151 Chase Cards: The Top 10, Three Years On
151 came out three years ago yesterday, and its reputation has not moved an inch since. Its prices have not sat still for a week.
The idea fits on a sticky note: every one of the original 151 Pokémon, in Pokédex order, in one set. It was the first English set to do it, it landed on September 22, 2023, and collectors loved it on sight. Then, for most of its first year, it sat on shelves at or below retail price and nobody seemed in any hurry.
Then the hobby boomed, and 151 went with it. Prices climbed through late 2024 and 2025, spiked hard in the spring of 2026 as people decided the printing was finally over, and have given back a big chunk of it since. TCGplayer has said 151 will likely go down as the best Pokémon set of the decade, and has also called it heavily printed. Both are true. Nobody has published how many packs exist, and collectors have spent three years arguing that there were too many reprints and not nearly enough, often the same collectors in the same week.
What almost nobody argues about is the art. After card 165/165 there are 42 more, all the way up to 207/165, and the best of them tell stories. The cards on this list come in two kinds: Illustration Rares give an ordinary Pokémon a full painted scene, and Special Illustration Rares do the same for the big Pokémon ex. Each starter's line went to one artist, start to finish, and each artist used the three cards to take it somewhere: up, down, or into bloom.
A quick note before the countdown. The prices in the boxes below are live and move with the market. Any figure quoted in the writing is accurate as of publication, September 23, 2026. Everything here is raw and near mint unless it says otherwise.
If you want the full picture rather than the top of the pile, the complete 151 card list has all 207 cards with current values.
Here are the 151 chase cards, counting up to the one that was always going to be first.
#10 Psyduck 175/165 (Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by Whisker
Psyduck made this list by fifty five cents. That is how much more it is worth than the Wartortle at number eleven, which is a very Psyduck way to win anything.
This was Whisker's first Pokémon card. Most people's first attempt at anything is not this good. A long flight of steps winds up through a sunlit forest, striped with light and shade, and Psyduck stands on it alone, tiny in the frame, hand to its head, looking like it has forgotten why it came up here. The whole forest is done in flat, bold shapes with a stippled texture. It is the most relatable card in the set by a distance.
It is roughly where it was in March, which on this list counts as a triumph, though it took the scenic route: down to $55 in April, up to $83 in June, back to $62.00. Keep an eye on the left edge of the Pikachu card at number seven. It gets around.
#9 Alakazam ex 201/165 (Special Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by Shinya Komatsu
151 is the set that brought Kadabra back. Kadabra went missing from Pokémon cards for about twenty years after the spoon-bending illusionist Uri Geller objected to it, and only returned once he withdrew the objection in 2020. So it is fitting that the Alakazam Special Illustration Rare is built around spoons.
Shinya Komatsu put Alakazam in a study that has clearly not been tidied in years, hunched over a spoon glowing blue between its hands while a second glowing spoon floats up by the wall. Around it, every surface is full: shelves of crockery and bottles, a green potion, stacks of books on the floor, an oil lamp, a toppled clock, a single hanging bulb, and cracked plaster peeling away from the brick. Light comes through a tall window at the back. It is less a card than an inventory.
It reached about $94 in March. It is $73.62 now.
#8 Bulbasaur 166/165 (Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by Yoriyuki Ikegami
The first chapter of the first story.
Yoriyuki Ikegami drew all three stages of the Bulbasaur line, and this is where it starts. Bulbasaur is asleep, tucked into a wall of leaves, on a card painted in about forty shades of the same colour. Remember the bulb on its back, because it is closed here, and it will not be by the end.
Ivysaur, the middle chapter, did not make this list at $39.71, but it is worth finding: Ivysaur at the edge of a pond, one vine dipping into the water, its reflection staring back up from the surface. The bulb has become a pink bud. Number three is where it opens.
Bulbasaur is $78.55, a dollar and change behind the Pikachu above it.
#7 Pikachu 173/165 (Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by Hiroyuki Yamamoto
One of the busiest cards on this list, and the most fun to take apart.
