Looking for the best Pokemon card errors? Check out our list of the most valuable misprint cards, including examples of the likes of misaligned stamps and other unique items that have been discovered over the years.
Finding these unique Pokemon cards is a relatively new phenomenon, with all bar one of the cards on this list being Pokemon TCG cards rather than those belonging to the GB series of games, due to the sheer number of Pokemon cards that have been produced over the years; over two billion cards, in fact. Considering all the tiny percentage of cards that are errors, it’s no wonder that this list of special Pokemon cards is so big, with some of them worth thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars.
Here are the most collectable error Pokemon cards:
$50 $100
$50 $100
The “Prerelease Raichu” (PR) is the most valuable error card and is one of just three released prior to the initial Jungle expansion. Supposedly, there was a stamp intended for a Jungle Clefable present on a Raichu card that was cut off at the top, but evidence of the prerelease event is lacking. The card is believed to be a misprint, although brief appearances of the pattern in bulks of cards sold online between 2002 and 2004 caused a lot of speculation over whether it actually came from a prerelease event. Another one, produced in the same year, was sold – but the existence of the third is disputed, and it is likely a fabrication.
$150 $250 $725
The “Ghost Raichu” (GR) is another special Raichu card, although rather than being a misprint, it displays an error in its illustration. In Normal Raichu cards, the feet are dark blue, but in Ghost Raichu cards, a light blue circle is instead in their place. Conversely, Normal Raichu cards have the white bone-like Diglett patterns, but Ghost Raichu cards do not. This version of Raichu is much rarer than the PR, with only one known card in existence.
$75 $125
We’ve already established that error cards must display some form of error – usually a misprint. The “Barbar Leafeon” (BL) card, however, is special as it was printed correctly – except that the illustrator’s name was misspelled. The misprinted card was corrected before the error spread to many other prints, thus making it a (major) error card in its own right. This error of spelling Señor Noheart instead of Ne4Zos is worth a lot considering it is much less common than other BL cards.
$50 $75
The “Shadow Tyranitar” (ST) card is unique because it was in fact manufactured twice – once with an additional error. The Shadowed Pokemon typically have glittery markings on their Shadow Counters, but the card was erroneously printed without this identifier twice – once without the glittery streaks on the left casing and once without the corresponding stripes on the right casing. As the right version is much less common than the left version, it is the one which commands the higher price.
$200 $250 $575
The “Eon Ticket” (ET) is probably the most famous error card because of its value and the reason behind its rarity. Dubbed the “eternal” ticket, the card was available as a competition prize in 2002, with only 500 sent out to selected players across the world. While this might seem like a lot, with the card being so rare, it gives you an idea of just how special it is to have one in your grasp. The Eon Ticket was reprinted in 2016, but the first 500 copies end with ‘0001’, which has a more metallic appearance than later prints.
$500 $2,500 $4,000
For Pokémon Crystal, Nintendo and MediaFactory aimed to produce “over a billion” of each card in the set. While that number was never actually reached, at about 715 million prints, a unique error card was still likely produced. The “Pidgey” (PW) card from the Japanese set is special due to a digit printed above the end of Pidgey’s name, indicating how many cards with that print were produced.