Category: Pokémon

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Zapdos cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Zapdos leads at $31,953 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices. Simplified Chinese set codes end in C, the marker of a Chinese-exclusive print run.

Zapdos appears on 6 Chinese-exclusive printings, 6 further Simplified Chinese printings, 1 Traditional Chinese printings, 65 Japanese, 11 Korean and 71 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Zapdos carries 6 numbered Chinese-exclusive printings, and 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 Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX #173 (CSM2cC) at $322. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the Chinese lines come 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 Chinese list is restricted to Chinese-exclusive numbering. Every card in the first list carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CBB1C, CBB5C, CSM2aC, CSV9C. That trailing letter is the dependable way to tell a Simplified Chinese print run from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
• 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 Simplified Chinese list — Chinese-exclusive sets

Every card here sits in a set whose code ends in C — the Simplified Chinese numbering line. Promos and 30th Celebration are excluded, because their numbering is shared across the Chinese branches rather than being Chinese-exclusive.

6. Zapdos EX — 151C #145 — $25

5. Zapdos EX — 151C #184 — $41

4. Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — CSM2cC #104 — $105

3. Zapdos EX — 151C #190 — $117

2. Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — CSM2cC #185 — $198

1. Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — CSM2cC #173 — $322

This line only yields 6 priced printings for Zapdos. Another 7 numbered printings in this line carry no graded sold record yet and are therefore not ranked.

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. Zapdos [1st Edition] — The Town on No Map #38 — $1,465

9. Zapdos [Series II] — Vending #145 — $1,500

8. Zapdos — Expansion Pack #145 — $1,562

7. Zapdos [All Nippon Airways] — Promo #145 — $1,800

6. Zapdos — The Town on No Map #38 — $1,823

5. Zapdos — Melee Pokemon Scramble #8 — $2,167

4. Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — Sky Legend #60 — $2,610

3. Rocket’s Zapdos ex — Rocket Gang Strikes Back #63 — $2,900

2. Zapdos ex — Flight of Legends #43 — $3,000

1. Zapdos [No Rarity] — Expansion Pack #145 — $16,219

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.

• Zapdos [1st Edition] — Web #46 — $1,409
• Zapdos — Web #46 — $1,336
• Zapdos [1st Edition] — Beat of the Frontier #100 — $1,016
• Zapdos ex [1st Edition] — Flight of Legends #43 — $848
• Zapdos — Mystery of the Fossils #145 — $831
• Zapdos — Promo #24/P — $815
• Rocket’s Zapdos ex [1st Edition] — Rocket Gang Strikes Back #63 — $799
• Zapdos — Trainers Magazine #15/T — $768
• Zapdos [1st Edition] — The Town on No Map #37 — $762
• Rocket’s Zapdos — Challenge from the Darkness #145 — $595
• Zapdos — The Town on No Map #37 — $432
• Zapdos — Starter Pack #20 — $425
• Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — Tag All Stars #226 — $386
• Zapdos — Beat of the Frontier #100 — $384
• Zapdos G — Advent of Arceus #33 — $344
• Zapdos [1st Edition] — Hail Blizzard #25 — $303
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — EX Battle Boost #38 — $297
• Zapdos G [1st Edition] — Advent of Arceus #33 — $294
• Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — Sky Legend #66 — $290
• Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — Sky Legend #59 — $209
• Zapdos [1st Edition] — EX Battle Boost #38 — $175
• Zapdos — Promo #305/SM-P — $170
• Zapdos — Promo #279/SM-P — $136
• Zapdos — Hail Blizzard #25 — $125
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Tag All Stars #43 — $120
• Zapdos [1st Edition] — Emerald Break #21 — $112
• Zapdos [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #40 — $102
• Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — Sky Legend #35 — $98
• Team Rocket’s Zapdos — Glory of Team Rocket #33 — $95
• Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — Tag All Stars #102 — $94

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. Zapdos — Base Set #16 — $1,890

9. Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Legendary Collection #19 — $3,004

8. Rocket’s Zapdos [1st Edition] — Gym Challenge #15 — $3,786

7. Zapdos [Shadowless] — Base Set #16 — $4,051

6. Zapdos [1st Edition] — Fossil #15 — $4,135

5. Rocket’s Zapdos — 25th Anniversary Creatures Deck #1999 — $5,900

4. Zapdos — Majestic Dawn #14 — $6,218

3. Rocket’s Zapdos EX — Team Rocket Returns #106 — $7,645

2. Zapdos [1st Edition] — Base Set #16 — $8,829

1. Zapdos — Supreme Victors #150 — $31,953

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.

• Zapdos — Base Set 2 #20 — $1,656
• Rocket’s Zapdos — Gym Challenge #15 — $1,358
• Zapdos — Generations #29 — $1,265
• Zapdos — Rumble #8 — $1,228
• Zapdos — Legendary Collection #19 — $1,224
• Zapdos EX — Promo #033 — $1,160
• Zapdos [1999-2000] — Fossil #30 — $1,150
• Zapdos [Corrected] — Fossil #15 — $1,045
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Next Destinies #41 — $1,000
• Zapdos EX — Plasma Storm #48 — $905
• Zapdos [Cosmos Holo] — Fossil #15 — $850
• Zapdos — Fossil #15 — $790
• Zapdos [1st Edition] — Fossil #30 — $751
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Aquapolis #44 — $738
• Zapdos G — Arceus #12 — $569
• Zapdos — Next Destinies #41 — $540
• Zapdos — Aquapolis #44 — $525
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Legendary Treasures #46 — $418
• Zapdos — Fossil #30 — $417
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Evolutions #42 — $379
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Majestic Dawn #14 — $358
• Zapdos — Evolutions #42 — $350
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Supreme Victors #48 — $300
• Zapdos — Legendary Treasures #46 — $260
• Zapdos G [Reverse Holo] — Arceus #12 — $250
• Zapdos [Kimura Corrected] — Promo #23 — $248
• Zapdos [Reverse Holo] — Roaring Skies #23 — $220
• Zapdos — Promo #23 — $182
• Galarian Zapdos V — Chilling Reign #174 — $172
• Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX — Hidden Fates #66 — $164

And 15 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Where Zapdos is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Simplified Chinese — exclusive sets	6	6	$322
Traditional Chinese (Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China)	1	1	$80
Japanese	65	65	$16,219
English	71	71	$31,953
All 4 lines	143	143	—

What the ranking shows

On the Chinese-exclusive line, 6 cards carry a tracked value. The four at the top hold 91.9% of it.

Band	Cards	Combined value	Share of total
Ranked 1 – 4	4	$743	91.9%
Ranked 5 – 10	2	$66	8.1%
Ranked 11 and below	0	$0	0.0%
Every priced Chinese-exclusive card	6	$809	100%

If you want one card

One card, no budget limit:

Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX #173 — CSM2cC #173. $322, and it is the card most lists for this character name first.

One card, a few hundred dollars:

Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX #173 — CSM2cC #173. $322, which is the strongest card on the page that is still reachable without a vintage budget.

One card, under two hundred dollars:

Zapdos EX #145 — 151C #145. $25. It is not the card anyone photographs, but it is the same Pokémon from the same line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most valuable Zapdos card in Simplified Chinese?

Among the Chinese-exclusive numbered sets, Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX #173 carries the highest tracked value at $322. Promos and other non-C numbered printings sit outside that comparison.

How many Zapdos cards exist in the Chinese-exclusive sets?

6 of the numbered Chinese-exclusive printings for this character carry a tracked market value in our catalogue.

Which Zapdos card leads the Japanese list?

Zapdos [No Rarity] #145 from Expansion Pack at $16,219. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Zapdos card leads the English list?

Zapdos #150 from Supreme Victors at $31,953.

Why are the Traditional Chinese (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. None of them needed reducing on this page.

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

Zapdos is printed in more lines than the three listed above. Two more lines are kept here rather than dropped: the Traditional Chinese 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.

Traditional Chinese printings (Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China)

1 printings

A separate line, and worth keeping separate: the Traditional Chinese cards printed for Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, China carry their own set codes (the F series) and their own print runs. The 2000 Traditional Chinese Base Set reaches back to a print that Simplified Chinese never had, and the 30th Celebration run is listed here because the two Chinese lines share it and the marketplace does not separate them.

• Zapdos — 30th Celebration #108 — $80

A further 1 Traditional Chinese printings of Zapdos 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.

Other character rankings

Each character with a full five or ten-card ranking has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, and among the shorter runs Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Chansey, Charmander, Clefable, Crocalor, Cubone, Fuecoco.

Beyond the single character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and the collector’s index lists every Pokémon that appears in the Chinese-only sets with its card count, priced count and top value.

We do not hold a Zapdos 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.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Venusaur cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Venusaur [1st Edition] leads at $37,210 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices. Simplified Chinese set codes end in C, the marker of a Chinese-exclusive print run.

Venusaur appears on 7 Chinese-exclusive printings, 4 further Simplified Chinese printings, 1 Traditional Chinese printings, 57 Japanese, 3 Korean and 68 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Venusaur carries 7 numbered Chinese-exclusive printings, and 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 Venusaur VMAX #161 (cs3aC) at $300. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the Chinese lines come 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 Chinese list is restricted to Chinese-exclusive numbering. Every card in the first list carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CBB1C, CBB5C, CSM2aC, CSV9C. That trailing letter is the dependable way to tell a Simplified Chinese print run from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
• 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 Simplified Chinese list — Chinese-exclusive sets

Every card here sits in a set whose code ends in C — the Simplified Chinese numbering line. Promos and 30th Celebration are excluded, because their numbering is shared across the Chinese branches rather than being Chinese-exclusive.

7. Venusaur ex — 151C #174 — $34

6. Venusaur EX — 151C #3 — $35

5. Celebi & Venusaur GX — CSM2bC #1 — $87

4. Radiant Venusaur — cs5bC #4 — $90

3. Celebi & Venusaur GX — CSM2bC #154 — $113

2. Venusaur V — cs3aC #130 — $250

1. Venusaur VMAX — cs3aC #161 — $300

This line only yields 7 priced printings for Venusaur.

Other Simplified Chinese printings

These are the other Simplified Chinese printings: promos, the reprint sets and the gift-box runs. They sit outside the ranked Chinese-exclusive list because their numbering does not identify a Chinese-only print.

• Venusaur & Snivy GX — CSM2.5C #63 — $266
• Venusaur & Snivy GX — CSM2.5C #83 — $116
• Venusaur & Snivy GX — CSM2.5C #62 — $96
• Venusaur & Snivy GX — CSM2.5C #1 — $41

A further 3 Simplified Chinese printings of Venusaur sit in our catalogue without a tracked value. No graded sale of any of them has been recorded.

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. Venusaur [GB Game Boy] — Promo #3 — $1,636

9. Dark Venusaur [1st Edition] — Web #41 — $1,682

8. Dark Venusaur — Web #41 — $1,862

7. Dark Venusaur [Holo] — Trainers Magazine #3 — $2,058

6. Venusaur — Melee Pokemon Scramble #1 — $2,126

5. Venusaur — Promo #3/PCG-P — $2,364

4. Dark Venusaur [Trainers Magazine] — Promo #3 — $2,750

3. Venusaur — Promo #12/P — $3,050

2. Venusaur — Expansion Pack #3 — $3,800

1. Venusaur [No Rarity] — Expansion Pack #68 — $24,009

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.

• Venusaur [Prism] — Meiji Promo #20 — $1,628
• Venusaur [Holo] — CD Promo #3 — $1,441
• Venusaur EX [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #88 — $1,334
• Venusaur-Holo — Bulbasaur Deck #3 — $1,292
• Venusaur [1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #97 — $1,084
• Erika’s Venusaur — Challenge from the Darkness #3 — $1,010
• Venusaur [1st Edition] — Miracle Crystal #3 — $800
• Venusaur [1st Edition] — E-Starter Deck #4 — $734
• Venusaur — Miracle Crystal #3 — $715
• Venusaur [1st Edition] — Shining Darkness #3 — $646
• Venusaur [1st Edition] — Beat of the Frontier #3 — $515
• Celebi & Venusaur GX — Tag Bolt #97 — $444
• M Venusaur EX [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #89 — $407
• Venusaur EX [1st Edition] — Collection X #61 — $386
• Venusaur — Dark Rush #3 — $352
• Venusaur [1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #65 — $308
• Venusaur EX — Collection X #61 — $300
• Venusaur & Snivy GX — Remix Bout #66 — $276
• Celebi & Venusaur GX — Tag Bolt #110 — $170
• Venusaur — Expedition Expansion Pack #65 — $169
• Celebi & Venusaur GX — Tag Bolt #96 — $168
• Venusaur — Beat of the Frontier #3 — $168
• Venusaur — Expedition Expansion Pack #97 — $165
• Venusaur — 25th Anniversary Promo #2 — $134
• Venusaur — GX Ultra Shiny #3 — $130
• Venusaur & Snivy GX — Remix Bout #74 — $124
• Venusaur — Classic: Venusaur #3 — $96
• Venusaur & Snivy GX — Remix Bout #65 — $94
• Venusaur Spirit Link [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #82 — $90
• Celebi & Venusaur GX — Tag Bolt #1 — $89

And 6 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. Venusaur EX — XY #141 — $3,545

9. Venusaur [Reverse Holo] — Crystal Guardians #28 — $4,160

8. Venusaur [Holo] — Secret Wonders #20 — $4,211

7. Venusaur — Expedition #30 — $4,399

6. Venusaur [Reverse Holo] — Legendary Collection #18 — $5,925

5. Venusaur — Promo #13 — $6,682

4. Venusaur [Shadowless] — Base Set #15 — $7,699

3. Erika’s Venusaur [1st Edition] — Gym Challenge #4 — $10,981

2. Venusaur [1999-2000] — Base Set #15 — $18,729†

1. Venusaur [1st Edition] — Base Set #15 — $37,210

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.

• Venusaur [Holo] — POP Series 2 #6 — $3,377
• Venusaur — Base Set #15 — $3,262
• Dark Venusaur [Jumbo] — Best of Game #7 — $2,951
• Erika’s Venusaur — Gym Challenge #4 — $2,911
• Venusaur — Base Set 2 #18 — $2,426
• Venusaur [Holo] — Crystal Guardians #28 — $2,416
• Venusaur — Legendary Collection #18 — $2,200
• Venusaur — Rumble #1 — $2,055
• Venusaur [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #67 — $2,000
• Venusaur [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #68 — $1,900
• Venusaur [Box Topper] — Expedition #4 — $1,762
• Venusaur [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #30 — $1,692
• Venusaur [Regional Championships] — Crystal Guardians #28 — $1,354
• Dark Venusaur [Winner] — Best of Game #7 — $1,194
• Venusaur — Dark Explorers #3 — $980
• Venusaur — Supreme Victors #13 — $858
• Dark Venusaur — Best of Game #7 — $590
• Celebi & Venusaur GX — Team Up #182 — $548
• Mega Venusaur EX — XY #2 — $500
• Venusaur — Expedition #67 — $480
• Celebi & Venusaur GX — Team Up #1 — $415
• Venusaur — POP Series 2 #6 — $398
• Venusaur [Reverse Holo] — Supreme Victors #13 — $388
• M Venusaur EX — Generations #2 — $387
• Venusaur EX [Holo] — 2004 Starter Deck #4 — $362
• Celebi & Venusaur GX — Team Up #159 — $350
• Venusaur — Expedition #68 — $326
• Venusaur [Reverse Holo] — Secret Wonders #20 — $321
• Venusaur & Snivy GX — Cosmic Eclipse #210 — $286
• Venusaur & Snivy GX — Cosmic Eclipse #1 — $272

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

Where Venusaur is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Simplified Chinese — exclusive sets	7	7	$300
Simplified Chinese — other printings	4	4	$266
Japanese	57	57	$24,009
Korean	3	3	$78
English	68	68	$37,210
All 5 lines	139	139	—

What the ranking shows

On the Chinese-exclusive line, 7 cards carry a tracked value. The four at the top hold 82.8% of it.

