Charizard is missing from the two products that hold most of the money in Simplified Chinese. It is not in Gem Pack, and it is not one of the commissioned Collect 151 art rares. What is left is eighteen cards across four earlier subsets and one main set — and the highest of them is $495.
That is the opposite of how Charizard behaves everywhere else. This is the card the wider hobby reaches for when it wants to talk about what a Pokémon card can be worth, and in the Chinese-only sets it sits roughly a sixth of the way up the ladder that Pikachu occupies, where the top card is tracked at $3,187. The gap is not a market failure and it is not a shortage of buyers. It is a consequence of what the Chinese line chose to commission, and it is worth understanding before you buy any Charizard in this language.
How this list was built
The same three rules used across this series, applied to Charizard.
- Chinese-only sets only. Every card below carries a set code ending in C — 151C, cs5aC, csm2cC, csv5C. That trailing letter is the marker of a Simplified Chinese print run. How to read a Chinese set code explains the whole system.
- A PSA 10 value has to exist. Eighteen Charizard cards are printed across these sets. Sixteen of them have a tracked PSA 10 price; the two that do not are too recent for graded copies to have changed hands.
- Ranked by PSA 10 value, not by raw price. Where the two disagree, the graded number decides, because that is the copy most buyers in this market are actually holding.
Chinese promos sit outside this list for the same reason they sit outside every ranking in this series: promo numbering is shared between the Chinese branches, so a promo number on its own does not establish which branch a card came from.
The ten, ranked
10. Charizard GX — csm2cC #5 — $75
Raw $6.99 · grade 9 $34.99
The one card on this list where the raw price and the grade 9 price are far enough apart to be the whole story: seven dollars loose, thirty-five dollars in a grade 9 holder, seventy-five in a PSA 10.
9. Charizard ex — Collect 151 (151C) #175 — $87
Raw $10.99 · grade 9 $23.99
Collect 151 is the series that carries the four commissioned Pikachu art rares, and Charizard appears in it as a numbered card rather than as a chase. That contrast is the reason this list looks the way it does: the same product that produced a $3,187 Pikachu produced an $87 Charizard.
8. Charizard ex — csv5C #162 — $87
Raw $27.32 · grade 9 $36.00
Dark Crystal Blaze is the Chinese main set behind csv5C, and it prints four separate Charizard cards — more than any other single product on this list. #162 is the second of them.
7. Charizard VSTAR — cs5aC #5 — $123
Raw $6.99 · grade 9 $7.50
Almost nothing separates raw from grade 9 on this card, at $6.99 and $7.50, yet a PSA 10 is tracked at $122.50. Where the two lower bands sit level and the top band does not, the money is entirely in the top grade.
6. Charizard — cs5aC #3 — $129
Raw $7.99 · grade 9 $36.00
The plainest Charizard on this list by name and one of the highest by price. A raw copy is an eight dollar card; a PSA 10 is $129.
5. Reshiram & Charizard GX — csm2cC #153 — $137
Raw $28.16 · grade 9 $32.50
The lower of the two tag team Charizards, and the fifth most valuable Charizard card in Simplified Chinese. It is also the least expensive route to a Charizard and a legendary on one card in this language.
4. Reshiram & Charizard GX — csm2cC #183 — $161
Raw $45.31 · grade 9 $57.99
The higher of the two tag team printings, and the only card in the top five that pairs Charizard with a second headline Pokémon. #183 sits above #153 by about seventeen percent on PSA 10 value.
3. Charizard V — cs5aC #132 — $182
Raw $85.65 · grade 9 $85.72
The second of three Charizard V cards inside cs5aC. Raw and grade 9 are tracked within seven cents of each other here, which is the thinnest gap of any card on this list, and the PSA 10 sits more than double both.
2. Charizard ex — csv5C #155 — $222
Raw $100 · grade 9 $81.80
The one card here where the grade 9 value sits below the raw price — $81.80 against $100. Raw and grade 9 records for the same card can cross like this when one band has few sales behind it. It does not change the top of the card: a PSA 10 is tracked at $222.
1. Charizard V — cs5aC #152 — $495
Raw $55.75 · grade 9 $202.87
The most valuable Charizard in the Chinese-only sets by a wide margin, and the only one of the eighteen to clear $250. It is a Charizard V from cs5aC, and the multiple between a raw copy and a PSA 10 is close to nine to one — the widest on this list. It holds 24.3% of the value of every priced Charizard card in these sets on its own.
