The Ten Ampharos Cards Worth Owning

By CardSpicy Founder · September 30, 2026

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Ampharos cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Ampharos [1st Edition] leads at $25,000 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices.

Ampharos appears on 1 Chinese-exclusive printings, 1 further Simplified Chinese printings, 46 Japanese, 1 Korean and 56 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Ampharos carries an English line wide enough that the top of it is decided by vintage printings rather than modern ones. The head of the list is Ampharos ex [1st Edition] #25 (Rulers of the Heavens) at $2,075. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the most-traded line comes first, and only the numbers change.

How this list was built

Four rules, applied in this order.

• The card has to be a numbered Pokémon card. Sealed product, trainer cards and energy are out of scope across every line on this page.
• The card has to carry a tracked market value. Cards with no graded sold record yet are named at the end of each language section rather than ranked, because there is nothing to rank them on.
• Prices are PSA 10 market values, and how each one was arrived at is marked. Every figure comes from PriceCharting. Where a PSA 10 copy has actually sold in the last six months, that figure is the median of those sales and the card’s position rests on real trades. Where it has not, the top-grade number is a model output: those cards are marked ‡, or † if the model figure ran so far past what the card’s own lower grades support that the ranking caps it. The raw and grade 9 prices are printed under every card so the traded level is always visible.

The Japanese list

Japanese is the original language of the TCG, so this list reaches further back than either of the other two — into the 1996 promos, the Gold Star era and the modern art rares alike.

10. Dark Ampharos — Rocket Gang Strikes Back #39 — $660

9. Ampharos — Awakening Legends #181 — $750

8. Mega Ampharos EX — Bandit Ring #86 — $837

7. Ampharos — HeartGold Collection #34 — $1,017

6. Ampharos [1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #115 — $1,116

5. Ampharos — Wind from the Sea #49 — $1,249

4. Ampharos [1st Edition] — Wind from the Sea #49 — $1,326

3. Ampharos ex — Rulers of the Heavens #25 — $1,715

2. Ampharos [Reverse Holofoil] — HeartGold Collection #34 — $1,850

1. Ampharos ex [1st Edition] — Rulers of the Heavens #25 — $2,075

Ranks 11 and beyond

These carry a tracked value but sit outside the ten above. They are listed rather than written up, because at this level the numbers are close enough that a paragraph each would repeat itself.

• Ampharos [1st Edition] — Golden Sky, Silvery Ocean #37 — $650
• Lance’s Ampharos — VS #101 — $627
• Mega Ampharos EX [1st Edition] — Bandit Ring #86 — $555
• Jasmine’s Ampharos — VS #31 — $521
• Dark Ampharos — Darkness and to Light #181 — $473
• Ampharos — Promo #269/XY-P — $405
• Ampharos — Gold, Silver, New World #181 — $388
• Dark Ampharos [1st Edition] — Rocket Gang Strikes Back #39 — $385
• Ampharos EX — Bandit Ring #85 — $320
• Ampharos — Offense and Defense (PCG7) #51 — $320
• Ampharos — Promo #134/BW-P — $270
• Ampharos EX [1st Edition] — Bandit Ring #85 — $245
• Ampharos — Expedition Expansion Pack #115 — $215
• Ampharos — Dragon Blast #21 — $212
• Ampharos [1st Edition] — Wind from the Sea #48 — $200
• Ampharos [1st Edition] — Cruel Traitor #19 — $179
• Ampharos — Cruel Traitor #19 — $175
• Ampharos [1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #83 — $175
• Ampharos — Golden Sky, Silvery Ocean #37 — $159
• Ampharos [1st Edition] — Dragon Blast #21 — $156
• Ampharos — HeartGold Collection #33 — $150
• Ampharos GX — Dark Order #59 — $138
• Ampharos — Wind from the Sea #48 — $132
• Ampharos Spirit Link [1st Edition] — Bandit Ring #74 — $130
• Mega Ampharos EX — Bandit Ring #28 — $106
• Ampharos GX — Dark Order #53 — $101
• Mega Ampharos EX [1st Edition] — Bandit Ring #28 — $90
• Ampharos EX [1st Edition] — Bandit Ring #27 — $67
• Ampharos EX — Bandit Ring #27 — $62
• Ampharos V — Legendary Heartbeat #14 — $59

And 8 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

The English list

English is the widest printing line of the six, which is why its top ten is the most expensive and the most contested.