Band	Cards	Combined value	Share of total
Ranked 1 – 4	4	$753	82.8%
Ranked 5 – 10	3	$156	17.2%
Ranked 11 and below	0	$0	0.0%
Every priced Chinese-exclusive card	7	$909	100%

If you want one card

One card, no budget limit:

Venusaur VMAX #161 — cs3aC #161. $300, and it is the card most lists for this character name first.

One card, a few hundred dollars:

Venusaur VMAX #161 — cs3aC #161. $300, which is the strongest card on the page that is still reachable without a vintage budget.

One card, under two hundred dollars:

Venusaur ex #174 — 151C #174. $34. It is not the card anyone photographs, but it is the same Pokémon from the same line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most valuable Venusaur card in Simplified Chinese?

Among the Chinese-exclusive numbered sets, Venusaur VMAX #161 carries the highest tracked value at $300. Promos and other non-C numbered printings sit outside that comparison.

How many Venusaur cards exist in the Chinese-exclusive sets?

7 of the numbered Chinese-exclusive printings for this character carry a tracked market value in our catalogue.

Which Venusaur card leads the Japanese list?

Venusaur [No Rarity] #68 from Expansion Pack at $24,009. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Venusaur card leads the English list?

Venusaur [1st Edition] #15 from Base Set at $37,210.

Why are the Korean (3 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. 1 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

Venusaur is printed in more lines than the four 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

3 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.

• Mega Venusaur ex — Mega Brave #87 — $78
• Mega Venusaur ex — Mega Brave #76 — $70
• Mega Venusaur ex — Mega Brave #3 — $33

A further 3 Korean printings of Venusaur 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.

Other character rankings

Each character with a full five or ten-card ranking has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, and among the shorter runs Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Chansey, Charmander, Clefable, Crocalor, Cubone, Fuecoco.

Beyond the single character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and the collector’s index lists every Pokémon that appears in the Chinese-only sets with its card count, priced count and top value.

Two of these are in our own stock — the Venusaur VMAX PSA 10 (cs3aC 161/125) and the Radiant Venusaur PSA 10 (cs5bC 004/128). Our Simplified Chinese slabs 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.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Magneton cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Magneton [1st Edition] leads at $10,267 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices. Simplified Chinese set codes end in C, the marker of a Chinese-exclusive print run.

Magneton appears on 7 Chinese-exclusive printings, 48 Japanese, 1 Korean and 72 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Magneton carries 7 numbered Chinese-exclusive printings, and 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 Magneton #301 (CBB5C) at $73. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the Chinese lines come 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 Chinese list is restricted to Chinese-exclusive numbering. Every card in the first list carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CBB1C, CBB5C, CSM2aC, CSV9C. That trailing letter is the dependable way to tell a Simplified Chinese print run from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
• 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 Simplified Chinese list — Chinese-exclusive sets

Every card here sits in a set whose code ends in C — the Simplified Chinese numbering line. Promos and 30th Celebration are excluded, because their numbering is shared across the Chinese branches rather than being Chinese-exclusive.

7. Magneton — CBB5C #304 — $36

6. Magneton — CBB5C #307 — $37

5. Magneton — CBB5C #305 — $39

4. Magneton — CBB5C #306 — $40

3. Magneton — CBB5C #303 — $40

2. Magneton — 151C #82 — $46

1. Magneton — CBB5C #301 — $73

This line only yields 7 priced printings for Magneton. Another 4 numbered printings in this line carry no graded sold record yet and are therefore not ranked.

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. Magneton [1st Edition] — Mysterious Mountains #72 — $396

9. Jasmine’s Magneton — VS #28 — $406

8. Dark Magneton — Rocket Gang #82 — $485

7. Magneton [1st Edition] — The Town on No Map #74 — $511

6. Magneton — The Town on No Map #74 — $533

5. Magneton [1st Edition] — Mysterious Mountains #38 — $637

4. Magneton — Mysterious Mountains #38 — $756

3. Magneton [Series II] — Vending #82 — $906†

2. Magneton — Expansion Pack #82 — $1,125

1. Magneton [No Rarity] — Expansion Pack #82 — $7,466

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.

• Magneton — Mystery of the Fossils #82 — $387
• Holon’s Magneton — Holon Research #72 — $303
• Magneton — Awakening Legends #82 — $278
• Magneton — Mysterious Mountains #72 — $238
• Holon’s Magneton [1st Edition] — Holon Research #72 — $181
• Magneton [1st Edition] — Mysterious Mountains #37 — $180
• Magneton [1st Edition] — Mysterious Mountains #71 — $150
• Magneton [1st Edition] — The Town on No Map #73 — $138
• Magneton — GX Ultra Shiny #79 — $120
• Magneton — Mysterious Mountains #71 — $120
• Magneton — VSTAR Universe #95 — $102
• Magneton — Premium Champion Pack #39 — $99
• Magneton — Mysterious Mountains #37 — $88
• Magneton [1st Edition] — Intense Fight in the Destroyed Sky #67 — $88
• Magneton [1st Edition] — Red Flash #24 — $79
• Magneton — Dream League #19 — $65
• Magneton [1st Edition] — Plasma Gale #24 — $65
• Dark Magneton [1st Edition] — Silver Deck Kit #6 — $64
• Magneton [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #36 — $60
• Magneton — The Town on No Map #73 — $58
• Magneton [1st Edition] — Flight of Legends #40 — $54
• Dark Magneton — Silver Deck Kit #6 — $51
• Magneton — GX Ultra Shiny #188 — $50
• Magneton — Lost Link #10 — $50
• Magneton — Tag All Stars #87 — $49
• Magneton [1st Edition] — World Champions Pack #26 — $48
• Magneton — Sky Legend #22 — $39
• Magneton [Ball] — Mega Dream ex #46 — $39
• Magneton [Energy] — Mega Dream ex #46 — $39
• Magneton — Mega Dream ex #46 — $39

And 14 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. Dark Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Team Rocket Returns #39 — $1,751

9. Magneton [1st Edition] — Fossil #11 — $1,984

8. Magneton — Base Set #9 — $2,002

7. Lt. Surge’s Magneton [1st Edition] — Gym Heroes #8 — $2,042

6. Magneton [Shadowless] — Base Set #9 — $2,391

5. Magneton [1st Edition] — Neo Revelation #10 — $2,651

4. Magneton — Base Set 2 #9 — $3,002†

3. Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Legendary Collection #28 — $3,181

2. Dark Magneton [1st Edition] — Team Rocket #11 — $9,888

1. Magneton [1st Edition] — Base Set #9 — $10,267

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.

• Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Legend Maker #22 — $1,600
• Holon’s Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Delta Species #22 — $1,295
• Magneton — Neo Revelation #10 — $1,111
• Lt. Surge’s Magneton — Gym Heroes #8 — $835
• Magneton — Evolutions #38 — $806
• Dark Magneton — Team Rocket #11 — $800
• Magneton [Staff] — Promo #153 — $650
• Magneton — Fossil #11 — $630
• Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Skyridge #19 — $588
• Magneton — Power Keepers #16 — $549
• Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Skyridge #20 — $530
• Magneton — Promo #153 — $500
• Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Dragon #17 — $463
• Magneton [1st Edition] — Fossil #26 — $380
• Magneton [Pokemon Center] — Promo #159 — $248
• Magneton — Fossil #26 — $246
• Dark Magneton [1st Edition] — Team Rocket #28 — $235
• Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Aquapolis #22 — $218
• Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Power Keepers #16 — $215
• Holon’s Magneton — Delta Species #22 — $202
• Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Dragon #35 — $202
• Magneton — Skyridge #19 — $202
• Magneton — Aquapolis #22 — $164
• Magneton [Reverse Holo] — Delta Species #48 — $164
• Dark Magneton — Team Rocket #28 — $162
• Magneton [1999-2000] — Fossil #26 — $160
• Magneton — Promo #159 — $150
• Magneton — Skyridge #20 — $128
• Magneton — Dragon #17 — $112
• Magneton — Delta Species #48 — $100

And 18 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Where Magneton is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Simplified Chinese — exclusive sets	7	7	$73
Japanese	48	48	$7,466
Korean	1	1	$51
English	72	72	$10,267
All 4 lines	128	128	—

What the ranking shows

On the Chinese-exclusive line, 7 cards carry a tracked value. The four at the top hold 63.8% of it.

Band	Cards	Combined value	Share of total
Ranked 1 – 4	4	$197	63.8%
Ranked 5 – 10	3	$112	36.2%
Ranked 11 and below	0	$0	0.0%
Every priced Chinese-exclusive card	7	$309	100%

If you want one card

One card, no budget limit:

Magneton #301 — CBB5C #301. $73, and it is the card most lists for this character name first.

One card, under two hundred dollars:

Magneton #304 — CBB5C #304. $36. It is not the card anyone photographs, but it is the same Pokémon from the same line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most valuable Magneton card in Simplified Chinese?

Among the Chinese-exclusive numbered sets, Magneton #301 carries the highest tracked value at $73. Promos and other non-C numbered printings sit outside that comparison.

How many Magneton cards exist in the Chinese-exclusive sets?

7 of the numbered Chinese-exclusive printings for this character carry a tracked market value in our catalogue.

Which Magneton card leads the Japanese list?

Magneton [No Rarity] #82 from Expansion Pack at $7,466. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Magneton card leads the English list?

Magneton [1st Edition] #9 from Base Set at $10,267.

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

Magneton is printed in more lines than the three 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.

• Magneton — Electric Breaker #112 — $51

A further 8 Korean printings of Magneton 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.

Other character rankings

Each character with a full five or ten-card ranking has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, and among the shorter runs Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Chansey, Charmander, Clefable, Crocalor, Cubone, Fuecoco.

Beyond the single character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and the collector’s index lists every Pokémon that appears in the Chinese-only sets with its card count, priced count and top value.

We do not hold a Magneton 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.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Growlithe cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] leads at $8,750 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices. Simplified Chinese set codes end in C, the marker of a Chinese-exclusive print run.

Growlithe appears on 8 Chinese-exclusive printings, 4 further Simplified Chinese printings, 47 Japanese, 2 Korean and 61 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Growlithe carries 8 numbered Chinese-exclusive printings, and 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 Hisuian Growlithe #201 (CBB5C) at $57. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the Chinese lines come 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 Chinese list is restricted to Chinese-exclusive numbering. Every card in the first list carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CBB1C, CBB5C, CSM2aC, CSV9C. That trailing letter is the dependable way to tell a Simplified Chinese print run from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
• 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 Simplified Chinese list — Chinese-exclusive sets

Every card here sits in a set whose code ends in C — the Simplified Chinese numbering line. Promos and 30th Celebration are excluded, because their numbering is shared across the Chinese branches rather than being Chinese-exclusive.

8. Hisuian Growlithe — CBB5C #204 — $35

7. Hisuian Growlithe — CBB5C #203 — $37

6. Growlithe — 151C #58 — $38

5. Hisuian Growlithe — CBB5C #202 — $39

4. Hisuian Growlithe — CBB5C #205 — $40

3. Hisuian Growlithe — CBB5C #206 — $41

2. Hisuian Growlithe — CBB5C #207 — $56

1. Hisuian Growlithe — CBB5C #201 — $57

This line only yields 8 priced printings for Growlithe. Another 3 numbered printings in this line carry no graded sold record yet and are therefore not ranked.

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. Blaine’s Growlithe — Challenge from the Darkness #56 — $215

9. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — HeartGold Collection #13 — $228

8. Growlithe — Mirage Forest #15 — $280

7. Growlithe [Holo 1st Edition] — Shiny Collection #4 — $327

6. Growlithe — Expansion Pack #58 — $351

5. Growlithe [1st Edition] — Web #6 — $388

4. Growlithe — Web #6 — $520

3. Growlithe — Squirtle Deck #26 — $552

2. Growlithe [Series III] — Vending #58 — $980

1. Growlithe [No Rarity] — Expansion Pack #58 — $1,115

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.

• Growlithe [1st Edition] — The Town on No Map #14 — $214
• Growlithe [1st Edition] — Mysterious Mountains #15 — $208
• Growlithe — Intro Pack Neo #12 — $202
• Growlithe [1st Edition] — The Town on No Map #15 — $169
• Growlithe [1st Edition] — Flight of Legends #20 — $157
• Blaine’s Growlithe — Challenge from the Darkness #58 — $152
• Blaine’s Growlithe [Guren Town] — Challenge from the Darkness #58 — $140
• Growlithe — Magma vs Aqua #13 — $128
• Growlithe — HeartGold Collection #13 — $120
• Growlithe — GX Starter Decks #14 — $104
• Growlithe — The Town on No Map #15 — $90
• Growlithe — The Town on No Map #14 — $89
• Growlithe [1st Edition] — Hail Blizzard #9 — $86
• Growlithe [1st Edition] — Bonds to the End of Time #9 — $83
• Growlithe — Flight of Legends #20 — $75
• Growlithe — Storm Emeralda #78 — $73
• Growlithe — Double Blaze #8 — $65
• Growlithe — Emboar EX vs Togekiss EX Deck Kit #1 — $64
• Growlithe — Squirtle Deck #1 — $62
• Growlithe [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #17 — $62
• Growlithe [1st Edition] — Mirage Forest #15 — $60
• Growlithe — Bonds to the End of Time #9 — $60
• Growlithe — Hail Blizzard #9 — $52
• Growlithe — Promo #24/SV-P — $50
• Hisuian Growlithe — Crimson Haze #75 — $44
• Hisuian Growlithe — VSTAR Universe #69 — $39
• Hisuian Growlithe — Dark Phantasma #32 — $39
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Incandescent Arcana #12 — $39
• Growlithe — Storm Emeralda #10 — $39
• Growlithe — Mysterious Mountains #15 — $38

And 6 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. Growlithe — Aquapolis #80 — $350

9. Hisuian Growlithe [Holo] — Astral Radiance #70 — $397†

8. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Rising Rivals #63 — $397

7. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Sandstorm #65 — $964

6. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Skyridge #62 — $1,358

5. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Aquapolis #80 — $1,640

4. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Legendary Collection #45 — $1,728

3. Growlithe [1st Edition] — Base Set #28 — $3,113

2. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Legend Maker #55 — $3,859

1. Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Aquapolis #51 — $8,750

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.

