Master List of the Rarest Pokémon Cards

[simensim1]

Excellent resource!

[EnlightenedBulbasaur]

Cards that have been added to the list since I posted the OP (there are already quite a few!):

• 1997 Bandai Raichu - Jumbo Card (non-TCG)
• Rayquaza EX
• Giratina EX
• Lottery Suicune
• Lottery Raikou
• Lottery Entei
• Trainer Deck A Machamp
• Trainer Deck B Blastoise
• 2010 Card Design Contest - Chosen Entry Illustration - Zorua
• 2010 Card Design Contest - Chosen Entry Illustration - Zoroark
• 297/XY-P Suzukisan
• 298/XY-P MegaSachiko EX
• 017/016 Pachirisu - Pokémon Scramble 17
• 018/016 Croagunk - Pokémon Scramble 18
• 019/016 Eevee - Pokémon Scramble 19
• Ash’s Greninja-EX (XY-P Promo 290)

[pieterpie]

Cards that might join the list as well - I don’t think there are exact numbers, but possibly it can be a reminder to some member that might know more.

Lottery promos - butler Kirkia and absol , and Latias / latios (Ex era)
Champion road gen 2 starters
Daisuki Umbreon / espeon prime 7200 points (maybe Raichu too?)
Pikachu 016 dpt ? (Rare than 019 L-p)
Lapras 058 L-p
Shuckle 067 L-p

Reshiram / Zekrom 15th anniversary ?
Team rocket XY special case promos ?

Various Language VS cards
Gen 4 distributor promos (these are probably under 100?)

[pieterpie]

More cards I don’t know The quantity for, but would assume are certainly under 1,000

Gold Pikachu base set card
Event Organizer Pikachu festa cards

Also for 2009 design contest, 100 copies doesn’t make sense to equally distribute to 13 winners.

[EnlightenedBulbasaur]

@pieterpie, The 2009 Design Contest cards were distributed differently from the 2010 Design Contest cards. While the 2010 cards had 10 complete sets of all 10 cards distributed to each winner, the 2009 winners received 100 copies of their cards (and no one else’s). The 2015 Art Academy cards were distributed the same way.

[cullers]

Double checked Trainer Deck B does have only one computer search per deck. I’m guessing the two of cards would also belong on the list, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t either. Probably best to leave them off.

[mthursty]

Expedition sample set and FPO cards? Up to you if you want to include FPO since they’re not recognized by PSA but the samples should be there. I think I remember hearing something like 90 sample sets existed but I could be wrong.

[chrispy]

@melchior

Off the top of my head and sorry if I read over them in the Master List:

297/XY-P Suzukisan (100 copies)
298/XY-P MegaSachiko EX (100 copies)

Source: XY-P Promo List

017/016 Pachirisu (Pokémon Scramble 17) (100 copies)
018/016 Croagunk (Pokémon Scramble 18) (100 copies)
019/016 Eevee (Pokémon Scramble 19) (100 copies)

Source: Pokémon Rumble (TCG)

good call

[cinnaminhbun]

This is a really cool and detailed list. Following!

One suggestion: I’d rename the “JP” language label to a more appropriate and commonly used JP or JPN.

[Taigataipan]

@pieterpie @hyruleguardian
I’d be also willing to learn more about Champion Road 2000 starter/fruits numbers. Difference between them and regular set cards is minimal but in one twisted way Johto trio were first gold star cards of this hobby.

[pichufan]

@EnlightenedBulbasaur

@pieterpie , The 2009 Design Contest cards were distributed differently from the 2010 Design Contest cards. While the 2010 cards had 10 complete sets of all 10 cards distributed to each winner, the 2009 winners received 100 copies of their cards (and no one else’s). The 2015 Art Academy cards were distributed the same way.

cc @pieterpie

I’m in the middle of writing a blog entry about the 2009 Design Contest and currently have 7 of the 13 magazines en route to the UK from Japan. I’m hoping they give more information.

