How Rare Is My Pokemon TCG Card?

Pokemon cards belong to one of three groups of rarity: common, uncommon and rare. These groups are represented by three different symbols, which are shown at the bottom left or right of each card, and to help you to understand how rare your cards are, we’ve put together this short guide that will explain.

Common Card Symbol - ⬤

Common Pokemon TCG cards are recognised by a black, circular symbol. These are the types of cards you’ll probably come across time and time again, often ending up with numerous duplicates within your portfolio. It is usually these cards that you’ll often have at hand for trading and swaps, recognised by many as ‘bulk’ cards. For deck-building, you will want to have more than one copy of certain cards in your deck, so having duplicates isn’t always a bad thing.

Uncommon Card Symbol - ◆

Uncommon Pokemon cards have a black, diamond symbol at the bottom. These are the cards that you might still find you have a lot of but not as many as commons. They still won’t earn you much money-wise in trades but since they’re less common than common cards, these add some extra challenge to complete the set.

Rare Card Symbol - ★

Rare Pokemon cards can be recognised by a black star symbol at the bottom and these are the cool cards everyone is searching for. But, not every rare card is as rare as another...

Rare Pokemon TCG Cards

Holo Rare

Rare holo cards have the rare black star symbol along with a holographic, shiny illustration that cannot go amiss amongst the rest of the pack. Holo rare cards are not going to be found in every set of cards you purchase, which is why it’s worth a celebration when you come across one. 

Reverse Holo

The frame around a reverse holo card’s illustration is holographic foil whilst the actual picture of the pokemon remains normal. As most packs contain a reverse holo card, it means that they’re not usually much more in value than the normal versions of the same card, however some can sometimes come at a much pricier mark. 

Full Art Holo

The entire Pokemon card of a full art holo card is covered in holographic foil. 

Ultra Rare Cards

Ultra Rare Cards include:

• Pokemon Star – The most special thing about these cards is that they’re nice to look at. The Pokemon Star cards are shiny, different coloured Pokemon that are hard to find. 

• Pokemon LEGEND – These cards have to be found in pairs, making them especially rare to find and collect. 

• Pokemon Ex – Pokemon Extra cards are powerful, flashy cards. You don’t have to hunt for these usually as they can often be sold in their own right.

• Pokemon-GX – These cards have to be evolved but come with a GX move that can only be used once in an entire game.

• Pokemon LV.X – These cards add an extra level for your Pokemon cards, you put these onto one of your other cards to gain attacks. These are much harder to find. 

• Pokemon Prime – These are rare cards that offer much more powerful than regular Pokemon cards.

Secret Rare

Each Pokemon TCG card has a set of numbers at the bottom that lets players know the collector card number. Other rare cards show that they are within the set of these collector numbers, whereas secret rare Pokemon cards usually  have a higher collector number than what is advertised, going beyond the number e.g. 122/120. On top of this, they are probably the coolest looking cards you will find in any set. For these reasons, you'll probably struggle a lot to come across one of these cards even in mounds of booster boxes.

Make sure you carefully analyse all of your Pokemon TCG cards to check there’s no subtleties you’re missing that could just mean you have a rare card sitting right under your nose. Browse our Pokemon Booster Boxes today and scour the lot for those rare, original finds!