• Blaine’s Growlithe [1st Edition] — Gym Challenge #62 — $270
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Destined Rivals #27 — $269
• Growlithe [Shadowless] — Base Set #28 — $266
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Secret Wonders #89 — $257
• Growlithe [1st Edition] — Neo Destiny #68 — $256
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Next Destinies #10 — $244
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Supreme Victors #108 — $232
• Growlithe — Aquapolis #51 — $209
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — BREAKpoint #10 — $206
• Growlithe — Skyridge #62 — $187
• Hisuian Growlithe — Twilight Masquerade #181 — $178
• Growlithe — Sandstorm #65 — $174
• Growlithe — Promo #24 — $170
• Growlithe [1999-2000] — Base Set #28 — $159
• Blaine’s Growlithe [1st Edition] — Gym Heroes #62 — $155
• Growlithe — Base Set #28 — $152
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Next Destinies #11 — $150
• Growlithe — Neo Destiny #68 — $134
• Growlithe — Legend Maker #55 — $127
• Blaine’s Growlithe [1st Edition] — Gym Heroes #35 — $112
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Evolutions #17 — $106
• Growlithe — Silver Tempest #19 — $105
• Blaine’s Growlithe — Gym Heroes #62 — $103
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Silver Tempest #19 — $100
• Growlithe — Legendary Collection #45 — $87
• Growlithe — Supreme Victors #108 — $85
• Growlithe — McDonalds 2018 #1 — $83
• Blaine’s Growlithe — Gym Challenge #62 — $68
• Growlithe [Reverse Holo] — Unbroken Bonds #21 — $65
• Growlithe — BREAKpoint #10 — $65

And 5 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Where Growlithe is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Simplified Chinese — exclusive sets	8	8	$57
Japanese	47	47	$1,115
Korean	2	2	$76
English	61	61	$8,750
All 4 lines	118	118	—

What the ranking shows

On the Chinese-exclusive line, 8 cards carry a tracked value. The four at the top hold 56.6% of it.

Band	Cards	Combined value	Share of total
Ranked 1 – 4	4	$193	56.6%
Ranked 5 – 10	4	$148	43.4%
Ranked 11 and below	0	$0	0.0%
Every priced Chinese-exclusive card	8	$341	100%

If you want one card

One card, no budget limit:

Hisuian Growlithe #201 — CBB5C #201. $57, and it is the card most lists for this character name first.

One card, under two hundred dollars:

Hisuian Growlithe #204 — CBB5C #204. $35. It is not the card anyone photographs, but it is the same Pokémon from the same line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most valuable Growlithe card in Simplified Chinese?

Among the Chinese-exclusive numbered sets, Hisuian Growlithe #201 carries the highest tracked value at $57. Promos and other non-C numbered printings sit outside that comparison.

How many Growlithe cards exist in the Chinese-exclusive sets?

8 of the numbered Chinese-exclusive printings for this character carry a tracked market value in our catalogue.

Which Growlithe card leads the Japanese list?

Growlithe [No Rarity] #58 from Expansion Pack at $1,115. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Growlithe card leads the English list?

Growlithe [Reverse Holo] #51 from Aquapolis at $8,750.

Why are the Korean (2 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. 1 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

Growlithe is printed in more lines than the three 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

2 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.

• Growlithe — Storm Emeralda #78 — $76
• Hisuian Growlithe — Crimson Haze #75 — $26

A further 7 Korean printings of Growlithe 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.

Other character rankings

Each character with a full five or ten-card ranking has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, and among the shorter runs Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Chansey, Charmander, Clefable, Crocalor, Cubone, Fuecoco.

Beyond the single character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and the collector’s index lists every Pokémon that appears in the Chinese-only sets with its card count, priced count and top value.

Our own stock covers the other end of this line — the Arcanine PSA 10 (CSV3C 155/130), the card Growlithe evolves into. Our Simplified Chinese slabs 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.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Mewtwo cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Mewtwo [Reverse Holo] leads at $72,100 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices. Simplified Chinese set codes end in C, the marker of a Chinese-exclusive print run.

Mewtwo appears on 8 Chinese-exclusive printings, 5 further Simplified Chinese printings, 5 Traditional Chinese printings, 126 Japanese, 9 Korean and 110 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Mewtwo carries 8 numbered Chinese-exclusive printings, and a Japanese line that reaches back into the 1990s promo programmes. The head of the list is Team Rocket’s Mewtwo Ex #268 (csv10C) at $717. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the Chinese lines come 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 Chinese list is restricted to Chinese-exclusive numbering. Every card in the first list carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CBB1C, CBB5C, CSM2aC, CSV9C. That trailing letter is the dependable way to tell a Simplified Chinese print run from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
• 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 Simplified Chinese list — Chinese-exclusive sets

Every card here sits in a set whose code ends in C — the Simplified Chinese numbering line. Promos and 30th Celebration are excluded, because their numbering is shared across the Chinese branches rather than being Chinese-exclusive.

8. Mewtwo ex — csv5C #39 — $34

7. Mewtwo [Reverse] — 151C #150 — $43

6. Mewtwo VSTAR — CS5aC #34 — $46

5. Mewtwo — 151C #150 — $60

4. Mewtwo V — CS5aC #135 — $66

3. Mewtwo & Mew GX — CSM2bC #34 — $116

2. Mew & Mewtwo GX — CSM2bC #188 — $228

1. Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex — csv10C #268 — $717

This line only yields 8 priced printings for Mewtwo. Another 4 numbered printings in this line carry no graded sold record yet and are therefore not ranked.

Other Simplified Chinese printings

These are the other Simplified Chinese printings: promos, the reprint sets and the gift-box runs. They sit outside the ranked Chinese-exclusive list because their numbering does not identify a Chinese-only print.

• Mewtwo GX — CSMPiC #48 — $1,132
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — as6aC #208 — $526
• Mewtwo VSTAR — Promo #144/S-P — $214
• Mewtwo — CS6bC #33 — $43
• Mewtwo — Start Deck 100 #170 — $37

A further 1 Simplified Chinese printings of Mewtwo sit in our catalogue without a tracked value. No graded sale of any of them has been recorded.

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. Mewtwo [Series 1] — Vending #150 — $5,439

9. Mewtwo [Game Boy] — Promo #150 — $5,500

8. Mewtwo [Prism] — Meiji Promo #1 — $5,747†

7. Rocket’s Mewtwo ex — Rocket Gang Strikes Back #64 — $5,773

6. Mewtwo Close Up [Prism] — Meiji Promo #5 — $6,468†

5. Rocket’s Mewtwo ex [1st Edition] — Rocket Gang Strikes Back #64 — $8,658†

4. Mewtwo [Gold Star] — 2005 Gift Box #2 — $19,314

3. Mewtwo [CoroCoro Glossy] — Promo #150 — $23,749

2. Mewtwo [No Rarity] — Expansion Pack #150 — $31,749

1. Shining Mewtwo — Darkness and to Light #150 — $56,976

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.

• Mewtwo — Expansion Pack #150 — $5,400
• Mewtwo [Glossy] — CD Promo #150 — $5,256
• Mewtwo — Melee Pokemon Scramble #9 — $5,141
• Mewtwo GX — Shining Legends #82 — $5,097
• Mewtwo [Prism] — Vending #150 — $4,750
• Mewtwo — Holon Research #19 — $4,744
• Mewtwo [1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #118 — $4,055
• Mewtwo [1st Edition] — Holon Research #19 — $3,975
• Mewtwo [Meiji Chocolate] — Promo #107/PCG-P — $3,960
• Mewtwo EX [1st Edition] — Psycho Drive #55 — $3,883
• Mewtwo EX — Psycho Drive #55 — $3,604
• Mewtwo [Series III] — Vending #150 — $3,526
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Miracle Twins #98 — $3,244
• Mewtwo — Mewtwo vs Genesect #1 — $2,801
• Mewtwo GX — Promo #363/SM-P — $2,758
• Mewtwo — Promo #49/DPT-P — $2,678
• Mewtwo [1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #86 — $2,651
• Rocket’s Mewtwo — Challenge from the Darkness #150 — $2,650
• Mewtwo — Promo #46/P — $2,623
• M Mewtwo EX — Blue Shock #63 — $1,899
• Mewtwo [1st Edition] — Moonlit Pursuit #181 — $1,878
• Mewtwo LV. X — Collection Pack #6 — $1,875
• Mewtwo EX [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #95 — $1,778
• Mewtwo — Moonlit Pursuit #181 — $1,775
• Mewtwo EX — Blue Shock #65 — $1,719
• M Mewtwo EX [1st Edition] — Blue Shock #63 — $1,592
• M Mewtwo EX — Red Flash #63 — $1,577
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Tag All Stars #222 — $1,485
• Mewtwo EX [1st Edition] — Blue Shock #65 — $1,444
• Mewtwo EX [1st Edition] — Red Flash #65 — $1,433

And 76 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. Mewtwo [Shadowless] — Base Set #10 — $13,144

9. Mewtwo — Legends Awakened #11 — $14,153

8. Shining Mewtwo — Neo Destiny #109 — $15,000

7. Mewtwo LV. X — Legends Awakened #144 — $25,500

6. Mewtwo — Expedition #20 — $30,145

5. Rocket’s Mewtwo EX — Team Rocket Returns #99 — $35,781

4. Shining Mewtwo [1st Edition] — Neo Destiny #109 — $35,990

3. Mewtwo [1st Edition] — Base Set #10 — $54,070

2. Mewtwo [Gold Star] — Holon Phantoms #103 — $57,670

1. Mewtwo [Reverse Holo] — Legendary Collection #29 — $72,100

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.

• Mewtwo [Reverse Holo] — Delta Species #12 — $13,000
• Mewtwo [Reverse Holo] — Holon Phantoms #24 — $11,525
• Rocket’s Mewtwo [Jumbo] — Best of Game #8 — $11,104
• Rocket’s Mewtwo [1st Edition] — Gym Challenge #14 — $9,650
• Mewtwo GX — Shining Legends #78 — $8,000
• Rocket’s Mewtwo [Winner] — Best of Game #8 — $7,099
• Mewtwo — Delta Species #12 — $7,002
• Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough #163 — $5,954
• M Mewtwo EX — 25th Anniversary Creatures Deck #2015 — $5,915
• Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough #164 — $5,671
• Mewtwo [1999-2000] — Base Set #10 — $5,174
• Mewtwo — Base Set 2 #10 — $5,100
• Rocket’s Mewtwo — Gym Challenge #14 — $4,800
• Mewtwo — Rumble #9 — $4,550
• Mewtwo — Base Set #10 — $4,112
• Mewtwo [Staff] — Evolutions #51 — $4,050
• Mewtwo [Cosmos Holo] — Brilliant Stars #56 — $3,400
• Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough #158 — $2,800
• M Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough #160 — $2,750
• Mewtwo EX — 25th Anniversary Creatures Deck #2011 — $2,733
• Mewtwo [Prerelease] — Evolutions #51 — $2,603
• Mewtwo — Promo #12 — $2,452
• M Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough #159 — $2,359
• Mewtwo EX — Next Destinies #98 — $2,132
• Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough #157 — $1,856
• Mewtwo — Holon Phantoms #24 — $1,800
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Unified Minds #222 — $1,799
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Unified Minds #242 — $1,792
• Mewtwo [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #56 — $1,777
• Mewtwo — Promo #14 — $1,715

And 69 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Where Mewtwo is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Simplified Chinese — exclusive sets	8	8	$717
Simplified Chinese — other printings	5	5	$1,132
Traditional Chinese (Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China)	5	5	$200
Japanese	126	126	$56,976
Korean	9	9	$2,124
English	110	110	$72,100
All 6 lines	263	263	—

What the ranking shows

On the Chinese-exclusive line, 8 cards carry a tracked value. The four at the top hold 86.0% of it.

Band	Cards	Combined value	Share of total
Ranked 1 – 4	4	$1,127	86.0%
Ranked 5 – 10	4	$183	14.0%
Ranked 11 and below	0	$0	0.0%
Every priced Chinese-exclusive card	8	$1,311	100%

If you want one card

One card, no budget limit:

Team Rocket’s Mewtwo Ex #268 — csv10C #268. $717, and it is the card most lists for this character name first.

One card, a few hundred dollars:

Team Rocket’s Mewtwo Ex #268 — csv10C #268. $717, which is the strongest card on the page that is still reachable without a vintage budget.

One card, under two hundred dollars:

Mewtwo Ex #39 — csv5C #39. $34. It is not the card anyone photographs, but it is the same Pokémon from the same line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most valuable Mewtwo card in Simplified Chinese?

Among the Chinese-exclusive numbered sets, Team Rocket’s Mewtwo Ex #268 carries the highest tracked value at $717. Promos and other non-C numbered printings sit outside that comparison.

How many Mewtwo cards exist in the Chinese-exclusive sets?

8 of the numbered Chinese-exclusive printings for this character carry a tracked market value in our catalogue.

Which Mewtwo card leads the Japanese list?

Shining Mewtwo #150 from Darkness, and to Light at $56,976. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Mewtwo card leads the English list?

Mewtwo [Reverse Holo] #29 from Legendary Collection at $72,100.

Why are the Traditional Chinese (5 printings listed here) and Korean (9 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. 3 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

Mewtwo is printed in more lines than the four listed above. Three more lines are kept here rather than dropped: the Traditional Chinese printings, 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.

Traditional Chinese printings (Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China)

5 printings

A separate line, and worth keeping separate: the Traditional Chinese cards printed for Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, China carry their own set codes (the F series) and their own print runs. The 2000 Traditional Chinese Base Set reaches back to a print that Simplified Chinese never had, and the 30th Celebration run is listed here because the two Chinese lines share it and the marketplace does not separate them.

• Mewtwo ex — 30th Celebration #134 — $200
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex — Mega Dream ex #237 — $185
• Mewtwo ex — 25th Anniversary promo #22 — $61
• Mewtwo — 30th Celebration #54 — $46
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex — Mega Dream ex #63 — $37

A further 2 Traditional Chinese printings of Mewtwo sit in our catalogue without a tracked value. No graded sale of any of them has been recorded.

Korean printings

9 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.

• Mewtwo EX — Promo #188/XY-P — $2,124
• Armored Mewtwo — Promo #196/SM-P — $462
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo EX — Glory Of Team Rocket #125 — $245
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex — Mega Dream ex #237 — $210
• Mewtwo VSTAR — VSTAR Universe #221 — $186
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex — Glory Of Team Rocket #130 — $69
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex — Glory Of Team Rocket #114 — $51
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex — Mega Dream ex #63 — $43
• Mewtwo V — VSTAR Universe #50 — $42

A further 14 Korean printings of Mewtwo 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.

Other character rankings

Each character with a full five or ten-card ranking has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, and among the shorter runs Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Chansey, Charmander, Clefable, Crocalor, Cubone, Fuecoco.

Beyond the single character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and the collector’s index lists every Pokémon that appears in the Chinese-only sets with its card count, priced count and top value.

We do not hold a Mewtwo 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.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Snorlax cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Snorlax LV.X leads at $81,047 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices. Simplified Chinese set codes end in C, the marker of a Chinese-exclusive print run.

Snorlax appears on 8 Chinese-exclusive printings, 5 further Simplified Chinese printings, 1 Traditional Chinese printings, 67 Japanese, 4 Korean and 91 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Snorlax carries 8 numbered Chinese-exclusive printings, and 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 Snorlax And Eevee GX #171 (CSM2cC) at $174. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the Chinese lines come 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 Chinese list is restricted to Chinese-exclusive numbering. Every card in the first list carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CBB1C, CBB5C, CSM2aC, CSV9C. That trailing letter is the dependable way to tell a Simplified Chinese print run from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
• 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 Simplified Chinese list — Chinese-exclusive sets

Every card here sits in a set whose code ends in C — the Simplified Chinese numbering line. Promos and 30th Celebration are excluded, because their numbering is shared across the Chinese branches rather than being Chinese-exclusive.

