Magikarp is the Pokemon the games built as a punchline — a splash-and-flail nuisance you catch, groan at, and rush to evolve. The Pokemon TCG never got the memo, and Magikarp full art cards show it. Somewhere between a 2001 secret-rare printing and a 2026 sealed pull, a Shining Gyarados card became a six-figure-yen grail, and its Magikarp counterpart isn’t far behind. Nothing else in the game illustrates the gap between “worst Pokemon” and “most collectible card” quite this cleanly.
- Magikarp & Gyarados full art prints: the Triplet Beat AR, the Tag Bolt SA and the Gyarados EX UR, with set mark and rarity.
- Set lists are on the Japanese card lists page.
Market figures are SNKRDUNK asking prices as of August 7, 2026; USD figures convert at ¥154/USD, approximate.
Magikarp & Gyarados Full Art Cards: Every Japanese AR / SA / UR Print
Collectors use “full art” for prints whose artwork fills the whole card face. Japanese sets do not print those words: the official card database prints only a rarity code, and the full-art treatments are the SR (full-art ex and Supporter cards), SAR (Special Art Rare), AR (Art Rare), CHR / CSR (Character Rare) and the gold UR and rainbow HR printings. These are the Magikarp and Gyarados prints of those rarities covered in this guide.
| Card | Set mark · number | Rarity | Our listing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magikarp | SV1a Triplet Beat · 080/073 | AR | sold out at the time of this update |
| Magikarp & Wailord GX | SM9 Tag Bolt | SA | not listed |
| Gyarados EX | XY9 Rage of the Broken Heavens | UR | not listed |
For how these rarities work across every Pokemon, see our full art Pokemon cards guide.
From Worst Pokemon to Grail Card
In the games, Magikarp learns one move worth mentioning — Splash, which does nothing — and exists mainly to be evolved into Gyarados as fast as possible. The Pokemon TCG has spent almost thirty years quietly working against that reputation. Base-rarity Magikarp and Gyarados cards from sets like Pokemon Card Classic still sell for the price of a coffee, which tracks. But stack the full print run of both Pokemon side by side and the range runs from pocket change to a raw card asking half a million yen, with a scatter of secret rares, alternate arts, and one very famous shiny-colored original in between.
That range is what makes Magikarp and Gyarados worth a dedicated guide rather than a table entry in something bigger. The story runs through five distinct eras — the original Neo-era Shining Pokemon, the Team Rocket old-back sets, the GX-era Tag Team cards, the Scarlet & Violet-era chase prints, and the 25th Anniversary promo line — and each one prices Magikarp and Gyarados completely differently.
Shining Gyarados: the Neo-Era Original
The card that started all of this is Shining Gyarados, and it’s a genuine TCG landmark. Neo Revelation, released in English on September 21, 2001, ran 64 base cards plus two secrets — and those two secrets, Shining Gyarados (65/64) and Shining Magikarp (66/64), introduced “Shining Pokemon”: the first Pokemon TCG mechanic built specifically to represent a shiny, color-variant Pokemon, with a strict one-per-deck limit that made them stand out from every secret rare before them.
The original Japanese printing predates the English release. Both cards first appeared in Japan’s Neo era (2000–2001) with old-back framing, listed under Japanese card numbers No.129 (Koiking, Magikarp) and No.130 (Gyarados) — the numbering that Japanese collectors still use to identify them today.
Market-wise, this is a thin, wide market rather than a settled one. As of August 7, 2026, SNKRDUNK asks for ungraded Japanese-original Shining Gyarados cards were around ¥550,000. Graded cards scattered even further: PSA 9 asks spanned roughly ¥258,000 up past ¥1,800,000, and PSA 10 asks ranged from around ¥680,000 to over ¥6,000,000 depending on the seller. With so few cards changing hands, no single number is “the” price — our grading guide covers why grade-to-grade jumps get this extreme on thin-market vintage cards.
Shining Magikarp’s original Neo-era printing sits below its evolution, with raw cards asking around ¥250,000 as of August 7, 2026. The vintage Shining Gyarados and the vintage Shining Magikarp are not graded store listings; the modern 25th Anniversary reprint of Shining Magikarp, covered below, is the accessible way into this card family.
