The most expensive Pokémon card in the world and other rare cards

The most expensive Pokémon card in the world is the Pikachu Illustrator. We explain why, which other cards are rare and what a gold card is.

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  • The most expensive Pokémon card in the world is the Pikachu Illustrator. We explain why, which other cards are rare and what a gold card is.

The most expensive Pokémon card in the world is the Pikachu Illustrator: one copy sold at auction for 16,492,000 dollars in February 2026. Below you can read why this card is so special, which other rare Pokémon cards exist and what a gold card actually is.

Why is the Pikachu Illustrator the most expensive?

In 1998 the Japanese magazine CoroCoro Comic held illustration contests. Winners received this card as a prize, so it never came in a booster pack. Only 39 copies were handed out. The artwork is by Atsuko Nishida, the designer of Pikachu.

The record copy has a PSA 10. PSA is a company that rates the condition of cards, and 10 is the top grade. Only one PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator is known. Guinness World Records lists this sale as the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold at auction. To see how grading works, read our card grading basics.

Which other Pokémon cards are rare?

Here are four well-known examples, each with a past sale:

  • Trophy Pikachu: a prize for top finishers at Japanese tournaments in the late 1990s. A silver second-place copy with a PSA 10 sold for 444,000 dollars in 2023.
  • Charizard, First Edition from 1999: this card did come in regular boosters. A PSA 10 copy sold for 420,000 dollars in March 2022.
  • Blastoise Presentation: in 1998 Wizards of the Coast had two of these made for a presentation to Nintendo. One sold for 360,000 dollars in January 2021.
  • Tsunekazu Ishihara GX: a promo card from 2017 that was never sold in shops. A signed copy sold for 247,230 dollars in 2021.

Good to know: these are amounts buyers once paid. They say nothing about what a card will fetch today or later. The most wanted card of a single set is something else: read what a chase card is.

First Edition Charizard from the 1999 Pokémon Base Set

What is a gold Pokémon card?

When people say gold Pokémon card, they usually mean a hyper rare: a card with a gold background and an extra layer of glitter foil. Since Scarlet & Violet you can spot them by the three gold stars next to the number. The Mega Evolution series added the Mega Hyper Rare, marked with a gold star with a black border.

Gold tells you about the finish, not the price. If you see cheap metal gold cards on a marketplace, be careful: they are often fakes. Learn how to check in how to spot fake Pokémon cards.

Three gold Pokémon cards: Mega Lucario ex, Mega Charizard X ex and Mega Darkrai ex

What is the best Pokémon card?

That depends on what you do with it. For players, the best card is the one that makes their deck stronger, and that changes with the formats: read Standard vs Expanded. For collectors, it is often simply the card they like most.

Found some old Pokémon cards and want to know what they are worth? Check our guide how much is my Pokémon card worth.

Whatever your favourite card is, protect it well. Put it in a sleeve and then in a toploader, a rigid holder that helps prevent bending. You can find them in our toploaders collection.