8. Snorlax — csv7C #158 — $36

7. Snorlax Doll — csv5C #115 — $37

6. Hop’s Snorlax — csv10C #175 — $42

5. Snorlax — 151C #143 — $43

4. Snorlax [Poke Ball] — csv7C #158 — $53

3. Eevee & Snorlax GX — CSM2cC #103 — $62

2. Snorlax — 151C #169 — $80

1. Snorlax And Eevee GX — CSM2cC #171 — $174

This line only yields 8 priced printings for Snorlax. Another 7 numbered printings in this line carry no graded sold record yet and are therefore not ranked.

Other Simplified Chinese printings

These are the other Simplified Chinese printings: promos, the reprint sets and the gift-box runs. They sit outside the ranked Chinese-exclusive list because their numbering does not identify a Chinese-only print.

• Eevee & Snorlax GX — CSM2.1C #54 — $149
• Snorlax — CS2aC #142 — $136
• Snorlax VMAX — CS1aC #112 — $97
• Snorlax [Light Connect All] — Promo #215/SV-P — $90
• Snorlax — CSZC #18 — $42

A further 12 Simplified Chinese printings of Snorlax sit in our catalogue without a tracked value. No graded sale of any of them has been recorded.

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. Snorlax [1st Edition] — Mysterious Mountains #62 — $2,871

9. Snorlax — Mysterious Mountains #62 — $2,900

8. Snorlax [Marumiya] — Promo #149/XY-P — $3,500

7. Snorlax — Jungle #143 — $4,000

6. Snorlax [1st Edition] — Offense and Defense (PCG7) #1 — $4,009†

5. Snorlax — Offense and Defense (PCG7) #1 — $4,661

4. Rocket’s Snorlax ex — Rocket Gang Strikes Back #62 — $5,575

3. Snorlax LV. X — Promo #127/DP-P — $6,316

2. Rocket’s Snorlax ex [1st Edition] — Rocket Gang Strikes Back #62 — $7,489

1. Snorlax [Series 1] — Vending #143 — $8,547

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.

• Snorlax [Holo] — CD Promo #143 — $2,581
• Snorlax — Promo #126/DP-P — $2,360
• Snorlax [Daiichi Pan] — Promo #261/XY-P — $2,205
• Snorlax — National Beginning #27 — $2,025
• Snorlax — Plasma Gale #55 — $1,994
• Snorlax [Holo] — Lost Link #28 — $1,988
• Rocket’s Snorlax — Challenge from the Darkness #143 — $1,877
• Snorlax [1st Edition] — Flight of Legends #74 — $1,769
• Snorlax — Flight of Legends #74 — $1,638
• Snorlax — Awakening Psychic King #57 — $1,025
• Snorlax [1st Edition] — Wild Blaze #66 — $638
• Eevee & Snorlax GX — Promo #297/SM-P — $606
• Snorlax [1st Edition] — Bonds to the End of Time #70 — $555
• Snorlax [1st Edition] — Awakening Psychic King #57 — $488
• Snorlax Prism — Vending #237 — $485
• Snorlax — XY Beginning Set #26 — $396
• Snorlax — Matchless Fighter #93 — $392
• Eevee & Snorlax GX — Tag Bolt #115 — $361
• Snorlax [1st Edition] — Plasma Gale #55 — $320
• Snorlax — Starter Pack #47 — $314
• Eevee & Snorlax GX — Tag Bolt #106 — $216
• Snorlax — Bonds to the End of Time #70 — $173
• Snorlax — Double Blaze #76 — $162
• Snorlax VMAX — Shield #70 — $160
• Snorlax — Start Deck 100 #342 — $160
• Hop’s Snorlax [Energy] — Mega Dream ex #136 — $160
• Snorlax — Wild Blaze #66 — $152
• Snorlax V — Shield #66 — $142
• Snorlax — Crimson Haze #51 — $142
• Snorlax — Amazing Volt Tackle #84 — $115

And 14 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. Rocket’s Snorlax [1st Edition] — Gym Heroes #33 — $4,703

9. Snorlax [Prerelease] — Call of Legends #33 — $6,850

8. Snorlax [No Symbol] — Jungle #11 — $7,650

7. Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Call of Legends #33 — $8,970†

6. Snorlax [Staff Pre-Release] — Call of Legends #33 — $13,641

5. Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Dragon Frontiers #10 — $16,763

4. Snorlax [1st Edition] — Jungle #11 — $24,100

3. Rocket’s Snorlax EX — Team Rocket Returns #104 — $29,773

2. Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Legendary Collection #64 — $49,428

1. Snorlax LV.X — Rising Rivals #111 — $81,047

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.

• Snorlax — Jungle #11 — $4,500
• Snorlax — Dragon Frontiers #10 — $4,467
• Snorlax — Promo #49 — $4,112
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Generations #58 — $2,866
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — BREAKthrough #118 — $2,481
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Skyridge #100 — $2,400
• Snorlax — Unbroken Bonds #158 — $2,358
• Hop’s Snorlax [Staff] — Promo #184 — $2,059
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Unbroken Bonds #158 — $1,999
• Snorlax [1st Edition] — Jungle #27 — $1,985
• Snorlax [Pokemon Center] — Promo #51 — $1,900
• Snorlax — Skyridge #100 — $1,800
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Fates Collide #77 — $1,796
• Snorlax — Generations #58 — $1,500
• Eevee & Snorlax GX — Team Up #191 — $1,398
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Plasma Storm #101 — $1,372
• Snorlax [Stamped] — Vivid Voltage #131 — $1,250
• Snorlax [Cosmos Holo] — Go #55 — $1,125
• Rocket’s Snorlax — Gym Heroes #33 — $1,116
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Fusion Strike #206 — $1,111
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Rising Rivals #81 — $952
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Rising Rivals #33 — $865
• Eevee & Snorlax GX — Team Up #171 — $842
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Go #55 — $808
• Snorlax — 1998 KFC #143 — $745
• Eevee & Snorlax GX — Team Up #120 — $740
• Snorlax — Call of Legends #33 — $736
• Snorlax [Reverse Holo] — Boundaries Crossed #109 — $574
• Snorlax [Highlighter Error] — Jungle #27 — $550
• Snorlax — Rising Rivals #33 — $539

And 37 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Where Snorlax is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Simplified Chinese — exclusive sets	8	8	$174
Simplified Chinese — other printings	5	5	$149
Traditional Chinese (Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China)	1	1	$70
Japanese	67	67	$8,547
Korean	4	4	$843
English	91	91	$81,047
All 6 lines	176	176	—

What the ranking shows

On the Chinese-exclusive line, 8 cards carry a tracked value. The four at the top hold 70.1% of it.

Band	Cards	Combined value	Share of total
Ranked 1 – 4	4	$370	70.1%
Ranked 5 – 10	4	$158	29.9%
Ranked 11 and below	0	$0	0.0%
Every priced Chinese-exclusive card	8	$527	100%

If you want one card

One card, no budget limit:

Snorlax And Eevee GX #171 — CSM2cC #171. $174, and it is the card most lists for this character name first.

One card, under two hundred dollars:

Snorlax #158 — csv7C #158. $36. It is not the card anyone photographs, but it is the same Pokémon from the same line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most valuable Snorlax card in Simplified Chinese?

Among the Chinese-exclusive numbered sets, Snorlax And Eevee GX #171 carries the highest tracked value at $174. Promos and other non-C numbered printings sit outside that comparison.

How many Snorlax cards exist in the Chinese-exclusive sets?

8 of the numbered Chinese-exclusive printings for this character carry a tracked market value in our catalogue.

Which Snorlax card leads the Japanese list?

Snorlax [Series 1] #143 from Vending at $8,547. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Snorlax card leads the English list?

Snorlax LV.X #111 from Rising Rivals at $81,047.

Why are the Traditional Chinese (1 printings listed here) and Korean (4 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

Snorlax is printed in more lines than the four listed above. Three more lines are kept here rather than dropped: the Traditional Chinese printings, 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.

Traditional Chinese printings (Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China)

1 printings

A separate line, and worth keeping separate: the Traditional Chinese cards printed for Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, China carry their own set codes (the F series) and their own print runs. The 2000 Traditional Chinese Base Set reaches back to a print that Simplified Chinese never had, and the 30th Celebration run is listed here because the two Chinese lines share it and the marketplace does not separate them.

• Snorlax — 30th Celebration #95 — $70

A further 1 Traditional Chinese printings of Snorlax sit in our catalogue without a tracked value. No graded sale of any of them has been recorded.

Korean printings

4 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.

• Eevee & Snorlax Tag Team GX — Promo #140/SM-P — $843
• Hop’s Snorlax [Ball] — Mega Dream ex #136 — $53
• Hop’s Snorlax — Battle Partners #75 — $38
• Hop’s Snorlax — Mega Dream ex #136 — $35

A further 9 Korean printings of Snorlax 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.

Other character rankings

Each character with a full five or ten-card ranking has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, and among the shorter runs Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Chansey, Charmander, Clefable, Crocalor, Cubone, Fuecoco.

Beyond the single character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and the collector’s index lists every Pokémon that appears in the Chinese-only sets with its card count, priced count and top value.

We do not hold a Snorlax 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.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Mew cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Mew leads at $150,000 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices. Simplified Chinese set codes end in C, the marker of a Chinese-exclusive print run.

Mew appears on 11 Chinese-exclusive printings, 6 further Simplified Chinese printings, 4 Traditional Chinese printings, 75 Japanese, 5 Korean and 68 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Mew sits at the head of the Japanese promo line as much as the set line, so its list is unusually spread across distribution channels. The head of the list is Mew EX #191 (151C) at $360. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the Chinese lines come 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 Chinese list is restricted to Chinese-exclusive numbering. Every card in the first list carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CBB1C, CBB5C, CSM2aC, CSV9C. That trailing letter is the dependable way to tell a Simplified Chinese print run from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
• 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 Simplified Chinese list — Chinese-exclusive sets

Every card here sits in a set whose code ends in C — the Simplified Chinese numbering line. Promos and 30th Celebration are excluded, because their numbering is shared across the Chinese branches rather than being Chinese-exclusive.

10. Mew EX — 151C #185 — $36

9. Mew EX — 151C #151 — $47

8. Mew VMAX — CS4bC #161 — $78

7. Mew EX — 151C #188 — $101

6. Mew EX — 151C #192 — $107

5. Mewtwo & Mew GX — CSM2bC #34 — $116

4. Mew V — CS4bC #138 — $159

3. Mew & Mewtwo GX — CSM2bC #188 — $228

2. Mew VMAX — CS4bC #162 — $258

1. Mew EX — 151C #191 — $360

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.

• Mew V — CS4bC #48 — $24

And 2 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Other Simplified Chinese printings

These are the other Simplified Chinese printings: promos, the reprint sets and the gift-box runs. They sit outside the ranked Chinese-exclusive list because their numbering does not identify a Chinese-only print.

• Mew ex — Promo #3/SV-P — $47,609
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — as6aC #208 — $526
• Mew ex — sv4aF #347 — $451
• Mew — CSZC #13 — $58
• Mew V — CS0C #2 — $40
• Mew — sv2A #195 — $33

A further 6 Simplified Chinese printings of Mew sit in our catalogue without a tracked value. No graded sale of any of them has been recorded.

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. Mew — Promo #85/PCG-P — $7,440†

9. Mew EX — 2005 Gift Box #3 — $7,555

8. Mew — Melee Pokemon Scramble #10 — $10,300

7. Mew — Southern Islands #151 — $10,788

6. Mew [Holo 1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #119 — $10,835

5. Mew [Gold Star] — Offense and Defense (PCG7) #15 — $14,185

4. Mew — Promo #91/PCG-P — $14,200

3. Mew [Gold Star 1st Edition] — Offense and Defense (PCG7) #15 — $15,700

2. Mew — Promo #148/PCG-P — $17,500

1. Shining Mew [CoroCoro] — Promo #151 — $42,600

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.

• Mew [Stamp Rally] — Promo #151 — $7,260
• Mew [Glossy] — CD Promo #151 — $7,100
• Mew EX [1st Edition] — Shiny Collection #24 — $6,691
• Mew — Mystery of the Fossils #151 — $6,500
• Mew [CoroCoro] — Promo #151 — $6,283
• Mew ex [1st Edition] — Mirage Forest #41 — $6,068
• Mew [Holo] — Lost Link #18 — $5,900
• Mew EX [1st Edition] — Dragon Blast #51 — $5,615
• Rota’s Mew — VS #2 — $4,306
• Mew — Promo #69/PCG-P — $3,950
• Mew — Rule of the Black Flame Build #5 — $3,685
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Miracle Twins #98 — $3,244
• Mew [McDonalds Promo] — Promo #33/P — $2,950
• Mew ex — Mirage Forest #41 — $2,387
• Mew [Holo] — Expedition Expansion Pack #119 — $2,382
• Mew — Dream Shine Collection #17 — $2,138
• Mew [1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #87 — $1,802
• Mew [Battle Carnival] — Promo #220/BW-P — $1,675
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Tag All Stars #222 — $1,485
• Mew VMAX — Fusion Arts #119 — $1,231
• Mew EX [1st Edition] — Dragon Blast #22 — $1,200
• Mew EX — Dragon Blast #51 — $1,160
• Mew [Reverse Holo] — Best of XY #44 — $1,148
• Shining Mew — Shining Legends #41 — $1,031
• Mew [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #51 — $852
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Miracle Twins #108 — $830
• Mew ex — Shiny Treasure ex #347 — $825
• Mew ex — 30th Celebration #135 — $665
• Mew — Dream Shine Collection #16 — $630
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Miracle Twins #97 — $567

And 21 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. Mew [Reverse Holo] — Legend Maker #10 — $9,942

9. Mew EX — Holon Phantoms #100 — $13,500

8. Mew — World Championships 2008 #101 — $13,800

7. Mew EX — Legend Maker #88 — $14,616

6. Mew — Triumphant #97 — $17,540

5. Mew EX — Dragons Exalted #120 — $34,354

4. Mew — Promo #40 — $44,396

3. Mew — Southern Islands #1 — $46,746

2. Mew [Gold Star] — Dragon Frontiers #101 — $53,463

1. Mew — Expedition #19 — $150,000

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.

