VMax Pokemon cards are a derivation of V cards both of which were introduced in the Pokemon TCG in 2019 with the introduction of the new era of Pokemon cards: Sword & Shield. Similar to GX and EX cards of previous generations these cards are considered basic and can be played without any prior evolution to it. They are supposed to mimic the Dynamax and Gigantamax mechanics in the actual video game which allows the Pokemon to grow 100x bigger than their usual size and gives them massively improved stats and attacks. In the video game, this feat is achieved through what are known as power spots but the TCG does not feature these, instead, all the player must do is draw the V and VMax versions of a Pokemon to supersize it. 

As you might be able to see on VMax cards is that they feature a gigantic version of the Pokemon they are depicting. This is why the VMax is supposed to represent the equivalent of the Gigantamax mechanic in the card game.

VMax cards are pretty rare in comparison to their V counterparts and can only be found once or twice per booster box (36 packs) on average. When compared to things like secret rares and alternate arts which can be incredibly expensive and you may not even get one of them in a whole booster box sometimes, you can understand how VMax cards would be seen as relatively rare.

However, in the grand scheme of Pokemon, VMax cards aren’t that rare. Because of how essential they are to competitive play, it would be unfair to make them almost impossibly rare as it would completely stunt the meta of the game for people who don’t have the money to spend on hundreds of packs or buy super-expensive cards, which takes us quite nicely into our next point.

Although this is a list of the 10 most expensive VMax cards, typically, VMax cards aren’t worth that much money and it’s only been in more recent sets that VMax cards have been gaining a little more traction thanks to things like alternate arts and Trainer Galleries.

As you may already know, a lot of a card’s value is determined by the Pokemon on the card, often if it is a Pokemon that nobody really cares about, then there is no reason for people to care about the card regardless of how amazing the card’s art is. Yes, there are exceptions to this rule and sometimes the population of a card will affect the card’s value greatly but a general rule of thumb is that card’s value is often determined by the Pokemon on the card. Mascots of the game like Pikachu, Charizard, Gyarados, etc. will often sell for more than a Rillaboom for example.

However, even in general a standard VMax card just isn’t worth that much. Not to spoil the list or anything but a normal Pikachu VMax from Vivid Voltage is only worth around $10 despite being a VMax Pikachu. 

So, in no particular order, let’s get into the VMax Pokemon Cards that actually are worth some money!

First up we have just a standard Charizard VMax. Although we said earlier that standard VMax cards aren’t usually that expensive because of how necessary they are in competitive play, collectors seemed to have made an exception in the case of Charizard. We also mentioned before that the Pokemon on the card can also greatly affect the price of the card and this is a prime example of that happening. This card comes from the 2020 set Darkness Ablaze and is the most expensive card in the set to this day. Ungraded, the card typically sells for around $30 but in a PSA 10, the card has sold for more than $115.

Now we immediately see a stark increase in price. This Sylveon was introduced in the 2021 set Evolving Skies which seems to have brought many of the other entries on this list with it. It probably has the greatest wealth of alternate arts out of any set in Pokemon (apart from Crown Zenith) and this Sylveon is just scratching the surface of the expensive VMaxes as it’s probably one of the less beloved Eeveelutions out there. Despite fairy types being discontinued and shifted back to psychic types, this Sylveon has still managed to prosper as it is worth around $137 ungraded, and in a PSA 10, it is worth upwards of $450.

Yeah, people really do love themselves a good Eeveelution and this Glaceon is no exception to that, especially when the Eeveelutions are VMax alternate arts. As mentioned before Evolving Skies brought the heat when it came to both alternate arts and Eeveelutions and here’s just another example of it. However, this card doesn’t just feature a massive Glaceon which would honestly be enough for its price tag, it also features loads of other Pokemon skating around on the ice the Glaceon has created including an Azumarill, a Pikachu and a poor Feebas at the back. If you manage to pick this card up ungraded it is usually worth around $157 and in a PSA 10 can be worth more than $300.

Although Evolving Skies is kind of the home to all of the alternate art Eeveelutions, this one managed to weasel its way into Fusion Strike in November of the same year of Evolving Skies (2021). This little guy, or rather this really big guy, sleeping on top of a building with all of the Wingulls floating around its head is just too adorable to not at least be worth something and it sure is worth something. Ungraded the card is already worth $167 and in a PSA 10 the card is worth upwards of $500.

Possibly one of the most beloved Rainbow Rares you can find in the Pokemon TCG, the Rainbow Rare Pikachu burst onto the scene in 2020 in the electrifying set Vivid Voltage. It’s so simple yet so brilliant as it sports the irresistible fat Pikachu sometimes known as the Chonkachu. Unlike its normal VMax counterpart, the rainbow finish on this card made its price skyrocket further than anyone expected. Ungraded it would be difficult to find this card for less than $100 as it usually sells for around $136. Then, in a PSA 10, it’s worth a whopping $300.

Yet another entry coming from the slightly underrated set Fusion Strike brings likely one of the most creative arts for a VMax Pokemon. It features everyone’s favorite first-generation, dark-type Pokemon consuming what looks to be a small forest. It does it all with a malicious grin on his face as trees, apple cores, berries, and bee hives hurtle toward his gaping mouth. It is one of the most expensive cards in Fusion Strike just about tied with the Espeon VMax alternate art as it comes in at around $168 ungraded. However, in a PSA 10, this bad boy is worth upwards of $500.

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Are you sick of Eeveelutions yet? Because the Pokemon Company sure isn’t. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you this is yet another Eeveelution entry from the set Evolving Skies and this one is no less cute than the other three before it. This card features a massive Leafeon just in a field of hay curiously pushing around some hay bales. I would like to believe that the card is suggesting that this is how all hay bales are made in the Pokemon world, but he could just be pushing a hay bale that already existed. Regardless, ungraded, this card is worth around $170 and in a PSA 10, you won’t be able to get it for anything less than $400.

Now we enter the top 3 rarest VMax cards of all time territory and starting it off is none other than the Rainbow Rare Charizard VMax. Arguably one of the hardest Charizards to pull in the Sword and Shield era, coming from the holiday set Champion’s Path which also happened to feature the Shiny Charizard V. This is the only Rainbow Rare more beloved than the Pikachu VMax and it’s with pretty good reason, it’s a giant Charizard with fire spewing out of either side of its mouth. Sure, it’s just the same VMax art that they have reprinted with a different finish about three times now but everyone loves a good Rainbow Rare especially if it’s a Charizard. Ungraded alone, these cards sell for more than $180 and in a PSA 10 you can find these selling for more than $800.

The runner-up of this list comes the only card from Evolving Skies that isn’t an Eeveelution and it’s a fan-favorite legendary Pokemon, Rayquaza. This set features both a Rayquaza V alternate art and a VMax alternate art but as you probably could’ve guessed this Rayquaza is the second most expensive card in the set. It features the iconic snakey, green dragon floating over the high mountains of forests and greenery somehow bigger than it already was. Ungraded, these things sell for more than $280 and in a PSA 10 they are as expensive as $900.

This final entry probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has researched even the slightest amount about Evolving Skies. Ever since this card’s release it has remained one of the most expensive not only VMaxes but alternate arts as well. In fact, it has remained one of the most expensive English releases in the past 2 years. This is a combination of the fact that Umbreon has kind of always been the favorite of the Eeveelutions and that it is one of the coolest card arts out there. It features an Umbreon climbing a building in the night sky baring a slight similarity to Van Gogh’s Starry Night, as it reaches up attempting to touch the moon. It is often referred to as the Moonbreon in the TCG as a result of this art. Even ungraded the card is worth more than $470 and in a PSA 10, they typically sell for more than $1500.

VMax Pokemon cards can be found in any set of Pokemon from the Sword and Shield era. But, for those who aren’t aware of what those sets are, VMax Pokemon cards can be found only in the following sets: 

• Sword & Shield 
• Rebel Clash
• Darkness Ablaze 
• Champion’s Path
• Vivid Voltage
• Shining Fates
• Battle Styles
• Chilling Reign 
• Evolving Skies
• Celebrations 
• Fusion Strike 
• Brilliant Stars 
• Astral Radiance
• Pokemon Go
• Lost Origin 
• Silver Tempest 
• Crown Zenith

As for sets beyond this, we are unsure if they will discontinue the VMax feature or if it will continue into further generations.

