Ask five sellers what makes Japanese gold Pokemon cards a “UR” and you’ll get five different answers. Some point at a shiny full-art border. Some point at the color of the foil. A few just mean “the expensive one at the top of the box.” None of that is how the actual Ultra Rare rarity works — and mixing them up is exactly how a Double Rare ends up relisted online as a UR at three times its real price.
This guide separates the two questions that actually matter: what “UR” means as a printed rarity, and which specific gold-tier cards we can currently verify as UR. We cross-checked every card number below against card databases and commercial listings before pricing it, and we flag the ones where the sourcing is thinner — including one well-known “UR” claim that didn’t survive the check.
We verify four gold Ultra Rare card numbers in this guide. PSA 10 Mewtwo EX UR (065/059, Blue Impact) is currently listed at ¥360,500 (~$2,341). The sections below cover the present state of all four.
- Where the four UR numbers stand on September 24, 2026: Mewtwo EX UR (065/059) is currently listed at ¥360,500 (~$2,341); the other three are sold out or unlisted as physical PSA 10 listings, with PSA 10 back orders offered for all three — see below.
- Pikachu & Zekrom GX UR (221/173) is offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥111,655 (~$725) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms.
- Pikachu VMAX UR (279/184) — the physical PSA 10 listing is sold out at the time of this update; it is offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥22,660 (~$147) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms.
- Lucario & Melmetal GX UR (224/173) — the physical PSA 10 listing is sold out at the time of this update; it is offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥23,460 (~$152) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms.
- Flareon EX RR, 1st Edition (006/032, CP3) (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) — correctly labeled RR, not UR — is currently listed at ¥164,182 (~$1,066) (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order).
- September 24, 2026 SNKRDUNK asks: Mewtwo EX UR, 1st Edition, from ¥30,000 raw / ¥200,000 PSA 10; Pikachu & Zekrom GX UR from ¥18,000 raw / ¥90,000 PSA 10; Pikachu VMAX UR from ¥9,800 raw / ¥23,000 PSA 10; Lucario & Melmetal GX UR from ¥12,800 raw / ¥23,000 PSA 10.
- Listing page: PSA 10 card list. Browse the full PSA 10 graded singles collection for other currently listed URs. USD figures in this update convert at ¥154/USD, approximate.
Card numbers and rarities below are cross-checked against card databases and commercial listings before publication. Where a card number could only be confirmed through listings rather than a database’s own card page, we say so rather than presenting it as fully settled. Where we cite a market figure, it is a dated SNKRDUNK asking price, current as of this September 24, 2026 update, not a report of sold prices.
What Actually Makes a Card an Ultra Rare
Ultra Rare (UR) entered the Pokemon TCG during the Black & White era as a rarity tier, and its definition has moved since then — most recently a significant redefinition in the Scarlet & Violet era. In the current Scarlet & Violet rule set, a UR is specifically a Full Art Secret card: a holo-foil reprint of one of the set’s chase Pokemon or Trainer cards, numbered beyond the set’s regular print run, marked with a symbol of two silver stars.
That’s the modern, narrow definition. It doesn’t automatically apply backward. Sword & Shield-era and earlier Ultra Rares generally were not secret cards outside a handful of Asian-language exclusive releases, and the visual symbol used for the rarity has differed by generation and by language edition the whole way through. Japanese sets since the Black Collection / White Collection era mostly skip icon-based rarity symbols altogether and print a bold letter instead — C, U, R, RR, and so on — which is a separate labeling system from the English-language star icons.
There’s also a newer wrinkle worth flagging so it doesn’t get mixed into older cards: starting with the Mega Evolution expansion (English release, September 26, 2025), every card type — Pokemon, Supporter, Item, Tool, Stadium, Special Energy — became eligible to be printed as an Ultra Rare. That rule is specific to that expansion forward. None of the cards in this guide are from that era, and we’re not applying that rule to them.
Put simply: “gold UR” as sellers use the phrase is shorthand for “the foil chase card sitting at the top of a set’s rarity ladder,” and the specific design behind that shorthand has changed across eras and languages. That’s exactly why the printed card number — not the color of the foil — is what actually identifies a UR. We’ll come back to that in the lookalikes section below.
