Pokemon 30th Celebration Most Valuable Cards: Launch Week Prices

Pokemon 30th Celebration Most Valuable Cards: Launch Week Prices

The most valuable Pokemon 30th Celebration card is Mew ex, Futuristic Rare 158/128, at $1,808.25 market in our catalog on September 14, two days before the set releases worldwide on September 16. It is also one of only three cards above Illustration Rare that anyone has actually bought. Most of the four-figure numbers you will see quoted this week are asks: a seller's price with no buyer attached yet.

The 12 Priciest Cards From the Numbered Set

These are the top twelve cards numbered 001/128 to 158/128, ranked by market price where sales exist and by lowest ask where they do not. The Classic Collection reprints get their own table further down because every one but Rayquaza EX is pure ask.

#	Card	Rarity	Market (Sep 14)	Low ask (Sep 14)
158/128	Mew ex	Futuristic Rare	$1,808.25 (4 sales)	$1,299.90
157/128	Mewtwo ex	Futuristic Rare	$875.00 (2 sales)	$739.97
150/128	Pikachu ex	Special Illustration Rare	no sales	$872.77
153/128	Sylveon ex	Special Illustration Rare	no sales	$861.34
149/128	Pikachu ex	Special Illustration Rare	no sales	$750.00
148/128	Greninja ex	Special Illustration Rare	no sales	$337.54
155/128	Jirachi ex	Special Illustration Rare	$267.65	$254.00
156/128	Salamence ex	Special Illustration Rare	no sales	$193.01
145/128	Hisuian Zorua	Illustration Rare	$150.00	$124.88
141/128	Galarian Meowth	Illustration Rare	no sales	$144.98
146/128	Maushold	Illustration Rare	$144.95	$144.88
147/128	Fuecoco ex	Special Illustration Rare	no sales	$143.45

Five of the twelve have sold. Three Special Illustration Rares and one Illustration Rare had not been revealed in the official gallery as of September 14, so any of them could land in this table next week.

Only Three Cards Above Illustration Rare Have Sold

Mew ex, Mewtwo ex and Jirachi ex. Every other Special Illustration Rare is listed, not sold. (Five Illustration Rares do have sales: Hisuian Zorua, Maushold, Alolan Meowth at $99.00, Alolan Exeggutor at $86.30 and Meowth at $74.90.)

Look at the two price columns together. Mew ex's market is $1,808.25, but the cheapest copy listed today asks $1,299.90, about $500 less. With four sales, one early high sale is enough to drag the average up. If you are buying this week, the ask is the number that matters, and it is already below the "market price" headlines are repeating. Mew ex also has a reason to cost double its twin: TCGplayer's coverage pitches its Memory Helix ability as a possible answer to the Dragapult ex deck that won the 2026 World Championships, so players want it too, not only binder collectors.

Same rarity, same artist (YOSHIROTTEN), less than half the price. Two sales. The low ask again sits under the market, by $135.

Jirachi ex is the only SIR with a real price, and that makes it the yardstick for the other six. A buyer paid roughly $268 for a Special Illustration Rare in this set. Keep that number in your head through the next section.

The SIRs Asking $143 to $873 With Zero Sales

Six Special Illustration Rares have never sold, and their asks run from $143.45 to $872.77.

The two Pikachu ex asks, $872.77 and $750.00, are about three times what Jirachi ex actually sold for. Unofficial leak data from July (roughly 300 English packs) put SIRs at about 1 in 19 packs, which is not scarce. We would not pay either ask this week. Sylveon ex at $861.34 is the same bet with a better precedent behind it (see the comps below). Fuecoco ex at $143.45 is the only SIR asking less than Hisuian Zorua, an Illustration Rare, has already sold for.

Classic Collection: 29 Asks and One Sale

The 30 gold-border reprints are the strangest price list in the set. Rayquaza EX (85/124) is the only one with a completed sale, at $299.00.

Card	Original number	Market (Sep 14)	Low ask (Sep 14)
Lugia	149/147	no sales	$1,260.98
Gengar (Prime)	94/102	no sales	$989.98
Dark Tyranitar	19/109	no sales	$581.98
Magikarp	203/193	no sales	$572.28
Charizard	4/102	no sales	$484.01
Metagross (Delta Species)	11/113	no sales	$435.98
Rayquaza EX	85/124	$299.00	$289.98
Pikachu & Zekrom GX	33/181	no sales	$290.98

Below that top eight, the list goes flat. Ten different reprints, from Delcatty to Scizor ex, share an identical $241.98 low ask, and six more share $192.98. Sixteen cards with nothing in common except the same price looks to us like a seller's blanket listing, not sixteen separate valuations. Treat everything under $300 in this block as a placeholder.