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There’s no point in trying to hide it, everyone who has ever collected Pokemon cards has thought if not googled the same thing: “how can I get some Pokemon cards for free?”. Chances are, that exact thought and/or Google search is what brought you here today. Well, lucky for you, there are ways you can get a hold of Pokemon cards for free and we’re going to cover the best ones right here.

If you’ve never heard of Buy Nothing, it’s an awesome app that, like a lot of the other apps on this list, allows its users to either give away an item or service or find any item or service for completely nothing. That’s right, no cost at all. As you could probably guess, this means that you can just jump on the app and search for Pokemon cards and find someone selling Pokemon cards near you. So, if you’re looking for 100% free Pokemon cards that are literally just a few clicks away, BuyNothing is likely your best bet.

OLIO is a service, much like BuyNothing, designed to share and redistribute goods and share things that you may no longer have a use for but other people could have a use for. This may be in the form of old furniture, mattresses, toys, and in some cases Pokemon cards. Once again, a lot of people have Pokemon cards just strewn about their house that they don’t know what to do with, they can feel like a waste of space to someone who doesn’t know much about Pokemon cards and is therefore a great opportunity for collectors who may be trying to complete a binder or maybe even actual players of the TCG looking to expand their newest deck.

The Freecycle Network is a non-profit organization founded in 2003 that now has a whopping 10 million members as well as 5300 local towns of freecycling. Of course, this doesn’t cover the entire world and therefore means this method isn’t accessible to the whole world, but it’s worth checking whether or not one of your local towns comes under The Freecycle Network. Their mission is to “build a worldwide sharing movement” in order to reduce the extreme wastefulness we are currently facing. It just so happens that a lot of people using this service aren’t willing to just throw away their Pokemon cards that they have no clue what to do with so instead they offer it to anyone who is willing to take it off their hands through this service.

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You may be noticing a pattern with the methods of getting free Pokemon cards and that’s likely because sharing services are the most effective method of getting free Pokemon cards. However, we promise this is the last one. Free Stuff App much like the three entries before is a service that allows its users to list their unwanted belongings for free. Once again, much like the entries before it, many people happen to list Pokemon cards on this and as a result, acts as a great method of getting some free Pokemon cards.

Probably one of your first ports of call, if you’re looking for free Pokemon cards, would be to ask friends and family if they have any. It might sound like a no-brainer if not really silly but you’d be surprised by the number of people that have just bought Pokemon cards on a whim with no intention of collecting them. There are thousands of people who just have miscellaneous Pokemon cards lying around that they bought like 5 years ago and may have completely forgotten they ever purchased.

This is a bit of a “beggars can’t be choosers” situation as unfortunately, it is unlikely that Pokemon cards that people are just trying to get rid of are going to be worth anything. Pokemon cards are pretty intuitive in the sense that typically you can tell just by what the card looks like whether or not it is valuable even if you do not collect Pokemon cards. As a result of this, people aren’t really giving away cards any better than non-holographic rares.

However,  even if someone is giving a card away that is worth something, it would be better if you informed the person that they are actually throwing away a valuable card rather than just taking it from them because they are unaware of the card’s value. If they are still content with just giving it away then it would be fine to take it, but it is unfair to exploit people’s ignorance of Pokemon cards.

So what about those of you who are on the opposite end of this situation? People who aren’t looking to clutter their house with more Pokemon cards but instead get rid of the random, miscellaneous Pokemon cards that are just taking up space in cardboard boxes. 

One great option that will pretty much always work is giving them to charities. There are plenty of charities that accept unwanted toys and you can probably guarantee that there are thousands of children out there who’d love to get their hands on any Pokemon cards at all. 

Of course, all of the services listed above are also great options for both people trying to give stuff away and people who are looking for free stuff, so, by all means, also use any of those to get rid of your Pokemon cards.

Maybe you’re a collector who is fully aware that you’re not really going to get any cards of value from people giving away free Pokemon cards and you’re looking for cards that you can get for an affordable price that may one day be worth something or may increase in value if you can get it in a good grade. So, what’s the best way to get Pokemon cards for an affordable amount? Well, one of the best ways is to look at the ungraded cards on eBay.

Let’s get one thing straight, some cards are just going to be unequivocally expensive and there’s not really much you can do about it. Most vintage cards, any first edition card, any moderately rare Charizard, these are all going to be expensive no matter what you do. The skill of finding cheap Pokemon cards lies in finding cards that are in fairly good condition that seems as though they will only go up in price. “Well, how can you anticipate whether or not a card is going to go up in price?” you may be asking yourself, and we’re here to reassure you that there are a few ways you can tell. 

For one, you should take into account the exclusivity of the card. By this we mean is the card obtained in a unique way that isn’t just pulling it from a pack. Japanese-exclusive promo cards are notorious for shooting up in price as they can only be obtained in Japan whether it be through a Pokemon center or a box collection they may offer. This not only means that there are fewer of them in the world but it also makes them harder to obtain as you have to have them shipped from Japan if you don’t live there. 

As well as this, you should be keeping an eye out for Pokemon that are collectible or Pokemon that are just generally nostalgic as nostalgia sells more than anything when it comes to Pokemon cards. It’s the reason some of the most collected Pokemon are Charizards, Pikachus, Gyarados, Gengars, etc. Because of this, you should be looking for relatively unique versions of these Pokemon such as the Kanazawa Japanese-exclusive Pikachu or the Celebrations reprint of the vintage Shining Magikarp. 

One thing you should avoid however is when a card’s price tag seems a little too good to be true. In a situation like this, you should be checking the card’s condition with a fine-tooth comb. You should be looking out for everything like whitening around the edges of the card,  scratches, and scuffs, any warping to the shape of the card, and probably the most discrete of them all, the centering of the card. If the card is exceptionally poor in any of these departments, the seller is likely aware of this and has listed it for a lower price in hopes of getting rid of it for some cash. The issue is, this decreases the chances of the card ever going up in value in the future as it would be hard to get in a good grade. 

Alternatively, you can open $1 packs which aren’t super easy to come across outside of the United States but are definitely a means of getting cheap Pokemon cards. Be warned, however, there are only three cards in these packs and there is also no guarantee of a rare in them. This means that you could spend copious amounts of money and not even get a holographic card. It’s not the most cost-effective way of getting the cards you want but it’s certainly a method nonetheless.

If you’re looking to get some free virtual cards, on the other hand, there are actually some pretty effective ways of getting hundreds of cards for little to no cost. One method of doing this is just going on eBay and buying unredeemed code cards in bulk. You’d be surprised by the number of people who do not care at all about Pokemon TCGO and are only interested in collecting physical copies of the card, most of the time not even to play the game. 

One of the best ways of going about getting these cards would likely be tuning in to pack opening streams and redeeming the codes as they throw the code cards aside. Obviously, if you are watching a big streamer then there are likely hundreds of other people trying the same thing so try to show some smaller streamers some love.

Alternatively, you can try and be there for the ground zero of a Pokemon YouTuber’s videos and redeem them when the video uploads but this is a lot more difficult.

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Of course, are thousands of one-of-a-kind Pokemon either because they are incredibly miscut which would technically be the “most rare” Pokemon cards. However, there is no realistic way we can track down every error and miscut card that random people around the world have pulled, so, for this list, the first 90 cards will be the most valuable cards according to TCGPlayer. We will also include the graded value of the cards according to pricecharting.com but this isn’t representative of the market price of the card. The final 10 cards will be the objectively most expensive graded cards sold at auctions. 

Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s get into this list.

Below you can find a list of the most valuable Gold Star cards of all time.

This holographic 2002 Neo Destiny Tyranitar is first edition, meaning that it was part of the very first print run of Neo Destiny making it extremely rare. This makes the Dark Tyranitar’s market price a grand $247.85 and roughly $3000 in a PSA 10.

This entry of beloved third-generation legendary Pokemon comes from the 2005 set Unseen Forces. It gets its name from the little star next to Entei’s name on the card much like a lot of the other star entries soon to come. Entei Star usually sells for $1100 in a PSA 10

This icy Eevee evolution comes from the 2008 Diamond and Pearl set: Majestic Dawn and makes use of the Level X mechanic that debuted not too long before the release of this set in the Diamond and Pearl base set. This Glaceon, in a PSA 10 can sell for up to $7700.

This card comes from a slightly stranger 2002 set of Pokemon known in Japan as the e-Card era of Pokemon expansions. With this set came a holographic Blastoise that is now for some reason fairly difficult to get a hold of in good condition. This card sells for about $2400 in a PSA 10.

