Pokémon and One Piece card rarities explained

Rarities are the inner language of this hobby and, at the same time, the most opaque part for newcomers. Every game has its own scale, every language gives the same thing a different name, and on top of that community slang doesn’t match the official names.

This guide sorts it all out. By the end you should be able to pick up a card you have never seen and know what it is.

First: how to read a card

Almost all the information is in the bottom corner. Look for two things:

• The collector number, in the format X/Y. X is that card’s number and Y is the total number of cards in the set’s main list.
• The rarity symbol, usually next to the number.

And here is the most useful trick in this guide: if X is higher than Y, the card is a secret. A card marked 207/195 is outside the set’s official list, which means it is a high rarity. It is the fastest way to tell whether what you just opened is good without knowing the set.

Pokémon rarities (Mega Evolution era)

Mega Dragonite ex 271/217Pokémon Ascended Heroes · ENView in storeSylveon ex 212/187Pokémon Terastal Festival ex · JPView in storeMega Diancie ex 238/193Pokémon MEGA Dream ex · JPView in storeIris's Fighting Spirit 292/217Pokémon Ascended Heroes · ENView in store

From most common to rarest:

Common · Uncommon · Rare

The base of the set. Circle, diamond and black star respectively. They are the cards that make a deck work and the ones you will have piles of.

Double Rare

Regular-bordered ex cards. Two black stars. Several per box. Strong in play, and the first step people keep.

Ultra Rare

A full art version of an ex card or a Trainer: the illustration covers the whole card and the finish is textured. Roughly one per box.

Illustration Rare (IR)

Pokémon without ex, with a different illustration where the Pokémon appears in a scene, in its environment. Not the most valuable, but by far the favourites of many people. Pure art.

Special Illustration Rare (SIR)

The big version of the above: an ex card or a Trainer with full-bleed art, usually with the human character alongside the Pokémon. It is the rarity everyone chases. Roughly one in every seventy packs.

Mega Attack Rare

New in the Mega Evolution era: a full art Mega ex card with the attack name written in Japanese over the illustration. It didn’t exist in Scarlet & Violet.

Mega Hyper Rare

The gold one. A gold-finished card, the rarest on the scale. Estimates going around put it between one in five hundred and one in thirteen hundred packs, depending on the source. Nobody publishes the official figure, so take it as an order of magnitude: it is very hard.

Japanese ↔ English equivalents

If you buy in both languages, this table will save you confusion. They are not exact equivalents, since sets don’t match one to one, but it works in practice.

In other words: when someone says they pulled a SAR, they mean the same thing someone else would call a SIR. And a Japanese SR is not the same as a One Piece SR. The vocabulary is not unified and it won’t be.

One Piece Card Game rarities

Monkey.D.Luffy (SEC) OP13-118One Piece Carrying On His Will · ENView in storeSabo (SP) OP07-118One Piece 500 Years in the Future · ENView in storeRocks.D.Xebec (Alternate Art) OP17-118One Piece The World's Strongest Warriors · JPView in storeGol.D.Roger OP09-118One Piece Emperors in the New World · JPView in store

One Piece prints letters directly on the card, which is much friendlier. From lowest to highest:

Frequencies are community estimates built up from opening product, not data published by Bandai.

DON!! cards

The game’s resource card, with a white and green back. You need ten in any deck. Since OP-04, one DON!! with special art comes per box, and there are Gold DON!! versions on gold paper that are quite scarce.

Promos (P-xxxxx)

They don’t come in packs. They are given out at tournaments, events, in magazines or with specific purchases. Some are among the most expensive cards in the game precisely because you can’t open them.

How to recognise a parallel

Boa Hancock (Parallel) OP07-038One Piece 500 Years in the Future · JPView in storeRebecca (Parallel) OP15-053One Piece Adventure on Kami's Island · JPView in storeKoala (Parallel) OP12-086One Piece Legacy of the Master · JPView in store

This is the one that causes most doubts, because a parallel doesn’t change the rarity symbol: an SR parallel still says SR.

Two signs:

• A star above the rarity symbol. That star is the parallel mark.
• The text “ONE PIECE” embossed along the left edge of the card.

A parallel is an alternate-art version of a card that already exists in a normal version. About one comes per box and it is usually worth much more than its standard version.

“Alternate art” is not a rarity

You’ll hear it all the time and it isn’t printed on any card. Alt art is community slang for “version with different art”, and it means different things depending on the game:

• In One Piece, alt art usually means parallel.
• In Pokémon, it usually refers to Illustration Rares and Special Illustration Rares.

Don’t rely on the term: always ask for the card’s exact symbol. It is the only way to know what you are buying.

What makes a card worth money

Rarity is just one of four factors, and not always the most important:

1. Rarity, which sets how many copies exist.
2. The character. A mid-rarity Charizard or Luffy can be worth more than a rarer card of a character nobody cares about.
3. Competitive play. A card played in every deck goes up, and down when it rotates or gets banned.
4. Condition. Centring, corners, edges and surface. At high rarities, the difference between a flawless card and one with a tiny ding is huge.

That’s why a rarity list is not a price list. It is the starting point for understanding what you are holding.

Where to look next

We have single cards, with their rarity listed, in Pokémon singles and One Piece singles. And if you’d rather hunt them yourself, sealed product is in sealed Pokémon and sealed One Piece. We ship from Spain to the whole EU.

Keep reading

• ETB, booster box, bundle or single pack: what each format contains and when it pays off.
• Japanese or English cards: price, quality and tournament legality.