Gold Pokemon Cards: Are They Worth Anything?

What Are Gold Pokemon Cards?

If you’ve ever browsed Pokemon cards on sites like eBay or Gumtree, there’s a good chance you’ve tried to purchase what you thought was a bargain… only to realise that it was in fact the gold version of the card you were looking for. 

This massive reduction in price is because gold Pokemon cards are unofficial Pokemon cards released by third-party companies or independent creators to look like gold-plated versions of pre-existing Pokemon cards.

Gold Plated Pokemon Cards

How Are They Different From Normal Pokemon Cards?

For one, golden Pokemon cards are typically significantly cheaper than official Pokemon cards regardless of how spectacular the art on them is. In fact, you can buy a bulk package of some of the best cards in Pokemon Trading Card Game history for a fraction of the price of one. 

As well as their price, they are also completely different in material. These cards aren’t made to fool you into thinking they are real Pokemon cards, they are blatantly third-party cards as just by holding one you can feel they are made of much more solid, sturdy material which is more often than not a thin metal. This is likely because they are gold-plated (not actual gold)  and therefore much less prone to scuffing and scratches. 

Pokemon Cards At A Tournament

Do The Pokemon Company Make Gold Pokemon Cards?

However, this is not to imply that there aren’t in fact official gold Pokemon cards, they just aren’t quite as durable as unofficial ones but are probably twice as rare and triple the price. Just look at the secret rares section of any modern set and you’ll be met with quite a few shiny golden cards. These are known as Gold Rare Pokemon and typically inflate the value of a Pokemon a lot. 


However, gold Pokemon cards date back even further than just the recent Sword and Shield sets. If you look back as far as the set Legendary Treasures in 2013 from the Black & White era of Pokemon you can find possibly one of the rarest gold Pokemon cards you can get in a pack: the Golden Full Art Reshiram. 

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What’s The Most Expensive Gold Pokemon Card?

If we’re talking gold Pokemon cards you can actually pull from packs, then the aforementioned Golden Full Art Reshiram in a PSA 10 (meaning the card is in pristine condition) has previously sold for $7000 and is likely only to go up given how hard the card is come by nowadays. 

However, if we are talking in the scope of all Pokemon cards, regardless of whether it’s from a pack, a Japanese exclusive, or a promo card, then the most expensive gold Pokemon card is the Japanese 20th Anniversary Gold Ginza Tanaka Pikachu. This card is a rerelease of the original Pikachu from the 1998 base set of Pokemon but made from actual 24K gold. This card was made in partnership with the Japanese jeweller Ginza Tanaka to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pokemon. Even in a PSA 5 the card sold for $30,000 and there are only a few to exist given the 20-day window customers had to get one of their own. 

Spending Money On Gold Pokemon Cards

Where Can I Get Gold Pokemon Cards Of My Own?

All this talk about gold and expensive cards might have you wondering where you get your hands on some gold Pokemon cards of your own. If you’re looking to get some unofficial gold-plated Pokemon cards, your best bet is to look to online marketplaces like eBay where you can find thousands of sellers listing their gold Pokemon cards for extremely cheap. 

However, if you’re looking to buy a gold Pokemon card made by The Pokemon Company that could potentially skyrocket in the future there are a few things you should be looking out for. While you should still look on eBay, you shouldn’t just buy the first card you see if you want it to be worth something. Buying cards that are already graded is more reliable but also significantly more expensive so if you are looking to buy an ungraded gold card, you should instead consider the following. 

 

Are There Any Scratches Or Scuffs? 

While you may think that this is pretty easy to identify, you’d be surprised just how much a camera can obscure, watch out for whitening on the corners and edges of the card. Also, make sure there is no blemishes on the back and face of the card. If you do come to grading your card at some point, imperfections like these can seriously hurt your scoring.

 

Is The Centering Good? 

This is one of the most important things to look for when buying a rare Pokemon card. If all the borders do not look even in size or one side of the card looks like it has a much thicker border on the back and front, this will greatly impact the value of the card and its grade if you were to send it to a grading company. Of course, this is something that the owner of the card cannot help and is simply a luck of the draw but buying poorly centered cards is typically not a great idea. 

 

Is It A Pokemon People Actually Want? 

Of course, if you are just buying the card for yourself and it’s a Pokemon that you like, then you shouldn’t worry about what other people will want. However, if you are buying the card for what you believe it will eventually be worth, then the Pokemon that you are buying also weighs heavily into the price. People don’t want to collect any random Pokemon like Guzzlord or Type: Null, this is why oftentimes the most expensive Pokemon are nostalgic ones like Charizards and Pikachus. This is also why some of the most expensive Golden Rare Pokemon cards are the Golden Snorlax from Chilling Reign and the Golden Mew from Celebrations despite both of these sets coming out this year.

 

Gold Pokemon Booster Packs

How Much Is A Gold Charizard Worth?

With that information in mind, it begs the question, how much would a gold Charizard be worth? There’s only one issue with that question though and that is the fact that there is no gold Charizard card… technically. There is a gold tag team card featuring a Charizard, the secret rare Charizard & Reshiram GX. Although, its price is a little underwhelming, selling for around $300 in a PSA 10 despite having everything going for it. It is likely because the card was a promo for the Reshiram and Charizard GX Premium Collection Box which as you could imagine was mass-produced meaning that the card isn’t really that rare. 

Are These Different From Gold Star Pokemon Cards?

For those who don’t know, Gold Star Pokemon Cards are a thing of the past. They were extremely valuable cards that took up the rare slot of the pack and would have a gold star at the top next to the name of the Pokemon. It is suggested that they have a pull rate of 1 in 88 packs making them some of the hardest cards to pull in Pokemon history. However, they are extremely different to gold Pokemon cards as the name refers to the little gold star in the corner of the card, no other part of the card is actually gold. 

Gold Star Pokemon Cards

Can I Grade My Gold Pokemon Cards?

Most grading companies only accept cards that are officially released by The Pokemon Company meaning that if you are attempting to send third-party cards, they will not be graded and will likely just be sent back. However, if they are official gold cards then, yes they can be graded. 

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