This Ultra Rare, holographic Suicune is the first one to make use of the “ex” mechanic and comes from the 2004 set Team Magma vs Team Aqua. However, do not be fooled by the price tag as in a PSA 10 this card has previously sold for $10,000.

Yet another “ex” entry on this list, this Ultra Rare Milotic comes from the 2005 set simply known as Emerald. Like the Suicune, despite this card’s relatively low market price, it has been known to sell for around $10,000 in a PSA 10.

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Finally a card worth a bit more than $249.99. This Gyarados is simply a holographic rare from the 2003 set Skyridge but has racked up quite a price tag for its unique art of the now cherished roaring Gyarados. This card sells for roughly $2400 in a PSA 10

A less beloved legendary among the Pokemon community; the Registeel Star comes from the 2006 set Legend Maker. This card sells for roughly $3000 in a PSA 10.

You may not have expected to see Kingdra even make this list because let’s be honest, who really cares about Kingdra. Well, here we are, but, unlike the previous entries, the holo Kingdra from the 2003 set Aquapolis doesn’t sell for nearly as much in a PSA 10, coming in at around $1800.

This first-generation starter from the now notorious vintage 2000 set Team Rocket is one of the better-known cards on this list. This set introduced “Dark Pokemon” and saw the addition of a Dark Charizard and Blastoise. In a PSA 10, this card sells for about $3500.

This may be one of the first times a shiny Gyarados appeared on a Pokemon card and it clearly did it in spectacular fashion. Coming from the 2006 set Holon Phantoms, this card has sold for $11,000 in the past.

If this was any other rare Pokemon from the Base Set of Pokemon it would likely be worth more because almost any first edition, shadowless card is going to immediately sell for a lot just because of how rare they are. Nidoking is unfortunately on the lower end of this price spectrum but when it’s in a PSA 10 it suddenly shoots up to $6800.

Bet you didn’t expect to see a card that wasn’t a Pokemon let alone an Ultra Ball make the list. However, this fairly recent, golden Ultra Ball has been doing the rounds since it was released in 2013 in the set Plasma Freeze. It currently sells for $2000 in a PSA 10.

If you couldn’t already tell but these gold stars and the fact that the Pokemon is made shiny by it can starkly increase the value of a Pokemon and this is no different in the case of Vaporeon. Gold Star Vaporeon from the 2007 set Power Keepers sells for roughly $2550 in a PSA 10.

Apart from being a first edition card like many other cards are, there’s nothing really special about this Tyranitar. It’s a holographic rare at most but for some reason, it caught the attention of collectors around the world. Because of this, the card is now worth roughly $2300 in a PSA 10.

Finally the second of the three gold star legendary dogs. This card accompanied the aforementioned Gold Star Entei in the 2005 set Unseen Forces but seemed to take favor over its fiery counterpart. Although this electric dog sells for roughly the same as the Entei, clocking in at about $1100 in a PSA 10.

This secret rare Charizard from the 2003 set simply known as EX Dragon or sometimes even “Dragon” is the first of many Charizards to come on this list. This is the cheapest of the lot however coming in at about $2000 in a PSA 10.

This holographic Magneton from the 1999 Base Set of Pokemon is incredibly difficult to get a hold of these days and with good reason. Due to its extreme rarity, regardless of whether or not it’s a Magneton, this card is worth about $12,000 in a PSA 10.

One of the newer, but certainly not the newest, entries on this list, this card, simply known as “Champions Festival” was a promo released in celebration of the Pokemon World Championships in 2019. It became an annual release back in 2013 and they have continued making them since. In a PSA 10, the card is worth around $1300.

This version of Rocket’s Mewtwo was a foil promo released in 2003 and made quite some buzz in the Pokemon TCG community. This card sells for roughly $1200 in a PSA 10.

Yet another one of the shadowless first edition base set entries on the list and certainly not the last, this Chansey is pretty justified in its value. You can pick one of these up for about $32,000 in a PSA 10 if you’ve got change to spare.

This menacing-looking Gengar from the 2000 set Gym Heroes gets its value yet again from being a first-edition, vintage card. Because of that little stamp on the bottom left corner of the art, this card sells for nearly $4000 in a PSA 10.

This legendary Pokemon made its debut in the Gold and Silver Pokemon games for the Gameboy Color and has since been a staple legendary in the franchise. This first edition Celebi from the vintage 2001 set Neo Revelation sells for $2350 in a PSA 10.

The second Mewtwo to make it onto the list also comes from a set that has already appeared on this list: Expedition. This holographic Mewtwo released in 2002 is still making waves today, selling for $3100 in a PSA 10.

Coming from the sequel set to Team Rocket: Team Rocket Returns, this Snorlax ex is an Ultra Rare that was, and even more so now, extremely difficult to pull. It is also the second Rocket’s Snorlax to exist, the first one coming from the original Team Rocket set. The card is now worth about $1500 in a PSA 10.

Here is another holographic, shadowless, first edition entry in the form of a little old Clefairy. Making its debut in the base set of Pokemon, this Clefairy in the current day and age can go for up to $7300 in a PSA 10.

This is a card from the less vintage 2012 set Dragons Exalted in the Black & White era of Pokemon. It’s a Secret Rare that features its very own shiny Rayquaza on it. The card is now unfortunately worth about $900 in a PSA 10 but this may be due to how recent the card is.

Told you there would be more gold star cards. This one comes from the same set as the previous Gyarados: Delta Species. It of course features a shiny yellow Groudon and currently sells for around $4250.

Let’s jump straight into the next Gold Star pull because it’s another banger. This Gold Star Suicune from Unseen Forces completes the trilogy of the legendary dogs in Unseen Forces and tops it off by coming in at $1200 much like the previous two.

This is a first edition pull, yet again from the Neo Revelation set and this one is pretty crazy for how much it is worth ungraded. This Entei has previously sold for $16,000 in a PSA 10 despite just being a Holographic rare.

This in all honesty is pretty low for a Lugia. Being one of the relatively OG legendaries of the game, they are typically a lot higher than this but this one isn’t exactly cheap. In a PSA 10, you can expect to pay about $3400 for this Unseen Forces Lugia.

Another card coming from the Unseen Forces set of Pokemon, this Secret Rare is pretty hard to come by these days and as a result, is worth around $2417 in a PSA 10.

This Rayquaza comes from the set simply known as Deoxys and is yet another vintage Rayquaza and is one of the first Rayquaza “ex” cards. You can pick one of these up for about $3000 in a PSA 10.

If you couldn’t already tell people are big fans of these “Lv.X” eeveelution cards and as a result, this Leafeon from the 2008 set Majestic Dawn comes in at around $1600 in a PSA 10.

Yet another Charizard fairly low on this list, this one comes from the 2004 set Fire Red / Leaf Green. This Ultra Rare finds itself at roughly $3300 in a PSA 10.

This Lugia comes from the 2011 set Call of Legends. This set is stuffed full of insane pulls but one of the rarest of the lot is the Shiny Lugia. Much like the shiny vault in Hidden Fates and Shining Fates, this card comes from the Shiny Legendary section of the set. In a PSA 10, it is worth around $1800.

The first card on this list to break the $300 mark ungraded comes from the 2007 set Power Keepers and is yet another shiny Gold Star card. This one comes in at around $2300 in a PSA 10.

So we kind of lied when we said that Shiny Lugia was the rarest card in the Call of Legends shiny vault because that slot has to narrowly go to the Shiny Rayquaza from the very same set. This card has been known to sell for $7000 in a PSA 10.

This one is completely out of left-field because I can’t remember the last time a Regice got shown some love on a modern Pokemon set but this Regice from the 2006 Legend Maker set sells for roughly $4000 in a PSA 10.

This is one of many reprints of the now notorious holographic base set Charizard and this one comes from the 2002 set Legendary Collection which was the first reprint of the base set Charizard for those who couldn’t get it in 1999. However, today, even this Charizard is extremely hard to get a hold of, being worth $13,000 in a PSA 10.

If only this were the iconic Pikachu, it would likely be many places higher up on the list, but we’ll have to settle for a Raichu. Although, don’t be fooled by this evolution because in a PSA 10 this little guy is still worth $10,000 in a PSA 10.

