Pokemon 30th Celebration Chase Cards: The 10 Everybody Wants

Pokemon 30th Celebration Chase Cards: The 10 Everybody Wants

Mew ex, 158/128, is the card this release is built around: $1,808.25 on our catalog as of September 14, two days before the set launches worldwide on September 16. It is one of only two cards in a rarity nobody has ever graded before. Below are the 10 cards collectors actually want out of 30th Celebration, ranked by a mix of price, art, character, and plain nostalgia rather than sold-listing price alone, because six of the ten do not have a sold listing yet.

The Presale Gap: Real Sales Against Pure Asks

Six of the 10 cards below have zero completed sales on our catalog right now, only a lowest listing ask. That gap is the story two days before a set drops: demand is visible in what people will ask, supply is not yet visible in what anyone has paid. Mew ex FUR has 4 recorded sales, Mewtwo ex FUR has 2, Jirachi ex is the only Special Illustration Rare with a completed sale, and most of the 30-card Pikachu Rare subset has already traded hands. Everything else, three of the priciest cards here included, is still an ask.

Every card in 30th Celebration is foil, down to the Basic Energy at the bottom of the pack, the one point that applies to all ten entries below: a scratch a matte card would hide, foil puts on stage.

The pull-rate numbers making the rounds come from one leaked batch of roughly 300 English packs from July 2026, months before release, and Pokemon has never published official odds for this or any set: label every number from it unofficial, including these. That leak put a Double Rare around 1 in 4.3 packs, an Illustration Rare around 1 in 5.9, a Classic Collection reprint around 1 in 10, a Special Illustration Rare around 1 in 19, and a Futuristic Rare around 1 in 100. Three Special Illustration Rares and one Illustration Rare in the 129 to 156 run had not appeared in the official card gallery as of September 14, so this ranking is working from an incomplete checklist, same as everyone else's. Full 188-card breakdown: the 30th Celebration set guide.

The 10 Chase Cards, Ranked

10. Galarian Meowth, 141/128

An Illustration Rare with no sales yet and a $144.98 low ask. What earns it a spot is the concept, not the price: it is the only card in the set putting all three Meowth regional forms, standard, Alolan, and Galarian, into one composition. Three silhouettes crowd the foil, which leaves less clean background than a single-subject IR to absorb a scratch, and a lone print flaw shows up fast in a piece this busy.

9. The Pikachu Rare Subset, 30 Cards Deep

This is a different kind of want than the other nine entries: not one card, thirty. Every pack guarantees one, numbered 023/128 through 052/128, so the chase is completing the set of alternate arts rather than pulling any single number. Most trade $43.76 to $49.99 on our catalog, with a $47.48 floor across the subset, but two numbers have already broken away: 027/128 at $99.00 and 040/128 at $69.00, both with real sales behind them. Nobody has confirmed which of the 30 illustrations, if any, is the Atsuko Nishida design (the artist who drew Pikachu in the first place), and that uncertainty is exactly why the subset gets chased as a whole rather than picked over for one number. Grading note specific to this tier: the yellow card border that runs through the Pikachu Rare frame shows whitening far more readily than the darker borders elsewhere in the set, so check corners under raking light before assuming a pack-fresh pull is clean.

8. Jirachi ex, 155/128

The only Special Illustration Rare in this set with a completed sale on record, at $267.65. That makes it the one SIR you can price with any confidence right now, and it is also, at that price, arguably the most overpriced card on this list relative to what it actually is: a strong illustration with a Crown Zenith pedigree, not a franchise headliner. Collectors want it because it is provable. That is a real, narrow kind of desire, and it is why Jirachi sits here rather than higher.

7. Greninja ex, 148/128

No sales yet, a $337.54 low ask, higher than Jirachi despite the thinner proof behind it. The breakdance-pose illustration is the draw, and Greninja carries its own competitive relevance this cycle since the base-set version's ability has been floated as an answer to the Dragapult ex deck that won 2026 Worlds, which keeps the character's name circulating outside collector circles too.

6. Classic Collection Charizard, 4/102

Zero sales, a $484.01 low ask for the most recognizable card in the hobby wearing a new gold anniversary border over its original Base Set layout. It is a name-recognition buy more than a scarcity buy, and it will never trade near an original 1999 copy in similar condition. It is also only pullable from the $179.99 Ultra-Premium Collection boxes on November 6, not from a regular pack, which is a real ceiling on how many collectors get a shot at one this fall.

5. Classic Collection Lugia, 149/147

More than double Charizard's ask, at $1,260.98, and still zero completed sales. Lugia's Neo Genesis original is the other pillar of late-90s Pokemon nostalgia alongside Charizard, and this is the first time the box-art legend has appeared in an all-foil modern print run rather than the original's soft-holo pattern. Same access problem as Charizard: Ultra-Premium Collection only, three Classic cards per box, no guarantee of which three.

4. Pikachu ex, Day and Night, 149/128 and 150/128

Two Special Illustration Rares built as a matched pair, the Day version with a Slowpoke cameo asking $750.00 and the Night version with a fireworks scene asking $872.77, neither with a completed sale yet. Collectors are chasing them together, which is why they get one slot here rather than two: pulling only one half of a pair that was designed to be displayed together is a half-finished chase, and the Surging Sparks Pikachu ex Special Illustration Rare is the closest recent comp for what a single Pikachu SIR can settle at once real sales exist.

