Coast presented Pikachu with red cheeks that were given to the Pokémon by Mitsuhiro Arita. However, Wizards of the Coast changed Pikachus cheeks to yellow because they felt it better complimented the yellow lightning bolts jolting from Pikachus face on the card. Both Pikachu 1st Edition variations are rare Pokémon cards with PSA having graded less than 1,500 total copies of each of them, the Pikachu card that takes the title for most expensive Pokémon card to sell on StockX is the Pikachu Yellow Cheeks Pokémon Base Set 1st Edition 58/102 PSA 10 for $3,500.
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Pokemon Base Set 1st Edition Shadowless Holo Blastoise Psa 10
Price: $45,100
Blastoise has the distinction of being simultaneously one of the most valuable base set Pokémon cards and one of the most valuable 1st edition Pokémon cards.
There are many reasons for that, and aside from being a powerful card, nostalgia is once again helping to raise the price tag. Who can resist the appeal of this water-element starter in RPGs, video, and card games? Many kids started with Squirtle and then worked hard to evolve it into Blastoise.
Of course, for many players of the original Pokémon card game, its just a fact that Blastoise had as much value as the coveted Charizard cards.
On top of nostalgia, Holo Shadowless cards from 1999 have always been valuable, like the Chancey listed above. So, it was not a surprise when this Blastoise Holo Shadowless Base Set card sold for over $45,000 in 2020.
Pokmon Base Set 1st Edition Shadowless Holo Venusaur #15
Now were getting somewhere. The final evolution of the starter Pokémon Bulbasaur, Venusaur had a massive part to play in both the games and the anime as one of the mainstays in Ashs party.
It featured on-the-box art for the original Japanese version of the game, although the Green edition was never released worldwide.
With over 137 PSA 10 copies in existence, the original holo Venusaur is clearly a coveted card.
It may pale in comparison to the likes of Blastoise and Charizard, but its still a member of the original trio that players got to choose from.
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Number One Trainer Super Secret Battle
Price: $90,000
Seven champions at the Tokyo World Championships received a copy of the card, meaning there were only those seven cards until there werent. An eighth card suddenly appeared for purchase online which would have made them rare enough, but of these eight cards, only six achieved a perfect grading.
True to its name, the Number One Trainer Super Secret Battle card is believed by many to be the rarest Pokémon card, and features include artwork by artist Hideki Kazama.
Its hard to believe, but one of the cards sold for $90,000 in July 2020.
Blastoise With Magic: The Gathering Back: $216000
You read that right a Pokémon card with the back of a Magic: The Gathering card. Wizards of the Coast, the printers of Magic: The Gathering cards, created this card as a test print of English Pokémon cards. Only three of these Frankenstein cards were printed, making them some of the rarest cards in existence.
Besides just being a cool card to have, its historical importance as one of the first English Pokémon definitely contributes to its value.
It is currently listed on Heritage Auctions for $324,000 after selling for $216,000 in 2021.
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Pokemon Japanese Design Promo 4th Grade Winner Illusion’s Zoroark
- Pokemon cards value: $40,800
During a tie-in event for the Ruler of Illusions: Zoroark movie, these were given out to winners of an illustration contest. The six winners were all granted 100 copies of the card they designed, which means there are only 100 copies of this specific card in circulation, making it one of the rarest Pokemon cards ever made.
/27 Psa 10 Torchic Gold Star Holo Ex Team Rocket Returns: $50000
In the early-to-mid 2000s, popularity in Pokemon was waning. “Pokemania” was on the way out, and that meant a lot of the Pokemon TCG expansions at the time suffered from lower sales and smaller print runs. With Pokemon back on top again now, cards from that era often see higher values than cards older than them. A great example of this is the Gold Star Torchic from EX Team Rocket Returns.
Gold Star Pokemon showcase Pokemon in their shiny forms and have the Pokemon breaking out of the frame as an early example of the many alternate styles the TCG would later experiment with. Why Torchic specifically is worth so much is anyone’s guess, but with only 17 verified PSA 10 grade copies out there, the PSA values them at $50,000 each. Actual auction prices are a bit lower though, as in 2020 PWCC Auctions sold a copy for $25,400.
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Number : Blastoise 1998 Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Hologram
If you havent heard about this one-of-a-kind rarity, be prepared to be blown away.
Before Wizards of the Coast began publishing English Pokémon cards in 1999, they created test prints to determine what the final print of the TCG line would look like. Early Pokémon TCG test prints included examples of Blastoise, Charizard, and Growlithe. Some test prints were printed early enough to be missing the iconic Pokémon backing. Instead, some test prints feature a Magic: The Gathering backing or a blank back. There are currently five Blastoise test prints accounted for, but none of them are rarer or more expensive than this Galaxy Star hologram.
Wizards of the Coast printed test prints for two reasons first, to use as a reference when printing cards or making changes, and second, to send to retailers to give them an idea of what the upcoming Pokémon TCG would look like. In the case of this Blastoise test print, Wizards of the Coast commissioned the print to send directly to retailers for display purposes. Only two of these commissioned presentation cards exist, with only one graded and accounted for. Its rarity is unparalleled, and its value is astronomical as a result.
The only graded copy of the Blastoise 1998 Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Hologram sold in a 2021 Heritage Auctions sale for $360,000. If it ever comes back to auction, we know itll be worth a pretty penny then, too.
Pokemon Japanese Promo Tropical Mega Battle Tropical Wind Trophy Card
- Pokemon cards value: $43,200
Available only as a participation award in a 1999 tournament at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, where only 50 of the top players around the world were invited, this is one of the rarest and most coveted cards in the world. Its also unlikely you have one shoved in a drawer somewhere unless youre a retired pro.
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Pokemon Players Club Shiny Umbreon
This Pokemon card is quite popular due to its beautiful coloration and attractive frame-piercing art exhibition. The Japanese version of the Shiny Umbreon is high in demand and desired by many Pokemon fans, as its the first of its kind.
Unfortunately, it wasnt properly released through the Japanese Pokemon Players Club in 2005-2006, which is the main reason for its rarity.
Notwithstanding, its price on Troll and Toad is quite affordable, and its around $1,900. So, if youre into blue and dark shiny Pokemon cards, you know where to look.