Coming in at 59 is another first edition pull from the legendary Neo Destiny set and it comes in the shape of one of the most popular eeveelution: Espeon. In a PSA 10, this card is worth about $5300.

There are several variations of this Charizard including, re-releases, first edition, shadowless, etc, but here we are referring to just a standard base set Charizard with nothing special about it (apart from the fact that it’s a base set Charizard). This usually sells for $9600 in a PSA 10 despite not having any qualities that make it any more expensive.

Unfortunately, unlike Charizard, being a Gyarados just isn’t quite enough to boost this card’s value to one of the most expensive Pokemon cards. However, put a first edition stamp on the card and you got yourself a card that is worth $13,000 in a PSA 10.

What makes this Pikachu so rare is that in some of the print runs of the base set of Pokemon, some of the Pikachus were printed with yellow cheeks and others were printed with red cheeks. The red cheek variant was harder to come by and is now worth around $5800 in a PSA 10.

If I’m honest, this Charizard from the set Dragon Frontiers is surprisingly low considering it is literally a vintage, gold star, shiny Charizard. Regardless, you can find this card for about $20,000 in a PSA 10.

One of the most modern entries on this list so far comes the Latios and Latias GX alternate art from the 2019 set Team Up. This card was extremely rare on release and has become even more so now since Team Up stopped its print run long ago. In a PSA 10, this card is worth nearly $900 but is definitely subject to rising in the coming years.

And the gold stars just keep on coming. This time it’s one of the original three Eeveelutions from the set Power Keepers and honestly, it doesn’t look vastly different from a normal Jolteon. Nevertheless, you can find it selling for about $3250 in a PSA 10.

This card features what looks like a Mewtwo that is pretty mad, to say the least. It’s an Ultra Rare from the aforementioned set Team Rocket Returns and sells for roughly $2300 in a PSA 10.

Yet another entry from this little green guy (well in this case a little red guy), coming from the 2006 set Crystal Guardians is a gold star Celebi. However, it would not be the first time a shiny Celebi as the Shining Celebi from Neo Destiny appeared in 2002. In a PSA 10, these guys are worth around $3510.

The debut of Ho-Oh in 2001 set Neo Revelation, while not nearly as expensive as its counterpart Lugia, definitely earned itself quite a price tag for its legendary status. In a PSA 10, this card can be found for $3000.

I’m not entirely sure why some of the cards from Aquapolis are worth what they are worth but this holographic Tyranitar is worth quite a bit for some reason. In a PSA 10, you can expect to find this card for about $2100.

One of the most beloved Eeveelutions got its very own first edition holographic card in 2001 set Neo Discovery. This set isn’t home to nearly as many pulls as Neo Destiny but definitely has some hidden gems such as this. This Espeon sells for about $3600 in a PSA 10.

Amidst all the vintage cards you probably didn’t expect to see this. The most recent pull so far on this list, the Rainbow Rare Charizard comes from the 2017 set Burning Shadows and sells for approximately $3000 in a PSA 10.

Neo Destiny just doesn’t stop with the crazy pulls. Granted, anything first edition and holographic will sell for some good money but Neo Destiny just has the greatest pulls and Shining Tyranitar is one of them. In a PSA 10, you can expect to pick one of these up for nearly $5000.

Everyone’s favorite, akimbo, spoon-wielding Pokemon comes in at number 45 for its shiny gold star version from the 2006 set Crystal Guardians. In a PSA 10, this card has previously sold for roughly $3000.

If there was one thing I didn’t expect to be putting on the list of the most expensive Pokemon cards it would definitely have to be a card released in 2021. This Umbreon from 2021 set Evolving Skies has remained one of the most expensive modern cards for about a year now and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be overtaken any time soon. In a PSA 10, you can expect to find this card for about $800 but this is likely to only go up in the future.

You should probably know by this point in the list that if the card ticks all the boxes of being shadowless, first edition, and holographic then it is worth money and there are no exceptions to this rule. This Alakazam is worth nearly $10,000 in a PSA 10.

This might be a Charizard you’ve never even heard of as it comes from the lesser-known set Expedition from 2002. This holographic Charizard has, in the past, sold for $21,000 in a PSA 10 showing just how sought after this Charizard is for a lot of collectors.

If there’s one thing you can count on in the Pokemon TCG it’s that, if there is a Gengar, it’s probably going to have a pretty awesome art. Well, this Gengar is no exception to that rule and it rightfully sells for a whopping $4400 in a PSA 10 because of it.

You might be able to tell that Skyridge definitely has some banger pulls considering it has appeared several times on this list now and still has more appearances ahead but this Holographic Umbreon takes the 40th place for now. It has previously sold for $3800 in a PSA 10.

The last of the gold star “Regi” trio brings the shiny gold star Regirock from the same set as the last two: Legend Maker. This guy has previously sold for $2700 in a PSA 10.

One of the most popular grass starters from the second generation of Pokemon brings the gold star Treecko from Team Rocket Returns. This shiny Treecko, which looks barely different from a normal Treecko, can be found selling for roughly $6400 in a PSA 10.

Promos from tournaments are something you’ll see a lot when browsing some of the most expensive cards and it is no different in the case of the 2012 Tropical Beach Promo. This was released as a promo for the 2012 World Championships and is now worth about $1000 in a PSA 10.

Believe me when I say there are many more Umbreons to come, but for now, we have the Ultra Rare Umbreon ex from the previously mentioned 2005 set Unseen Forces. In a PSA 10, these sell for $2600.

Everyone’s favorite useless fish from Neo Revelation that they have probably never even attacked with takes the 35th spot on this list for its equally popular shiny version. The nostalgia of that golden Magikarp, whether it be because you caught one or you spent countless hours trying to catch one and never succeeded makes this card worth $3750 in a PSA 10.

If you’re into Pokemon cards then you probably already know that these “staff” cards are going to become a recurring theme in the latter end of this list due to just how exclusive they are. This one was released as a promo for the Pokemon TCG Regional Championships and some of them even have a watermark that says “staff” on them as it was only intended for staff of the Pokemon Company. It is now worth around $3000 in a PSA 10.

This card from the exclusive POP Series 4 from the 2006 set turned a few heads on its release. The packs were only acquirable as a reward for beating the 15 and over Pokemon TCG champion Tsuguyoshi Yamato making them extremely hard to acquire. This leaves this Chimeco to be worth nearly $5000 in a PSA 10.

Now, this is an entry that I’m still surprised is on this list and that is because it is a CROBAT. Zubat, let alone Crobat has always been that annoying Pokemon that you always immediately run from to continue doing whatever you’re doing, so you could imagine my shock when I saw it make it so high on this list. In a PSA 10, this secret rare is worth around $2000.

This gold star entry was released in the same 2006 set Holon Phantoms as the gold star Gyarados. As you could imagine, it’s worth a bit more than a Gyarados since it’s a Pikachu and everyone loves Pikachu. It’s currently worth approximately $7000 in a PSA 10.

This Lugia, in my humble opinion, isn’t really anything special when it comes to cool vintage cards. However, at the end of the day, it is a Lugia and it is a secret rare, so chances are it’s going to sell for some money. This one sells for $9000 in a PSA 10.

Coming in at number 29 is the most expensive card from the Team Rocket set. There are actually 2 versions of these in the set, one of them being a non-holographic version but the most expensive card in the set just so happens to be the now notorious First Edition Dark Charizard. You can find one of these for nearly $4000 in a PSA 10.

Don’t worry, there is no shortage of shiny Charizards in the Pokemon TCG. You could call it beating a dead horse but The Pokemon Company no what the people like and they know what the people buy so they’ll be damned if they stop releasing those Charizards. This one in particular from the 2013 set Plasma storm can be found for $8000 in a PSA 10.

This card was where Typhlosion made its Pokemon TCG debut in 2000 set Neo Genesis and they did it in spectacular fashion as this card is now worth up to $45,000 in a PSA 10. It’s worth so much due to the terrible quality of the print run of Neo Genesis, making PSA 10 extremely hard to come by with any card from this set.

The Neo Destiny pulls don’t stop just quite yet. This shiny, first edition, Kabutops is probably one of the coolest “shining” card arts as the Kabutops stands triumphantly in front of a sunset with its razor claws extended outwards. This card sells for roughly $1400 in a PSA 10.

Released in 2001, this card was a promo from the Wizards of the Coast era of the Pokemon TCG and has apparently aged like a fine wine. In a PSA 10, however, this card has only sold for around $700.

