Super rare cards
Pikachu Illustrator
39 awarded
Prize for winners of three illustration contests in CoroCoro Comic magazine (1997-98). At least 41 copies are known today, and only one has ever been graded a perfect PSA 10. In February 2026 that copy set a Guinness World Record at auction. The most famous card in the hobby.
No.1 Trainer (the trophy Pikachu)
A handful per event
Given only to tournament champions in Japan, starting in 1997, with new versions for later events (such as the Tropical Mega Battle). Each event made just a few, and most went straight into private collections.
Master's Key
36 awarded
Prize card for the competitors at the 2010 Japan national championship for the World Championships, presented in a trophy case.
Kangaskhan (Parent/Child trophy)
Small number
Prize from a 1998 Japanese tournament for parent-and-child teams, awarded to teams that won enough games. Graded copies number in the dozens.
Prerelease Raichu
About 8 to 10
A Base Set Raichu printed by mistake with a "Prerelease" stamp and handed to Wizards of the Coast staff. Wizards estimated about 8 were made. Its existence was debated until a staff member published a picture in 2006.
Ishihara-GX
About 30 to 200 (estimated)
Made for a private party for Tsunekazu Ishihara, head of The Pokemon Company, at the 2018 World Championships in the USA. It shows Ishihara himself. The exact number printed has never been confirmed.
Mew ex (Chinese "Collect 151" promo)
1,510 given out
Handed out by lottery to players in China who completed tournament tasks. A rare modern card with a known, small number. (Our pages cover English and Japanese, but this is the Mew many collectors are talking about.)
Famous is not the same as rare: the Van Gogh Pikachu
Pikachu painted in the style of Van Gogh's self-portrait, given out at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from September 2023. Scalpers queued and grabbed as many as they could, the museum stopped handing it out for staff safety, and some staff were later fired. It looked impossibly rare for a few months.
Then it was reprinted and sold in Dutch shops from February 2024, so many thousands now exist. It is a lovely card and a great story, but a good lesson: hype and headlines are not the same as rarity. Always ask "how many exist?"
Rare cards you could pull from packs
These were sold, but were very hard to pull: 1st Edition holos, Shining, Crystal and Gold Star cards. See Gold Stars, Shining and Crystal and the 1st Edition guide. For graded rarity, the 1st Edition Base Set Charizard has only about 125 PSA 10s.
Card images © Pokémon / Nintendo / Creatures / GAME FREAK (and Wizards of the Coast), via Bulbapedia, shown for identification only. Counts are the best public figures as of October 2026; exact numbers for prize cards were never published.