• Mew [Reverse Holo] — Secret Wonders #15 — $8,788
• Mew [Holo] — POP Series 5 #3 — $8,630
• Mew — Promo #9 — $7,725
• Mew — Rumble #10 — $7,152
• Mew EX — 25th Anniversary Creatures Deck #2005 — $6,725
• Mew EX — Dragons Exalted #46 — $5,190
• Mew [1st Place League] — Evolutions #53 — $4,935
• Mew — Legend Maker #10 — $4,061
• Mew [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #19 — $3,932
• Mew [Holo] — POP Series 4 #4 — $3,493
• Mew [Holo] — Holon Phantoms #111 — $3,012
• Mew [Holo] — Evolutions #53 — $2,972
• Mew ex — Paldean Fates #232 — $2,911
• Mew — Secret Wonders #15 — $2,769
• Mew — Promo #47 — $2,559
• Mew — POP Series 5 #3 — $2,550
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Unified Minds #222 — $1,799
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Unified Minds #242 — $1,792
• Shining Mew — Shining Legends #40 — $1,435
• Mew — Holon Phantoms #111 — $1,425
• Mew [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #55 — $1,391
• Mew — Expedition #55 — $1,282
• Mew [2nd Place League] — Evolutions #53 — $990
• Mewtwo & Mew GX — Unified Minds #71 — $985
• Mew [3rd Place League] — Evolutions #53 — $960
• Mew [4th Place League] — Evolutions #53 — $958
• Mew — Celebrations #11 — $815
• Mew — Fates Collide #29 — $799
• Mew ex — Promo #53 — $766
• Mew ex — World Championships 2007 #88 — $730

And 18 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Where Mew is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Simplified Chinese — exclusive sets	11	11	$360
Simplified Chinese — other printings	6	6	$47,609
Traditional Chinese (Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China)	4	4	$251
Japanese	75	75	$42,600
Korean	5	5	$925
English	68	68	$150,000
All 6 lines	169	169	—

What the ranking shows

On the Chinese-exclusive line, 11 cards carry a tracked value. The four at the top hold 66.4% of it.

Band	Cards	Combined value	Share of total
Ranked 1 – 4	4	$1,005	66.4%
Ranked 5 – 10	6	$485	32.0%
Ranked 11 and below	1	$24	1.6%
Every priced Chinese-exclusive card	11	$1,514	100%

If you want one card

One card, no budget limit:

Mew EX #191 — 151C #191. $360, and it is the card most lists for this character name first.

One card, a few hundred dollars:

Mew EX #191 — 151C #191. $360, which is the strongest card on the page that is still reachable without a vintage budget.

One card, under two hundred dollars:

Mew V #48 — CS4bC #48. $24. It is not the card anyone photographs, but it is the same Pokémon from the same line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most valuable Mew card in Simplified Chinese?

Among the Chinese-exclusive numbered sets, Mew EX #191 carries the highest tracked value at $360. Promos and other non-C numbered printings sit outside that comparison.

How many Mew cards exist in the Chinese-exclusive sets?

11 of the numbered Chinese-exclusive printings for this character carry a tracked market value in our catalogue.

Which Mew card leads the Japanese list?

Shining Mew [CoroCoro] #151 from Promo at $42,600. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Mew card leads the English list?

Mew #19 from Expedition at $150,000.

Why are the Traditional Chinese (4 printings listed here) and Korean (5 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. 1 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

Mew is printed in more lines than the four listed above. Three more lines are kept here rather than dropped: the Traditional Chinese printings, 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.

Traditional Chinese printings (Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China)

4 printings

A separate line, and worth keeping separate: the Traditional Chinese cards printed for Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, China carry their own set codes (the F series) and their own print runs. The 2000 Traditional Chinese Base Set reaches back to a print that Simplified Chinese never had, and the 30th Celebration run is listed here because the two Chinese lines share it and the marketplace does not separate them.

• Mew ex — 30th Celebration #135 — $251
• Mew — 25th Anniversary #30 — $209
• Mew ex — 25th Anniversary promo #14 — $170
• Mew VMAX — 30th Celebration #163 — $109

A further 3 Traditional Chinese printings of Mew sit in our catalogue without a tracked value. No graded sale of any of them has been recorded.

Korean printings

5 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.

• Mew ex — Shiny Treasure #347 — $925
• Shining Mew — Shining Legends #41 — $257
• Mew ex — Promo #125/SV-P — $250
• Mew VMAX — VSTAR Universe #54 — $53
• Mew V — VSTAR Universe #53 — $41

A further 13 Korean printings of Mew 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.

Other character rankings

Each character with a full five or ten-card ranking has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, and among the shorter runs Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Chansey, Charmander, Clefable, Crocalor, Cubone, Fuecoco.

Beyond the single character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and the collector’s index lists every Pokémon that appears in the Chinese-only sets with its card count, priced count and top value.

Our own stock includes a Mew ex slab that sits outside this list — the Mew ex PSA 10 (#003/SV-P), which is excluded above because promo numbering is shared across the Chinese branches. Our Simplified Chinese slabs 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.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) ranks the most valuable Chansey cards printed in the Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines. Chansey [1st Edition] leads at $102,500 as a PSA 10, and the rankings use tracked PSA 10 sales rather than raw prices. Simplified Chinese set codes end in C, the marker of a Chinese-exclusive print run.

Chansey appears on 10 Chinese-exclusive printings, 3 further Simplified Chinese printings, 28 Japanese, 1 Korean and 40 English numbered Pokémon cards, and this page covers every language the character was printed in — Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English lines.

Chansey carries 10 numbered Chinese-exclusive printings, and 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 Chansey #401 (CBB5C) at $104. Everything below is arranged by what each card actually trades for, so the page reads the same way whoever is reading it — the Chinese lines come 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 Chinese list is restricted to Chinese-exclusive numbering. Every card in the first list carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CBB1C, CBB5C, CSM2aC, CSV9C. That trailing letter is the dependable way to tell a Simplified Chinese print run from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese.
• 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 Simplified Chinese list — Chinese-exclusive sets

Every card here sits in a set whose code ends in C — the Simplified Chinese numbering line. Promos and 30th Celebration are excluded, because their numbering is shared across the Chinese branches rather than being Chinese-exclusive.

10. Chansey — CBB5C #404 — $36

9. Chansey [Stamped] — CBB1C #1505 — $36

8. Chansey — CBB5C #402 — $37

7. Chansey — 151C #113 — $38

6. Chansey — CBB5C #405 — $39

5. Chansey — CBB5C #403 — $39

4. Chansey — CBB5C #406 — $40

3. Chansey [Masterball] — CBB1C #1504 — $52

2. Chansey — CBB5C #407 — $85

1. Chansey — CBB5C #401 — $104

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. Chansey — Reshiram EX Battle Strength Deck #9 — $199

9. Chansey [1st Edition] — The Town on No Map #57 — $234

8. Chansey — Golden Sky, Silvery Ocean #78 — $305

7. Chansey [1st Edition] — Flight of Legends #69 — $331

6. Chansey [1st Edition] — Expedition Expansion Pack #47 — $385

5. Chansey — Expedition Expansion Pack #47 — $420†

4. _____’s Chansey — Challenge from the Darkness #113 — $950

3. Chansey — Expansion Pack #113 — $2,288

2. Chansey [Series 1] — Vending #113 — $4,225

1. Chansey [No Rarity] — Expansion Pack #113 — $20,400

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.

• Chansey [1st Edition] — Phantom Gate #68 — $190
• Chansey [1st Edition] — Golden Sky, Silvery Ocean #78 — $186
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — HeartGold Collection #52 — $157
• Chansey — HeartGold Collection #52 — $150
• Chansey — Family #35 — $148
• Chansey — Islands Await You #42 — $107
• Chansey — Super-Burst Impact #66 — $106
• Chansey [1st Edition] — 20th Anniversary #68 — $93
• Chansey — Mask of Change #113 — $81
• Chansey — GX Battle Boost #80 — $74
• Chansey — Flight of Legends #69 — $72
• Chansey — The Town on No Map #57 — $70
• Chansey — Phantom Gate #68 — $61
• Chansey — Classic: Venusaur #15 — $49
• Chansey — Dark Rush #56 — $41
• Chansey — Go #51 — $39
• Chansey — Mask of Change #84 — $37
• Chansey — Violet Ex #59 — $36

And 6 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. Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Unseen Forces #20 — $582

9. Chansey — Evolutions #70 — $622†

8. Chansey — Neo Destiny #31 — $1,080†

7. Chansey — McDonalds 2018 #10 — $1,472

6. Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Expedition #72 — $1,500

5. Chansey [Shadowless] — Base Set #3 — $4,413

4. Chansey — Base Set 2 #3 — $5,408†

3. Chansey — Base Set #3 — $8,646†

2. Beta Chansey — 25th Anniversary Creatures Deck #1995 — $32,400

1. Chansey [1st Edition] — Base Set #3 — $102,500

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.

• Chansey — Aquapolis #69 — $551
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Aquapolis #69 — $452
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Evolutions #70 — $400
• Chansey — Twilight Masquerade #187 — $286
• Chansey [1st Edition] — Neo Destiny #31 — $280
• Chansey — Expedition #72 — $270
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Hidden Fates #46 — $179
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Platinum #69 — $147
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Mysterious Treasures #76 — $138
• Chansey — Hidden Fates #46 — $131
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Dark Explorers #81 — $109
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Dark Explorers #80 — $91
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Lost Thunder #152 — $90
• Chansey — Mysterious Treasures #76 — $77
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Twilight Masquerade #133 — $76
• Chansey — TCG Classic: Venusaur Deck #15 — $74
• Chansey — Platinum #69 — $73
• Chansey — Fusion Strike #202 — $51
• Chansey — Dark Explorers #80 — $49
• Chansey — Unseen Forces #20 — $47
• Chansey — Dark Explorers #81 — $47
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Phantom Forces #80 — $43
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Guardians Rising #101 — $40
• Chansey — Phantom Forces #80 — $40
• Chansey — Lost Thunder #152 — $40
• Chansey — Guardians Rising #101 — $36
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Fusion Strike #202 — $33
• Chansey — Twilight Masquerade #133 — $32
• Chansey [Reverse Holo] — Go #51 — $30
• Chansey — Go #51 — $28

And 4 further printings below those, which carry no tracked value at all.

Where Chansey is printed, across the languages

Printing line	Cards	With a tracked value	Highest
Simplified Chinese — exclusive sets	10	10	$104
Japanese	28	28	$20,400
Korean	1	1	$78
English	40	40	$102,500
All 4 lines	79	79	—

What the ranking shows

On the Chinese-exclusive line, 10 cards carry a tracked value. The four at the top hold 55.5% of it.

Band	Cards	Combined value	Share of total
Ranked 1 – 4	4	$281	55.5%
Ranked 5 – 10	6	$225	44.5%
Ranked 11 and below	0	$0	0.0%
Every priced Chinese-exclusive card	10	$507	100%

If you want one card

One card, no budget limit:

Chansey #401 — CBB5C #401. $104, and it is the card most lists for this character name first.

One card, under two hundred dollars:

Chansey #404 — CBB5C #404. $36. It is not the card anyone photographs, but it is the same Pokémon from the same line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most valuable Chansey card in Simplified Chinese?

Among the Chinese-exclusive numbered sets, Chansey #401 carries the highest tracked value at $104. Promos and other non-C numbered printings sit outside that comparison.

How many Chansey cards exist in the Chinese-exclusive sets?

10 of the numbered Chinese-exclusive printings for this character carry a tracked market value in our catalogue.

Which Chansey card leads the Japanese list?

Chansey [No Rarity] #113 from Expansion Pack at $20,400. Japanese is the original printing line, so its top of the list reaches back further than either Chinese or English.

Which Chansey card leads the English list?

Chansey [1st Edition] #3 from Base Set at $102,500.

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. 5 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

Chansey is printed in more lines than the three 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.

• Chansey — Mask of Change #113 — $78

A further 6 Korean printings of Chansey 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.

Other character rankings

Each character with a full five or ten-card ranking has its own page: Ceruledge, Charizard, Eevee, Espeon, Flareon, Floragato, Gengar, Glaceon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Mew, Pikachu, Sylveon, Umbreon, Vaporeon, and among the shorter runs Alakazam, Applin, Articuno, Blastoise, Captain Pikachu, Chandelure, Charmander, Clefable, Crocalor, Cubone, Fuecoco, Growlithe.

Beyond the single character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands, and the collector’s index lists every Pokémon that appears in the Chinese-only sets with its card count, priced count and top value.

We do not hold a Chansey 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.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) publishes this comparison from four separate regional boards, and they disagree: Dedenne is number one in Japan and Pikachu in the United States, while Europe’s board belongs to Charizard. In the 2020 worldwide vote Pikachu finished nineteenth, not first.

Ask four regions which Pokémon they actually like and you get four different boards. Japan’s is a joke vote, China’s is a new-game lookup chart, the United States is Generation I with two competitive exceptions, and Europe hands the crown to Charizard in nine separate countries. The gap between those boards is the reason Simplified Chinese cards exist as a category worth owning: the taste that the Chinese market prices up is the taste the West already has, and the artwork it prints for that taste has no Japanese or English printing at all.

This piece does two things. It lays out the strongest preference data available for Japan, China, the United States and Europe, with the source and the method behind each board stated plainly. Then it takes the Simplified Chinese environment apart on its own terms — what its collectors respond to, what moves its prices, how a favorite spreads inside it, and what its playing community does to demand — because that environment is where we actually buy, and it is the one a Western collector is least likely to have read about.

Where these four boards come from

There is no single global poll that reports by country. The largest official vote ever run — Pokémon of the Year, announced on Pokémon Day 2020, six and a half million votes across ten days and eight languages — broke its results down by generation, not by geography: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and so on. Its overall winner was Greninja with 140,559 votes; Pikachu finished nineteenth. Anyone quoting region-by-region numbers from that vote is quoting the Kanto-to-Galar split, which is a different thing entirely.

So this article triangulates from five sources, each measuring something slightly different. Read them with their bias in mind and the pattern holds up.

• Japan — an official fan vote. For Pokémon Day 2021, the Japanese Pokémon Day site ran a hashtag-based favorite-Pokémon vote on Twitter from 19 to 22 February. It published a top 30. It did not cap votes per account, and the board it produced is visibly shaped by that.
• Asia — an official per-market vote. The same month, Pokémon Asia My Favorite Award 2021 ran a separate vote in each of nine markets through the regional Pokédex sites, with the leaderboard drawn from a click on the entry itself. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, India and Indonesia each got their own board, and there was no combined Asian total.
• China — page views on the country’s largest Pokémon wiki. 神奇宝贝百科 (52poke) publishes an annual list of its most-visited Pokémon articles. Its 2025 list is the closest thing to a demand signal for mainland China that exists in public, because it measures what people went looking for rather than what they claimed to like.
• The United States — search volume. A 2025-26 analysis of twelve months of US Google search data produced a top 10 with actual monthly figures attached, which is why it is the one board here with numbers instead of ranks.
• Europe — a national-leader analysis. A Google search study that normalised each Pokémon’s search volume country by country and then asked which Pokémon ranks furthest above its own global average identified a leader for every European country. There is no European top 10 in that study. There is something more useful: which Pokémon wins the most countries.

Two more boards are worth holding alongside these as checks. In 2025 an English-language community poll of 14,478 voters put Umbreon, Charizard, Blastoise, Gyarados and Gengar at the top of a Kanto-only ballot; a separate 26,402-vote survey across the wider fandom returned Mimikyu, Sylveon, Gengar, Mudkip, Bulbasaur and Lucario above Eevee and Umbreon. And Bulbapedia’s own 2025 page-view list, the English-language equivalent of the Chinese wiki data, runs Eevee, Lucario, Gardevoir, Zygarde, Dragonite, Pikachu, Charizard, Garchomp, Gengar, Ceruledge.

