The 10 most expensive Pokemon cards in history


Despite first appearing over 20 years ago, Pokémon cards have seen their prices skyrocket since 2020. Once worthless pieces of cardboard can now sell for several thousand dollars. Here are the seven most expensive Pokémon cards.

Few people would have thought back in 1996, when the Pokémon card game first began to be printed, that these slips of paper could one day be worth many thousands of times their original purchase price. However, more than twenty years later, some of these cards are snapped up in specialized auctions.

From special tournament prizes to the rarest First Edition cards, here are the 10 cards that sold for the most, or had the highest estimated selling price, in the world.

Top 10 Most Expensive Pokemon Cards

Before jumping into this ranking, it is good to note that this ranking is still subject to debate. The value of a card can be determined by the highest bid on it, or the average at which it sells. To complicate matters further, some of these cards are so rare that they are in the hands of only a handful of collectors who have no desire to sell them.

Therefore, the amounts indicated in this article are to be taken with tweezers and only represent an estimate at a given time of the value of each of the cards presented.


10/ Tropical Wind Promo Trainer Card (1999) – $65,100

In 1999, the Pokémon World Championships did not yet exist. However, The Pokémon Company already had plans to bring together the best TCG players in major events like the Tropical Mega Battle tournament.

50 players from all over the world competed, and the best 12 of them left with this extremely rare promo card. In 2020, one of them was sold at auction for the sum of $65,100.


9/ No. 1 Trainer Super Secret Battle (1999) – $90,000

Mewtwo Super Secret Battle Card

In 1999, The Pokemon Company held regional tournaments in Japan. All the winners of these tournaments left with this card which simply served as an entry ticket for the final event which was held in a secret location.

The tournament under the name of “Super Secret Battle” was deliberately shrouded in mystery, like the reward: this strange card illustrating a scintillating silhouette of Mewtwo. In July 2020, one of these extremely rare artifacts was sold for $90,000.


8/ Pikachu Gold 1st place trophy (1997) – $100,000 and probably much more

Pokémon Card Pikachu Trainer

This card is “only” in 5th place in this ranking, but it could actually be in first place. Trophy cards are extremely rare since they are only distributed during official tournaments. And as you can imagine, the oldest ones are now priceless.

The 1997 Pikachu Trophy was offered as a reward for the 1997 Japan World Championship. Since they were offered to the winners, there are very few copies (6, according to rumors). They exist in three versions (bronze, silver and gold) and their value can obviously vary depending on the version.

We know that the Bronze version of this card was sold for the tidy sum of $100,000. Regarding the Gold version… it is very difficult to estimate the price of such an item. Just know that there is one for sale on Ebay for $2 million.


7/ Trainer card n°2 of the 2006 World Championships – $110,100

Pokemon Trainer Card #2

Often, the cards dealt to players reaching the podium of prestigious competitive events are worth gold. Indeed, these cards are printed in very few copies and collectors around the world snap them up.

Of course, age drives prices up again, and that’s why cards like 2006’s Trainer #2 fetch over $100,000. Moreover, these true relics are so rare that their price is usually estimated from only a handful of sales, and could explode at any moment.


6/ Lugia 1st Edition Neo Genesis (2000) – $144,300

Pokémon card Lugia

Lugia is undoubtedly one of those legendary Pokémon that fascinated many children in the early 2000s… and the nostalgic fiber is not to be overlooked in the value of a card.

While this magnificent Lugia has sold for around $50,000 in recent years, its value has skyrocketed in 2020. In May 2021, a mint condition copy was purchased for no less than $144,300.


5/ Kangourex Family Event Trophy (1998) – $150,100

Kangarox PSA Pokemon Card

This adorable card would only exist in 11 copies and served as a reward for a very special tournament organized in Japan in 1998. To participate in this competition, a parent and child had to register together, hence the representation of a Kangarox and her baby on the trophy card.

In October 2020, two of these cards were sold for $150,000 each. Given the rarity of this item, everything suggests that its price will continue to climb!


4/ Ishihara Black Star promo card (2017) – $247,230

Pokemon card Ishihara

No need to look in your childhood collection for this card, since it is one of the rare pieces of this top to be recent. Truth be told, she’s never even featured in any booster packs.

Indeed, this promo card featuring the creator of Pokémon was offered to employees of The Pokémon Company on the occasion of Ishihara’s 60th birthday. No one knows exactly how many were printed, although estimates point to a few hundred copies.


3/ Tortank media demonstration (1998) – $360,000

Most expensive Blastoise Pokémon card

Even before the release of the first edition of Pokémon in English, it is obvious that cards were printed in the game’s translation process. The rarest and most expensive of them seems to be this very special Blastoise.

Printed in 1998, this Tortank could well be the first card whose text is not written in Japanese. According to a former Wizards of the Coast employee who owned this card, it was printed in order to demonstrate to the media what an English card would look like.

There would only exist two copies of this Tortank on a shiny background, but surprisingly empty… and the second has never resurfaced since 1998. Nevertheless, our former employee has meanwhile hit the jackpot. Indeed, his card was sold at auction in January 2021 for the handsome sum of $360,000.


2/ Charizard Holographic 1st Shadowless Edition (1999) – $369,000

Pokemon card PSA Charizard 1st shadowless edition

As almost any toddler who grew up in the 1990s can attest, Charizard has always been the rare find. Back then, if you didn’t have one, you had to open booster after booster to try and get one.

1999 1st Edition versions of this base card can run for astronomical sums. Icing on the cake, the shadowless versions, which are among the very first prints and do not have shading on the edges of the illustration.

On October 9, 2020, former rapper and Twitch streamer, Logic paid over $226k for a 10/10-rated Charizard, taking this map to new heights. Barely a month later, this record was smashed twice in the same day. Within hours of each other, two of these cards sold for over $350,000!

While Charizard holo shadowless isn’t technically the most expensive Pokemon card in the world, it is undoubtedly the most iconic.


1/ Illustrator (1998) – $375,000

Pokemon Card PSA Pikachu Illustrator

Without a doubt, this is one of the rarest and most importantly sought after cards, the Pikachu Illustrator card. In 1997, CoroCoro held an art contest where winners received this item featuring a Pikachu drawing other Pokémon.

Over the past five years, this card has consistently sold between $195k and $200k. However, in 2021, several happily exceeded the $200,000 mark, including one that climbed to the astronomical sum of $375,000. According to estimates, there are less than twenty known copies of this card left and its price should continue to rise over the years.



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