This Charizard is actually a Charizard that is already in the set, the only difference being a watermark that has the set logo on the card art, but was then released before the set’s release as a promo for it. Some pretty confusing stuff but clearly a lot of people liked it and it is now worth nearly $7500 in a PSA 10.

Coming in at number 23 is everyone’s favorite water-type Pokemon, the holographic, first edition, shadowless Blastoise from the base set of Pokemon. In a PSA 10, you can pick one of these up for $22,000.

Tropical Tidal Wave was a card released initially in 2005 as a promo for Worlds but was then rereleased in 2006 and then 2010. The version we are talking about is the 2010 version but more specifically the “staff” version of the card which was made exclusively for Nintendo staff and thus has a watermark that says “staff” at the bottom of it. This card can be found for $5800 in a PSA 10.

A slightly stranger entry for such a high placement on the list, but this shiny First Edition Steelix from the set that has made this list countless times (Neo Destiny) is worth a hefty wad of cash on its own. Then, get it in a PSA 10 and you have yourself a $1600 card.

Now, this may not be the prettiest card on the list but it certainly was and even more so now is a pain to get a hold of. This card was released as a promo for the prerelease of the Sword & Shield set: Vivid Voltage, but that’s not all. This one, in particular, has a watermark on the bottom right corner of the art that just says “STAFF” as the card was only intended for members of staff at the Pokemon Company. That boosted the card’s value up exponentially now being worth around $1400 in a PSA 10.

You probably could’ve guessed that Charizards are going to predominantly make up the back end of this list as people love Charizards and they, therefore, sell for a hell of a lot of money. This secret rare Charizard from the same set as that Gyarados mentioned earlier in the list finds itself selling for $13,000 in a PSA 10.

There’s nothing particularly special about this Umbreon apart from the fact that it’s holographic and first edition. Most of the value of this card essentially boils down to the fact that people like Umbreon a lot. Because of this, the card sells for nearly $6000 in a PSA 10.

This promo from the Wizards Of The Coast era of Pokemon came as an award for those who competed in the Japanese World Challenge Summer Tournament in August 2000. As you could imagine the card is now extremely hard to come by and sells for about $1600 in a PSA 10.

This baby blue Mew caught the attention of Pokemon TCG fans from around the world when it made its English debut in 2006 set Dragon Frontier. This card can be found selling for roughly $7450 in a PSA 10.

People really do love themselves a good shiny Pokemon and there are few better examples than the Shining Mewtwo. This card, aside from the Shining Charizard is the best card that you can pull from Neo Destiny. When graded in a PSA 10, this card can sell for up to $4000.

Everybody’s favorite water/dragon type Pokemon tops the list as the most expensive card from the first edition Neo Revelation set in all of its fiery (or rather watery) red glory. It comes in at about $6840 in a PSA 10.

This cute little guy burst onto the Pokemon TCG scene in the aforementioned 2004 set Team Rocket Returns. The card features a shiny Mudkip like most gold star cards do and is the most expensive card from the Team Rocket Returns set. It can be found selling for $5500 in a PSA 10.

Coming from the 2000 set of Pokemon: Gym Challenge, this card is the first Charizard to feature the name of the trainer the Charizard belongs to. This idea would later be re-used in modern cards such as Lance’s Charizard. In a PSA 10, this card can sell for $4750.

The final card before we break into the top 10 most expensive cards ever auctioned off this list comes from the Shining Charizard from Neo Destiny. It probably comes as no surprise that this takes such a high place in the list considering how much shiny Charizards usually sell for combined with the fact that this was the first ever shiny Charizard to appear on a Pokemon card. This leaves it to sell for about $11,000 in a PSA 10.

You’ve probably seen the base set Venesaur a million times in your life if you’re into collecting Pokemon cards so you probably also know that it’s a pretty rare card as it is. The standard base set Venesaur in English sells for upwards of $1200 in a PSA 10. So when this error print of the card came along that lacked a star at the bottom to indicate its rarity, people went crazy. Then, the original artist of the card, Mitsuhiro Arita, signed the card, making the card’s value skyrocket even further than before. The card was then graded in a PSA 10 and sold for roughly $55,000 at an auction in 2021.

This promo by the name of Tropical Wind was released back in 1999 and is today one of the rarest cards you can possibly get your hands on. Only 12 of them are thought to exist as that was the number produced in 1999 as a promotional card for the Tropical Mega Battle, a precursor to the Pokemon World Championships. So few were produced due to the prestigious nature of the tournament it was given away at. Only 50 of the best regional players were invited to this tournament in Hawaii, making the card super exclusive. In a PSA 10, the card sold for a whopping $65,100.

1999 seems to be the year of stupidly rare Pokemon cards because as well as the Tropical Megal Battle Promo, 1999 featured one of the rarest Pokemon cards of all time No. 1 Trainer. Much like the previous promo, this card could only be acquired through playing in tournaments in the 90s. No. 1 Trainer is a holographic promo that was awarded only to the finalists of the Super Secret Battle Tournament held in Tokyo. The card would grant its owner access to play in the finals of the tournament which was held in a secret location. In a PSA 10, the card sold for $90,000 at an auction in July 2020.

This is actually the first English entry on the list and is very similar to the previous No 1 Trainer entry before it. This card was only awarded to the finalists of the Pokemon World Championship in 2006 and would grant its owner immediate access to play in the 2007 World Championship. There are only three copies of the card believed to exist and in February 2021, one of them sold for $110,000.

This is the first entry that you can technically still pull in packs. While it would be a Herculean task to even get your hands on some first edition Neo Genesis packs there are likely still unopened Lugias out there in these packs. This iconic Lugia card is one of the hardest cards to get in a PSA 10 due to the terrible print run Neo Genesis had on release, with errors, print lines, and miscuts all over the place. This print run was later corrected by which point the first edition stamp was long gone from the cards. 

When a card has a first edition stamp on the bottom left corner of the card’s art, it essentially means that the card was in the very first print run of the set. They have since stopped making first edition cards but this is what made this Lugia so hard to get in a PSA 10. It is thought that only 41 of these cards exist in a PSA 10 despite thousands being printed. In May 2021, the card sold for an astonishing $144,000.

This was a promo card given out at yet another Japanese tournament. As the name implies, teams at the tournament were comprised of parent and child thus the Kangaskhan promo. Any team who achieved a set number of victories would be awarded the card. 

What makes the card so rare aside from being only achievable by attending a tournament in the 90s is also the fact that it has Pocket Monsters Card Game as opposed to Pokemon Trading Card game on the back which was the original name for the TCG. Authenticators revealed that there have only ever been 46 copies of it graded, leading to one being sold for $150,000 in October 2020.

This is probably my favorite entry on the list because of how unique and new this card is. It is extremely rare you’ll see a card released after 2010 get this much attention but Ishihara GX is an exception to this rule as it isn’t even a Pokemon. Ishihara is the name of the founder of The Pokemon Company and this card was made as a promo to celebrate his 60th birthday. It features a full art portrait of the company’s owner holding a Rotom and is one of the coolest Pokemon full arts in my opinion. The card is already rare as it is but what made this one even rarer was the fact that Ishihara himself signed it, sending the price of the card up to $247,230.

This card was created by Wizard Of The Coast (creators of Magic: The Gathering and the former printing managers of the Pokemon TCG) in a presentation to convince Nintendo that they should let them handle the printing of the English release of the Pokemon Trading Card Game in 1999. This technically makes this Blastoise the first-ever English Pokemon card to be printed. It has no art on the back but instead, a completely blank, white card back and the font of the card is completely different from the font eventually settled on in the official release. In January 2021 the card sold at an auction for $360,000.

If you’re somewhat into Pokemon cards, you might be surprised to not see this at number 1 really because let’s be honest, almost everyone knows about this Charizard or has at least seen it whether they realize it or not. The shadowless, first edition Charizard is a Charizard from the very first print run of the very first English set of Pokemon. However, the issue is this specific print-run printed cards, now known as shadowless cards, that didn’t have a shadow around the border of the card’s art. A minor error I’ll admit but an extremely collectible one for Pokemon fanatics. 

This card ended up selling for $420,000 in March 2022.

