The Most Expensive Pokémon Card From Every Year

No rarity Charizard. This is the most expensive card from 1996, the year Pokemon was born, but it looks almost identical to this Charizard, which is just a fraction of the price. The very first sheets of Pocket Monsters to ever be printed had the rarity symbol missing. This was quickly corrected by the company, and Charizard got a little star, while Uncommons got a diamond and commons got a circle. This small mistake probably felt like nothing back in 1996, but 30 years later, it's the key way to identify which cards came first. But that's not the only difference. This Japanese text right here should translate to flame Pokémon or fire Pokémon. But on the no rarity copy, it translates to powerful Pokémon, which is Machamp's text. Its height is also 1.5 m, but was adjusted to 1.7 m. Okay, but how expensive are we talking? $641,721. Purchased by Pokémon TMF, a successful businessman who was chosen to remain anonymous. Each year of Pokémon has produced hundreds of unique cards. In this video, we're going to blast through history and learn about the most expensive card from each year. And to keep things educational, I'll explain why that card is so pricey. For 1997, I couldn't decide which card to talk about, so we'll split between the trophy cards and the tops on Charizard. These trophy cards were awarded to the first, second, and third place winners of the Lizardon Mega Battle in late 1997 and some in early9. Lizardon is the Japanese name for Charizard, by the way. The trio together, all PSA8s, recently sold for $794,000 to well, Pokémon TMFD. You can see the cards on his Instagram along with the infamous Cheetos. But we can't ignore the 1997 Topsson Charizard. These are widely known as the first Pokemon cards ever made. And that's why this Charizard sold in 2021 for $481,000. You see, this is what we call a no number Charizard. It's actually very much like the no rarity Charizard. The absence of a number at the top proves that this was among the first ever copies printed. But there's one detail about this card. It's not the first ever Charizard. Far from it, actually. For a long time, people thought Topson was first, and PSA is partially to blame by putting 1995 on their labels. This was later corrected, and their labels now say 1997. This half a million dollar sale was an anomaly. These cards don't sell for nearly as much anymore. This was really the only example of a Thompson card achieving a number like this. This one's easy. It's the Pokemon Illustrator. Some people call it the Pikachu Illustrator. That's fine, too. Uh, yeah. This card needs no introduction. It was awarded for an illustration contest back in the day by Coral Cororo magazine. It's long been said that only 39 copies exist and then that was bumped up to 41 when two more were found. But nowadays, most experts agree that there are more than 41. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever know the true quantity. Depending on condition and grade, this card can easily fetch a million dollars plus at auction. And actually, at the time of making this video, the world's only PSA 10 copy is live for auction right now. Apparently, someone has offered $10 million. So, 1999 is the year that Pokémon finally broke into the West with Wizards of the Coast handling the official distribution into the international market because they already had experience with Magic the Gathering. One of the things Wizards did was slap a first edition stamp onto Pokemon cards, and thus the first edition Charizard was born. A PSA 10 copy can sell for half a million dollars, but again, at the time of this video, that record is being pushed to its limits. This card transcends Pokémon. It's a pop culture icon, and so much more than just Pokemon card collectors are interested in it. You can be into Magic the Gathering, sports, comics, music, and still know about the coveted first edition Charizard. However, it's not the most expensive card from 1999 yet. This is the pre-release Raichu. Only three copies are currently known to exist. Surely, you've seen other pre-release cards from the Wizards era, like Clefable, Aerodactyl, or maybe Misty Cedra. These cards are plentiful, cheap even. But the Raichu isn't supposed to exist as they were printing other pre-release cards, probably Clefable. Some Raichu snuck in on the sheet and got the stamp. For years, this card was just a myth, was just a blurry picture to go off of. But in just the past few years, three copies have been graded. Two have been bought and sold privately, but the PSA graded copy recently sold at auction publicly for $555,000. At the time of this video, this is the most expensive English Pokémon card sold publicly. Some of the old Japanese battle tournaments gave out some pretty cool prize cards. If you placed in the top three, you actually got your photo taken and you'd be put into the card artwork, which is pretty crazy. This set of three was sold for 457 grand. And they have sequential certification numbers, too. By the way, this type of card is a one of one, which means only one copy exists. This was awarded to the second place winner of the 2001 Neo summer battle road tournament, [music] who was evidently this guy, Takahhiro Aada. Now, a handful of these exist from different tournaments, and obviously with different winners on them, but this one was actually graded by CGC, got a 10, and sold for $132,000. You'll notice that many of the sales in this video are graded 10. Well, when you have a special card, getting it graded can act as security. This way, it's authenticated and the condition of the card has been vetted by a third party. This means it sells for a lot more money. Question: If I wanted to collect every Ho card, am I screwed? The following year, the Spring Battle Road Tournament awarded this card to the winner. This is the number one trainer card, and the artwork on this is actually phenomenal. There