Japan: the board the internet wrote

Japan’s 2021 favorite-Pokémon board, top 10:

Rank	Pokémon	Generation
1	Dedenne	VI
2	Cinccino	V
3	Sableye	III
4	Snivy	V
5	Magnemite	I
6	Swadloon	V
7	Pikachu	I
8	Buzzwole	VII
9	Oshawott	V
10	Flygon	III

Read that board as a ranking of affection and you will draw the wrong conclusions. Dedenne at number one, Cinccino at two and Swadloon at six are not a picture of Japanese taste — they are the fingerprint of an uncapped hashtag vote. Japanese fans noticed in real time that a small, unglamorous Pokémon could be pushed up the board by repeating a tag, and the vote turned into an in-joke. The same thing happened to Taiwan’s parallel board, where Grimer finished first and Lugia fourth inside an otherwise conventional top five, and the Taiwanese fan write-ups said so openly at the time.

Strip the joke layer out and Japan looks much more like everywhere else. Japanese search data puts Eevee as the country’s most-searched Pokémon, and Eevee is the one character the Pokémon Company has promoted to co-mascot status beside Pikachu — the only creature with its own dedicated main-series game and its own national day. Japan’s distinct taste, once the meme vote is set aside, is a taste for whole lines rather than single faces: an entire evolutionary family becomes the unit of affection, which is why the Eevee family sits so high in Japanese-region boards and why five of Japan’s 2021 top ten are Generation V Pokémon that Western audiences barely register.

That Generation V cluster is a genuine regional signal, and it is worth understanding. Black and White were designed so that no older Pokémon appeared during the main story, which forced Game Freak to fill an entire region from scratch. The result was a slate of designs that Japanese players met at a formative age and that most Western players met as filler. Two of those Generation V names — Cinccino and Swadloon — appear nowhere near any other board in this article.

China: the board that a new game release writes

China’s 2025 board, top five by page views on 52poke, the country’s largest Pokémon wiki:

Rank	Pokémon	Generation	What drove the traffic
1	Gardevoir	III	A Mega-Evolution Ralts was bundled as a purchase bonus with the 2025 release
2	Eevee	I	Where to find it and how to evolve it, in every new game
3	Charizard	I	Two Mega forms, a Gigantamax form, and permanent anime presence
4	Gengar	I	Mega form and a celebrated shiny colourway
5	Tyranitar	II	A Mega user in the same 2025 release

We are giving the top five rather than a top ten because that is what the publisher detailed in readable form; the remainder of that list circulated as images. It is enough to make the point, and the point is not about affection at all.

A wiki page-view board measures need, not love. People open a Pokémon’s page because a game told them to go and find it, because an evolution condition is obscure, or because a new form just changed how it plays. In 2025 that meant the board was written by one release: Gardevoir took first place on the back of a Mega-Evolution Ralts handed out with a purchase, and Tyranitar reached fifth as a Mega user in the same game. Garchomp, a Dragon and Ground type that also gained a Mega, sat just behind. Three of the top six were driven by the same product.

The same list, read from the bottom, is just as informative. Its least-visited entries skew heavily to Generation V, the generation with the least nostalgia value and the least competitive relevance — the opposite end of the same effect that put Dedenne on top of Japan’s vote.

Bulbapedia’s 2025 English-language list makes an interesting comparison, because it uses an almost identical method on a different audience. Eevee is first there too. Gardevoir is third. But where the Chinese list is Gen I and II heavy with a 2025 flame-thrower on top, the English list runs Lucario, Zygarde and Dragonite into the top five — three characters whose traffic comes from competitive play and from a different set of recent releases. Same tool, different crowd, different board.

The United States: Pikachu, then a long plateau

US average monthly search volume, top 10:

Rank	Pokémon	Generation	Monthly searches
1	Pikachu	I	718,425
2	Eevee	I	479,516
3	Charizard	I	387,141
4	Squirtle	I	229,916
5	Gengar	I	209,116
6	Snorlax	I	205,508
7	Arceus	IV	197,889
8	Gardevoir	III	192,183
9	Ditto	I	187,950
10	Mewtwo	I	185,841

Two things stand out. The first is the shape. Pikachu’s 718,425 searches a month is not a lead, it is a separate tier: the gap between first and second is bigger than the gap between second and seventh. Below Pikachu the board is a plateau — Eevee, Charizard, Squirtle, Gengar, Snorlax, Arceus, Gardevoir, Ditto and Mewtwo are within a factor of 2.6 of each other, so on any given month ranks four through ten can reorder without anything having changed.

The second is the composition. Eight of the ten are Generation I, and the two that are not are the two you would predict from play patterns rather than childhood: Arceus is the cover of the most recent Legends title and a fixture in competitive discussion, and Gardevoir has been a top-table card in the trading card game continuously for years.

The same study’s second cut adds a wrinkle. When it asked which Pokémon is unusually popular in the US relative to its global average — rather than which is popular overall — Gengar came first, at 2.6 percent of American Pokémon searches against a 2.2 percent global share. Gengar is a Pokémon the US likes more than the world does. Combine that with the 2025 fandom survey that placed Gengar third overall and the Kanto ballot that placed it fifth, and Gengar becomes the closest thing the US has to a national favorite after Pikachu.

Europe: Charizard’s continent, with three local deviations

Europe has no continent-wide board, so the honest way to present it is by country. The table below gives the Pokémon that ranks furthest above its own global average in each market.

Market	Most uniquely popular Pokémon	Generation
United Kingdom, Ireland	Charizard	I
Italy, Portugal, Sweden	Charizard	I
Czech Republic, Estonia, Malta, Andorra	Charizard	I
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Albania	Golem	I
Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania	Eevee	I
Europe as a whole (most uniquely popular)	Abra	I

Charizard wins nine European countries, more than any other Pokémon wins anywhere in the study. That is the clearest regional statement in this article: the Charizard premium is a European and Anglophone phenomenon before it is a global one, which is exactly why the 1st Edition Charizard sits at the top of every Western price guide.

The deviations are more interesting than the headline. Golem — a Rock and Ground type that nobody would put in a top ten for any other reason — leads five European markets in a tight central belt running from Germany and Austria through Slovakia to Albania. Abra, a Psychic type that is not even a fully evolved Pokémon, is the single most disproportionately searched Pokémon in Europe. Neither result is about story or anime exposure. Both look like localised effects of the mobile game, where Rock and Psychic attackers have had long stretches of relevance, plus the ordinary feedback loop by which a country searches what its own players are talking about.

The northern cluster is a neat contrast. Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania all give the title to Eevee rather than Charizard, and Eevee is the answer in Japan too. The pattern that emerges when you line all of this up is that Charizard and Eevee are the two poles of Western preference: Charizard where the trading card game’s playground culture took hold hardest, Eevee where it did not.

Why the four boards disagree

Five forces explain most of the difference, and only one of them is about taste.

1. The method decides the winner. Japan’s board came from an uncapped hashtag vote and its top three are jokes. China’s came from wiki lookups and its top spot was bought by a purchase bonus. The US board came from search volume and is therefore a board of recognition, not preference. Europe’s came from a per-country deviation analysis and is therefore a board of what makes each country different rather than what it likes. A Pokémon can top one board and miss another entirely without any fan having changed their mind.
2. Anime and game exposure arrive on different schedules. Greninja won the 2020 worldwide vote on the strength of one story arc, in a series whose dub reached different markets at different times. Dedenne is a main-anime companion in Japan and a minor character elsewhere. Buzzwole reached eighth in Japan on the back of game and meme presence that never translated.
3. Generation I has a structural advantage that compounds. Measured across two decades of search data, Generation I Pokémon average more than double the interest of any later generation, and about forty times the newest one. Around 80 percent of all Pokémon sit below one percent of the franchise’s total search interest. Pikachu has had a thirty-year head start; the newer a Pokémon is, the less likely it is to appear on any board at all.
4. Recency reshuffles the middle. Zygarde, Dragonite and Terapagos appear high on the 2025 English wiki board and on no other board in this article, because they were the subject of recent releases. Sableye, Grimer and Swadloon appear on Asian boards and nowhere else, because of memes. Neither group is a statement about lasting popularity.
5. Local culture genuinely matters at the margins. Europe’s Golem belt and its Eevee north are both regional, both consistent across neighbouring countries, and neither is explained by anything the Pokémon Company did. This is the layer that matters most for a collector, because it is the layer that lasts.

For anyone buying cards rather than arguing about favourites, the practical lesson is that poll boards and demand boards answer different questions. A poll tells you what people say. Page views, search volume and sale records tell you what people do. Only the second kind moves prices.

Inside the Simplified Chinese environment

China’s Pokémon card market is not a smaller version of Japan’s. It is a different market with a different starting point, and understanding four things about it explains almost everything about which Simplified Chinese cards hold value.

Local cultural resonance

The Simplified Chinese card line localises harder than any other branch. Inside the sealed product line it has shipped fridge magnets, pin badges, Spring Festival red envelopes, Dragon Boat Festival sachets, Beijing-pattern porcelain bowls and Mid-Autumn porcelain plates — merchandise that has nothing to do with playing the game and everything to do with how collectible culture works in China, where the “goods” or 谷子 market for character merchandise is a mass-market phenomenon. The cardboard itself was priced to match: the headline gift boxes were moved down from a higher tier to roughly the fifty-yuan band that Chinese buyers already understood from blind-box culture.

And the emotional anchor of the whole line is Generation I. The 151 roster is the roster that the cohort with money to spend met first, which is why a 151 product became the line’s breakout rather than any newer set. That matters enormously from the outside, because Generation I nostalgia is the one preference Chinese, American and European collectors share without qualification. The chart at the top of this page is the whole argument in one image: the further you travel from Japan, the more Generation I dominates, and Simplified Chinese product is built on Generation I.

Version and event effects

In Japan, a Pokémon becomes popular and then gets printed. In China, the sequence often runs the other way — a print run or a promo creates the demand. The clearest example in the 2025 data is the wiki board being topped by a character whose traffic came from a single purchase bonus. The card line works the same way at a smaller scale: city-league and qualifier seasons concentrate attention on specific playable cards for a few weeks, and the Simplified Chinese-exclusive artwork — the Collect 151 art rares, the Gem Pack art rares, the Gold UR treatment — creates demand spikes with no Japanese or English equivalent to compare against.

This is the structural difference that matters most to a collector outside China. In Japanese and English product, rarity tiers are known quantities and the market prices them by population. In Simplified Chinese product, exclusivity is not only about how few copies were printed; it is about the fact that a specific illustration exists in no other language. There is no Japanese print to buy instead.

How a favorite spreads through the community

Chinese preference forms in public, on platforms rather than in advertising. Wiki lookups, short-video topic volume and the large second-hand trading platforms are where a Pokémon’s standing is actually set, and the trading platforms publish enough of their own data to confirm the shape of the market: across 2025, Pokémon accounted for 71.3 percent of card transaction value on the leading domestic TCG resale platform and 42.5 percent of cards traded, with the 151 line alone moving more than 1.8 million single cards and the Eeveelution line around 462,000.

Two consequences follow. The first is that fashions can spike quickly and stay narrow — a character can become expensive in China for reasons that never register in the West. The second is that the “goods” audience and the playing audience are separable, so a card can be valuable to one group and irrelevant to the other. When the trading platforms describe 2025 as a year that split into a “playing line” and a “collecting line”, that is what they mean.

The competitive and online-battle layer

Simplified Chinese competitive play follows the Japanese card pool, on a delay, with its own event calendar. That produces a double price structure. Playable cards track the metagame and move every time a set rotates; collectible cards track nostalgia and exclusivity and barely move at all. The average Simplified Chinese competitive deck costs around ¥238 on the resale market, which is a fraction of the equivalent figure for other card games in the same market — the playing side of Simplified Chinese Pokémon is deliberately cheap.

The collecting side is where the money is, and it is concentrated almost entirely in high-rarity, graded, exclusive artwork. Local reporting on the year put it plainly: the arrival of Simplified Chinese-exclusive artwork was the first time Chinese-language cards gained real standing with overseas collectors, who began paying meaningful premiums for high-rarity Chinese cards. That shift is the reason this site exists.

What this means if you collect from outside mainland China

We buy both Japanese and Simplified Chinese cards. The Japanese market is deep, well understood and priced accordingly, and there is no particular edge in it. The Simplified Chinese line is where a Western collector can still buy something that does not exist in any other language, so that is where we concentrate.

• The overlap is the opportunity. Every board in this article converges on the same short list in the West: Pikachu, Eevee, Charizard, Gengar, Umbreon, Sylveon, Gardevoir. All of those characters have Simplified Chinese printings, many with exclusive illustrations. You are not being asked to develop a taste for Dedenne to take part.
• Exclusive artwork is the only genuinely scarce thing. A Simplified Chinese-exclusive art rare has no Japanese and no English counterpart, which means its population is knowable and small in a way that a Japanese secret rare’s is not. The four Collect 151 Pikachu art rares are the clearest example of the category.
• The line is young, so the population reports are thin. Simplified Chinese cards only began in 2023. There is less grading history, which cuts both ways: less competition for high-grade copies, and less evidence about how they behave over time.
• Learn to read the set code before you buy anything. The trailing letter is what separates a Chinese-only card from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese, and it is the single most useful habit a buyer can pick up. The set-code guide walks through it from end to end.
• Start with the price ladder, not with the headline cards. The price ladder sorts the Simplified Chinese catalogue into bands so you can see what each tier of money buys, and the ten most popular exclusive cards ranks across characters rather than inside one.
• Buy graded, and buy exclusive. A PSA 10 of a Simplified Chinese-exclusive artwork is the smallest-population version of that illustration in existence. A PSA 10 of a card that also exists in Japanese is competing with a much larger field.

If you want the character-level version of this, the whole series is worth reading by character — Pikachu, Charizard, Eevee, Umbreon, Sylveon and Gengar for the four boards’ most repeated names, then Psyduck, Cubone, Applin, Ponyta, Meowth, Chandelure, Ceruledge and Blastoise for the ones this article’s boards mostly miss.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an official poll of the most popular Pokémon by country?

No. The largest official vote, Pokémon of the Year in 2020, published its results split by generation rather than by country, so its “regions” are Kanto through Galar and not Japan through Europe. The closest thing to official geographic data is Pokémon Asia My Favorite Award 2021, which reported a separate board for each of nine Asian markets but none for Europe or the Americas.

Why is Dedenne number one in Japan?

Because Japan’s 2021 Pokémon Day vote ran on a Twitter hashtag with no limit on how many times one account could vote. Japanese fans deliberately pushed small, unglamorous Pokémon up the board as a joke, and Dedenne, Cinccino and Swadloon are the result. It is a board of what the Japanese internet found funny in February 2021, not a board of what Japanese players like. Treat it as evidence about community behaviour and not as a preference ranking.

Why is Pikachu number one in the US but nineteenth in the 2020 worldwide vote?

Because the two measure different things. The 2020 vote asked people to name a favorite, and voters reached past the obvious answer — Pikachu finished nineteenth with 48,060 votes, behind Mimikyu, a Pokémon whose entire concept is that it dresses up as Pikachu. Search volume asks what people look up, and Pikachu is the franchise’s entry point for anyone new. Popularity and recognition are two different metrics, and the same Pokémon can top one and miss the other.

Does any of this predict card prices?

Partly. Search volume and page views track attention, which is upstream of demand, and the Western boards have been stable enough for long enough to be useful — Charizard’s European dominance is the single most reliable line in the data and it is visible in every Western price guide. Polls are far weaker signals, and meme votes are worth nothing at all. If you are choosing what to collect, weight the demand data and ignore the affection data.