You’re right that the official announcement on the Pokémon Japan website claimed that each winner would receive 100 copies of their design as a card, but they also claimed that the contest spanned 12 magazines and that each runner-up would receive their design as a jumbo card - not only was there a 13th magazine (Shōnen Sunday), but none of these jumbo cards are known to have ever surfaced and I’d speculate that they were not awarded. Furthermore when these cards appeared for sale they almost always appeared as full sets, not as individual cards.

I’ve made some charts for my blog post comparing the PSA population of the 2009 and 2010 contests and the 2015 Art Academy release, which in my mind paint a pretty compelling picture that each winner did not receive 100 of their own design and very likely also did not receive double figures of the full set like the 2010 contest:

• 2015 Art Academy - each winner received 100 of their winning designs

• 2010 Pokémon Card Design Contest - each winner received 100 of their winning designs

• 2009 Pokémon Card Design Contest - each winner supposedly received 100 of their winning designs

The 2015 Art Academy has staggered and non-uniform distribution of graded cards as would be expected from each winner only receiving their own design and nothing more. The 2009 and 2010 contests however have a uniform distribution (albeit a very small sample size for 2009) which is not in line with what would likely happen if each winner received only their own design.

I’m hoping the magazines I have coming from Japan paint a much better picture.

I’ve pre-emptively concluded my upcoming blog post with the following:

Overall it is pretty safe to say that somewhere between 13 and 169 copies of each card exist. It can also be assumed that no jumbo cards were awarded – although I would love for that to be false.

Based on how scarce these cards are I personally believe that the winners may have been awarded 3 or 4 complete sets. I’m doubtful that more than 100 copies of each card exist – in fact, I’d make an educated guess that fewer than 50 copies of each card exist – but I do not believe that only 13 sets were printed full stop.

Watch this space, I guess.

[Troy]

@cinnaminhbun

This is a really cool and detailed list. Following!

One suggestion: I’d rename the “JP” language label to a more appropriate and commonly used JP or JPN.

Yeah I think the forum actually automatically switches it to JP because I remember one time typing (it) just as an abbreviation without realizing that it’s also kinda a slur lol. I assume that happened to you in that comment.

[pancakestak]

Yep great work all thanks!

[thymeee]

I dont know a lot about these, but a while back I was checking where the tropical wind 2001 card came from. I came across the tyranitar half deck which distributed some vs cards in english and other languages. These should be incredibly rare and would be a nica add-on for this list.
bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Tyranitar_Half_Deck_(TCG)
this card comes to mind

I think this is the pop report for these cards

www.psacard.com/pop/tcg-cards/2001/pokemon-tropical-mega-battle/129173

On a side note, does David Persin know these cards exist?

[Quuador]

Amazing list, well done everyone involved and @hyruleguardian for sharing!

Some missing ones that come to mind out of the top of my head:

• English (and other non-Japanese) VS set cards (EDIT: @thymeee beat me to it while I was adding all the links to this post )
• Ishihara & Pikachu GX tag team
• Solid golden 20th anniversary Pikachu
• Japanese unlimited edition E1 set / decks
• Sample cards (i.e. Matchprint; FPO; double-bordered ones; the five press conferences Sample sets; etc.)
• Eevee, Pachirisu, and Croagunk Rumble set cards (EDIT: Ah, I now see @melchior had already mentioned these on the previous page)
• This unreleased Wailmer promo
• German Birthday Pikachu (I’m still trying to determine its origin, but I’ve heard multiple rumors it was a tournament promo with around 30 copies; definitely less than 1k though).
• Chinese POP cards
• Thai Jirachi 2019 trophy
• Inverted WB stamp promos (not sure if you want to include misprints/errors)
• Japanese unlimited edition L1, L2, L3, World Champions Pack are all so extremely hard to find that I doubt any card is printed more than 250 times, let alone 1,000…
• 016/DPt-P Pikachu promo (not sure how many were printed, so might be slightly above the 1k threshold, although I doubt it - EDIT: Also already mentioned before by @pieterpie, along with the golden 20th anniversary Base Pikachu… I really should learn to read… )
• 045/DPt-P Cresselia and 046/DPt-P Darkrai (a.f.a.i.k. no actual pictures has ever been seen, but there were some rumors 10 players had the points fast enough to receive the DPt-P versions before they switched over to the L-P versions)
• This 1st edition Japanese Feraligatr deck blister of which most got destroyed in a fire (mentioned by @shizzlemetimbers )
• Korean The Masked Royal promo (30 copies)
• Korean Mewtwo GX (36 regular and 17 Hyper Rare copies)

