The rarest Pokémon cards

“Rarest” can mean three different things, and this page keeps them apart. First, how many copies were made or given out: prize, trophy, contest and staff cards whose distribution is documented, ranked by the number of copies a source states. Second, how many have been graded: population counts for cards that came in packs, each with the date it was read. Third, how often a card comes out of a pack today, from opening studies. A card is listed only where a page we opened states the basis. The copy counts are claims made by graders, auction houses and collectors, not figures published by The Pokémon Company unless the text says so. This is a reference, not buying or investment advice.

What is the rarest Pokémon card?

By stated copies, the smallest numbers belong to cards that were never sold. CGC, citing The Pokémon Company, says one copy each exists of the Post Malone V, Katy Perry V and J Balvin V cards, made as gifts for the three artists for Pokémon's 25th anniversary in 2021. Among cards that have changed hands, the Blastoise Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Hologram is one of two presentation cards Wizards of the Coast commissioned from Cartamundi in 1998, which helped convince Nintendo to approve English-language cards; one sold at Heritage for $360,000 in January 2021. The best-known rare card, the Pikachu Illustrator, is not the scarcest: 39 copies were handed out as contest prizes.

Rarest by stated copies: prize, trophy and contest cards

Ranked by the number of copies a source states, fewest first. Most are Japanese promos given to tournament winners or contest entrants. Where the source hedges with “supposedly”, “about” or “at least”, the table keeps the hedge, and where two sources disagree it says so below the table.

1. Post Malone V, Katy Perry V and J Balvin V (2021): 1 of each
2. Blastoise Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Hologram (1998): 2
3. No. 2 Trainer, World Championships promo (2006): 3
4. No. 1 Trainer, Super Secret Battle (1999): 9 (also given as 3)
5. No. 3 Trainer, Tropical Mega Battle (1999): 9
6. Kangaskhan #115, Parent/Child Mega Battle (1998): about 10
7. Prerelease Raichu, Base Set (1999): 11 reported, 2 authenticated by CGC
8. Trophy Pikachu No. 1 to 3, gold, silver and bronze (1998): about 15 in all
9. Victory Orb (Mew), Battle Road (2005-06): at least 21
10. Ishihara GX, 60th birthday staff promo (2017): 30 to 60 known
11. Master's Key, World Championships promo (2010): 36
12. Pikachu Illustrator, CoroCoro contest promo (1998): 39 given out
13. Tropical Wind, Challenge Road promo (1999): 74
14. Each of the 10 Art Academy cards (2015): 100
15. No. 1 to 3 Trainer, Neo Spring and Summer Battle Roads (2002): at least 109

Where the sources disagree

• Pikachu Illustrator. Heritage's lot description says the first 1998 contest awarded 23 copies and the next two 8 each, 39 in all. CGC also gives 39 winners but says 41 verified copies exist, without explaining the gap.
• Super Secret Battle No. 1 Trainer. CGC's list says nine copies, one per tournament, in one place and three in circulation in another.
• Prerelease Raichu. A Wizards of the Coast representative reportedly said only 11 exist. CGC says it cannot prove that; when it announced the cards on November 1, 2023 it had authenticated two, graded CGC 5.5 and CGC 8. CGC believes the green PRERELEASE stamp was applied to Raichus by mistake during a test run and that former Wizards employees kept the cards as keepsakes.
• Trophy Pikachu. CGC places the 15 trophy cards at the 1998 Lizardon Mega Battle. Star City Games says trophy cards were printed for Japan's first tournament in 1997 and for the 1998 Mega Battle events, and that the record bronze copy came from a Kamex Mega Battle. PSA has graded five Bronze 3rd Place copies: one PSA 10, and the next best a PSA 8.

Only one card in the table is in the Pokémon TCG API, and only in its regular form. The Japanese prize and contest cards are not in the API, so they have no image here.

• Raichu#14/102 · Rare HoloThe regular print. The rare Prerelease version has a green PRERELEASE stamp in the lower right of the art box, which this image does not show.

How many have been graded: population counts

A population report counts graded copies only. It is a floor, not a print run: copies never sent to a grader are missing, and the count grows as more are graded. Two of the prize cards above have published counts. The Pikachu Illustrator that Heritage offered in its September 18–19, 2026 auction was described as one of 15 copies PSA had certified at Mint 9, with only 1 graded higher. The Daisuke Ochiai Art Academy Mudkip that Fanatics Collect sold on September 25, 2026 showed a PSA 10 population of 2, and its lot page said only two copies had been submitted for grading.