are a few copies floating around out there, but this one was graded a 10 by PSA, so it sold for almost 100 grand. For 2003, we're skipping the Japanese trophy cards. This is the year of Skyidge Crystal Charizard. This card only recently shot up so high, although it's always been rare. Skyidge was the final set printed by Wizards of the Coast, which also happened to be an unpopular set for collectors and players. Short version, they didn't print very many, so it makes sense that a PSA copy would sell for almost 40 grand. The 2004 Pokemon World Championship Tropical Wind Semifinalist card graded a PSA 10 and sold for $300,000. The very first Pokemon World Championship was in 2004, making this a special card. They printed a new Tropical Wind every year for a while, so that's why this might look familiar. But this one is Gem Mint, another factor why it fetched such a high price. But that's a semi- finalist copy. What about the finalist? Well, a few years ago, it popped up for sale with an asking price of 600 grand, but I can't find any record of it selling, and it's kind of a ghost now. [music] I'm guessing it sold privately or the seller decided to keep it. Ah, yes. Umbreon Gold Star, the Japanese version that is. Fun fact, the English version is a nonhol. If you're like me and you've never seen one in person, then that might surprise you. But anyway, the Japanese version came from Dauki Pokémon Fan Club. Basically, you had to buy into this point system and also place very well in tournaments. The better you did, the more points you earned. But the Umbreon, costing a whopping 70,000 points was nearly impossible to get. Some sources say that a player had to participate in over 190 different events to accumulate that many points. This is a six-f figureure card. Another gold star from 2006. This one, Charizard. Hopefully, this isn't your first time hearing about Gold Stars, but if it is, most of them were available in the EX series of booster packs from [music] the mid 2000s. They're extremely rare, and like Skyidge, just not very many were made. This bad boy came from the EX Dragon Frontier set and sold for $65,000 in a PSA 10. Why? It's shiny Charizard. All right, so the English version of that Umbreon was pretty hard to get as well. It was also a promo through TCG events. This time, Pokemon Organized Play Series 5 packs. Both the Umbreon and Espeon were difficult to pull. And once again, yes, there is a theme here. Not many were made. These can sell for mid5 figures when graded a PSA 10. So, the Diamond and Pearl era of Pokémon was pretty boring. Not in a bad way, but they weren't milking millennials dry yet. What I mean is that we weren't getting a new generation one reprint and and an amazing Charizard, Pikachu, Gengar, every single set. But the final set of Diamond and Pearl was Stormfront, and that's exactly what they did. Ara drew and re-imagined copies of Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard. They're pretty awesome, and this was the first base set Charizard reprint in a long time. A PSA 10 copy can sell for over 20 grand, but a second place trophy card takes the cake with a $43,000 sale in 2021. The Pokémon Scramble Patirisu sold for $92,000. Legend has it that only 100 copies were distributed. It was awarded to the Pokémon Dauki fan club, but you had to play a video game. Beat it. hang around until after the credits to unlock a code that you could enter into a website to gain access to a lottery. Yeah. So, it's pretty rare and having a copy in PSA 10 is pretty crazy. For 2010, we have yet another world championship card. This one is a first place card. So, a number one trainer from the 2008 World Championship, of course. [music] Interestingly, this one sold for $75,000 ungraded in June 2025. 2011 is an odd year due to the championships being cancelled because of the tsunami and earthquake that hit Japan. A few copies of trophy cards did get awarded and a PSA 10 copy of the first place card sold for $19,000. But I also want to mention something else. Call of Legends was an extremely limited print. Pokémon was at another all-time low and people were just not buying cards. The booster box itself is pretty expensive if you can even find one, but the secret rares from the set are extra special. They have their own number system, SL, which stands for shiny legendary. These are extremely rare cards from an extremely rare set, so they make the list. Ho, Lugia, and Rayquaza can sell for five figures. And then there are the legendary beasts, Groudon and Kyogre, Dalga and Palia, and Deoxys. This black and white plasma storm Lugia sold for a whopping $24,600 just recently in a PSA 10. Admittedly, this is a great card. The blue borders really help it feel like a Lugia card, if you know what I mean. But I'm not actually sure why this card went for that much. It could just be Pokemon hype or maybe that it has a total PSA population of only 21. That's pretty cool. The 2013 World Championship number one trainer card sold for 63 grand. Now, if this video doesn't get you off your butt and practicing the TCG, then I don't know what will. It graded a PSA 9 and the 2013 World Championship was actually the first to be held outside of the US in Vancouver, Canada. Yay. In 2014, this trophy card sold for $20,000. [music] This is the XY Festa Victory Battle Gym Mix Victory Ring. It was awarded to the first place winner of the 2014 Battle Fiesta Victory Battle Gym Mix Tournament. Rumor has it that only 10 of these cards were distributed, making them some of the rarest in the hobby. But of course, many trophy cards are similar. And of course, graded at a PSA 10, this copy looks beautiful. All right, so here's a big one. In 2015, there was another illustration contest. This one open to Japan only. It was a dress up Pikachu theme. Artists were asked to dress Pikachu up in a costume of their choice. But that's not all. This was drawn on a Nintendo DS in the Pokémon Art Academy