Japanese Gold Pokemon Cards We Currently List
These are the four gold Ultra Rare card numbers we verify in this guide. Here is where each one stands as of September 24, 2026:
| Card | Set | Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mewtwo EX UR | Blue Impact (XY8b) | 065/059 | ¥360,500 |
| Pikachu & Zekrom GX UR | Tag Team GX Tag All Stars (SM12a) | 221/173 | PSA 10 back order ¥111,655 |
| Pikachu VMAX UR | VMAX Climax (S8b) | 279/184 | Sold out · back order ¥22,660 |
| Lucario & Melmetal GX UR | Tag Team GX Tag All Stars (SM12a) | 224/173 | Sold out · back order ¥23,460 |
The Mewtwo EX UR (065/059) comes from Blue Impact, one of the two Japanese sets that make up what English-speaking collectors call “XY8.” Its number and Ultra Rare rating are confirmed by multiple independent sources including a direct card-database listing — the strongest sourcing of the four. As of September 24, 2026, the lowest asking price on SNKRDUNK for the 1st Edition print was ¥30,000 raw, with PSA 10 grades asking from ¥200,000 that day. We cover the set split, the numbering quirks, and the full checklist context in our XY8 Blue Impact best cards guide.
Pikachu & Zekrom GX UR (221/173) and Lucario & Melmetal GX UR (224/173) both come from Tag Team GX Tag All Stars (SM12a), the high-class pack built around paired Tag Team GX cards. Their card numbers and UR rating line up consistently across multiple commercial listings, though we weren’t able to pull an independent card-database page for either number to double-confirm — worth knowing if you’re cross-referencing on your own. Pikachu & Zekrom GX UR is offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥111,655 (~$725) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms. Lucario & Melmetal GX UR’s physical PSA 10 listing is sold out at the time of this update; it is offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥23,460 (~$152) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms. As of September 24, 2026, the lowest SNKRDUNK asks were ¥18,000 raw / ¥90,000 PSA 10 for Pikachu & Zekrom GX UR, and ¥12,800 raw / ¥23,000 PSA 10 for Lucario & Melmetal GX UR.
Pikachu VMAX UR (279/184) is a VMAX Climax (S8b) pull — a set that released in Japan on December 3, 2021. It’s a different printing from the set’s own 046/184 Pikachu VMAX, which is rated Triple Rare rather than Ultra Rare, so if you’re comparing listings, check the full number carefully. The physical PSA 10 listing is sold out at the time of this update; it is offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥22,660 (~$147) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms. As of September 24, 2026, the lowest asking price on SNKRDUNK for this print was ¥9,800 raw, with PSA 10 grades asking from ¥23,000. For how this UR stacks up against other VMAX chase cards across sets, our Best Japanese VMAX Cards guide lines up the wider field.
Not Every Gold Card Is a UR: Four Rarity Tiers Compared
A foil, full-art-looking Japanese card sitting near the top of a set’s number range gets called “UR” online constantly — even when the actual printed rarity is something else entirely. Here are four rarity tiers that get visually or verbally lumped together, shown side by side so the difference is easier to spot.
The Gengar-EX card on the left is a genuine, confirmed Ultra Rare — it’s the English Phantom Forces printing, shown here as a reference for what the rarity actually looks like on record, not one of our Japanese listings. The Charizard-EX next to it looks similarly premium but is printed and confirmed as a Double Rare, one tier down. Jolteon’s Character Rare and Zeraora VMAX’s Special Art Rare are both community-recognized Japanese rarity terms of their own — neither is an official Ultra Rare designation, even though both sit in the same visual territory of “premium foil card near the top of the set.”
The practical takeaway: color, foil texture, and “it looks like the expensive one” are not reliable ways to identify a UR. The printed card number, checked against the set’s own numbering, is.
One “UR” Claim That Didn’t Hold Up, One We Can’t Confirm
We checked two commonly-repeated “UR” claims. One didn’t survive direct verification; the other remains unresolved rather than disproven — both are worth flagging so you don’t pay a UR premium for a card that isn’t confirmed as one.
Flareon EX, CP3 (PokéKyun Collection): This card gets called “UR” fairly often in online listings. Direct verification against the card’s own database entry shows both printings — 006/032 and 007/032 — are rated Double Rare, not Ultra Rare. We list a graded copy of the 006/032 printing correctly as RR: PSA 10 Flareon EX RR, 1st Edition (006/032, CP3) (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order), currently listed at ¥164,182 (~$1,066) (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order). If you see this exact card marketed elsewhere as a UR, the rarity claim doesn’t match what the card database shows.