Why do Simplified Chinese cards have exclusive artwork at all?

Because the branch needed a reason to exist. Simplified Chinese cards are recent, and a straight reprint of Japanese product with a different code on it would have no reason to sell. The exclusive artwork — the Collect 151 art rares, the Gem Pack art rares, the Gold UR treatment — is what gives the line its own audience, and it is also what gives it its value outside China. Local industry reporting credits exactly this move with bringing overseas collectors into the Simplified Chinese market for the first time.

Which Simplified Chinese cards does a Western collector notice first?

Usually the Generation I character they already collect, printed as an exclusive artwork. Four of the boards in this article converge on Charizard, Pikachu, Eevee and Gengar, and all four have Simplified Chinese exclusive printings. Why Simplified Chinese cards are worth collecting now sets out the case in full, and Chinese vs Japanese Pokémon cards explains how the three branches differ.

Where to go next

The rest of the site goes deeper on the parts of this that are actually actionable:

• How many Simplified Chinese-exclusive Pokémon cards there are — the full catalogue by set.
• Gem Pack Vol. 1 to 6 — what is in each volume and how deep each group runs.
• What Gold UR means on a Simplified Chinese card — the treatment at the top of the exclusivity ladder.
• Why Simplified Chinese cards are so recent — the timeline, and why the line started when it did.
• How to complete a Simplified Chinese set — what a full run of one volume actually involves.
• The fifty most expensive Pokémon cards ever sold — where the hobby’s ceiling sits, and why none of it is Simplified Chinese.
• One Pokémon per trainer — how to pick a character and collect it properly.

Our own stock of graded Chinese cards is listed in the PSA 10 collection.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. The Pokémon Company and Google — Pokémon of the Year 2020, announced on Pokémon Day, 27 February 2020. 6,608,215 votes across ten days and eight languages; overall top 30 and per-generation top 30 published. Greninja 140,559 votes, Pikachu 48,060 votes at nineteenth.
2. The Pokémon Company — Pokémon Day 2021 Japan favorite-Pokémon vote, a hashtag-based Twitter vote running 19 to 22 February 2021, top 30 published on the Japanese Pokémon Day site.
3. The Pokémon Company Asia — Pokémon Asia My Favorite Award 2021, per-market boards for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, India and Indonesia, published 27 February 2021.
4. 神奇宝贝百科 (52poke) — most-visited Pokémon articles of 2025, the annual page-view list of the largest Chinese-language Pokémon wiki. Top five detail as reported in Chinese games media, January 2026.
5. Bulbapedia — most and least visited Pokémon articles in 2025, the English-language equivalent.
6. Play USA — analysis of twelve months of US Google search data, reported February 2026. Monthly averages per Pokémon.
7. The Toy Zone — The Most Popular Pokémon Around the World, a Google search-volume study normalised per country and ranked by deviation from each Pokémon’s global average.
8. Johto Times — Favourite Pokémon Poll 2025, 14,478 participants on a Kanto-only ballot.
9. Community survey of 26,402 votes across the wider Pokémon fandom, reported 2024, top 10 as published.
10. 懂游宝 / 懂淘 — 2025 domestic trading-card market data, covering transaction value share by franchise, single-card volumes for the 151 and Eeveelution lines, and average competitive deck prices in the Simplified Chinese market.
11. CardSpicy — How to read a Simplified Chinese Pokémon set code, Gem Pack Vol. 1 to 6 and the Collect 151 art rares, for the set-level detail behind the Simplified Chinese sections.

Popularity data is reproduced as published by the sources above and is not our own measurement; where a source’s method limits what its board can show, that limitation is stated in the text. Card prices and market figures quoted here are secondary-market observations at the dates cited and move quickly. Nothing on this page is a valuation or an investment recommendation.

Quick answer

CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) documents all fifty here, every one sold and every one documented. Thirty-four of the fifty were never available in a booster pack, and 23 carry one of three names. None of them exists in Simplified Chinese — which is the point of measuring the two markets against each other.

Fifty cards, every one of them sold, every one of them documented. Thirty-four of the fifty were never available in a booster pack. Twenty-three of them carry one of three names. Nothing printed after 2019 appears anywhere on the list. This is where the hobby’s ceiling actually sits, and seeing it clearly explains why the ceiling is not the part of the market a collector in Europe or North America should be shopping in.

Two things follow from that. The first is that a list like this is a map of scarcity, not of taste: most of the cards below were prizes, promos or pre-production material, and the price is a function of how few copies escaped rather than how much anyone loves the Pokémon on the front. The second is that none of these fifty cards exists in Simplified Chinese, and none ever will — the Simplified Chinese line is too recent to contain any of them. So we have written this page as a reference: what the top of the market looks like, what it teaches about why cards become expensive, and where the same lesson applies to a branch of the hobby you can still buy into.

How this list was built

Four rules, and one honest caveat.

• Ranked by the highest documented sale price. Not by asking price, not by an estimate, and not by a price guide’s opinion. Every figure below is a sale that was reported with a date and a venue, and both are printed on the card’s record plate. Where a card has sold several times, the entry uses the highest recorded figure and says so.
• One line per card, fifty lines. Where two cards tie on price, the earlier and more widely reported sale is placed first. Cards that have sold at the same price several times appear once, because this is a list of cards rather than of transactions.
• Only cards, not sealed product. A sealed 1st Edition booster box has sold for more than most of this list, but a box is not a card.
• Grades are quoted as recorded. A card that sold ungraded is listed as ungraded; a card graded by a company other than PSA says which one. This matters more than it looks, because several entries here reached six or seven figures in grades that a modern collector would not look twice at.

The caveat is that no two trackers agree on the exact order. Sales at this level are private, they happen a few times a year, and there is no central register — so compilations differ, particularly in the middle of the list, and a figure can be reported by one outlet and questioned by another. We have taken the highest figure that was documented with a date and a named venue, and where a sale is reported rather than universally confirmed the plate says private sale. Treat this page as an accurate picture of the market’s shape and an approximate picture of its exact ranking.

All fifty at a glance

Every confirmed sale in the top 50, in order. The full entry for each card, with its record plate, follows underneath.

#	Card	Year	Grade	Recorded sale
1	Pikachu Illustrator	1998	PSA 10	$16,492,000
2	Trophy Pikachu No. 1 Trainer	1998	PSA 9	$3,000,000
3	1st Edition Base Set Charizard	1999	PSA 10	$954,800
4	Japanese Charizard, no rarity symbol	1996	PSA 10	$641,721
5	Prerelease Raichu	1999	PSA 6	$550,000
6	1st Edition Base Set Charizard	1999	PSA 10	$550,000
7	Charizard, Topsun Blue Back	1997	PSA 10	$493,230
8	Trophy Pikachu No. 2 Trainer	1998	PSA 10	$444,000
9	1st Edition Base Set Charizard	1999	PSA 10	$420,000
10	Trophy Pikachu No. 3 Trainer	1997	PSA 8	$378,200
11	Presentation Blastoise, Galaxy Star Holo	1998	CGC 8.5	$360,000
12	Signed Japanese Base Set Charizard	1996	PSA 10	$324,000
13	Tropical Wind, semi-finalist	2004	ungraded	$300,000
14	Snap Pikachu	1999	PSA authenticated	$270,000
15	Family Event Trophy Kangaskhan	1998	PSA 10	$250,000
16	Tsunekazu Ishihara signed promo	2017	PSA 7, autograph 9	$241,200
17	Japanese Blastoise, no rarity symbol	1996	PSA 10	$231,800
18	Luigi Pikachu, 296/XY-P	2016	ungraded	$216,000
19	Test print, gold border Blastoise	1998	CGC 6.5	$216,000
20	Tamamushi University Magikarp	1998	PSA 10	$210,800
21	Snap Bulbasaur	1999	PSA 9	$200,000
22	Umbreon Gold Star, 026/PLAY	2005	PSA 10	$180,000
23	Extra Battle Day Lillie	2019	PSA 10	$171,000
24	Trophy Pikachu No. 1 Trainer	1998	PSA 9	$168,000
25	Super Secret Battle No. 1 Trainer	1999	PSA 10	$156,000
26	Snap Gyarados	1999	CGC 9.5	$150,000
27	Snap Chansey	1999	BGS 8.5	$150,000
28	Pikachu Gold Star	2006	PSA 10	$148,000
29	1st Edition Neo Genesis Lugia	2000	BGS 10	$144,300
30	1st Edition Base Set Blastoise	1999	PSA 10	$138,880
31	No. 2 Trainer, Toshiyuki Yamaguchi	2000	CGC 8	$137,500
32	Snap Magikarp	1999	PSA authenticated	$136,000
33	Neo Summer Battle Road No. 2 Trainer	2001	CGC 10	$132,000
34	Torchic Gold Star	2004	PSA 10	$117,800
35	World Championships No. 2 Trainer	2006	PSA 9	$110,100
36	Snap Charmander	1999	BGS 9	$105,003
37	Japanese beta presentation Charizard	1996	CGC 8	$99,000
38	Snap Squirtle	1999	PSA 8	$82,546
39	Tropical Mega Battle No. 2 Trainer	1999	PSA 10	$81,536
40	World Championships Pikachu No. 1 Trainer	2010	ungraded	$75,000
41	Master’s Key	2010	BGS 9.5	$66,000
42	Tropical Wind promo	1999	PSA 10	$65,100
43	World Championships Pikachu No. 1 Trainer	2013	PSA 9	$63,000
44	Dragon Frontiers Charizard Gold Star	2006	PSA 10	$60,065
45	Mew Victory Orb	2005	PSA 10	$60,000
46	1st Edition Base Set Blastoise, shadowless	1999	PSA 10	$60,000
47	Tropical Mega Battle bilingual Exeggutor	1999	CGC 10	$59,780
48	Snap Articuno	1999	PSA 8	$58,560
49	Base Set Venusaur, no rarity, autographed	1996	PSA 10	$55,000
50	1st Edition Base Set Chansey, shadowless	1999	PSA 10	$55,000

The fifty, ranked

1. Pikachu Illustrator (1998) — $16,492,000

It is the only card in this list that has held the record for the most expensive trading card of any kind, and the record came with independent certification. It was not sold in packs: it was awarded to winners of a Japanese illustration contest in 1998, roughly 39 copies were produced, and only a handful are known to survive. The artwork is by the designer who drew Pikachu in the first place. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

2. Trophy Pikachu No. 1 Trainer (1998) — $3,000,000

A gold trophy card handed to the winner of an early Japanese tournament series. Fewer than a dozen copies exist per event, none of them were sold at retail, and most stayed with the players who earned them. That is why the top of this list is trophy cards rather than the famous set cards. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

3. 1st Edition Base Set Charizard (1999) — $954,800

The most valuable English Charizard. Other PSA 10 copies of the identical card have sold for $420,000 and $550,000, so the extra few hundred thousand here is provenance: this copy was pulled on camera from a sealed 1st Edition box in a stream watched by millions, and it carries a special label recording that. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Charizard in Simplified Chinese.

4. Japanese Charizard, no rarity symbol (1996) — $641,721

The earliest Japanese print runs carried no rarity symbol at all, so a Charizard without one is among the first Charizards ever printed. At the time it sold it outsold every English 1st Edition copy, which is a result collectors had argued about for years before it happened. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Charizard in Simplified Chinese.

5. Prerelease Raichu (1999) — $550,000

For two decades this card was treated as a rumour. Copies were said to have been stamped at a prerelease event and then withheld, and the story was only settled when a grading company certified examples in 2023. A copy in a low grade still reached half a million dollars, which tells you what rarity does to the usual condition discount.

6. 1st Edition Base Set Charizard (1999) — $550,000

The card that defines the hobby. Around 125 PSA 10 copies are known, which is not the tiny population the price implies, so nearly all of the premium is the 1st Edition stamp plus a gem-mint grade. Ungraded near-mint copies change hands for a small fraction of this figure.

7. Charizard, Topsun Blue Back (1997) — $493,230

Topsun cards were distributed in packs of chewing gum rather than booster packs, and the blue-back printing is the one collectors want. It sits above every English 1st Edition sale on this list except the box-break copy, which is a striking outcome for a card that was never part of the organised game. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Charizard in Simplified Chinese.

8. Trophy Pikachu No. 2 Trainer (1998) — $444,000

The silver tier of the trophy Pikachu series in a gem-mint grade. Trophy prices swing enormously depending on which tournament a copy came from, so the series itself spans a few hundred thousand dollars at one end and seven figures at the other. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

9. 1st Edition Base Set Charizard (1999) — $420,000

The sale that set the benchmark for the English Charizard before the 2025-26 run. Copies of this card move sharply in both directions: one PSA 10 changed hands for $168,000 in February 2024, and another for $550,000 in December 2025. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Charizard in Simplified Chinese.

10. Trophy Pikachu No. 3 Trainer (1997) — $378,200

Third place, and the most expensive third-place finish in the hobby. It is the oldest of the trophy Pikachus: the 1997 bronze predates the gold and silver cards placed above it on this list. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

11. Presentation Blastoise, Galaxy Star Holo (1998) — $360,000

A commissioned presentation card from the Wizards of the Coast archive rather than a retail product. It represents the game before it was sold as a game, and its value rests entirely on the fact that a pre-production corporate piece survived at all. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Blastoise in Simplified Chinese.

12. Signed Japanese Base Set Charizard (1996) — $324,000

Signed by the illustrator who drew it, on the earliest Japanese print run. Autographed cards usually trade below their unsigned equivalents because the ink spoils the surface; this is one of the few characters where a signature reliably adds value instead. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Charizard in Simplified Chinese.

13. Tropical Wind, semi-finalist (2004) — $300,000

A World Championships prize card awarded to semi-finalists, and one of the few cards here that sold ungraded and with its original presentation materials. The buyer was paying for the object and its history rather than for a grade.

14. Snap Pikachu (1999) — $270,000

One of the Pokémon Snap contest cards. Players submitted photographs taken inside the Nintendo 64 game, and the winning images were printed onto real cards for the winners. Pikachu is the most valuable of that set. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

15. Family Event Trophy Kangaskhan (1998) — $250,000

Awarded to winners of a Japanese parent-and-child tournament, which is as narrow as it sounds and is the reason so few exist. It is the most valuable card on this list whose subject is not a headline character.

16. Tsunekazu Ishihara signed promo (2017) — $241,200

A Black Star promo signed by the president of the Pokémon Company. The card by itself is unremarkable; the signature is the asset. It is the clearest illustration on this list that provenance can outweigh both rarity and condition.

17. Japanese Blastoise, no rarity symbol (1996) — $231,800

The third member of the original starter trio, again on the earliest Japanese print run with no rarity symbol. Blastoise is the only starter with several distinct cards inside the top 50. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Blastoise in Simplified Chinese.

18. Luigi Pikachu, 296/XY-P (2016) — $216,000

A Japanese promo from the Mario Pikachu box, and the most expensive modern-era promo here. It was a retail tie-in rather than a tournament prize, so its price is a statement about character demand rather than about scarcity.

19. Test print, gold border Blastoise (1998) — $216,000

A pre-production test print that never reached retail. Test prints are the least well understood category on this list: they are not cards in any official sense, and their value depends entirely on how few left the factory. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Blastoise in Simplified Chinese.

