Throughout his time in the industry and as a hobbyist, the Pokemon series has been at the center of his childhood and adult gaming life. He’s played all the mainline titles as well as most of the spin-offs, and most recently, he has enjoyed exploring the wealth of lore and background context of the Pokemon Universe. His favorite title in the series is Pokemon Platinum on the Nintendo DS, and he’s eagerly awaiting Game Freak’s next entry to see what else they have in store following Arceus!
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In a word, yes: Gold Pokémon cards are a real, official product developed by the Pokémon Company.
That said, they’re extremely rare, leading many to question whether they’re simply a myth. There are a lot of fakes out there also, so let’s take a look at the key information you need should you come across these once-in-a-lifetime finds!
What is a Gold Pokémon Card?
First, it’s important to distinguish what we mean by ‘gold’. There is only one set of gold metal Pokémon cards: these were released back in 1999 as part of a special promotion by Burger King for Pokémon: The First Movie.
Alongside a selection of 59 bespoke Pokémon toys which came with a customer’s meal at the time, people could also purchase a selection of six 23-karat Gold-plated Pokémon cards which came in their own Pokéball.
The cards featured Charizard, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Pikachu, Polywhirl, and Togepi.
It’s important to note that these were not cards you could use in a game or for trading — they were purely a novelty, ornamental item.
The company did, and continues to, release cards covered in gold foil to denote a high level of rarity, however.
The first set of these came from Pokemon Black & White: Legendary Treasures expansion set (2013), and these types of cards were delineated from then on as Hyper Rare.
Hyper Rare category cards have a rarity value of three stars and represent the rarest available — you can find this information at the bottom left corner of every Pokémon card (I recommended checking out Witkomon’s video on the topic of card rarity if you’re new to this).
How to Avoid Fake Cards
To steer clear of fake Gold/Hyper Rare cards, you should:
- Avoid Etsy: there’s plenty of great work there, but those cards aren’t intended to represent official cards.
- Take note of the texture detail: fake cards rarely exhibit the same attention to detail in their golden foil as real cards.
- Check for grammatical errors: look up an official version of the card and compare the wording.
Top 5 Most Expensive Gold Cards
To give you some pointers, here are the top five most valuable official Gold cards across all categories (click the titles to be taken to their TCGPlayer.com page).
1. Ultra Ball – Plasma Freeze (PLF) – $252.35
2. Zekrom – Legendary Treasures (LTR) – $102.54
3. Escape Rope – SM – Burning Shadows – $75.13
4. Snorlax – Chilling Reign – $74.74
5. Ancient Mew (Japanese Exclusive Print) – Miscellaneous Cards – $73.91
Wrapping Up
I hope this article helped you understand Gold Pokémon cards. I
f you’re looking for more info surrounding the Pokémon Trading Card Game, be sure to check out our other articles such as our piece on the Best Pokémon Card Binders or the TCG Live Getting Starting Guide. Happy Hunting!
