Captain Pikachu is a separate card name from Pikachu, and in the Chinese-only sets that distinction decides where the money is. Eight cards carry the name, and the two most valuable of them are the same art rare — the same character with the same trainer, commissioned once in Gem Pack Vol. 1 and again in Vol. 5.
What separates this list from the Pikachu ranking beside it is the shape at the top. Two cards hold $1,291 of the $1,748 the name is worth, or 74 percent, and nothing below them reaches $130. The other thing that separates it is that the raw market and the graded market disagree about which of the top two comes first.
How this list was built
Three rules, applied in this order.
- The card has to sit in a Chinese-only set. Every card below carries a set code ending in C — CBB1C and CBB5C. That trailing letter marks a Simplified Chinese print run, and it is the dependable way to tell a Chinese-only card from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese. Reading a Chinese set code from end to end covers the whole system.
- The card has to have a tracked PSA 10 value. Eight Captain Pikachu cards exist across these sets and all eight are priced, so nothing is left out on that ground. The five ranked below are the top five; the three that fall outside them appear in the band table further down.
- The card has to be a Pokémon card. Sealed product, trainer cards and energy are out of scope.
One exclusion applies here as it does to every character ranking we publish. Promo printings of this card exist in Chinese and they are not on this list. Promo numbering is shared across the Chinese branches — the same promo number appears in Traditional Chinese product as well — so a promo number on its own cannot establish which branch a card came from. Everything below sits inside a numbered set whose code ends in C, which is unambiguous.
The five, ranked
5. Captain Pikachu [Rotary] #704 — Gem Pack Vol. 1 (CBB1C) — $84
Raw $3.26 · grade 9 $54.99
The rotary pattern in the Vol. 1 group, and the last card in this top five under $100. Its grade 9 record of $54.99 is nearly seventeen times its raw price, the widest gap between raw and grade 9 anywhere in the ranking — on this card the middle grade carries far more of the money than the ungraded copy does. Raw copies become $84 in a PSA 10 holder, a multiple of 25.6.
4. Captain Pikachu [Stamped] #707 — Gem Pack Vol. 1 (CBB1C) — $97
Raw $9.99 · grade 9 $46.92
The stamped foil, and the only card in this top five whose raw price is above five dollars other than the two art rares. At $9.99 raw it is tracked three times higher than the rotary print below it, while its graded value is only 16 percent above — so the two markets are pricing the same pair of cards quite differently.
3. Captain Pikachu [Stars] #703 — Gem Pack Vol. 1 (CBB1C) — $125
Raw $3.48 · grade 9 $15.32
The stars pattern, and the first card here above $100. Raw copies at $3.48 become $125 in a PSA 10 holder — 35.9 times, the widest step in the ranking. It is also the card that divides the group in two: nothing below it reaches $100 and nothing above it sits below $600.
2. Captain Pikachu #107 — Gem Pack Vol. 5 (CBB5C) — $600
Raw $265.00 · grade 9 $281.00
The art rare of Gem Pack Vol. 5, and the same pairing as the card at number one: Captain Pikachu with Friede. The two volumes order them the other way round on raw copies. This one is tracked at $265.00 raw against $227.50 for the Vol. 1 print, a premium of 16 percent, while its graded value sits 13 percent below. Grade 9 lands at $281.00, between the two, so the money on this card is spread across all three bands rather than concentrated in one.
1. Captain Pikachu #709 — Gem Pack Vol. 1 (CBB1C) — $691
Raw $227.50 · grade 9 $260.88
The most valuable card carrying the name, and the ninth number of the Vol. 1 group — the art rare slot, as it is in every Gem Pack group. It holds 39.6 percent of the character on one card. Its step from raw to PSA 10 is 3.0 times, the second narrowest here, because the raw card already carries two thirds of the graded price. We hold this card in PSA 10: the Vol. 1 Captain Pikachu and Friede listing is here.
What the ranking shows
Captain Pikachu is two cards and then a cliff. The art rares take 73.9 percent of the name; nothing else reaches $130, and three of the eight cards sit under $70.
| Band | Cards | Combined PSA 10 value | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 – $1,500 — ranked 1 to 2 | 2 | $1,291 | 73.9% |
| $100 – $250 — ranked 3 | 1 | $125 | 7.2% |
| $70 – $100 — ranked 4 to 5 | 2 | $180 | 10.3% |
| Under $70 — ranked 6 to 8 | 3 | $151 | 8.7% |
| Every priced Captain Pikachu card | 8 | $1,748 | 100% |
Two further patterns run across the whole group.
The two art rares hold 73.9 percent between them, and the other six cards contribute $456. The highest of those six is the stars pattern at $125; the lowest is the Poké Ball foil at $33. That is a $92 spread across six cards, against a $600 gap between the two art rares themselves. If you want the character, you are choosing between two cards and a long, cheap tail.
Vol. 1 prints seven of the eight cards, but Vol. 5 supplies a third of the value from one. Vol. 1 contributes $1,148 across seven cards; Vol. 5 contributes $600 from a single art rare. Per card that is $164 against $600. The volume-by-volume guide sets out how the Gem Pack groups are built.
