Thought it would be fun to do a top 7 of the most difficult to obtain Pokemons of all time considering all the high end versions out there.
Here is my go for this list:
1-Pikachu: Illustrator, SNAP, Endless Pika-Trophies, no sense going further
2-Magikarp: SNAP (never surfaced), Unikarp, Art Academy Mew (polemic inclusion)
3-Lugia: Neo Spring Battle Roads
4-Ho-oh: Neo Summer Battle Roads
5-Exeggutor: TMB Trainers, TMB Bilingual Exeggutor, TMB Lucky Stadium (oh yes…)
6-Mewtwo: SSB Trainers
7-Chansey: SNAP, Battle Roads (ChanseyLand is my way of life)
If you collect any of the above and you still haven’t taken your own life by now share yours!
Arceus - includes 35 jumbo cards with a distribution of 1 each which none are known to have surfaced, plus a load of obscure Victory Medal cards including a Korean version which between 8 and 16 exist, plus at least 10 cards with a distribution below 200;
Pichu - includes 4 sample cards (including 2 which have only appeared for sale once in 2014 and 1 which has yet to surface since it was demoed at E3 2001) and 30 jumbo cards with a distribution of 1 each which none are known to have surfaced, on top of that an additional 8 or so cards which have a distribution below 200;
Pikachu - includes a whole load of trophy cards and 4 sample cards (including 2 which have only appeared for sale once in 2014 and 1 which is not known to have surfaced since it appeared at Space World 2001);
Zarude - includes 4 very recent jumbo cards with a distribution of 1 each;
Dratini - includes 2 sample cards which are not known to have surfaced since they appeared at E3 2001 and Space World 2001;
Spearow - includes 2 sample cards which are not known to have surfaced since they appeared at Space World 2001;
Psyduck - features on a lot of Worlds cards and a sample card which is not known to have surfaced since it appeared at Space World 2001.
Look, I’ve said it before and I will say it again… The true grail of the hobby is the POP 1 PSA 10 GERMAN Gold Star Rayquaza and if you disagree you don’t know anything about Pokemon. I would trade my house, car, and two year old for that card.
My vote has to go to 1st ed base set Charizard. I read on an internet gaming article that it was the rarest and most expensive pokemon card in the world in a PSA 10.
True, but there is also a Pikachu & Ishahara GX tag team which will be even tougher. Copies of Ishihara GX has popped up for sale at least three times thus far, which can’t be said about the Pikachu. Not that I could afford it either way, but still.
EDIT: Actually, 4 is correct. I always group prototypes together with sample cards, but I guess sample cards are those shown/given at events, and prototype cards are just for tests of colors, print quality, etc.
The guy tried shilling that card here multiple times, I still get a kick out of it. There was a rumor going around at one point that someone had offered him a Trophy Kang for it… I was skeptical. Scott ended up doing some digging and it turned out it was the other way around and the owner of the Kang declined, obviously.
I’m not trying to shit on the card, it is a nice card that is obviously a 5 figure card, but just the way the owner has spoken about the card, over and over, makes me laugh.
@pichufan I appreciate your breakdown methodology but personally have a different mindset. I would not include Jumbos or test / prototype cards.
Jumbos were purposefully chosen over regular size in these contests to avoid insanely rare 1-of TCG cards. They are not official TCG cards.
With test cards, we are only aware of what we know from pictures. There could be other Pokémon that have an insanely rare test print but we are in the dark since it was not shared. It is hard to rank when there is so little information.
I agree about the test cards which were specifically intended to be internal, but do note that I specifically chose cards which had been demoed at events where members of the public were able to interact with them (unlike the Matchprint, FPO cards and those prototype Blastoise cards to name a few which were internal).
As for jumbo cards not being official TCG cards: quite a lot of promo cards have never been TCG-legal and I don’t really see them as any different to those, they’re just a bit larger than usual. I’m happy that they did decide to make them jumbo as it means I can easily ignore those from my collection goal with a quick “I’m not interested in jumbo cards” - though admittedly if one did ever show up for sale I’d certainly try to get it.
That’s so interesting! Yeah, I totally get it. What I find the funniest is how he ended up arriving at the listing price by looking at all these other PSA 10 cards and doing some questionable maths. I mean… 275,000 Euros? MORE than an English one?! I think this is the perfect example of why something being POP 1 (bc of a mistake, in this case) doesn’t make it worth a ridiculous amount.
I think this is the mindset some if not many have to take. I know when I stupidly sold my original New Year Present after denouncing Jumbos, I immediately took it out of my collection goals. But you bet your ass I included it again once I was able to secure another one. Low and behold, I have all the jumbos now. XD
So if people want to say, “I collect x, y, and z cards EXCEPT Trophies”, then you make that work for you. I’m a major supporter in having peace of mind with your collection if it requires you to be flexible with your mindset and collection goals. Collections ebb and flow as needed.
Copies of Ishihara GX has popped up for sale at least three times thus far, which can’t be said about the Pikachu. Not that I could afford it either way, but still.