Hiroyuki Yamamoto, who designs the characters for the mobile puzzle game Pokémon Café ReMix, drew Pikachu scampering across a zebra crossing in a busy town square, with bunting overhead, café umbrellas behind (one of them printed with a Poké Ball) and two kids smiling on either side of it. Then look past Pikachu. Two Pidgey are perched in the tree at the top. A Butterfree drifts past the corner. A Nidoran of each kind is up among the bunting, Slowpoke is lounging behind Pikachu, Growlithe is right at one kid's heels, a Gengar is lurking in the bottom corner, and at the left edge, there is Psyduck again, having wandered down from its staircase.
It was a little over $105 in June. At $79.71 it is still the most Pokémon per dollar on this list.
#6 Zapdos ex 202/165 (Special Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by Shiburingaru
Zapdos got the Special Illustration Rare. Articuno and Moltres got a lift.
Shiburingaru drew Zapdos mid-flight, crackling with lightning, tearing across a bright blue sky full of cloud with green land far below. Further off in the sky, Moltres trails fire at the top left and Articuno glides along lower down, all three birds heading the same way.
It is $86.41 now, about 40 percent below its March high.
#5 Squirtle 170/165 (Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita
This story starts in 1999.
Mitsuhiro Arita drew the Squirtle in the original Base Set, which reached English players that year. He also drew the Base Set Charizard, Venusaur, Charmander and Bulbasaur, but not Wartortle or Blastoise. Those went to Ken Sugimori. In 1999, Sugimori got the big turtle. In 151, Arita got all three.
He starts it on a beach. Squirtle is wading in the surf, grinning, sun on the sand and turquoise water breaking around it. Every card after this one is a little further from the beach. Wartortle, which missed this list by those fifty five cents, is swimming just under the surface, with light coming down through the water and seaweed waving below. Blastoise is at number two, and it is not paddling.
Squirtle is $90.53. Charmander, next up, is less than three dollars dearer.
#4 Charmander 168/165 (Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by miki kudo
The third story, and the one everyone knows the ending to.
miki kudo drew the whole Charmander line, and it starts at the bottom of a canyon. Charmander sits on a rock between towering red walls, tail flame glowing, looking straight up at a thin strip of sky. The whole thing is made of soft, simple shapes and hazy light, and it is somehow the loneliest card in the set.
Charmeleon missed the cut at $56.81, which is a shame, because it is the card that makes the other two make sense. It stands on a dark ledge high on the cliff, looking out over a misty drop, and the rock walls around it are split by glowing seams of molten yellow. One more evolution and it is out of there.
Charmander spiked to nearly $159 in March, dropped to around $80 by July and has climbed back to $93.23.
#3 Venusaur ex 198/165 (Special Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by Yoriyuki Ikegami
The bloom.
Yoriyuki Ikegami has turned the colour all the way up for the last chapter. Venusaur crouches low and stares straight out at you from a jungle that has gone off like a firework: pink, red, orange, yellow and teal, all done in a thick, crayon-like texture. The flower on its back is fully open now. It went from a closed bulb, to a bud, to this, and it took three cards to do it.
Venusaur is $111.17, and it has not been this cheap in six months.
#2 Blastoise ex 200/165 (Special Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita
The deep end.
Arita's Blastoise is sinking into deep indigo water, head bowed, shell cannons and all, frowning with concentration, with a trail of bubbles rising towards a surface you can no longer see. After the shallows at number five and Wartortle just below the surface, this is as far down as the story goes, and Arita paints it like someone who has had since the nineties to practise. Put it next to the Charizard and it is the better card, whatever the price tags say.
The market was less sentimental about it this year. Blastoise was $227.60 in early March. It is $132.29 now, down about 42 percent, the biggest fall from a spring high of anything on this list.
#1 Charizard ex 199/165 (Special Illustration Rare)
Illustrated by miki kudo
Of course.
Two cards of canyon, and miki kudo saved the view for the third. Charizard flies high over canyon country, wings wide, tail flame streaming, towards a pale sun in a lilac and pink sky. Far below, the mesas roll away into the haze and a volcano glows at the bottom left. It is a gentle card for a Charizard: soft light, open air, and nothing on it being set on fire. After two cards hemmed in by rock walls, the open air is the point.