M Rayquaza EX, sometimes listed as UR: This one is genuinely unresolved rather than disproven. It is offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥489,967 (~$3,182) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms — but we were not able to confirm its UR attribution against an independent Japanese-set source strongly enough to state it here as settled fact. If you want the full breakdown of Mega Rayquaza’s various printings, rarities, and prices across sets and languages, our Mega Rayquaza value guide covers print-by-print detail in depth.
A rarity label changes what a card is worth. If a listing calls a card “UR” without citing the set and full printed number, that’s a gap worth closing before you pay a UR-level price for it — sourcing requests for a specific number go through our Quick Order page.
How to Verify a UR Before You Buy
None of this requires special tools — it’s mostly a matter of checking the number instead of taking the rarity label on faith.
- Read the full fraction, not just the front number. 065/059, 221/173, 279/184 — the full printed fraction is specific to one card in one set. A listing that only gives a rounded or partial number is harder to verify.
- Cross-reference more than one source. A rarity claim backed by a single seller’s own description is weaker than one confirmed independently across a card database and multiple commercial listings, as we did for the cards above.
- Watch for numbers that sit just under a chase card’s fraction. As the Pikachu VMAX example above shows, a set can carry two different Pikachu VMAX printings a few digits apart in the same 184-card set, at very different rarities.
- Prefer graded, certified cards for higher-value URs. A PSA cert number ties a specific graded card to a specific certification record, which removes ambiguity about which exact printing you’re buying — useful given how often rarity claims and set names get garbled in resale listings.
Not seeing a specific number in our current lineup? Sourcing requests go through our Quick Order page.
Where to Buy Japanese Gold UR Cards
We ship graded Japanese singles out of Tokyo with tracked delivery worldwide. For the cards covered in this guide:
- PSA 10 Mewtwo EX UR (065/059, Blue Impact) — currently listed at ¥360,500 (~$2,341)
- PSA 10 Pikachu & Zekrom GX UR (221/173, SM12a) — offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥111,655 (~$725) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms
- PSA 10 Pikachu VMAX UR (279/184, VMAX Climax) — the physical listing is sold out at the time of this update; offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥22,660 (~$147) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms
- PSA 10 Lucario & Melmetal GX UR (224/173, SM12a) — the physical listing is sold out at the time of this update; offered as a PSA 10 back order at ¥23,460 (~$152) — sourced to order; the product page shows the current terms
See our PSA 10 back orders page for how sourced-to-order listings work. Browse our full PSA 10 graded singles collection for other currently listed URs. If ¥360,500 is above your budget, our PSA 10 Japanese cards under ¥30,000 guide has lower-cost graded picks across sets. Looking for a different UR, a raw copy, or want to build a mixed order? Sourcing requests go through our Quick Order page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does UR mean on a Japanese Pokemon card?
Ultra Rare. It’s a rarity tier introduced in the Black & White era and redefined in the Scarlet & Violet era, where it now specifically means a Full Art Secret card — a holo-foil reprint of a set’s chase Pokemon or Trainer, numbered beyond the regular print run. Older cards use the same “UR” shorthand but weren’t necessarily printed under that exact modern definition.
What is the most valuable verified UR card you currently list?
PSA 10 Mewtwo EX UR, 065/059, from Blue Impact (XY8b), currently listed at ¥360,500 (~$2,341).
Is every gold or foil-heavy Japanese card an Ultra Rare?
No. Rarities like Character Rare (CHR), Special Art Rare (SAR), and even Double Rare can look similarly premium but are separate, lower or differently-positioned tiers from Ultra Rare. The printed card number is the reliable way to tell them apart, not the foil or color treatment.
Is the Flareon EX from CP3 an Ultra Rare?
No. Despite being marketed as “UR” in some listings, both CP3 printings of Flareon EX (006/032 and 007/032) are rated Double Rare according to a direct card-database check. We list our graded copy correctly as RR.
Where can I buy verified Japanese UR Pokemon cards?
PSA 10 Mewtwo EX UR (065/059) is currently listed at ¥360,500 (~$2,341), shipped from Tokyo with tracked delivery. The other three verified UR numbers are offered as PSA 10 back orders, sourced to order. Browse our full PSA 10 collection or use our Quick Order page to request other UR singles.
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