Pokemon TCG’s Record Sale Officially Smashed By Rayquaza Card

A Rayquaza Just Overtook Charizard’s Record As The Most Expensive English Pokemon Card Ever Published Aug 29, 2026, 4:16 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. The Pokemon Trading Card Game is fast becoming a hobby for the rich, or the foolish. I've closely covered its meteoric rise to its current popularity over the last two years, exploring how scalpers are ruining the hobby, how cards are becoming wildly more expensive, and how regular collectors, like myself, are paying the price. Certain cards have always been expensive, but even some of the lesser cards are now reaching prices unattainable to most. The latest example of this is a Gold Star Rayquaza, which became the first card from the English-language version of the Pokemon TCG to break the $1 million mark. Rayquaza Is The Trend-Setter For Expensive Pokemon Cards With One Selling For Over $1 Million Gold Star cards have always been some of the most expensive in the Pokemon TCG. Fewer than 30 different Pokemon were blessed with them during the era, and they were notoriously difficult to pull. Given that they were released in the early 2000s, they're even harder to find in good condition, and as a result, they regularly command a pretty penny. Last month, a PSA 3 Gold Star Umbreon sold for over $10,000. A PSA 7 Gold Star Charizard recently sold for $15,000. Even the less popular Pokemon, like Registeel, see their Gold Star cards sell for over $3,000. A Pokemon like Rayquaza, in the highest grade, will always command top dollar, and it recently has. The Gold Star Rayquaza was released as part of the 2005 EX Deoxys expansion, as part of the EX Series era. It was one of the sets released around the time of Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. EX Deoxys was the third to include Gold Star cards. Shared by Fanatics, the most expensive ever English-language Pokemon TCG card is this Gold Star Rayquaza, which became the first to sell for over $1 million, reaching $1,020,000 yesterday. It eclipsed the previous record of $682,500 set by a PSA 10 Gold Star Rayquaza and is well over half a million dollars more than any Base Set Charizard has ever sold for. For context, the top five most expensive English-language cards are below: Card Sale Price Grade Date 1 Gold Star Rayquaza $1,020,000 CGC Pristine 10 August 2026 2 Gold Star Rayquaza $682,500 PSA 10 July 2026 3 1999 Base Set Prerelease Raichu Error $550,000 PSA 6 September 2025 4 Base Set 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard $420,000 PSA 10 March 2022 5 Base Set 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard $369,000 PSA 10 December 2020 This doesn't include private sales in which data is not readily available. While the $1 million fee is high, it doesn't come close to the most expensive card of all time. That record goes to the infamous Pikachu Illustrator Card, which, in February of this year, was sold by Logan Paul for almost $16.5 million in PSA 10 condition. This sale comes just as The Pokemon Company revealed a new Mega Rayquaza card, which itself is likely to be very expensive. Franchise Pokemon Original Release Date October 20, 1996 Player Count 2 Age Recommendation 6+ Length per Game Variable Franchise Name Pokemon