Ask which Pokémon card is the rarest, and the usual answer is the Pikachu Illustrator. It is a 1998 prize card given to winners of a Japanese art contest, and in February 2026 a perfect-grade copy became the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction. It went for $16,492,000.
Rarity and price don’t always line up, though. On the census kept by grading company PSA, several prize cards show far fewer graded copies than the Illustrator. One of them, a 2015 Mudkip, sold for $4.88 million in October.
This guide lists rare cards with how many copies were officially given out and how many PSA has graded. Each card comes with its most recent public sale that we could check. Prices and census numbers come from auction house Goldin’s own lot pages, as stated when each card was listed. All prices include the buyer’s premium.
The rarest Pokémon cards at a glance
| Card | How it was issued | PSA census* | Latest verified sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pikachu Illustrator (1998) | Art contest prize; 39 to 41 awarded | 53 (one PSA 10) | $16,492,000, PSA 10, Feb. 2026 |
| Art Academy Mudkip (2015) | Art contest prize; 100 copies to the winner | 3 | $4,880,000, PSA 10, Oct. 2026 |
| Gold 1st Place Trophy Pikachu (1997) | First official tournament prize | 8 | $3,080,500, PSA 8, Oct. 2026 |
| Bronze 3rd Place Trophy Pikachu (1998) | Tournament prize | 5 (one PSA 10) | $1,769,000, PSA 10, May 2026 |
| Snap Bulbasaur, CoroCoro (1999) | 5 winners, 20 copies each | 7 | $809,943, PSA 8, Aug. 2026 |
| Snap Chansey, 64 Mario Stadium (1999) | 15 copies per winner | 7 | $488,000, PSA 7, Aug. 2026 |
| Secret Super Battle No. 1 Trainer (1999) | World Finals top-three prize | 11 | $231,800, PSA 8, March 2026 |
| Kangaskhan Parent/Child Trophy (1998) | Top eight family teams | Not stated | $70,801, PSA 8, March 2023 |
| Umbreon Gold Star (POP Series 5) | Pack card | 850+ (under 7% PSA 10) | $738,100, PSA 10, Oct. 2026 |
| Espeon Gold Star (POP Series 5) | Pack card | Not checked | $573,400, PSA 10, Oct. 2026 |
*Census figures as quoted on each Goldin lot page when the card was listed. PSA’s census counts cards it has graded, so it is not a print count. Months are when the auction closed. Checked Oct. 31, 2026.
1. Pikachu Illustrator: the record holder
The Illustrator is a 1998 promo card from CoroCoro Comic, a Japanese children’s magazine, and it was given to winners of an illustration contest. Logan Paul, who owned the top copy, told Guinness World Records that only 39 were given out. Goldin puts the figure at 41, which it calls the “current hobby consensus.”
Paul’s copy is the only one PSA has graded a perfect 10. He bought it privately in 2021 for $5.275 million, partly by trading in a PSA 9 Illustrator, according to Guinness. In February 2026 it sold through Goldin for $16,492,000, about 3.1 times what he paid. That total was a $13.3 million winning bid plus the buyer’s premium. Guinness named the buyer as AJ Scaramucci.
Lower grades still bring millions. A copy graded 9 by CGC, another grading company, sold through Goldin in September 2026 for $2,806,271.
2. Art Academy Mudkip: rarer than the Illustrator on PSA’s count
If rarity means the fewest graded copies, this 2015 card has a strong claim. Players made art in the Pokémon Art Academy game for the Nintendo 3DS, and each winning artist received 100 copies of their card. Daisuke Ochiai’s Mudkip was one of the winners in the Japanese contest.
Goldin says only three copies appear in PSA’s census, all graded 10. Its listing adds that nobody knows how many copies ever left the winners’ hands. One of the three sold in October 2026 for $4,880,000, on a $4 million winning bid.
3. Trophy Pikachu cards from the first tournaments
Trophy cards were tournament prizes. The Gold 1st Place Trophy Pikachu went to a winner at the first official Pokémon card tournament, held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, in June 1997. PSA’s census lists eight copies. A PSA 8 sold in October 2026 for $3,080,500.
The Bronze 3rd Place Trophy Pikachu from the third tournament in 1998 is scarcer still on paper. The census shows five copies, and only one is a PSA 10. That copy sold in May 2026 for $1,769,000.
4. Pokémon Snap photo contest cards
The 1999 “Snap” cards came from photo contests, and the winning pictures were turned into cards. The CoroCoro contest picked five winners, and each received 20 copies. The 64 Mario Stadium contest gave its winners 15 copies each.
The two cards below each show seven copies in PSA’s census. A PSA 8 CoroCoro Snap Bulbasaur sold for $809,943 in August 2026. A PSA 7 Mario Stadium Snap Chansey sold the same month for $488,000.
5. Secret Super Battle No. 1 Trainer
This 1999 card features a silhouetted Mewtwo. According to Goldin, it went to the first, second and third-place finishers at the Pokémon card World Finals, and it served as an entry ticket to the next year’s tournament. PSA’s census lists 11 copies. A PSA 8 sold in March 2026 for $231,800.
6. Kangaskhan Parent/Child Trophy
This 1998 card came from a parent-and-child tournament. Goldin says the top eight teams received it, and more copies went to teams that scored enough points at side events. The latest sale we could verify is older than the rest of this list: a PSA 8 for $70,801 in March 2023.
7. Gold Star cards: rare in top grade, not in number
Gold Star cards came in POP Series booster packs, so they are not scarce the way prize cards are. What makes them valuable is a perfect grade. Goldin says PSA has graded more than 850 Umbreon Gold Stars from POP Series 5, and fewer than 7 percent got a 10.
PSA 10 copies of the Eeveelution pair sold a minute apart in October 2026. Umbreon went for $738,100 and Espeon for $573,400.
For the Torchic Gold Star from EX Team Rocket Returns, Goldin’s October 2026 Mudkip listing said PSA had graded the card a 10 a total of 42 times. We could not verify a recent PSA 10 sale, so it has no price in this guide.
So which card is the rarest?
It depends on what you count. For the highest price ever paid, the answer is the Pikachu Illustrator. For the fewest graded copies, the 2015 Art Academy Mudkip and the early Trophy Pikachu cards rank well ahead of it on PSA’s census.
Goldin made the same point in its Mudkip listing. It noted that the Illustrator had 56 graded copies at the time of writing, compared with just three for the Mudkip. Census numbers change as more cards are graded, so treat every figure here as a snapshot from the date of each sale.
