Over the past decade or so, the value ofPokemoncards has gone through the roof. Cards that originally cost mere dollars to pick up are now worth tens, or in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars. The record for the most expensivePokemoncard ever sold has been broken numerous times over the last four years alone and has more than tripled during that time. It’s gotten to the point where many of these cards are worth more than most peoples' homes.
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What makes this all so staggering is that a lot of the rarest andmost valuable Pokemon cardstoday were once fairly common and were owned by children all over the world. Perhaps had they known then what we know now, they might just have taken better care of them rather than shoving them in their pockets and, heaven forbid, actually using them to play the Pokemon Trading Card game. Readers would be wise to go and check their attics after finishing this list, as they might just be sitting on a goldmine.
Updated June 29, 2025 by Tom Bowen:Though many NFTs and cryptocurrencies are beginning to lose their value, the Pokemon TCG bubble remains largely intact. In the past few months alone, millions of dollars worth of Pokemon cards have changed hands, with one particularly rare card smashing through the million-dollar mark in July of 2022. The potential for big gains continues to attract investors from all over the world, but knowing which cards to buy isn’t always easy. This list ofthe most expensive Pokemon cardsto have ever sold at auction should give a pretty good indication of what to look for though, and so is definitely a great place for would-be collectors to start.
30No Rarity Poliwrath ($25,015)
Though not a particularly rare card in and of itself, a Japanese copy of base set Poliwrath sold at auction for more than $25,000 in late 2020. This wasn’t just any Poliwrath, however, but insteadone of only three GEM-MT 10 copiesof the “No Rarity” variant that resulted from a printing error that occurred during the TCG’s infancy.
The error led to copies of all of the Japanese base set cards being printed without a rarity symbol in the bottom right-hand corner. The error was fixed pretty quickly, but not before thousands of packs of the affected cards made their way into circulation. As a result, affected cards are highly sought after and regularly sell for inflated prices.
29Wonder Platinum Trophy ($25,100)
The Wonder Platinum trophy card was handed out to the top competitors at the Japanese National Championship back in 2009 and features a Giratina with a platinum pendant as its artwork. Estimates suggest that there are only 36 copies of the card in existence, butonly eight of them have been graded by the PSAand just six have received a perfect rating.
In November 2020, a copy of the card was able to bring in a little over $25,000 at auction, although it hadn’t actually been graded by the PSA. The card was instead assessed by Beckett and received an impressive 9.5 rating. There is actually a perfect ten copy listed on eBay for $200,000 at the time of writing, although despite there being 90 people watching the listing, none seem willing to bite at that price.
28World Championship Master’s Key ($26,900)
A copy of the Master’s Key cardsold for more than $25,000 in August of 2020. Unlike most cards sold at auction, this one wasn’t graded by the PSA and was instead appraised by Beckett. Whether or not a copy still sealed in the original trophy case would have fetched more remains to be seen, though, given the card’s value, it’s perhaps a little surprising that the seller opted to open it up.
The Master’s Key was originally handed out to contestants at the 2010 Pokemon World Championships. The event took place in Hawaii and was contested by just 36 players. As a result, the card is incredibly rare, withonly nine GEM-MT 10 copies- the highest grade that can be handed out by the PSA - in existence.
27Skyridge Charizard ($28,100)
It’s often said that nothing can be certain in this world aside from death and taxes, but there’s a strong argument to be made that the value of Charizard cards skyrocketing also deserves a place on that list. The Skyridge variant is just one of the Pokemon’s many cards to have sold for ridiculous amounts, with one Skyridge Charizardfetching more than $28,000 at auctionin November 2020.
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The card in question had been given the PSA’s highest possible rating, making it one of194 copies of Skyridge Charizard to have received a perfect 10. Many of the others have also changed hands for figures in excess of $20,000 over the past year or so, although the price seems to be leveling out for the moment. It’s still not a bad card to have, though.
Given that it was handed out to the top three competitors from each age division during Japan’s 2007 Battle Road Summer and 2008 Battle Road Spring tournaments, one would be forgiven for thinking that there are a lot of copies of Miracle Diamond floating around. That’s not actually the case though, with estimates pinning the actual number at around 90. More than 14 years after it was first handed out, one of thesesold for an impressive $32,000in late 2021.
Of those which were handed out,only ten have been graded by the PSA, with just six of them achieving the coveted PSA GEM-MT 10 rating. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the current recorder holder is one such card, with the other four likely to sell for considerably less than the 32 grand it raised in the event that they ever go to auction.
It’s not too often that a card graded below a 9 sells for more than a few thousand dollars, but that’s exactly what happened with one copy of the No.2 Trainer Battle Road Summer promo in March of 2021. The card in question, which had actually been mislabeled by Beckett, received just a 7.5 rating, though stillsold for an impressive $34,100.
The card was given out to winners of the Kanto Summer Battle Road tournament in 2002 and came in male and female variants. Not many of them have made their way west in the two decades since then, withonly two of them ever being graded by the PSA. One did receive the elusive GEM-MT 10 rating, however, so may well end up selling for considerably more if it ever goes to auction.
24Master’s Scroll ($35,200)
In early 2021, a GEM-MT 10 copy of the Japanese Master’s Scroll card wassold on eBay for more than $35,000. It’s a card that was never available in packs nor was it ever made available outside of Japan. The only way to obtain it was through the Pokemon Daisuki Club in 2010.
The Pokemon Daisuki Club is the official Japanese Pokemon fan club and regularly offers limited edition cards. Members are able to accrue Action Points by completing certain tasks and can then trade them in for such cards. It’s unknown exactly how many members were able to accrue the 8,600 points needed to obtain the Master’s Scroll card, but there areonly 26 GEM-MT 10 copies in existence, making it incredibly rare.
231st Edition Shadowless Chansey ($36,877)
The popularity of the base set is one of the driving forces behind the skyrocketing prices of Pokemon cards. It may be Charizard leading the charge, but plenty of other holographic cards from the west’s very first set have sold for staggeringly high prices over the last year or so; including this GEM-MT 10 Shadowless Chansey.
It wasauctioned off by PWCC towards the end of 2020and sold for more than $35,000. This makes it the most expensive Chansey sold to date and is great news for anybody else currently sitting on a mint-condition copy of the card. According to the PSA webpage, there areat least 47 of them out there.
221st Edition Shadowless Blastoise ($45,100)
It might not be quite as popular as Charizard, but Blastoise comfortably beats out the likes of Venasaur and Chansey for the second spot when it comes to valuable base set cards. A mint condition copy of the card was sold for a little over $45,000 just last November, once again througha PWCC eBay auction.
It’sone of 100 copies of the cardto have been given the GEM-MT 10 rating by the PSA making it one of the more common base set holographic cards in perfect condition. As with Charizard though, the relatively high population doesn’t seem to have impacted its value all too much; most probably because so many of them are already in the hands of collectors.
21Gold Star Rayquaza ($45,100)
Compared to some of the other high-value Pokemon cards, Gold Star Rayquaza is a fairly recent addition to the TCG. It was first printed in 2005 as part of the EX Deoxys set and is one of seven different Rayquaza variants to feature in it. Surprisingly, it is far from the rarest of those seven, although remains the most desirable due largely to its gold star.
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According to the PSA website, there are46 GEM-MT 10 copies of the card in circulation, with more than 440 copies having been graded in total over the last 15 years. As one might expect, it was one of those mint condition cards that set the record price for a Rayquaza card,selling for a little over $45,000 in December of 2020.
