Portal TCG · 30 Years of the Mascot
For thirty years, one face has meant Pokemon more than any other. Not a legendary, not a starter — a chubby yellow mouse who was never even supposed to be the mascot. Pikachu got the job because it was cute, marketable and easy to draw, and it has never once let go of it.
The trading card game has spent three decades turning that mascot into some of the most collectible cardboard on earth — from a hand-drawn illustration-contest prize worth more than a house, to costume promos and modern chase cards that empty booster boxes. With Pokemon's 30th anniversary here, we pulled the current GBP numbers and ranked the ten most valuable Pikachu cards, ungraded value first, with the PSA 10 price alongside — then added a handful more we couldn't leave out.
The card at #1 isn't just the most valuable Pikachu ever printed — it's one of the most valuable cards in the world, full stop, and only a few dozen copies exist. Let's count down.
All card prices sourced from PriceCharting, captured 22 July 2026. On cards this scarce, prices move fast — treat them as a snapshot, not a live quote.
10. Pikachu — Chinese 5th Anniversary
Chinese Promo · #153/SV-P · 5th Anniversary
Ungraded
£1,290UngradedPSA 10
£2,652PriceCharting PSA 10A promo handed out for the Chinese TCG's 5th anniversary, and one of the hardest modern Pikachus to find outside the region. Low print run, high ceremony, and a design collectors clearly rate — it rounds out the ten on genuine scarcity rather than hype. A gem-mint copy roughly doubles the raw price.
9. Pikachu — Chinese 151
151 (Chinese) · #172/151 · Art Rare
Ungraded
£1,675UngradedPSA 10
£2,617PriceCharting PSA 10China's answer to the 151 craze. This Art Rare — Pikachu set against a Gengar-lit scene — was a Simplified-Chinese exclusive, and Western demand has gone vertical as the Chinese market matures into a serious force. Proof the mascot's biggest modern chase cards no longer only come out of Japan. Four figures ungraded, and a PSA 10 pushes well past that.
8. Pikachu [Gold Star]
Holon Phantoms · #104 · 2006 (EN)
Ungraded
£2,095UngradedPSA 10
£85,176PriceCharting PSA 10The most valuable English Pikachu there is. Gold Star cards gave each set a single alternate-art shiny with a gold star by the name, and Pikachu's — with its distinctive silver-blue shine — is the one every Western collector wants. Ungraded copies are dear enough; the gem-mint premium is the wildest on this list, with a PSA 10 listed north of £85,000. The English grail.
7. Pikachu — Munch "The Scream"
Japanese Promo · #288/SM-P · 2018 · Munch Museum
Ungraded
£2,406UngradedPSA 10
£11,207PriceCharting PSA 10Pokemon's collaboration with Oslo's Munch Museum, and easily the most art-history Pikachu ever printed: the mascot posed like the figure in Edvard Munch's 'The Scream', hands to cheeks, mouth agape. A 2018 Japanese promo tied to a real museum exhibition — which is exactly why it endures. Four figures raw, and a PSA 10 clears five.
6. Luigi Pikachu
Japanese Promo · #296/XY-P · 2016
Ungraded
£2,914UngradedPSA 10
£11,656PriceCharting PSA 10Mario's other half. The companion card to Mario Pikachu, with Pikachu in Luigi's green cap — sold to complete-set hunters, which keeps both cards moving together. Slightly less famous than its brother, so it costs a touch less ungraded — but a PSA 10 lands right alongside it at four times the raw price.
5. Pretend Team Skull Pikachu
Japanese Promo · #13/SM-P · 2017
Ungraded
£3,512UngradedPSA 10
£9,900PriceCharting PSA 10Pikachu dressed as a Team Skull grunt, beanie and all — a Sun & Moon-era promo built entirely on charm. It's exactly the kind of costume Pikachu collectors fall for, and the ungraded price shows it. A PSA 10 nearly triples that. Proof that a good gimmick ages into a grail.
4. Mario Pikachu
Japanese Promo · #294/XY-P · 2016
Ungraded
£4,316UngradedPSA 10
£22,937PriceCharting PSA 10From the 2016 Pokemon Center x Super Mario crossover: Pikachu in Mario's red cap and moustache. A pure novelty that became a genuine chase — two of gaming's biggest mascots on one piece of cardboard. Between the crossover appeal and the low print run, clean copies stay stubbornly expensive, and a PSA 10 clears five figures.
