A One-of-One Gold Star Rayquaza Becomes the First English Pokémon Card to Sell for $1 Million USD

Summary

A 2005 Pokémon EX Deoxys Holo Rayquaza Gold Star has become the first English-language Pokémon card to sell for more than $1 million USDThe card is the only known copy to earn a CGC Pristine 10 grade, a distinction that drove its $1,020,000 USD result after 35 bidsThe sale unseats a First Edition Base Set Charizard as the English-language record holder while sitting well below the all-time Pokémon mark

A 2005 Pokémon EX Deoxys Holo Rayquaza Gold Star #107 has become the first English-language Pokémon card to cross the $1 million USD line, closing at $1,020,000 USD including buyer's premium through Fanatics Collect's August Premier Auction. The seven-figure result rode on a single detail that separates this copy from every other: its grade.

The card carries a CGC Pristine 10, and it stands alone at that tier. Fanatics Collect billed it as potentially "the single greatest copy" of Gold Star Rayquaza, noting that no Pristine 10 example turns up in the BGS or TAG registries either. That scarcity is a function of how the card was made. CGC has pointed to frequent factory edge wear across the EX Deoxys set, and out of more than 250 copies the grader has assessed, only 12 reached Gem Mint 10 and just one climbed to Pristine 10.

The price math underlines how much that half-grade is worth at the top of the market. A Gem Mint 10 of the same card changed hands for $168,000 USD on July 19, which means the Pristine copy pulled more than six times that figure barely a month later. Bidding reflected the appetite, with 35 offers pushing the final number past seven figures.

Gold Star Rayquaza has long carried grail status for collectors, and the sale slots it into a shifting record hierarchy. The result topped the previous English-language high by $65,200 USD, a mark held by a PSA Gem Mint 10 First Edition Base Set Charizard from Logan Paul and Ken Goldin's 2021 box break, which sold for $954,800 USD in February. The overall Pokémon ceiling remains far higher, set by Logan Paul's Japanese Pikachu Illustrator at $16.492 million USD earlier this year, still the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction.

The card's pedigree traces to a run that collectors have chased since the mid-2000s. Gold Star cards arrived in 2004 and surfaced at a rate of roughly one per two booster boxes, or once every 72 packs, each rendering a shiny Pokémon with artwork that spills beyond the standard illustration window. Rayquaza has become the most coveted of the group, and this copy now anchors the English market's first million-dollar milestone.

The sale marks a new benchmark for English-language Pokémon cards, and it widens the gap collectors will measure future grails against. Whether another English card can close the distance to the Japanese record remains the open question hanging over the hobby.

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