20. Tamamushi University Magikarp (1998) — $210,800

Awarded to students who passed a promotional test at a Japanese university, and printed with a Dragon Rage attack the species cannot normally learn. Around a thousand copies were made and far fewer have survived.

21. Snap Bulbasaur (1999) — $200,000

The most valuable Snap card that is not a Pikachu. The Snap promotions were run twice, with the magazine contest printing twenty copies of each winning image and the television contest fifteen.

22. Umbreon Gold Star, 026/PLAY (2005) — $180,000

A Japanese player reward issued in exchange for 70,000 points, which in practice meant playing an enormous number of organised events. Umbreon’s standing as the most collected modern Pokémon is why this gold star outranks Rayquaza’s and Charizard’s. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Umbreon in Simplified Chinese.

23. Extra Battle Day Lillie (2019) — $171,000

The only trainer card in the top 50. Lillie is a character collectors chase the way they chase a Pokémon, and the full-art treatment from a Japanese-only event made her the most expensive trainer in the hobby.

24. Trophy Pikachu No. 1 Trainer (1998) — $168,000

The same gold trophy as the first-series copy near the top of this list, from a later tournament, at a tenth of the price. The trophy category shows the widest spread between nominally identical cards of anything here. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

25. Super Secret Battle No. 1 Trainer (1999) — $156,000

A prize from a Japanese tournament series in which each event produced only a handful of copies. The naming is confusing: a No. 1 Trainer is a trophy card, not a card anyone could have played with.

26. Snap Gyarados (1999) — $150,000

A photograph of Gyarados taken by a competitor inside the game, printed as a card and handed to the winner. The Snap set is the only place on this list where the artwork itself is a player’s work rather than a studio commission.

27. Snap Chansey (1999) — $150,000

One of the harder Snap plates to find in any grade above near-mint, and one of the set’s strongest results. Every Snap card came from the same two contests, which is why they rise and fall together.

28. Pikachu Gold Star (2006) — $148,000

Gold stars were the first ultra-rare tier in the modern game, seeded at roughly one per two booster boxes. Pikachu is one of only two gold stars that sustains a six-figure price in a gem-mint grade. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

29. 1st Edition Neo Genesis Lugia (2000) — $144,300

Not a trophy and not a promo: an ordinary set card, made expensive because the holographic foil scratches so easily that almost nothing survived gem-mint. It is the highest-placed card here that anyone could have pulled from a shop-bought pack in 2000.

30. 1st Edition Base Set Blastoise (1999) — $138,880

The same provenance premium as the Charizard at the top of this list. An English 1st Edition Blastoise in a PSA 10 grade sells for a fraction of this without the recorded box-break history attached to it. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Blastoise in Simplified Chinese.

31. No. 2 Trainer, Toshiyuki Yamaguchi (2000) — $137,500

Some early Japanese trophy cards are printed with the winner’s name on them. A named trophy is rarer and harder to replace than an unnamed one, which is why this reached the top 50 in a modest grade.

32. Snap Magikarp (1999) — $136,000

The set’s other headliner, and a reminder that Snap pricing is driven by which Pokémon the photograph happens to show. Magikarp, the joke Pokémon, sits above most of the legendary trophies on this list.

33. Neo Summer Battle Road No. 2 Trainer (2001) — $132,000

A second-place prize from a Japanese tournament series. The silver from a given event has repeatedly sold above the gold from the same event, which says as much about how many of each survived as it does about demand.

34. Torchic Gold Star (2004) — $117,800

A gold star from the EX era. Torchic is the least famous Pokémon in the top 50 by a wide margin, and its price is a pure scarcity result: the card is hard to find graded and has almost no substitute.

35. World Championships No. 2 Trainer (2006) — $110,100

A World Championships prize promo awarded for second place. Championship prizes from the mid-2000s were produced in tiny numbers for a competition with a few dozen entrants, which makes them structurally rarer than most set cards.

36. Snap Charmander (1999) — $105,003

One of only a handful of Snap Charmander copies logged in any grade. Snap plates carry condition discounts that are unusually steep, because most of the surviving examples were handled before anyone treated them as collectible.

37. Japanese beta presentation Charizard (1996) — $99,000

A pre-release presentation card from the Japanese launch era. Presentation pieces were never distributed to players, so supply depends on what staff kept, and Charizard is the most sought-after subject in that category. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Charizard in Simplified Chinese.

38. Snap Squirtle (1999) — $82,546

A Snap Squirtle, and one of the more obtainable plates in the set. It illustrates the set’s internal range: the same promotion runs from a few tens of thousands of dollars to well over a quarter of a million depending on the Pokémon.

39. Tropical Mega Battle No. 2 Trainer (1999) — $81,536

A second-place prize from the Hawaiian tournament that is generally treated as the first genuinely international Pokémon championship. Participation and placement cards from that event are the backbone of the vintage prize market.

40. World Championships Pikachu No. 1 Trainer (2010) — $75,000

A World Championships prize from the junior division, sold by the player who won it, with the original presentation case. It is a useful example of how thin the supply of these cards is: three were made. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

41. Master’s Key (2010) — $66,000

A staff prize from the World Championships rather than a competitor prize, and therefore rarer than the placement cards beside it on this list. Staff issues are a small and poorly documented corner of the market.

42. Tropical Wind promo (1999) — $65,100

A participation card from the Hawaiian tournament, so more copies exist than of the placement prizes — around a few dozen. It has repeatedly been the entry point for collectors moving into trophy cards.

43. World Championships Pikachu No. 1 Trainer (2013) — $63,000

The final year before World Championships prizes switched to full-art treatments, and the last of the half-art Pikachu trainer cards. That boundary is why this particular year commands a premium over the ones after it. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Pikachu in Simplified Chinese.

44. Dragon Frontiers Charizard Gold Star (2006) — $60,065

A Charizard gold star from the EX era, and the more affordable of the two Charizard gold stars. It shows the ceiling of the modern-era market: a genuinely scarce modern card in a top grade still lands around sixty thousand dollars. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Charizard in Simplified Chinese.

45. Mew Victory Orb (2005) — $60,000

A prize from a Japanese tournament series, sold with its original trophy case. Mew’s status as the original mythical Pokémon gives it a collector base that most prize cards of the same era do not have. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Mew in Simplified Chinese.

46. 1st Edition Base Set Blastoise, shadowless (1999) — $60,000

An English 1st Edition Blastoise in a shadowless printing, sold privately. Along with the Charizard and Venusaur in the same set, it is one of the three cards that define what a complete original English run looks like. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Blastoise in Simplified Chinese.

47. Tropical Mega Battle bilingual Exeggutor (1999) — $59,780

A participation card from the Hawaiian tournament printed with both Japanese and English text, which is unusual for the era and reflects that the event was the first to draw competitors from several countries at once.

48. Snap Articuno (1999) — $58,560

The Articuno plate from the television-run Snap contest, of which fifteen were printed. It is one of the set’s rarest cards in a high grade and one of the reasons the Snap promotion is treated as a single collectible group.

49. Base Set Venusaur, no rarity, autographed (1996) — $55,000

An autographed Venusaur from the earliest Japanese print run. The original starter trio closes the top 50 in the same order it opens popular memory: Charizard first, Blastoise second, Venusaur third. In Simplified Chinese, this character is ranked on its own page: Venusaur in Simplified Chinese.

50. 1st Edition Base Set Chansey, shadowless (1999) — $55,000

The last entry, and an ordinary English set card in a shadowless printing. It marks where the top 50 ends: a gem-mint 1st Edition holo of a popular Generation I character, without any trophy or promo history behind it.

What the fifty actually show

The list is not a cross-section of the card market. It is a cross-section of one narrow mechanism, repeated twenty times over.

How the card was distributed	Entries in the top 50
Trophy or placement prize at a tournament	17
Contest, campaign or signed promo	14
Pre-production material: test prints, presentation cards	3
Ordinary cards pulled from packs	16

Thirty-four of the fifty were never on a shelf. That is the single most useful fact on this page. A card becomes a six-figure object when the number of copies that reached the public is measured in tens, and the trading card game has always produced those cards the same way: as prizes, as promotions, or as material that was never meant to leave the factory. Condition and character popularity decide the order within that group, but they do not create it.

The second pattern is how concentrated the names are. Pikachu accounts for ten entries, Charizard for eight and Blastoise for five — twenty-three of the fifty between three characters. Add Umbreon, Mew, Lugia, Gengar-adjacent favorites and the survivor trio and you have essentially the whole list. The remaining eight entries are trainer and staff prize cards with no Pokémon on them at all. This is worth sitting with, because it is the same concentration you see in a much newer market: the characters that top this list are the characters that every branch of the hobby, in every language, prices above the rest.

The third pattern is time. The newest card in the top 50 is from 2019. Nothing printed in the last seven years appears anywhere on the list, and only three entries are from after 2015. The modern era has produced genuinely expensive cards — an alternate-art Umbreon VMAX in a top grade trades in the low four figures — but the gap between four figures and seven is not a gap that any current print run can close in a human lifetime. Scarcity of the kind that produces this list takes decades to accumulate.

Fourth, grade matters less than people assume at this level and more than people assume below it. Twenty-four of the fifty are PSA 10 copies, but ten are PSA 9 or lower, eleven are graded by CGC or BGS, and five sold ungraded or authenticated only. The card at number five is a PSA 6, and it reached half a million dollars. Meanwhile an English 1st Edition Charizard in a PSA 10 can be worth fifteen times the same card two grades lower. The rule is consistent: extreme rarity makes grade almost irrelevant, and ordinary rarity makes grade almost everything.

Why none of these cards exists in Simplified Chinese

Not one card on this list has a Simplified Chinese printing, and none will. The Simplified Chinese line only started in 2023. Every card in the top 50 predates it by at least fifteen years and most of them by twenty-five, and the cards that are not simply old are prizes from a Japanese tournament circuit that no longer runs the same way.

That is a limitation, and it is also the point. A list like this is not a shopping list, because the supply does not exist to shop from: several of these cards are known in fewer than twenty copies worldwide, and the largest are single examples. What it can do is tell you which characters the hobby has decided to value, and how it decides. So here is how the top 50 translates into something a collector outside mainland China can actually act on.

• The names are the same names. Twenty-three of the fifty are Pikachu, Charizard or Blastoise. All three have Simplified Chinese printings, and all three have Simplified Chinese-exclusive artwork that no Japanese or English collector can buy in their own language. You are not being asked to like an obscure character to take part in the top of the market’s logic.
• Exclusivity is the mechanism, and Simplified Chinese product is the only place you can still buy it at retail. Every card at the top of this list is expensive because it was scarce at the point of distribution. Simplified Chinese-exclusive artwork reproduces that structure on a small scale: a specific illustration that exists in one language only, with a population that can be estimated and is not growing. The four Collect 151 Pikachu art rares are the clearest example, and the ten most popular exclusive cards rank the same idea across characters.
• Grade still matters at this price point. The 1st Edition Charizard in the top 50 has around 125 PSA 10 copies and an ungraded near-mint copy is worth a fraction of one. Simplified Chinese cards are recent enough that most have never been submitted, which is why graded Simplified Chinese exclusives carry a wider premium than graded Japanese ones.
• Learn the one thing that separates a Chinese-only card from a card printed in Chinese. Set-code literacy is the whole skill: the trailing letter tells you whether an illustration is exclusive to the branch or merely translated. The set-code guide covers it end to end, and Chinese vs Japanese Pokémon cards sets out how the three language branches differ as products.
• Start where the ladder starts. The Simplified Chinese price ladder sorts the catalogue into bands, and why Simplified Chinese cards are worth collecting now explains why the branch is still priced where it is.

The same logic runs through every character page on this site. If the name on one of these fifty cards is a name you collect, there is a Simplified Chinese ranking for it: Pikachu, Charizard, Blastoise, Umbreon, Sylveon, Eevee, Gengar and Psyduck cover most of what this list names, and the regional favorites analysis explains why those particular names keep coming back.

Frequently asked questions

Is this list ranked by sale price or by asking price?

Sale price, in every case. Each entry carries the month, year and venue of the sale, and the plate on the card records them. Asking prices are ignored entirely, which is why some cards that appear on other “most valuable” lists do not appear here: they have no documented sale at a level that would place them.

Why do different compilations of this list disagree?

Because sales at this level are private and infrequent. There is no central register for a seven-figure card transaction, several of these sales were concluded off-platform, and a reported figure can take months to be corroborated. Compilations therefore differ in the middle of the list. We used the highest figure documented with a date and a named venue, and marked reported-but-unconfirmed sales as private sales on the plate.

What is a No. 1 Trainer card?

It is a trophy card, not a trainer card. The naming is a legacy of the original Japanese tournament prizes, where the top-placed competitor received a card printed with “No. 1 Trainer” on it, second place received “No. 2 Trainer” and third received “No. 3 Trainer”. Several of the most valuable cards in the hobby are these, and the earlier the tournament series, the fewer copies exist. Some were printed with the winner’s name on them, which makes those copies unique.

Why is there nothing recent in the top 50?

Because nothing recent has had time to become scarce in the way this list requires. The newest entry is from 2019, and only three are from after 2015. Modern sets are printed in volumes that dwarf anything from the late 1990s, and even the hardest modern chase card exists in the thousands. The modern market’s ceiling is real but it is a different order of magnitude, and it is where the vast majority of collectors actually operate.

Can I buy any of these cards from CardSpicy?

No, and we would not claim otherwise. Several of these cards are known in fewer than twenty copies worldwide and the largest are single examples held by private owners. What we do sell is the same characters, in Simplified Chinese, printed as exclusive artwork — which is the closest thing the hobby has to buying into the structure that makes this list possible. Our ask prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.

Is the Pikachu Illustrator really the most expensive trading card ever sold?

As of the most recent recorded sale, yes — not just the most expensive Pokémon card, but the most expensive trading card of any kind, a record independently certified at the time of sale. It has held that position across two sales, and the second sale was roughly three times the first. No other card on this list has been certified as a record.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. TCGplayer — The 30 Most Expensive Pokémon Cards Ever, updated to February 2026. The primary spine of this list: rank, grade, sale month and venue for every entry in the top 30.
2. PokéItem — Most expensive Pokémon card: 2026 ranking, February 2026. Corroborating figures for the Pikachu Illustrator record and the 1st Edition Charizard sales.
3. Dexerto — Rare and expensive Pokémon cards, a 40-entry compilation with sale dates, grades and venues, used to verify entries from rank 31 to 50.
4. Kai’s Castle — The most expensive rare Pokémon cards of all time, a 55-entry compilation with sale dates and venues, used to cross-check the middle of the list.
5. Esports.gg, as reported in a 2026 round-up — a 20-entry list with sterling figures, used as a third check on the top 20.
6. CardSpicy — How to read a Simplified Chinese Pokémon set code, Gem Pack Vol. 1 to 6, the Collect 151 art rares and the ten most popular exclusive cards, for everything in this article about the Simplified Chinese branch.

The record plates on this page are original data graphics, not photographs of the cards; we do not reproduce third-party card images. Sale figures are documented secondary-market results at the dates and venues stated and are reproduced here for reference. Several cards on this list are known in single-digit populations and trade privately and infrequently, so any figure should be read as a record of a past sale rather than a current valuation. Nothing on this page is a price we are quoting, a valuation or an investment recommendation.