Where Captain Pikachu is printed
| Product | Set code | Captain Pikachu cards |
|---|---|---|
| Gem Pack Vol. 1 | CBB1C | 7 |
| Gem Pack Vol. 5 | CBB5C | 1 |
| Total | 8 |
Both are Gem Pack groups, and in both of them this card is a single slot inside a wider Pikachu group rather than a group of its own. Vol. 1 runs nine numbers, #701 to #709, and seven of them are filed under Captain Pikachu; the two in the middle — #706 in the shiny treatment and #708 in the full-art treatment — are filed under the main Pikachu listing. Vol. 5 runs seven numbers, #101 to #107, and only the last of them carries this name. In both volumes the number Captain Pikachu occupies is the highest in its group, which is the art rare slot.
That is worth knowing before comparing this page with the Pikachu cards in the same sets, because the Vol. 1 group is where the two overlap. Captain Pikachu is a distinct name in the checklist: it is the Horizons design, the Pikachu that travels with Friede, and it has been given a commissioned art rare twice over. A collector chasing Pikachu and a collector chasing this specific card are looking at overlapping sets rather than identical ones. Captain Pikachu is also the clearest case in the language of a card built around a trainer rather than a species, and collecting with a theme covers that angle in more depth.
Gem Pack Vol. 1 is also the only volume in this series whose groups run nine numbers deep. The later volumes stop at seven. Vol. 1 adds a shiny foil and a full-art print to each group, which is why seven Captain Pikachu cards come from a single volume’s worth of printing.
If you want one card
- One card, no budget limit: the Vol. 1 art rare at #709, at $691. It is the highest tracked card carrying this name, and two thirds of that price sits in the raw card rather than in a holder. The Vol. 1 listing is here.
- The second art rare at #107, at $600: the cheaper of the two by 13 percent graded, though raw copies of it are tracked 16 percent higher than the Vol. 1 print. The Vol. 5 listing is here.
- The name without the art-rare price: the stamped foil at #707, the highest of the six ordinary prints at $97, with a raw price of $9.99 behind it.
- The widest grading step: the stars pattern at #703, at $125, where raw copies at $3.48 multiply 35.9 times into a PSA 10 holder.
Frequently asked questions
How many Captain Pikachu cards are there in Simplified Chinese?
Eight, all of them inside Gem Pack groups. Seven come from Gem Pack Vol. 1, in a nine-number group that runs #701 to #709, and one comes from Gem Pack Vol. 5, where the group runs #101 to #107. Every one of the eight carries a tracked PSA 10 value.
What is the most valuable Captain Pikachu card in Simplified Chinese?
The art rare of Gem Pack Vol. 1 at #709, tracked at $691 as a PSA 10 and $227.50 raw. It is the only card carrying the name above $600. The art rare of Gem Pack Vol. 5 at #107 is second at $600, and the two are the same artwork pairing printed five volumes apart.
Is Captain Pikachu the same as Pikachu in the card lists?
No. The two are separate names in the Chinese checklists, and PriceCharting keeps them as separate listings. The Vol. 1 group shows how they interleave: the group runs #701 to #709, seven of those numbers sit under Captain Pikachu and two — the shiny foil at #706 and the full-art print at #708 — sit under Pikachu. In Vol. 5 the Pikachu group runs #101 to #107 and only #107 carries the captain name.
Is a PSA 10 worth the premium over a raw card?
On the lower half of this list, clearly yes: the stars pattern at #703 starts raw at $3.48 and trades for $125 graded, a multiple of 35.9, and the rotary print at #704 multiplies 25.6 times. At the top it narrows sharply — the two art rares multiply 3.0 and 2.3 times, because both already carry raw prices above $225. Grading outcomes are never certain, and nothing here is a prediction about what any individual card will grade at.
How does Captain Pikachu compare with the other characters ranked here?
The $1,748 combined total sits just above Charizard at $1,678, from eight cards against Charizard’s sixteen — and behind Gengar at $2,724, Umbreon at $5,382 and Sylveon at $3,284. What sets it apart is concentration: no other character here is carried this hard by two cards of the same artwork.
Other character rankings
Each character ranked here has its own page: Pikachu, Charizard, Psyduck, Gengar, Ceruledge, Floragato, and the nine forms of the Eevee family — Eevee, Umbreon, Sylveon, Espeon, Leafeon, Glaceon, Jolteon, Vaporeon and Flareon. For the whole market rather than one character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, and the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- PriceCharting — Pokémon Chinese console listings, including Gem Pack Vol. 1 (CBB1C) and Gem Pack Vol. 5 (CBB5C). PSA 10 values retrieved 25 September 2026.
- PriceCharting — individual card pages for Captain Pikachu #709 and #701, [Pokeball] #702, [Stars] #703, [Rotary] #704, [Masterball] #705, [Stamped] #707 (Gem Pack Vol. 1); Captain Pikachu #107 (Gem Pack Vol. 5).
- CardSpicy — Gem Pack Vol. 1 to 6: what is in each volume, on group structure and treatment counts.
- CardSpicy — How to read a Simplified Chinese Pokémon set code, on the trailing C and the secret-rare numbering convention.
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.