5 Extremely Rare and Very Valuable Pokémon TCG Items

Almost every Pokémon TCG player knows about the secret rare cards, high priced charizards and other popular/valuable Pokémon TCG cards and memorabilia.

But, few may know of these 5 truly secret and valuable Pokémon TCG cards and items. Let’s dive right in:

1. Bad Miscuts and Misprints

First off, we have bad misprints/miscuts. (We will just refer to both as misprints from now on to keep things simple.) Now, your typical small misprint is likely to reduce the value of a card. But, once the misprint crosses a certain point, it actually begins to make the card more valuable.

These bad misprints are incredibly rare as they must first slip through quality control checks from the Pokémon company. After that, there’s a chance that they are returned or discarded as someone may think they were worthless. The incredibly small number of remaining cards are sought after by misprint collectors all over.

To put things in perspective, a recent Dragonite EX miscut sold for $92 while the regular card sells for around $10.

Here’s a picture of said Dragonite EX:

So, if you come across one of these, you may not want to toss it or exchange it, but instead keep it/sell it. It could be worth much more than it’d normally be!

2. Famous Autographs

Another thing that you may not think of is a card with a famous person’s autograph. A few stories of Pokémon cards with famous autographs have cropped up over the years. Most recently, a Dragonair popped up on Reddit with Ronda Rousey’s (MMA Fighter) autograph.

These types of memorabilia become collectible to fans of the person and can sell for many times that of the original card’s value.

But, these are often held onto for years as you likely had a story to go along with the signature and want to keep and treasure it for years to come.

3. Japanese Official Pokémon Card Sleeves

This may come as a shocker, but official Pokémon TCG card sleeves from japan are very valuable when brought over to other countries. This is because official Pokémon card sleeves are legal, but often the sleeves that are transported out of japan are more basic in design.

Take for example the Mt. Silver Ukiyo E Card Sleeves a play on  The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

These card sleeves are awesome, but unfortunately, never made it out of Japan.

If you manage to travel to japan, make it a point to pick up some of these card sleeve packs. They’re beautiful and often unavailable outside of country.

4. Japanese Cards Not Given an English Print

Many of the japanese cards do end up reprinted in English, but there are some sets that don’t make it out of country.

If you have cards from these sets you’re in luck. They are often much more rare and can be worth quite a bit to collectors. Some recent exclusive releases include the Mario and Luigi Pikachu Box and the Lillie and Cosmog Premium Box.

These can be a bit expensive for the amount that you get, but as a collector or someone looking to resell, they’re well worth it.

5. Vending Machine Cards

Now you may be scratching your head upon reading vending machine cards, but if so no worries.

Vending machine cards were a japanese expansion in which cards could be obtained on random sheets from a vending machine. There were 3 series total: Blue, Red, and Green.

We didn’t include these in the above category because they are actually quite different. For example, cards are printed on glossy card stock, and the cards are peeled from the sheets.