Where “Shining” Started: the Red Gyarados Story
Shining Gyarados didn’t come from nowhere. In Pokemon Gold and Silver, the Lake of Rage held a wild Gyarados that broke the normal color rules and appeared red instead of blue — the series’ first fixed color-variant encounter, and the moment “shiny Pokemon” became a concept players actually chased in-game. Shining Gyarados’s TCG debut leaned directly on that red coloring, giving the card mechanic a Pokemon that already meant something to anyone who’d played the games.
It’s worth keeping this thread separate from the “Dark” or “Rocket’s” Gyarados cards that show up later in the Team Rocket-themed sets below — those represent a villain-trained Gyarados, a different collecting lane with its own old-back and promo history, not a color variant.
Three Modern Magikarp Chase Prints
While the Neo-era originals sit in six-figure territory, three modern Magikarp chase prints are the accessible way in — a 25th Anniversary promo, a Triplet Beat art rare, and a Pokemon Card 151 mirror parallel. Their PSA 10 listings are sold out at the time of this update — sourcing requests go through Quick Order.
The 25th Anniversary promo (S8a-P 010/025) comes from a 2021 promo card pack tied to Pokemon’s 25th anniversary, and it shares that pack with a “Bad Gyarados” promo (005/025) — a Team Rocket-styled Gyarados asking around ¥8,500 raw on SNKRDUNK as of August 7, 2026. Japanese PSA 10 asks on the Shining Magikarp promo ran from roughly ¥49,999 to ¥100,000 on the open secondary market as of the same date.
The Triplet Beat AR (SV1a 080/073) is a 2023 art rare — Magikarp’s secret-slot printing in a 73-card base set where the standard version is a plain common at 022/073. Raw AR prints asked around ¥17,800 as of August 7, 2026. The Triplet Beat booster box is the sealed route to this card.
The Pokemon Card 151 mirror (SV2a 129/165) needs a closer look, because two different mirror treatments exist for this set. Standard reverse-holo mirrors use a Poke Ball pattern; a rarer Master Ball mirror — a Japanese-exclusive parallel, noticeably scarcer than the standard mirror — swaps in the purple-and-pink Master Ball icon instead. The graded copy pictured above carries the Master Ball pattern. Raw Master Ball mirror Magikarp asked around ¥10,000 as of August 7, 2026, and the Gyarados counterpart at 130/165 asked similarly around ¥9,000 raw. For the full breakdown of 151’s pull structure, see our Pokemon Card 151 pull rates and best cards guide.
More Magikarp & Gyarados Prints in the Japanese Market
Beyond the Shining originals and the three modern prints above, Magikarp and Gyarados show up across nearly every era of the Japanese TCG.
| Card | Set | Market ask (Aug 7, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Magikarp & Wailord GX, SA | Tag Bolt (SM9, 2018) | ¥317,034 |
| Gyarados EX, UR (1st Edition) | Rage of the Broken Heavens (XY9) | ¥90,000 |
| Magikarp & Wailord GX, RR | Tag Bolt (SM9, 2018) | ¥15,652 |
| Bad Gyarados, promo | 25th Anniversary promo pack (S8a-P) | ~¥8,500 (raw) |
| Magikarp AR, raw | Triplet Beat (SV1a) | ~¥17,800 (raw) |
| Magikarp, Master Ball mirror, raw | Pokemon Card 151 (SV2a) | ~¥10,000 (raw) |
| Gyarados, Master Ball mirror, raw | Pokemon Card 151 (SV2a) | ~¥9,000 (raw) |
| Gyarados, Pokemon Card Classic | CLK Classic Collection | ~¥2,800 |
| Magikarp, Pokemon Card Classic | CLK Classic Collection | ~¥1,000 |
The Tag Team GX pairing of Magikarp and Wailord (Tag Bolt, released December 7, 2018) sits well above the rest of this table, and it’s a good example of how far a secret-art SA slot separates from its own RR version of the same card — a twentyfold gap between the two. On the opposite end, Pokemon Card Classic reprinted both Pokemon at commodity prices, making it an accessible, inexpensive way to own either one in a modern-format card.