This is also miki kudo's only Special Illustration Rare. Their first Pokémon card was a Butterfree in 2016, and most of their work since has been commons and uncommons.
The Charizard's price chart is the whole three years in one line. It was somewhere between $90 and $125 for its first year, broke out late in 2024, reached about $300 in 2025, and in our data hit $500.42 on May 23, 2026. Today it is $354.42, its lowest point since March, and you could sell Blastoise, Venusaur and Charmander together and still come up short of one.
Is it worth grading 151 cards?
The cards to watch in this table are the cheap ones.
| Card | Raw | PSA 10 | Profit | PSA 10 pop | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charizard ex 199 | $354.42 | $1,488.13 | $1,048.73 | 28,622 | Gamble |
| Blastoise ex 200 | $132.29 | $571.38 | $369.11 | 18,920 | Gamble |
| Venusaur ex 198 | $111.17 | $434.64 | $293.49 | 16,361 | Gamble |
| Charmander 168 | $93.23 | $600.83 | $437.62 | 8,987 | Gamble |
| Squirtle 170 | $90.53 | $490.11 | $369.60 | 9,181 | Gamble |
| Zapdos ex 202 | $86.41 | $402.71 | $286.32 | 14,195 | Gamble |
| Pikachu 173 | $79.71 | $519.50 | $369.81 | 8,936 | Gamble |
| Bulbasaur 166 | $78.55 | $329.48 | $220.95 | 8,525 | Gamble |
| Alakazam ex 201 | $73.62 | $306.15 | $202.55 | 11,567 | Gamble |
| Psyduck 175 | $62.00 | $437.22 | $345.24 | 5,353 | Gamble |
PSA 10 is our market estimate from recent graded sales. Profit is what is left after buying the card raw and paying the grading fee and shipping. PSA 10 pop is how many copies PSA has graded a 10 so far: copies graded, not sold, and the supply a new slab would join. Safe bet means a PSA 9 still turns a profit; Gamble means only a 10 does.
Every card here is a Gamble, but for about half of them it is a mild one. A PSA 9 of most of these sells for a touch more than a raw copy, and the grading fee takes that and a bit more besides. A near miss stings. It does not ruin you. Bulbasaur and Alakazam are the exceptions, where a 9 sells for less than raw.
The money is in the 10s, and the best of it is at the bottom of the list. A PSA 10 Psyduck sells for roughly seven times a raw one, and it has the fewest PSA 10s of anything here. The little Illustration Rares, Psyduck, Pikachu and Charmander, all multiply more at a 10 than the Charizard does.
And the Charizard is not scarce in a slab. PSA has graded about a hundred thousand of them, which makes it one of the most graded Pokémon cards ever made, and more than 28,000 of those came back a 10. It is still the most valuable 10 on the list by a mile. It is just not the best return.
Which leaves the one number this table does not have: the grade of your copy. That is the gap Slab Advisor fills. Scan your card, get a grade estimate, and see its PSA 10 price and verdict before you post it off to a grader.
The other 197 cards
Every other card you can pull from a pack is cheaper than Psyduck, though Wartortle and Charmeleon from the starter stories are close behind.
One footnote for the completionists. If you sort 151 by price, the top of the list is not a pack pull at all. It is a common Charmander, worth about twenty six cents as a normal card, with an EB Games logo stamped on it. EB Games handed it out with 151 purchases in Australia and New Zealand when the set launched, and it now sells for $362.16, slightly more than the Charizard at number one. GameStop gave away the same promo with its own logo in the US and Canada, but GameStop had about eight times as many stores, and its version is $44.60.
Set builders, the 151 card list is the whole thing on one page: what you own, what you are missing and what the gaps will cost.
Three years, one long wait, one boom, one correction and about a hundred thousand graded Charizards later, the most valuable card you can pull from 151 is still a Charizard. Some bets you never lose.