Rarest Pokémon Cards: chase rarities by value

What makes a Pokémon card rare

Rarity comes down to how few were made. Secret rares are numbered past the end of a set; gold stars were pulled at ~1 in 72 packs; 1st Edition and shadowless printings came from tiny first runs; and LV.X, LEGEND, Prime and illustration rares turn up less often than a set's standard rares. This list draws from all of those tiers plus Trainer Gallery holos, Amazing and Radiant Rares, ACE SPECs, Prism Stars and BREAKs. Fewer copies plus strong demand equals a premium.

Rarest of the rare

Above everything on this list sit a small number of prize and gift cards that were never sold in packs at all — including the record holder among the most expensive Pokémon cards:

• Pikachu Illustrator — awarded to winners of CoroCoro Comic illustration contests in Japan in 1997–98. An estimated 39 exist, and the only PSA 10 sold at Goldin in February 2026 for $16.49 million, the highest price paid for a Pokémon card at auction.
• Trophy Pikachu (gold, silver, bronze) — "No. 1/2/3 Trainer" cards awarded to the top finishers of official Japanese tournaments in 1997–98. Most versions were given to a dozen or so players, and they rarely come up for sale.
• Tamamushi University Magikarp — a 1998 Japanese prize for passing a Pokémon quiz, the "Hyper Test", run through CoroCoro Comic. Up to 1,000 were printed, but far fewer are thought to have been handed out.
• Ishihara-GX — a 2017 promo of Tsunekazu Ishihara, head of The Pokémon Company, given to Pokémon Company International staff for his 60th birthday. Estimates of how many exist run from a few dozen to around 200.

You can't pull any of these from a pack, so the ranked list below covers the rarest cards that actually change hands — the highest-value cards from the scarce rarity tiers above, whose odds are on the pull rates pages.

Cards from the scarcest rarity tiers — secret, rainbow, illustration and shiny treatments, Gold Star, and special-rarity mechanics such as LV.X, LEGEND, Prime, Trainer Gallery, Amazing/Radiant, ACE SPEC, Prism Star and BREAK. This is a rarity-tier selection, not a measured supply count.

How a card qualifies: Rarity is one of the curated scarce tiers in our rarity guide (Rare Secret, Rare Rainbow, Hyper Rare, Mega Hyper Rare, Special Illustration Rare, Illustration Rare, Rare Holo Star, Rare Shining, Rare Shiny, Shiny Rare, Shiny Ultra Rare, Rare Shiny GX, LEGEND, Rare Prime, Rare Holo LV.X, Trainer Gallery Rare Holo, Amazing Rare, Radiant Rare, Rare ACE, ACE SPEC Rare, Rare Prism Star, Rare BREAK, Classic Collection), or the name carries a ☆/★ Gold Star glyph.

Rarest Pokémon Cards: chase rarities by value — FAQ