One more curiosity worth knowing about, even though it isn’t a Magikarp card at all: Pretend Magikarp Pikachu (150/XY-P) is a Pikachu wearing a Magikarp costume, distributed in 2015 as part of a promo box at a Pokemon Center Hiroshima store opening. It’s a fun cameo for anyone building out a Magikarp-themed collection, but it’s a Pikachu card by species — not a Magikarp print.
Old-Back Grails: Team Rocket Era
The Team Rocket-themed sets of the late 1990s gave both Pokemon a villain-aligned identity separate from the Shining line, and they’re where the scarcest old-back Magikarp and Gyarados cards live.
Giovanni’s Magikarp (Sakaki’s Koiking) is the headline name here — an owner’s-card print from the 1999 Gym Expansion 2 (old-back) that asked around ¥103,000 for a graded copy on SNKRDUNK as of August 7, 2026. Raw cards of the same print circulate at a fraction of that figure — grading and condition, not the print run, explain most of the gap.
On the Gyarados side, the old-back Team Rocket No.130 Gyarados carries its own collector following as a period piece of the villain-themed sub-line, alongside the modern Pokemon Card Game Classic Gyarados print listed in the table above. Anyone chasing a specific old-back Team Rocket print should confirm the exact card number before buying — the era reprinted several Rocket-aligned Pokemon across multiple expansions, and cards get mixed up in listings often.
Where to Buy Magikarp & Gyarados Cards from Japan
We ship graded Japanese singles and sealed product worldwide from Tokyo with tracked delivery. The SV1a Triplet Beat booster box is the sealed route to the Triplet Beat AR, currently listed in the Sealed option at ¥19,133 (~$124).
For the broader PSA 10 lineup, browse the full PSA 10 card list or the PSA 10 collection — or see our guide to the best Japanese cards for PSA grading in 2026 for how Magikarp and Gyarados compare to other grading targets.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is a Shining Gyarados card worth?
As of August 7, 2026, SNKRDUNK asks for raw Japanese-original cards were around ¥550,000. Graded asks vary — PSA 9 spanned roughly ¥258,000 to ¥1,800,000, and PSA 10 asks ranged from around ¥680,000 to over ¥6,000,000. It’s a thin market, so treat any single figure as a data point rather than a fixed price.
What’s the difference between Shining Gyarados and Red Gyarados?
Red Gyarados is the in-game color variant from Pokemon Gold and Silver’s Lake of Rage encounter. Shining Gyarados is the 2001 Neo Revelation TCG card that used that red coloring to launch the “Shining Pokemon” mechanic — the game’s first dedicated color-variant card type, capped at one per deck.
What is the Master Ball mirror Magikarp from Pokemon Card 151?
It’s a rarer reverse-holo variant of Magikarp 129/165 that swaps the standard Poke Ball foil pattern for a Japan-exclusive Master Ball pattern, noticeably scarcer than the standard mirror.
Where can I get a PSA 10 Magikarp from SAMURAI SWORD TOKYO?
The PSA 10 Shining Magikarp 25th Anniversary promo (010/025), the Triplet Beat art rare (080/073) and the Pokemon Card 151 Master Ball mirror (129/165) are sold out at the time of this update — sourcing requests go through Quick Order. The SV1a Triplet Beat booster box is currently listed at Sealed ¥19,133 (~$124).
Is the “Pretend Magikarp Pikachu” card a Magikarp?
No — despite the name, 150/XY-P is a Pikachu card dressed in a Magikarp costume, distributed in 2015 at a Pokemon Center Hiroshima store-opening promo. It’s a fun collecting cameo, not a true Magikarp print.
Which Magikarp cards are full art?
In this guide, the full-art prints are the Magikarp AR (SV1a 080/073) from Triplet Beat, the Magikarp & Wailord GX SA from Tag Bolt (SM9), and the Gyarados EX UR (1st Edition) from Rage of the Broken Heavens (XY9); the Shining prints carry no art-rarity code.
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