If you haven’t heard of this card, I don’t blame you. However, Illustrator Pikachu makes the Charizard from before look puny in comparison. This was a promo released in 1997 and 1998 by a Japanese magazine known as CoroCoro Comic and was awarded to the winners of a competition in said magazine. Only 39 copies of this card were known to be given out to the winners until 2020 when another 2 copies were discovered. It is the only Pokemon card that instead of saying “TRAINER” in bold letters at the top, instead says “ILLUSTRATOR” and even has a one-off pen icon on the bottom right corner of the back of the card to acknowledge the card’s origin. As well as this, the card’s illustrator is also the original designer of Pikachu as a whole. 

The card was purchased in July 2021 by YouTube superstar Logan Paul for an almost inconceivable $5.275 million.

Unfortunately, there is no objective way of telling how rare your Pokemon cards are due to how many rare Pokemon cards there are and how vastly different they all look. Although, there are certain Pokemon that have a tendency to sell for more than most Pokemon. These Pokemon include Charizard, Pikachu, any first-generation starter, Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno, Lugia, Mewtwo, Mew, essentially, if the cards are from an OG generation of Pokemon, the nostalgia factor of the Pokemon plays a big factor. This is why you see The Pokemon Company pumping out a different version of the same Charizard any opportunity they get because that is the Pokemon that’s going to get people buying their packs. Then if you couple this with the card being vintage or just relatively old, there’s a good chance you have a valuable card on your hands.

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Gold Star Pokemon cards are Pokemon cards that generally look like your average Pokemon card but next to the name of the Pokemon at the very top of the card features a small gold star. As well as this, Gold Star Pokemon are always shiny, bursting out of the border of their card, and are typically the rarest card in the set they belong to. They make up some of the rarest and most sought-after cards in the Pokemon TCG community.

There is also a common misconception about the names Golden Rare and Gold Star and how they are interchangeable. This is not the case. Golden Rares refers to the secret rare full arts in modern sets while a Gold Star card is far from a full art at all.

While they recently made Gold Star Greninja promo for the 25th anniversary of Pokemon, Gold Star Pokemon cards have become a lot less commonplace in the Pokemon TCG, making them even more desirable. 

Below you can find a list of the most valuable Gold Star cards of all time.

What may seem like an unlikely entry on this list, the Metagross Gold Star, coming from the 2005 set Delta Species, has been turning the heads of collectors for many years due to it being vintage and being a Gold Star. Just picking one of these ungraded can run you anywhere between $300 and $400. Get your hands on one of these in a PSA 10 and you have yourself a $3500 card.

This card has only become more topical with the 20-year battle between The Pokemon Company and magician Uri Geller being put to rest for the rights to Alakazam about 2 years ago. It comes from the 2006 set Crystal Guardians. With that considered the card is worth around $420 ungraded and when put in a PSA 10 the card is worth about $3100.

This rocky icon made its Gold Star debut in the 2006 set Legend Maker which also features Gold Star versions of its ice and metal counterparts (Regice and Registeel). Getting a hold of this legendary rock star will inevitably be a pricey investment as picking it up ungraded can cost about $450 and in a PSA 10 has previously sold for $2700.

On any other list, this would be an extremely low placement for a Charizard, but when we’re dealing with Gold Star Pokemon cards, there are just some extremely rare cards that outrank Charizard every day of the week. However, that’s not to say this Charizard is easy to come by, getting one ungraded can cost upwards of $500. Featuring probably one of the most beloved shiny Pokemon in Pokemon history,  when you put this card in a PSA 10, it suddenly shoots up to around $20,000 in value.

This beautiful red Celebi made its debut in the same 2006 set as the Gold Star Alakazam, Crystal Guardians, and has since remained one of the staple Gold Star Pokemon cards among collectors. It introduced a one-of-a-kind mechanic to the game, allowing it to avoid critical damage by getting shuffled into the player’s deck. This mechanic along with the awesome artwork makes this card worth around $500 ungraded. In a PSA 10 however, you can pick one of these up for $3500.

What is now pretty much the face of not just the Pokemon TCG but Pokemon as a whole, the Pikachu Gold Star card was going to pop up at some point and it just so happens that it comes in at number 5 on our list. Coming from 2006 set Holon Phantoms, It’s currently worth about $500 ungraded but this is likely only going to go up in the coming years because of the collectibility of this card. In a PSA 10, it knocks its ungraded price out of the park, however, coming in at about $7000.

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What likely isn’t a surprise to anyone is this OG legendary making it so high up on this list. Part of the original 151, Mewtwo was released as a Gold Star card in 2006 in the same set as the Gold Star Pikachu: Holon Phantoms. However, ungraded it dwarfs the cost of the Gold Star Pikachu, as it is worth about $600. Once in a PSA 10, it has been known to sell for $4000.

This absolute gem that comes from the same 2006 set as the Gold Star Charizard (Dragon Frontiers) is kicking off the top 3 most valuable Gold Star Pokemon cards. It likely has one of the most stunning card arts as it features a shiny, baby blue, water-type Mew bursting out of the cards’ art border with trails of water behind it. Ungraded this card has sold for roughly $620 but in a PSA 10, it can get as expensive as $7700.

Coming in at number 2, we have the second-generation water-type starter, Mudkip. This cute, shiny, little guy, coming from the 2004 set Team Rocket Returns,  looks relatively similar to a normal Mudkip despite shiny Mudkips usually being a vibrant purple. That’s because he is a normal Mudkip. It’s unknown as to why this is the case, but this makes Gold Star Mudkip one of the only non-shiny Gold Star Pokemon which may have even contributed to its current value. It has become a must-have card for big collectors and if they’re trying to pick one up ungraded, they’d have to be willing to part with nearly $900. In a PSA 10, this card is worth around $5400.

To any avid collectors, this number one entry likely comes as no surprise. Umbreon Gold Star is not only one of the rarest and most valuable Gold Star Pokemon cards, but one of the rarest and most valuable (non-tournament) Pokemon cards altogether. It comes from the 2007 promotional set POP Series 5 for the Pokemon Organized Play program. The catch with these packs however was that they only contained 2 cards each, making this Umbreon even harder to pull. Even getting one ungraded can cost upwards of $1500 and in a PSA 10, this Umbreon is worth nearly $20,000.

If Gold Star Pokemon cards are something you’re interested in and want to start collecting but you’re on a tight budget, it will be tricky to work around it. Gold Star Pokemon cards are inherently valuable, regardless of the Pokemon, simply because they are vintage and hard to pull. Having said that, there are more affordable ones than the ones listed above. For example, the Gold Star Entei from the set Unseen Forces can be picked up for around $100 and when graded in a PSA 10 can be as valuable as $1000. Aside from Entei, finding a Gold Star card that is sub $200 will be extremely difficult and you should therefore be prepared to part with a lot of money when looking for Gold Star cards.

So, we have to confess that Gold Star cards weren’t technically discontinued in 2007. In 2021, along with the release of the 25th-anniversary Celebrations Elite Trainer Box, collectors were awarded a Gold Star Greninja promo. As well as this, within the set, collectors were able to pack a reprint of the now-famous Gold Star Umbreon which featured a little Pikachu icon on the left of the card to indicate that it was a rerelease for the 25th-anniversary. Therefore, this would mean that the most recent Gold Star Pokemon cards were released in 2021.

If you’re still not sure about how to get a hold of Gold Star Pokemon cards, it’s worth clarifying that not every vintage set out there have Gold Star cards in them. In total there are 10 sets that contain the original Gold Star cards and across these sets, there are 27 unique Gold Star Pokemon. So for the collectors out there looking to pack some potential Gold Star cards, we’ve compiled a list of all the sets that feature Gold Star Pokemon and the Pokemon they feature. 

Team Rocket Returns: Mudkip, Torchic, and Treecko

EX Deoxys: Latias, Latios, and Rayquaza

Unseen Forces: Entei, Raikou, and Suicune 

Delta Species: Groudon, Kyogre and Metagross

Legend Maker: Regice, Regirock, and Registeel

Holon Phantoms: Gyarados, Mewtwo, and Pikachu 

Crystal Guardians: Alakazam and Celebi

Dragon Frontiers: Charizard and Mew 

Power Keepers: Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon 

POP Series 5: Vaporeon and Espeon

The rarity of Pokemon cards varies from set to set as each card has its own unique population in the set. However, on average, Gold Star Pokemon cards have around a 1 in 88 pull rate making them some of the rarest Pokemon cards that you can get a hold of. This rule applies especially to sets like POP Series 5 which weren’t available to buy in shops but instead had to be obtained through Pokemon Organized Play events, hence the name POP series. Not only were these packs super hard to obtain but they also only contained 2 cards in them meaning that the chances of pulling the Umbreon or Espeon were extremely slim.