10. Ampharos — Secret Wonders #1 — $2,025

9. Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #2 — $2,106

8. Dark Ampharos — Neo Destiny #1 — $2,500

7. Ampharos [1st Edition] — Neo Genesis #1 — $2,537

6. Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Platinum #1 — $2,672†

5. Ampharos EX — Dragon #89 — $4,386

4. Dark Ampharos [1st Edition] — Neo Destiny #1 — $4,690

3. Dark Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Team Rocket Returns #2 — $7,000

2. Ampharos — Expedition #2 — $20,348†

1. Ampharos [1st Edition] — Neo Revelation #1 — $25,000

Ranks 11 and beyond

These carry a tracked value but sit outside the ten above. They are listed rather than written up, because at this level the numbers are close enough that a paragraph each would repeat itself.

• Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #34 — $2,000
• Ampharos — Unseen Forces #1 — $1,942
• Dark Ampharos — Team Rocket Returns #2 — $1,752
• Ampharos EX — Ancient Origins #87 — $1,732
• Ampharos [Holo] — POP Series 7 #1 — $1,718
• Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Dragon Frontiers #1 — $1,594
• Ampharos — Dragon Frontiers #1 — $1,493
• Ampharos — Neo Revelation #1 — $1,455
• Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Call of Legends #23 — $1,272
• Ampharos — Neo Genesis #1 — $1,000
• M Ampharos EX — Ancient Origins #88 — $875
• Ampharos — POP Series 7 #1 — $665
• Ampharos — Promo #75 — $590
• Ampharos — Steam Siege #40 — $455
• Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Unseen Forces #1 — $450
• Ampharos — Platinum #1 — $441
• Ampharos — Dragons Exalted #40 — $354
• Ampharos — Expedition #34 — $310
• Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Secret Wonders #1 — $271
• Ampharos GX — Team Up #185 — $271
• Ampharos — Aquapolis #1 — $260
• Ampharos — Call of Legends #23 — $251
• Ampharos GX — Team Up #163 — $247
• Ampharos EX — Ancient Origins #27 — $234
• Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Aquapolis #1 — $216
• Ampharos Spirit Link [Reverse Holo] — Ancient Origins #70 — $175
• Ampharos ex — Promo #16 — $160
• M Ampharos EX — Ancient Origins #28 — $154
• Ampharos [Reverse Holo] — Dragons Exalted #40 — $114
• Ampharos Spirit Link — Ancient Origins #70 — $114

And 9 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Where Ampharos is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Japanese	46	46	$2,075
Korean	1	1	$52
English	56	56	$25,000
All 3 lines	103	103	—

Every Ampharos card in the Chinese-only sets

What a checklist without prices tells you

A price needs a trade. Every value in this catalogue comes from a recorded sale of a graded copy. Where no copy has sold in a grade, there is nothing to record, and the card stays unpriced however many are in circulation. For a character like Ampharos the prints are ordinary set-checklist cards — the base print, a reverse holo, foil patterns — and the graded market for them has never separated from the raw one.

It does not mean the cards are worthless. It means nobody has paid to grade them in enough numbers to create a price. That changes if the character returns to a game or an anime storyline; the prints already exist and the cards are not going anywhere. The price ladder shows what the ranked end of the catalogue looks like by comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Which Ampharos card leads the Japanese list?

Ampharos ex [1st Edition] #25 from Rulers of the Heavens at $2,075. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Ampharos card leads the English list?

Ampharos [1st Edition] #1 from Neo Revelation at $25,000.

Why are the Korean (1 printings listed here) not in a top ten?

Because a top ten should be a market, not a category. Those lines are thin enough that a ranked list would be an artefact of how few copies have sold rather than a statement about what the cards are worth, so they are listed in full instead of ranked — you will find both of them folded away at the foot of this page. The Traditional Chinese cards are also a genuinely separate line — printed for Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, China under their own set codes — and the Korean line had only two sets before 2010.

What do the marks next to some prices mean?

0 of the thirty ranked cards carry a mark. A double dagger (‡) means no PSA 10 copy of that card has sold in the last six months, so the graded price is a model output rather than a traded one. A single dagger (†) means the same thing, taken further: the model figure ran past the ceiling the card’s own lower grades support, so the ranking uses the capped number instead. 2 of them were reduced as well.

Is a PSA 10 worth the premium over a raw card?

