For the week of August 24 to 30, the biggest trading card sale in the world was a Pokemon card printed in English in 2005, and it was the first one ever to sell for more than a million dollars.
| # | Card | Grade | Price | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2005 EX Deoxys Rayquaza Gold Star #107 | CGC 10 Pristine | $1,020,000 | Fanatics Premier |
| 2 | 1996 Japanese Base Set Charizard, Mitsuhiro Arita autograph | CGC 10 | $348,000 | Fanatics Premier |
| 3 | 2005 EX Deoxys Rayquaza Gold Star #107 | CGC 10 | $192,000 | Fanatics Weekly |
| 4 | 2003 Skyridge Gengar #H9 | PSA 10 | $150,000 | eBay |
| 5 | 2010 HGSS Promo Lugia | PSA 10 | $144,000 | Fanatics Weekly |
The record
Until Sunday the most expensive English Pokemon card was the PSA 10 First Edition Base Set Charizard with Logan Paul provenance, $954,800 in February. The Rayquaza Gold Star beat it by about 7 percent. Every other seven-figure Pokemon sale on record is Japanese: the Illustrators, the Snap cards, the 1996 Incorrect Illustrator. An English card from a 2005 expansion crossing the line is a different kind of milestone, because EX Deoxys packs were on shelves at Target, and the card inside them was pulled at roughly one per two boxes.
The Pristine gap
The number that matters most for everyone who does not own a Pristine 10 is the other Rayquaza. The same card, in a plain CGC 10 Gem Mint, sold for $192,000 in the Fanatics weekly auction the same week. Pristine (all four subgrades at 10) sold for 5.3 times Gem Mint. On August 20 we described CGC Pristine as "trading near or above PSA 10 on modern cards where Pristine populations are tiny." On a 2005 card where the Pristine population is one, the premium is not a premium; it is a different card.
Three weeks of Gold Stars
This is the third consecutive week with a Gold Star in the top five. August 15: a Mew Gold Star at $19,500. August 22: two Treeckos at $132,000 and $114,000, a Flareon at $60,000, a PSA 6 Rayquaza at $43,200. August 30: the Rayquaza at $1,020,000 and $192,000. Our vintage Index line for EX Deoxys has been positive four weeks running, and the PSA 10 Rayquaza ex from the same set re-marked from $35,000 to $85,000 last week. The whole 27-card Gold Star set is being re-priced in public, one auction at a time.
The Charizard, the Gengar, the Lugia
The $348,000 Charizard is a 1996 Japanese Base Set copy signed by its illustrator, Mitsuhiro Arita, in CGC 10: an autograph premium on a card that is already the most-collected object in the hobby. The Skyridge Gengar in PSA 10 at $150,000 on eBay is a crystal-era chase from the last Wizards set, and it explains the 2.2 percent Skyridge move in this week's Index. The HGSS promo Lugia at $144,000 is a 2010 card, the newest in the top five by seven years.
Source: SI Collectibles, August 31, 2026, via Card Ladder.
The Lead ran in The Pack Report, August 31, 2026: The First Million-Dollar English Pokemon Card Is a Rayquaza. Published by Rip Station.