The Pikachu Cards Every Collector Should Know
From a contest promo that became the hobby's holy grail to modern chase cards, here's what makes the most wanted Pikachu cards special.
HYP3 TeamSeptember 29, 20267 min read
Pikachu has been on more cards than almost any other Pokémon, which makes it one of the most fun characters to collect and one of the hardest to collect well. A handful of cards stand above the rest, and they're worth knowing even if you never plan to own one.
Pikachu Illustrator
Awarded to winners of an illustration contest run through CoroCoro Comic in the late 1990s, Illustrator is the rarest Pikachu card and is widely treated as the most valuable Pokémon card ever made. Very few copies exist, and the high-grade ones rarely change hands.
Base Set Pikachu
The original 1999 Base Set Pikachu is where most collectors' stories start. First Edition copies, especially the early red-cheeks variant, carry a premium, and centering and edge wear make a huge difference to the grade.
Modern chase cards
Modern sets bring full-art and alternate-art Pikachu cards that are printed in tiny numbers relative to the rest of the set. Rainbow, gold and special illustration rares tend to hold the most attention, along with special promos like the Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat card from the Van Gogh Museum collaboration.
What to check before you buy
- Centering: hold the card up and compare the borders left-to-right and top-to-bottom.
- Surface: tilt it under a light to catch scratches, print lines and whitening.
- The slab: confirm the certification number on the grader's website before paying for a graded copy.
Buy the card you'd be happy to keep even if prices never moved.
Whether you chase the grails or just love the yellow mouse, Pikachu is one of the few characters where every era of the game has something worth hunting.