3. The Poncho-Wearing Pikachu Series
Japanese Promo · XY-P · 2016 · Pokemon Center
Ungraded
£4,387Ungraded (series high)PSA 10
£18,006PSA 10 (series high)One entry, several cards — the Poncho-Wearing Pikachu run is so strong it could have filled a chunk of this list on its own. These 2016 Pokemon Center promos dress Pikachu in a knitted poncho of another Pokemon — Mega Charizard, Rayquaza, even Magikarp — and the Charizard versions are the most coveted. Every number clears four figures ungraded and multiplies several times over in a PSA 10.
2. Pikachu — 20th Anniversary Festa
Japanese Promo · #279/XY-P · 2016
Ungraded
£4,729UngradedPSA 10
£23,552PriceCharting PSA 10A prize from Japan's 2016 20th-anniversary Festa events — a Pikachu made to mark two decades of the card game, and never sold at retail. Almost nobody has one loose, which is why a graded copy rockets so far past the raw price. When Pokemon celebrates itself, the mascot gets the trophy card.
1. Illustrator Pikachu
Japanese Promo · 1998 · Illustration Contest
Ungraded
£806,209UngradedPSA 10
£12,322,113PriceCharting PSA 10The holy grail of the entire hobby, not just Pikachu. Handed to winners of a 1998 CoroCoro illustration contest, it carries a pen symbol instead of a set mark and exists in only a few dozen copies. A PSA 10 sold for $5.275 million in 2022 — the most ever paid for a Pokemon card — and current listings ask even more. Even ungraded, it costs more than a house.
Honourable mentions
Ten was never going to be enough. These didn't make the ranking on ungraded value, but each is worth knowing — including the most famous Pikachu of the modern era, which earns its place on story alone.
Start Deck 100 · #764/SV-P · 2023 (JP)
The '1-in-100' card. Japan's Start Deck 100 promotion hid one special full-art Pikachu ex in every hundredth starter deck — a pocket-money product turned lottery ticket, and still one of the most hunted modern Pikachus going.
Ascended Heroes · #276 · Special Illustration Rare
A modern chase from a set we've covered before — the Special Illustration Rare Pikachu ex the community nicknamed 'Treekachu', full-art and endlessly pretty. Proof you don't need a 1998 promo to own a serious Pikachu.
Van Gogh Museum promo · #085 · 2023
The one that made the news. Painted in the style of Van Gogh's self-portrait for a 2023 museum collaboration and pulled from sale after scalpers overran the gift shop — instantly a legend. Outvalued here, but nobody forgets it; a PSA 10 fetches three times the raw price.
Surging Sparks · #238 · 2024 · Special Illustration Rare
The most attainable card on this whole page — a 2024 Special Illustration Rare you can still pull from booster boxes today. Gorgeous full-art, and the easiest way onto the Pikachu-chase ladder.
Gem Pack · #709 · (CN)
Captain Pikachu from the Horizons era, in Chinese Gem Pack packaging. A regional exclusive flying under the Western radar — cheap now, and exactly the kind of card that quietly creeps up as Chinese product matures.
Thirty years on, Pikachu is still the first card a kid pulls and the last one a collector lets go of. That's the whole point of an anniversary — the mascot that started it carries the milestone.
Which is why Pikachu sits at the heart of our 30th Anniversary range. We've made a limited run of made-to-order display binders for the 30th — a Day Side with a Day Pikachu, and a Night Side with a Night Pikachu, alongside Espeon and Umbreon. Printed by hand, in full colour, in the UK. Preorder now and it ships from 17 August — and if you order by Sunday, you're in the very first dispatch.
Thirty years of the mascot. Here's to keeping it properly.
Preorder · Ships from 17 August
30th Anniversary Binders - Day Pikachu & Night Pikachu
From £59.99
A limited run of made-to-order display binders for Pokemon's 30th. Pick your side - Day Side (Day Pikachu, Espeon) or Night Side (Night Pikachu, Umbreon) - printed by hand in full colour. Preorder now, ships from 17 August. Order by Sunday 16 Aug to be in the first dispatch.
Preorder Your 30th Binder →