Gold Star cards in grade 10

Gold Star (★) cards were the top pulls of the EX era. The Pokémon TCG API lists 25 cards with its Rare Holo Star rarity, in nine English sets released from November 2004 (Team Rocket Returns) to February 2007 (Power Keepers); it labels Espeon ★ and Umbreon ★ from POP Series 5 (March 2007) simply Rare. The table ranks ten of them by how many copies are graded 10, using PriceCharting's population pages, which combine PSA and CGC counts and are updated monthly. All counts read October 26, 2026.

For comparison, PriceCharting's page for the 1st Edition Base Set Charizard #4 showed 161 copies graded 10 (123 PSA, 38 CGC) out of 5,980 graded. The Torchic ★ has about one-eighth as many grade-10 copies, from a little over a fifth as many graded. The POP Series 5 stars have the smallest graded totals, under 800 each, but a higher share of 10s. On the Torchic ★ and Mudkip ★ pages the CGC column is empty, so those counts are PSA only. To work out gem rates from counts like these, see how to read a PSA pop report.

• Torchic ★#108/109 · Rare Holo StarTeam Rocket Returns · 19 graded 10 of 1,328
• Latias ★#105/107 · Rare Holo StarDeoxys · 22 graded 10 of 1,296
• Latios ★#106/107 · Rare Holo StarDeoxys · 28 graded 10 of 1,229
• Mudkip ★#107/109 · Rare Holo StarTeam Rocket Returns · 42 graded 10 of 1,252
• Rayquaza ★#107/107 · Rare Holo StarDeoxys · 47 graded 10 of 1,710
• Umbreon ★#17/17 · RarePOP Series 5 · 53 graded 10 of 796
• Charizard ★ δ#100/101 · Rare Holo StarDragon Frontiers · 98 graded 10 of 4,543

The rarest cards you can pull from a pack today

For cards still sold in packs, rarity is a pull rate. The Pokémon Company does not publish pull rates, so the figures are estimates from opening studies. TCGplayer's preliminary study of more than 5,000 Mega Evolution packs, as reported by Wargamer on October 2, 2025, found a Mega Hyper Rare in about 1 in 1,260 packs, against 1 in 149 packs for a Hyper Rare in Destined Rivals in TCGplayer's tests. Mega Evolution has two Mega Hyper Rares, Mega Gardevoir ex #187 and Mega Lucario ex #188, so if both turn up equally often a specific one comes about once in 2,520 packs. The full rarity breakdown is on the Mega Evolution set page.

• Mega Gardevoir ex#187/132 · Mega Hyper Rare
• Mega Lucario ex#188/132 · Mega Hyper Rare

Questions collectors ask

Is a gold card the rarest Pokémon card?

Not as a rule. “Gold” covers several kinds of card: the EX-era Gold Star cards above; gold hyper rares such as the Mega Hyper Rares, which are the rarest pull in their own set; and the 2016 20th-anniversary Gold Pikachu, which CGC says was made of 24-karat gold with the jeweler Ginza Tanaka and sold by lottery for 216,000 yen. Each is rare in a different sense, and none has a stated copy count, which is why none appears in the first table.

Is there a list of the top 100 rarest Pokémon cards?

Not one that can be checked. Copy counts are documented for a few dozen prize and promo cards, and population counts change every month, so a 100-card ranking would have to mix bases or guess. This page ranks within one basis at a time.

What makes a Pokémon card rare?

The rarity printed on a card places it within its set, not among all cards. The Pokémon TCG API lists Base Set Raichu as Rare Holo, yet the stamped Prerelease version is known in a handful of copies. How a card was given out, which stamp or edition it carries, and how many copies survive in top condition matter more than the symbol.

Is the rarest card also the most expensive?

Not necessarily. CGC's list notes Logan Paul's reported $5,275,000 deal for a Pikachu Illustrator, a card given out 39 times, against the $360,000 paid for the Blastoise presentation card, of which two were made; the one-of-one celebrity cards have no recorded sale. For ranked public sales, see the most expensive Pokémon cards.

Checklist before you believe a “rare” claim

• ☐ The basis is named: copies made or given out, copies graded, or a pull rate.
• ☐ You know who makes the claim and when; lot descriptions and collector lists are claims, not print records.
• ☐ The version matches exactly: stamp, edition and language. A Prerelease Raichu and a regular Base Set Raichu are different cards.
• ☐ A population count has a date and names its graders; PriceCharting's pages combine PSA and CGC.
• ☐ A pull rate gives its sample size and is labelled an estimate.
• ☐ A slab's cert number checks out (see verify a cert number), and the holder passes the checks in how to spot fake slabs.