Supply is the open question. Officially, Classic Collection packs (three reprints each) come only inside the $179.99 Ultra-Premium Collections on November 6. The July leak data, which is unofficial, also showed gold-border reprints in regular packs at about 1 in 10. If the leak data holds on September 16, Classic reprints start flowing seven weeks before the UPCs ship, and asks like Charizard's $484.01 will not survive it. We would wait for real sales on all of them. The 2021 precedent is humbling too: the Umbreon Star Classic Collection reprint from Celebrations sits at $96.05 in our catalog today.

The Pikachu Rares: $47 Floor, One Real Outlier

Every pack guarantees one of 30 Pikachu Rares (023/128 to 052/128), and each also carries a small printed number out of 30. Eleven have sold. Nine of those sold between $43.76 and $49.99. The outlier is 027/128, printed 05/30 and illustrated by Asako Ito, at $99.00 market. 040/128 (18/30, Shinji Kondo) sold at $69.00 but now asks $94.98. Most unsold Pikachus ask $47.48.

Fans settled early on OKACHEKE's 14/30, the Pikachu with its face squeezed between stair balusters, as the one to chase. Its catalog number is 036/128. It sells for $49.66, the same as the ordinary ones. If you want the favorite, buy it now, before its price catches up to the hype.

Double Rares and the Surprise Commons

Sold Double Rares: Greninja ex (021/128) at $49.99, Espeon ex (070/128) at $40.80, Mew ex (066/128) at $22.97, Umbreon ex (092/128) at $11.68, and three more at $9.95. Every other listed ex asks $9.95 or less. At about 1 in 4.3 packs in the leak data, these are trade fodder by October.

Two main-set cards outsell all but two of them: Eevee 118/128, a Common, at $26.47, and Snorlax 119/128 at $25.98.

What the Last Printings Sold For

No 30th Celebration card has a graded sale yet, so the useful comps come from earlier sets:

• The Surging Sparks Pikachu ex Special Illustration Rare sits at $290.83 in our catalog. Both new Pikachu ex SIRs ask 2.6 to 3 times that.
• The Prismatic Evolutions Sylveon ex SIR is $542.64. The new Sylveon asks about 60 percent more, from a set that is not built around Eevee.
• The Paldean Fates Mew ex SIR is $946.82. Mew ex FUR already sells at 1.9 times that, on sales rather than asks.
• The 2021 Celebrations Mew secret rare is $63.80. The anniversary logo alone does not make a Mew expensive.

Mew ex is the only card where the comp supports the price. The Pikachu and Sylveon asks both run well past theirs.

What Happens Once Packs Open

The presale market is already falling. The Lab TCG tracked loose 30th Celebration packs dropping from $135.96 in July to $16.95 on September 3, and its 16-product presale index fell 58 percent from July 5 to September 8. Our catalog has a loose pack at $16.61 today.

Singles with sales behind them, Mew ex, Mewtwo ex, Jirachi ex and the five priced Illustration Rares, give you a number to argue with. Everything else here is a seller's hope. Buy asks only on cards you would keep at half the price.

Grading Notes on the Cards That Matter

All cards in this set are foil, so surface carries more weight on every card. The card-specific points:

• Mew ex FUR: the art is pale pastel, so scratches and print lines are what to hunt for with a loupe before you submit.
• Mewtwo ex FUR: dark purple art, so edge and corner whitening is the first check.
• Classic Collection: wide gold borders. Edge wear and corner touches show up bright against gold.
• Pikachu Rares: yellow borders show whitening at the corners. At $47 to $50 raw, grade one only if all four corners are clean.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most valuable Pokemon 30th Celebration card?

Mew ex, 158/128, a Futuristic Rare, at $1,808.25 market on 4 sales in our catalog on September 14. The cheapest listing for it asked $1,299.90 that same day, so a copy bought this week costs less than the headline number suggests.

Why does Classic Collection Lugia ask more than Mewtwo ex sells for?

Because an ask is not a sale. Lugia's $1,260.98 is the cheapest active listing, with no completed sale behind it. Mewtwo ex's $875.00 comes from two real transactions. Of the 30 Classic reprints, only Rayquaza EX has sold.

Are the Pikachu ex Special Illustration Rares worth their asking price?

Not yet. Neither 149/128 nor 150/128 had a single sale as of September 14, and the Surging Sparks Pikachu ex SIR sits at $290.83, about a third of the 150/128 ask.

Which 30th Celebration card is the safest grading submission?

Mew ex FUR, because it has the most sales behind its raw price. The value gap between a PSA 10 and a raw copy is still a guess, since no copy has been graded. A cheaper option is the 14/30 OKACHEKE Pikachu (036/128) at $49.66, but only if the yellow corners are flawless.

Will 30th Celebration prices go up or down after the September 16 release?

For ask-only cards, recent history says down. The Lab TCG's 16-product presale index fell 58 percent between July 5 and September 8. The 2021 Celebrations Elite Trainer Box shows the other side: it sits at 7.1 times MSRP five years later, so sealed product can recover over time.

Is there a 36-pack English booster box for 30th Celebration?

No. The largest regular pack unit is the 6-pack Booster Bundle, releasing October 2. Japan does get a 36-pack box at ¥7,200.