game. Damn, that's impressive. A PSA 10 copy of the Mommy Akimaru Pikachu dressed [music] in an astronaut suit sold for a whopping $148,666. This was one of the most shocking sales of 2025. The Luigi Pikachu in a BGS black label sold at auction for, wait for it, $216,000. Yeah, someone paid almost a quarter of a million dollars for this card. Holy crap. If you watch my channel, you probably already know about these Mario and Luigi cards. These two collection boxes came out in 2016 and kind of blew up. No, they aren't bombs. They exploded. I mean, they got very expensive. Even the card sleeves are pricey. But never before had one gotten a black label from Becket. Black labels are Beckett's highest grade. And yes, it's silly. And yes, it is just a label, but some people go bananas for them. I don't know why. One of the coolest little details about Ishihara GX is that it belongs to its own little one card set, Blackar Promo TPCI01, or maybe [music] a twocard set. Ishihara was a president of the Pokémon Company, and this card was gifted to attendees at his 60th birthday party. We do not know how many were made or distributed. In April 2021, a PSA copy was sold at auction for $241,000. Why? probably because it was signed by the man himself. Every now and then, Pokemon likes to collaborate with a museum. In this case, it was with the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in 2018. You're probably aware of Pikachu with Grreyfelt Hat, being inspired by Van Gogh. Well, these five promos are inspired by Edward Munch's The Scream. If you look closely, each Pokémon becomes a silhouette in the next card's background. Pretty neat. These are all pretty expensive, but a Becket black label sold for 66 grand in August 2025. [music] This one was a Psyduck. For 2019, we have the ultimate waifu card. Time to get serious. This Lily card came from special booster packs distributed at extra battle day events. This is an event to celebrate the new format rotation by honoring the previous rotation for one more day. But they weren't just free to take. Of course, it was a tournament [music] and you had to place well, in which case you got a booster pack, well, a single card booster pack with one of three cards. So, even if you made it to the end and won a pack, Lily was still a one in three chance. More events were announced where more booster packs could be won, maybe easier, but these were cancelled thanks to the pandemic. As a result, we have these very rare cards, and one of them is Lily, who is often chased by some collectors. A PSA 10 copy was sold at auction for just over 100 grand. This is a third place Japanese trophy card for the 2020 Pokémon Championships League event held in Tokyo. Just like with Lily, the pandemic cut this short, resulting in only a few copies being distributed. selling for almost 19 grand. This PSA 10 copy also sold with a matching third place plaque. So 2021 was the 25th anniversary for Pokémon and the hype was off the charts. The creature's 25th anniversary half deck was the biggest release in years. This half deck contained a card from each year with some fun facts and anecdotes on the backside, but very special reprints on the front. The 1996 card was, of course, Charizard. This reprint is actually pretty unique as its colors are a much deeper red and the borders rock a horizontal sheen holo pattern. This copy here sold for just over 56 grand. And yes, it's signed by Arita. For 2022, we have a second place trophy card from the 2022 Champions League tournament. Only 30 copies are said to have been awarded, and Grrookie is on this one. Look, Grrooie. Grrooie is on this one. I like Grooie on this card. A PSA 10 copy sold for just under 14 grand back in 2024. And this one, too, comes with a plaque. Neat. Another second place trophy card dominates with a PSA 7 sale of 40 grand. This is our first trophy card with full art to make the list, and it's a nice vibrant Pikachu holding up a silver trophy. This, of course, was awarded at the 2023 World Championships, which took place in Yokohama, Japan. The third place trophy card from the 2024 Championship sold in a PSA 10 for just over 41 grand at the beginning of 2025. [music] Now, when the winners obtain these cards, they're often sold at the day of the championship privately and in person. It's not as common for them to be graded and auctioned. By the way, this goes for many of the trophy cards in this video. There are a handful made. The championship has multiple age divisions, so multiple trophy cards are awarded. That being said, the numbers often less than 10, so these are still extremely rare. All right, the biggest sale for a card in 2025 is actually a crazy story. This restaurant from White Flare was submitted to Beckett and earned a black label. It is absolutely pristine. But then they decided to crack the slab. What happened next was a collaboration between Dragon Shield and Beckett as the card was sent to space. It didn't stay up there forever. However, the card returned home and was resubmitted to Becket. The big reveal at the end is that Dragon Shield sleeves were good enough to protect the card from space and it graded a pristine 10 black label a second time. Kind of cool, kind of silly, whatever. But the card was then auctioned for charity. the Toy Foundation to be specific and sold for a final price of 57,500. It also got a custom Dragons in Space label, which I'll admit kind of goes hard. I want to remind everyone that this video is based on public sales. There are lots and lots of private Pokémon card sales, and we just don't know how much money is exchanged in those cases. Also, there are cards that have not sold and have never sold, which could potentially break records. So, this video is really meant for entertainment purposes only. Hit that subscribe button just in case I fall out of your algorithm. And thank you for watching.

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