What the ranking shows
Charizard is a mid-tier character in this language, and the distribution is correspondingly flat. Take the top card out and the remaining fifteen priced cards average under $103.
| Band | Cards | Combined PSA 10 value | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $100 | 9 | $586 | 28.8% |
| $100 – $250 | 6 | $953 | 46.9% |
| $250 and above | 1 | $495 | 24.3% |
| Every priced Charizard card | 16 | $2,035 | 100% |
Two numbers are worth holding next to each other. The four cards at the top of this list hold 52.1% of the value — and all four of them together are worth less than the single most valuable Pikachu in the same sets. Charizard is not scarce in Simplified Chinese; it is simply not where the line put its commissions.
The grading premium behaves differently here than it does for Pikachu. The median raw-to-PSA-10 multiple across these sixteen cards is 6.6, against 8.6 for Pikachu, and the median grade-9-to-PSA-10 multiple is 2.78 against Pikachu’s 2.75. The lower raw multiple is a sign of a card whose raw copies are already in demand relative to the graded ones.
Where Charizard is printed
| Product | Set code | Charizard cards |
|---|---|---|
| cs5aC subset | cs5aC | 6 |
| csm2cC subset | csm2cC | 6 |
| Dark Crystal Blaze | csv5C | 4 |
| Collect 151 | 151C | 2 |
| Total | 18 |
All four products come from the main-set side of the Chinese line: cs5aC, csm2cC, csv5C and the Collect 151 checklist. None of them is a product built around a Charizard, which is the whole explanation for the price ceiling on this list. Gem Pack — the all-foil mini-set family that carries sixteen of the thirty-five Pikachu cards in these sets — prints no Charizard at all.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a valuable Charizard in Simplified Chinese?
There is no four-figure one. The highest tracked PSA 10 value for a Charizard in a Chinese-only set is $495, for the Charizard V at cs5aC #152. Sixteen of the eighteen Charizard cards in these sets are priced, and nine of them sit under $100.
Why is Charizard less expensive in Simplified Chinese than in other languages?
Because it is absent from the products where the Chinese line concentrated its commissioned artwork. The four Collect 151 Pikachu art rares and the Gem Pack groups are where the top of this market sits, and Charizard appears in neither as a chase card. Its Chinese printings come through the earlier subsets and the main sets, which are priced as set cards rather than as commissions.
How many Charizard cards are there in the Chinese-only sets?
Eighteen, across four products: six in cs5aC, six in csm2cC, four in Dark Crystal Blaze (csv5C) and two in Collect 151. Sixteen of the eighteen have a tracked PSA 10 value.
Which is the most frequently printed Charizard in Chinese?
cs5aC and csm2cC tie at six cards each. cs5aC contributes three separate Charizard V printings, and csm2cC carries the two Reshiram and Charizard tag team cards alongside a Charizard GX.
How do I read the code on a Chinese Charizard card?
The same way as any other Chinese card. The prefix tells you the product, the number tells you the slot, and the trailing C tells you it is a Simplified Chinese print run. The full breakdown is here. If the fraction after the number looks wrong — a numerator larger than the denominator — that is the secret-rare convention rather than an error.
Other cards in the family
This is the second character guide in the series. Pikachu carries the top of the market; the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon rather than within one; and the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands if you would rather see the whole spread at once. For why the Chinese branch exists at all, start here.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- PriceCharting — Pokémon Chinese console listings, including 151 Collect, cs5aC, csm2cC, csv5C and the wider Chinese promo and main-set listings. PSA 10 values retrieved 24 September 2026.
- PriceCharting — individual card pages for Charizard V #152, #131, #132, Charizard VSTAR #5, Charizard #3, #4, Charizard ex #175 (151 Collect), Charizard ex #145, #155, #162, #75 (csv5C) and Reshiram & Charizard GX #1, #153, #183 (csm2cC).
- CardSpicy — How to read a Simplified Chinese Pokémon set code, on the trailing C and the secret-rare numbering convention.
- CardSpicy — Collect 151 in Simplified Chinese: the four Pikachu art rares, on what the series commissioned and what it did not.
- CardSpicy — Gem Pack Vol. 1 to 6: what is in each volume, on the product family that carries no Charizard.
Prices quoted are secondary-market observations at the dates cited and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.