3. Sylveon ex, 153/128

An $861.34 low ask with zero sales, riding demand that has nothing to do with this set specifically. Sylveon Special Illustration Rares have run hot since Prismatic Evolutions, where the Sylveon ex SIR trades at $542.64 on our catalog well over a year later, so "Colorful Harmony," this set's Sylveon entry, inherits a proven buyer base before a single pack opens. Full-bleed art with no white border to absorb an off-center cut means centering alone will decide most of the grade here.

2. Mewtwo ex, 157/128

$875.00 market price with 2 recorded sales, the debut card of a rarity that did not exist before this set. Futuristic Rare sits above every prior tier, and Mewtwo ex is on the booster wrapper, not Mew. The etched, textured foil finish on this rarity reads print lines and roller marks a flat mirror foil never would, and the near-black background turns even a faint corner whitening into a bright pale line the instant it catches light. This is, card for card, the hardest Gem Mint in the release.

1. Mew ex, 158/128

$1,808.25 market price, 4 recorded sales, more than double Mewtwo ex despite launching the same rarity on the same day. Mew's mystique as the 151st original Pokemon, the one nobody was ever quite sure existed, does real work here: the Paldean Fates Mew ex Special Illustration Rare sits at $946.82 on our catalog, meaning this new FUR print has already cleared its own most recent precedent before a single pack has opened. The mirror-silver field shows every hairline scratch under light, and with a full-bleed border and no white edge to hide behind, centering is the difference between a 10 and a 9.5.

The ZeroPop Verdict: Grade These, Sell These Raw

Rank	Card	Rarity	Price (Sep 14)	Sales so far
1	Mew ex, 158/128	Futuristic Rare	$1,808.25 market	4
2	Mewtwo ex, 157/128	Futuristic Rare	$875.00 market	2
3	Sylveon ex, 153/128	Special Illustration Rare	$861.34 ask	0
4	Pikachu ex, 149/128 and 150/128	Special Illustration Rare	$750.00 to $872.77 ask	0
5	Classic Collection Lugia, 149/147	Classic Collection	$1,260.98 ask	0
6	Classic Collection Charizard, 4/102	Classic Collection	$484.01 ask	0
7	Greninja ex, 148/128	Special Illustration Rare	$337.54 ask	0
8	Jirachi ex, 155/128	Special Illustration Rare	$267.65 market	Only priced SIR
9	Pikachu Rare subset (30 cards)	Pikachu Rare	$47.48 floor to $99.00	Most already sold
10	Galarian Meowth, 141/128	Illustration Rare	$144.98 ask	0

Grade the two Futuristic Rares, but scan first, not on hope. Mew ex and Mewtwo ex carry the most value and the least forgiving surface: etched foil and mirror-bright fields turn ordinary handling into visible defects, so a submission should follow a scan that already shows clean corners and centered borders, not a guess. Sylveon ex is worth grading too, on a demand history that already survived one full set cycle.

Sell the Classic Collection pair raw unless a copy comes out of the box genuinely flawless. Both Charizard and Lugia compete against decades of original-print market history a reprint cannot touch, and their zero-sales asks are speculation, not a floor; a submission fee eats further into a card whose real settled price nobody has seen yet. The Pikachu Day and Night pair and Jirachi ex sit in between, reasonable grade candidates on a clean pull, not cards worth chasing a resubmission over.

The Pikachu Rare subset and the Galarian Meowth Illustration Rare are where a scan pays for itself. At $47 to $99 a copy, the grading fee is a meaningful share of the card's value, so submit a subset Pikachu or an IR only when the four sub-grades already look strong, not because the pull felt exciting. See is my card worth grading for the break-even math.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does Pokemon 30th Celebration release?

Worldwide on September 16, 2026, two days after the prices in this post were pulled from our catalog. Every price above is a presale number from a thin market; expect real sales to move all ten once packs are actually in hands.

Which of these 10 chase cards have zero sales right now?

Six of them: Sylveon ex, both Pikachu ex Special Illustration Rares, Greninja ex, and both Classic Collection cards, Charizard and Lugia. Only Mew ex, Mewtwo ex, Jirachi ex, and the Pikachu Rare subset have a completed sale on our catalog as of September 14.

What is a Futuristic Rare and why are there only two?

Futuristic Rare is a brand-new rarity debuting with this set, sitting above every prior tier. Mewtwo ex (157/128) and Mew ex (158/128) are the only two, both illustrated by YOSHIROTTEN. Unofficial leak data from July 2026 put the pull rate around 1 in 100 packs, but Pokemon has never published an official number for it.

Are there 30th Celebration cards nobody has seen yet?

Yes. As of September 14, three Special Illustration Rares and one Illustration Rare numbered within the 129 to 156 secret rare run had not appeared in the official card gallery or in our catalog. Any of the four could reshuffle a ranking like this one once revealed.

Is the Classic Collection Charizard worth as much as an original Base Set Charizard?

No. It carries a $484.01 presale ask with zero completed sales, a fraction of what a graded original 1999 copy commands, because a reprint with a modern gold border does not inherit the original's market history. A Classic Collection reprint can still hold real long-term value, the way the 2021 Celebrations Classic Collection Umbreon Star does at $96.05 on our catalog five years on, but it settles well under the card it reprints, not near it.

How rare is the Pikachu Rare subset really?

Rare in variety, not in print run. There are 30 different numbers and one is guaranteed in every single pack, so the chase is owning all 30 illustrations rather than pulling a scarce card. No official odds exist for which of the 30 you get, and most sell $43.76 to $49.99, with two outliers, 027/128 and 040/128, already trading well above that floor.