Pokemon card rarity chart.
updated Aug 14, 2026
What each rarity means, how to tell it from the card in your hand, and what cards at that rarity actually sell for. Open any rarity for its full price list.
Ordinary rarities
Most of a pack, and the rarities the symbol in the bottom corner still describes.
CommonBlack circle beside the collector numberPikachu6,799163$1,575
UncommonBlack diamond beside the collector numberMagikarp6,555152$699.99
RareBlack star, no foil anywhere on the cardMewtwo3,497145$975.00
PromoNever came from a pack: tins, boxes and eventsGengar3,41845$2,200
Holo RareBlack star with the art window in foilCharizard1,884123$10,000
Double RareTwo black stars, and always an exMega Charizard X ex49429$129.74
Classic CollectionReprints of older cards in a box productCharizard1294$210.91Chase rarities
What the box gets opened for. Most are printed past the end of the set numbering.
Ultra RareFull art: EX, GX, V, VMAX and full art trainersPikachu Star2,524126$3,217
Secret RareNumbered past the set total, 199/198Lugia59877$4,500
Illustration RareA scene, art to the edge, never an exMagikarp49923$390.72
Shiny Holo RareShiny Pokemon in a vault subset, numbered SVMewtwo GX (Secret Shining)2468$773.30
Special Illustration RareFull scene art on an ex or a trainer, texturedUmbreon ex22222$1,495
Shiny RareAlternate colour Pokemon, numbered past the totalPikachu1201$80.87
Hyper RareGold card, gold border, gold textPikachu ex7414$96.81
ACE SPEC RareTrainer marked ACE SPEC, one per deckUnfair Stamp568$59.93
Rainbow RarePastel rainbow foil over a GXCharizard GX (Secret)363$652.18
Prism RarePrism Star in the name, one per deckGiratina Prism Star337$22.27
Radiant RareRadiant in the name, mirror foil, one per deckRadiant Charizard317$330.32How to read the symbol on the card
Look at the bottom corner, next to the collector number. A filled circle is a common, a diamond is an uncommon, a star is a rare. Those three have been on English cards since the first sets and they still work: a card with a star and no foil is a plain rare, and the same star with the artwork window printed in foil is a holo rare, which is the whole difference between the two.
Modern sets outgrew three symbols. Everything named since the Sun and Moon era, from illustration rares to gold hyper rares, is a tier rather than a symbol, and the check that still works is arithmetic. Compare the collector number against the set total printed after the slash: 6 of the rarities here are defined by running past it, namely secret rare, illustration rare, special illustration rare, shiny rare, hyper rare and rainbow rare, and 1,534 of the 1,535 cards we price in those tiers are numbered past their set total. A card reading 199/198 came out of the secret slots at the end of the set.
Rarity is not the same thing as value
The most valuable card we price is Charizard from Base Set (Shadowless) at $10,000, and it is a holo rare, an ordinary pack rarity. Scarcity at the printer matters far less than how many copies survived and how many people want that Pokemon, which is why a 1999 holo outprices tiers invented to be rare.
The number worth knowing per rarity is the median, not the record. The highest median on the site belongs to rainbow rare at $39.40, so a card picked at random from that tier beats one picked from any other; the holo rare median is $9.08 against that $10,000 at the top. Every rarity page here carries both, and the rarest cards list ranks the chase tiers against each other by price.