If you have a pretty large budget and you can afford to invest in any of the cards above then your best bet is likely putting money into the Delta Species Charizard. While this isn’t the most valuable card on the list, Charizards have a tendency to shoot up in price because Charizards are almost like the second mascot of Pokemon and collectors love them.

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If you were born in the 90s and over, there’s a very good chance that at some point in your life you opened a pack of Pokemon cards or at least got your hands on some Pokemon cards. In your little child brain, you probably had no idea that in years to come that these very same cards that you were haphazardly trading with your friends in the playground would be worth quite a bit of money. This post is for every person that has had that exact same thought: “I wonder what those Pokemon cards I’ve got stored in that box upstairs are worth”.

So, firstly, what exactly classifies a Pokemon card as “old” or “vintage”? Well, this isn’t a super easy question to answer as there seem to be varying degrees of oldness when it comes to collecting Pokemon cards but there are definitely things that qualify a card as old. As we are writing this article The Pokemon Company has not too long ago revealed the final Sword and Shield set Crown Zenith, so, as of right now, any Pokemon card older than the X & Y era of Pokemon would probably be considered vintage or at least old. However, some may even consider the X & Y sets old in it themselves. This would mean eras such as the Black & White era or the Diamond & Pearl era are all considered vintage. 

This isn’t to suggest that if your cards were released post-X & Y they automatically aren’t worth anything, in fact, some of the most expensive cards of the last decade were released at the latter end of the decade, and some even in the current decade.

It’s all fine and dandy knowing what is considered an old Pokemon card but how can you tell if your own cards are actually old? Depending on how old your card is, there are usually some things you can look for that indicate its age. 

For one, any card that features the lower-case letters “ex” at the top of the card next to the Pokemon’s name (excluding reprints such as Celebrations) can immediately be identified as either being from 2007 or older. “ex “cards were introduced in the year and 2003 as part of the base set of Ruby and Sapphire and was then stopped after 2007. This is not to be confused with “EX” cards stylized with capital letters instead of lower-case letters which were introduced in the Black & White expansion Next Destinies and are seeing a revival in 2023 with the new Scarlet & Violet expansions to come. 

If your cards are older than Ruby and Sapphire, you are sometimes able to tell just by the look of the card. Things like the background of the card or just the card’s art itself can sometimes just look old. Especially in the case of holographic cards, sometimes the holographic pattern can be a pretty good indicator of the card’s age as some eras of Pokemon have different holographic patterns from others. 

However, if you are completely unsure you can Google the name of the Pokemon and then its set number which can be found at the bottom right corner of the card and will be formatted like so: XX/XXX. Once you punch those numbers into Google you should be able to find out exactly what card you own and all the information about it, like most important of all, the year the card was released.

So, we’ve established what makes a Pokemon card old and how to identify if your Pokemon cards are in fact old, how do we now gauge how much these old cards are actually worth? 

Unfortunately being old is not enough to make a card valuable. As a baseline, it’s pretty important to make sure that your card is in good condition. This means trying to avoid things like scuffs and scratches, bends and creases, excessive rounding of the card’s corners, and whitening around the edges of the cards. These are all things that can be avoided just by storing the cards safely in a sleeve and a semi-rigid. 

However, there are some things that can drastically affect the value of your card that are just completely out of your hands. For example the card’s centering. This refers to how even the borders of the card are in terms of width. At times one border may be thicker than the other which means that the card is poorly centered which will reflect poorly on the card’s value. This is no fault of your own, it’s just an issue with printing. There are other imperfections much like this such as print lines or squared edges which you just can’t avoid but they are good to be aware of as it helps understand what your card could be worth.

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If you’re new to collecting Pokemon cards, then there’s one thing that you’re going to need to understand above all else and that is not all Pokemon are created equal. Some Pokemon are going to be worth more money than others solely on account of the fact that nobody cares about some Pokemon. For example, which Pokemon do you think people are going to care about more, a Dewgong or a Charizard? If you guessed Charizard, you’re starting to get the hang of this, if not, you may need to re-evaluate a few things about yourself.

There are usually a few tells of whether or not a Pokemon is actually worth something just by hearing the Pokemon but it requires a slightly deeper knowledge of Pokemon and what Pokemon are popular and what Pokemon people like. For example, often the most marketable Pokemon are the mascots of the sets. These Pokemon usually include the legendary Pokemon of a designated game (Pokemon like Moltres, Zapdos, Kyogre, Groudon, etc.) or the starters of a designated game (such as Blastoise, Typhlosion, Venesaur, etc.) 

However, there are of course exceptions to this rule as Pokemon like Pikachu are neither legendary nor starter Pokemon yet it is literally the face of Pokemon. Additionally, any of the Eeveelutions (especially Umbreon) usually gets the attention of Pokemon fans possible because Eevee is such a unique and now recognizable Pokemon but it’s hard to tell. 

There is one last rule above all else that you also must keep in mind when browsing old cards and that is the fact that Charizard is king no matter what. Charizard is just the crown jewel of vintage Pokemon cards, so much so, that it is the most collected Pokemon (likely next to Pikachu). So by all means, if you have a Charizard lying around that looks old (even if it doesn’t) immediately check what that Charizard is worth because you could be sitting on a fortune.

For those who’ve done a little bit of research into vintage Pokemon cards, you may have heard the term “first edition” get thrown around and if you’re not quite sure what that means, don’t worry we’ll break it down for you. Between the years 1999 and 2003, every set of Pokemon released would have an unlimited edition which was what made up most of the set and probably the kind of cards you collected as a kid, and then there was the first edition. This referred to the cards that were the very first off the print line making them some of the earliest official prints of the set. This would be indicated by a small first edition stamp on the bottom left of the card’s art. This stamp immediately makes the card extremely valuable as there are already so few of these cards that exist and then even fewer in a good grade. So, if you do happen to own any vintage cards, always make sure to check for a first-edition stamp on the cards.

Okay, so we know what a first edition card is now, but let’s delve deeper into the world of vintage Pokemon cards. The term “shadowless cards” refers to a printing error that was exclusive to the base set of Pokemon. Typically when you look at the inner border of the card’s art (the part that is colored according to the type of Pokemon) there is usually a shadow or darkening around the art of the card. As you might’ve been able to guess, the shadowless cards did not have this darkening around the art of the card. This error is present in all first-edition cards but it is not exclusive to first-edition cards and can be found in some of the unlimited edition versions of some of the base set cards. This error also increases the value of your cards and you should definitely check for it if you own any base set cards.

Deciding whether or not to grade your Pokemon cards can be a hard decision to make for quite a few reasons. One, it costs money to grade cards and if you are sending cards in bulk to be graded it can cost a fortune. As well as this, depending on how beat up your card is, grading it may even negatively affect its price and make it not worth grading at all. Because of this, you need a decent grasp of how cards are graded before you decide to start just sending cards off so that you aren’t just wasting your money grading a card that is just going to get a terrible grade and never sell. 

In general, it’s usually a good idea to grade your Pokemon cards, especially if they are vintage but make sure you are grading cards that people are actually going to want and not just a random card that you are grading for the sake of grading.

Grading companies such as PSA or BGS, etc. have criteria that your card must fulfill to get a good grade. To get a 10 (the best grade in both of these companies) your card must have the following. Perfectly shaped corners (whether that be squared or round), the original gloss of the card, zero staining of any kind, near-perfect centering (however there is allowance of a slight imperfection in centering as long as it doesn’t affect the overall appeal of the card) and zero whitening, scuffs or scratches of any kind. 

Yes, we know, the criteria are pretty harsh, but this is what makes PSA 10 cards so expensive and sough-after as it essentially means that the card is free of any and all imperfections.

Let’s suppose you’ve finally decided you are going to send off all of these old cards you’ve been storing away for years to be graded. How do you go about it? How does grading even work? When do I get my cards back? These might be all of the questions that are rushing through your head, there’s no need to worry, we’ll explain it all here.

For once, you want to pack all of the cards you are going to send off correctly. Each card must be first sleeved. You can find these for dirt cheap in bulk on Amazon and other sites like it. From there you need to put that sleeved card into what is known as a semi-rigid case. These are flexible plastic cases that protect your card from misshaping, collecting dust and all that other bad stuff. 