It depends entirely on the card. On cheap modern printings the raw-to-graded multiple runs into double figures, which makes grading look like free money until you count the fee and the risk of the card coming back a nine. On the four-figure cards the multiple narrows, because the raw copy already carries most of the premium.

The other printing lines

Ampharos is printed in more lines than the two listed above. Two more lines are kept here rather than dropped: the Korean printings and the European languages we cannot price. None of them carries a market we can rank honestly, and each one below says why. They are folded because the ranked lists above should stay readable — open any of them to see that line in full.

Korean printings

1 printings

Korean is the smallest line of the six, and the one with the strangest history. Only two Korean-language sets existed before 2010 — a 2000 Base Set reprint and a 2003 ADV set — before the TCG became a permanent fixture in South Korea with Start of an Adventure that year; from 2011 onward the Korean sets have mirrored the Japanese ones. The Base Set holos, printed in Korean exactly once, are what most collectors mean when they say Korean.

• Ampharos — Ninja Spinner #88 — $52

A further 5 Korean printings of Ampharos sit in our catalogue without a tracked value. No graded sale of any of them has been recorded.

Other-language printings — French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese

not ranked here

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has been printed in more languages than any one page usually admits. The Pokémon Company’s own figures put it at sixteen languages across its history and thirteen in current release: Japanese, English, German, French, Italian, European and Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, both Chinese lines, Thai and Indonesian. Dutch, Polish and Russian runs existed earlier and have since stopped.

Not one of the European lines is listed or ranked on this page, and the reason sits with the price source rather than with the cards. Every figure on this page comes from PriceCharting, whose Pokémon catalogue runs to 803 set listings: 395 Japanese, 94 Chinese, 59 Korean and the remaining 255 English. There is no French, German, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese listing in it at all, so those lines have no sold record to rank on and no honest number to print.

That does not make those cards uncollected. German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Base Set printings are genuine late-1990s products with their own collectors, and Portuguese cards were printed for Portugal first and for Brazil later. They simply trade in far thinner markets than the English and Japanese lines, and the sold records that exist are too scattered to rank a list from.

If we ever have a source for those languages that we would put our name to, that line will appear here with the same treatment as the others — a ranked ten, traded and modelled figures marked separately, and the raw and grade 9 prices printed underneath.

More Pokémon

This page is one entry in a catalogue that covers every Pokémon in the line. The first 151 are all here, and beyond them the collection continues.

If you are looking at the whole Chinese market rather than one character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and how many Chinese-exclusive cards exist sets out the full count. For the differences against the Japanese line, this comparison sets them out, and where to buy Simplified Chinese Pokémon cards compares the four buying routes.

Where to buy these cards

CardSpicy sells the cards in this guide as PSA 10 (Gem Mint) slabs only — no raw cards, and no grades below PSA 10. An in-stock listing states the PSA certification number and shows the exact slab photographed; the rest of the range is sourced to order.

• Chinese Exclusive cards — the full range, in stock and sourced to order.
• All PSA 10 graded cards.
• Where to buy Simplified Chinese Pokémon cards — the four buying routes compared, and how to check a card before you pay.

Where to go next

Each character with a graded market has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Chansey, Charmander, Clefable. The Chinese versus Japanese comparison explains what the branch difference means for a collector, and the collector’s index lists the whole catalogue.

We do not hold an Ampharos slab in Simplified Chinese — the character is outside our current stock. The cards we do hold are listed in the PSA 10 collection.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. PriceCharting — individual card pages for every card on this list, including the complete grade ladder from Ungraded to PSA 10, and the recorded marketplace and auction sales underneath them. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
2. PriceCharting — console listings for the Chinese-exclusive sets (151C, CBB1C to CBB6C, CSM2aC, CSM2bC, CSM2cC, CS3aC to CS5.5C, CSV4C to CSV10C), the Japanese line and the English line.
3. PSA population report — graded populations quoted for the individual cards in this article, including the gem-mint share.
4. The Pokémon Company — “Pokémon in Figures”, for the sixteen languages the TCG has been printed in and the number of cards produced, the figures quoted in the other-language note at the foot of this page.
5. CardSpicy — How to read a Simplified Chinese Pokémon set code, on the trailing C and the secret-rare numbering convention.
6. CardSpicy — the card library, for the character rankings and the printed-product counts this page is built from.

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.

Where to go next

• The CardSpicy card index — every card we track, with its PSA 10 population and market history (195 cards).
• The illustrator index — every artist behind those cards, card by card (110 artists).