Non-TCG:

• Teach/Tryout set cards
• Groundbreakers TFG cards (still waiting for that article, @funmonkey54 )

I can name a few others I highly assume have less than 1k copies, like the German and Spanish Flying and Surfing Pikachu cards which I’m both still missing and have only seen once each, but I can’t say for sure how many copies were printed, and 1k seems a bit low for a regular promo.

I’ll see if I can find some more missing later on.
Greetz,
Quuador

[jawsh98]

@EnlightenedBulbasaur

**CLICK HERE FOR THE MASTER LIST**

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The work to put together this list is a collaborative effort by @chok , @minorkey , @chrisbalestra , @thundermoo , @funmonkey54 , @prochaos , and @djgigabyte among others. Special thanks to chok and minorkey, their work in this thread was the inspiration for this project.

The goal of this list is to create a resource that puts together all the information one would need about all of the rarest Pokemon cards & Pokemon TCG-related items into a single resource.

The number used as a cutoff for this list is 1,000 estimated distributed copies of an item. I am open to reconsidering this number if I believe there is a good reason to do so. Additionally, it could be another project to create additional lists for cards with more than 1,000 distributed copies.

This list is a work in progress. If you feel there is any item missing from the list, PLEASE either post a message in this thread or reach out to me directly! The list will be modified.

Additionally, it is worth noting that some of the information (such as PSA pop for certain cards) may be slightly out-of-date. Likewise, feel free to post here or reach out to me with a correction if you are so inclined.

Thank you all for doing this!

[null_user]

Great work! I feel grateful to own a handful of cards on the list.

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure these Comic Con staff variants are well under 1000 copies.

External Media

[Quuador]

Three more that came to mind after seeing the stamped cards above:

[* Diamond & Pearl Piplup with San Diego 07 stamp (2007 Pokémon USA annual distributor meeting)

• Diamond & Pearl Turtwig with New York 08 stamp (2008 Pokémon USA annual distributor meeting)
• Rising Rivals Munchlax with Chicago 09 stamp (2009 TCPi annual distributor meeting)](https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/0517/05/pokemon-distribution-promo-cards_1_46faa82a261efe57e8d21d9260719316.jpg)
  If I remember correctly, only six of each were printed?

Also, I do see the Champion stamped XY Double Colorless Energy in the list, but what about the TOP 8 stamped ones? According to this thread made by @thundermoo only 48 of each TOP 8 were printed.

And another stamped card that comes to mind is the COLLECTOR stamped Dragon Majesty Charizard. Roughly 400 copies were made. Although this isn’t an official release by TPCi, so I’m not sure if you want to add it?

Greetz,
Quuador

[deltazero]

I love this! Very informative!

[pieterpie]

@EnlightenedBulbasaur

@pieterpie, The 2009 Design Contest cards were distributed differently from the 2010 Design Contest cards. While the 2010 cards had 10 complete sets of all 10 cards distributed to each winner, the 2009 winners received 100 copies of their cards (and no one else’s). The 2015 Art Academy cards were distributed the same way.

I know someone else posted speculation on the quantity. But these were definitely distributed as full sets to the winners. There are few releases like this, but this one is particularly hard to find. Even when raw cards that aren’t mint are over $1k, the POP is still very low.