Once you’ve sleeved up all of your cards, pack them safely in a box that you can send to the designated grading company. From here most grading companies usually charge different prices depending on the declared value of the card you are grading. The more valuable the card, the more expensive it becomes to grade. So, make sure you check the ungraded value of your cards before you send them off to be graded. You can usually get a good gauge of your card’s value through what people are selling the card for on online marketplaces such as eBay. 

Depending on where you shipped the cards from, your return can take a varying amount of time but it will usually take between 3 – 6 months at which point you should receive all of your cards packed in plastic cases with an official grade on them.

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If you’ve browsed Pokemon cards on eBay or Amazon before, there’s a good chance you’ve come across what are known as metal Pokemon cards. We think it’s just worth saying immediately that if you are a parent looking to buy Pokemon cards for your kids who’ve asked for Pokemon cards, this probably isn’t what they’re looking for. But, they get sold in bulk and have all this super cool art on them, so what exactly are they and who is buying them?

Metal Pokemon cards are unofficial cards sold by third-party companies that are made of metal. They are usually, exactly the same as standard Pokemon cards when it comes to card art and moves but as for the actual design of the card and its borders, it’s completely different. The usual grainy foil finish of the card is swapped out for a glossy metallic background instead as the original card art takes center stage. They are made of thin metal, only slightly thicker than a normal Pokemon card which makes them a lot sturdier than your average paper Pokemon card. The whole novelty of metal Pokemon cards is that most of them are metal versions of already rare cards which means that collectors can have a metal version of a card so that they can still own the card’s art without paying an arm and a leg for the actual thing. If they were making metal versions of all the common cards that the Pokemon Company are releasing, it would essentially just be like the Pokemon TCG then.

They aren’t actually playable at any legitimate Pokemon tournament and aren’t taken seriously as cards when it comes to any context of their actual playability however, they are a fun little collector’s item.

Unlike the average fake Pokemon card which is designed to look exactly like cards printed by the Pokemon Company to fool any unknowing buyers, most metal Pokemon cards make it blatantly obvious that they aren’t real Pokemon cards as they barely look or feel like an actual Pokemon card. As well as this, most sellers selling metal Pokemon cards will specify in the description of their product that it is a metal Pokemon card, whereas a seller trying to pawn off a fake card as legitimate likely isn’t going to mention the fact that their card isn’t real at all.

Surely collectors who want to own specific card art isn’t enough demand for these cards to be sold in the hundreds on Amazon, so who else is buying these cards? Well for one, clueless parents may contribute to some of these purchases when their kids ask for Pokemon cards. It’s pretty easy, if you know nothing about Pokemon cards, to just buy some cards that look cool and are affordable and even better than that, are made of metal. However, some parents who are a bit more knowledgeable about Pokemon may even be buying these cards intentionally for younger children who aren’t currently ready for the responsibility of handling much more fragile Pokemon cards with much greater value than just some random metal Pokemon cards.

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Metal Pokemon cards aren’t exactly hidden gems, they are pretty easy to come by if you just type “metal pokemon cards” into whatever browser it is you may be using. From there you will be prompted with hundreds of sellers selling, you guessed it, metal Pokemon cards. However, let’s say for some reason you are struggling to find some, or you want to be sure that you are getting the right metal Pokemon cards, we have compiled a list of the best places to get them from, just for your metallic trading card needs.

For those who don’t know, Etsy is a platform for private sellers, typically in some sort of creative, artsy trade, to sell their products. This just so happens to include people who make metal Pokemon cards. Some of these sellers however go that extra mile and even make some awesome original art that at times looks better than some of the art that the Pokemon Company themselves make. Regardless, Etsy is a great place to get in touch with some pretty awesome sellers and who knows? They may even be able to make you a custom card of your own if you find the right one.

Amazon is a much better place to visit if you are looking to get a hold of some metal Pokemon cards for an affordable price in bulk. You can buy around 54 unique metal cards for around $10 and chances are these metal cards are all going to be Vs and VMaxes, because let’s be honest, who wants a metal version of a common card? As well as this, with some of the sellers on Amazon, you can even get next-day delivery if you are really desperate for some metal Pokemon cards for some reason.

eBay is another great place to get a hold of metal Pokemon cards as it has evolved from the marketplace for second-hand items that it once was into a legitimate marketplace for, like Etsy, people with a product, whether it be brand-spanking-new or pre-owned, to sell it quickly and easily. As well as this, it rewards sellers who are reliable and frequently sell things on their platform by placing them closer to the top of the search results for certain keywords. So, in the case of metal Pokemon cards, someone who has good reviews and a bunch of sales is much more likely to appear as the first result for the search term “metal pokemon cards”.

If you’re looking to start picking up metal Pokemon cards for their potential monetary value in the future, we hate to disappoint you, but you are wasting your time. Some of the coolest art on official Pokemon cards aren’t even worth that much for a number of different reasons. These reasons can range from the card being overprinted to the Pokemon just not being super desirable. So, as you could imagine if the card doesn’t even meet the requirement of being made by the Pokemon Company, there is literally no chance it will ever be worth anything unless your card is made of gold. Unfortunately, people just aren’t super interested in collecting cards that aren’t official and have that seal of approval on them regardless of how stunning the art of the card is.

Metal Pokemon cards are actually quite similar to the gold Pokemon cards made by third-party companies, except they are actually metal. But, having said that, some metal Pokemon cards are also gold (in color, not material) making them pretty much the same, in terms of looks, as a gold Pokemon card.

However, if you are referring to the golden secret rare Pokemon cards, then, unfortunately, these metal cards are in fact nothing like gold Pokemon cards.

Although we may have said that metal Pokemon cards are practically worth little to nothing, there are a few exceptions to this rule. If you’ve checked out our article on gold Pokemon cards then you would have heard of the Japanese Ginza Tanaka Pikachu. This is the only card in Pokemon history to actually be made of gold or at least contain gold. The card was released as a promo for the 20th anniversary of Pokemon in collaboration with famous Japanese jeweler Ginza Tanaka who was tasked with making a few copies of the original base set Pikachu containing 11 grams of 24 karat gold. The card would go on to be distributed to a few lucky winners of a competition held by The Pokemon Company. None are known to exist in a PSA 10 but one previously sold for $10,000 in a PSA 5. This is one of the only (technically) metal Pokemon cards that the Pokemon Company ever released.

Okay, but we said there are a few exceptions to the rule of The Pokemon company not making metal Pokemon cards, so what are the other exceptions? Well, you don’t actually have to look very hard to find them. If you look at just last year, the 25th Anniversary Celebrations Ultra Premium Collection Box featured a metal version of not only the same base set Pikachu as the Japanese gold remake one but also a metal version of the now notorious holographic Charizard from the base set of Pokemon. In a PSA 10, the Pikachu can sell for around $400 while the Charizard has been known to sell for around $800.

Apart from this, it’s pretty difficult to find official metal cards. You could argue that the 1999 promotional cross-over with Burger King in which the Pokemon were physically embossed onto a plate of metal, but these are barely even recognizable as Pokemon cards. In fact, they aren’t even gradable with PSA and only sell for around $30 even today.

A common misconception about metal Pokemon cards is how interchangeable their name is with “metal type” Pokemon cards which are a completely different thing. If you aren’t familiar with how Pokemon work, each Pokemon has its own type and this type indicates what other type the Pokemon is strong against and what Pokemon it is weak against. In essence, it’s like a really complicated game of rock paper scissors. As of right now, there are 18 Pokemon types and it just so happens that “steel”  is one of them. But, people often call steel-type Pokemon metal-type Pokemon either because they don’t know or it’s just easier to remember than steel-type. So, when referring to a metal-type Pokemon card they are referring to the typing of the Pokemon, not the actual material which the card is made from. However, the reason this causes so much confusion as some people abbreviate metal-type Pokemon to just metal Pokemon which strays completely from the original name steel-type Pokemon.

If you came here with zero interest in Pokemon cards that are actually made of metal and wanted to hear more about steel-type Pokemon cards, not to worry, we’ve got your back. There aren’t many super memorable steel-type Pokemon apart from maybe Steelix, Magnemite or Magneton which is why they have the lowest population of expensive cards. This is not to suggest that there are no valuable steel-type Pokemon cards as there is one that reigns above all and that is the First Edition Shining Steelix. In a PSA 10, this card is worth around $2000, and even ungraded this card is worth upwards of $250.

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