A cardboard box that cost ¥1,500 before tax at Pokemon Center in October 2016 now has one of its cards asking ¥980,000 raw and ¥1,829,999 in PSA 10. That is Mario Pikachu — a Pikachu wearing a Mario poncho, sold for a few weeks at Japanese retail a decade ago, never restocked since.
This guide covers what the card actually is, why the Mario Pikachu Special BOX has stayed scarce for nine years with no reprint, how 293/XY-P compares to the 294/XY-P full art and the sibling Luigi Pikachu pair, what grading changes about the price, and where this card sits next to Japan’s other store-exclusive Pikachu promos. We source and sell these cards out of Tokyo, including a PSA 10 293/XY-P currently listed below the only PSA 10 ask we could find on the open market.
PSA 10 Mario Pikachu 293/XY-P is currently listed at ¥1,674,780 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) — below the sole PSA 10 ask found for this card (¥1,829,999). It is one of one in our inventory. When it sells, it’s gone.
Prices are SNKRDUNK asking prices as of August 2026 unless noted as our store price. Single listings are labeled as such — a single ask is not a liquid market, just the one data point available.
What Is Mario Pikachu?
“Mario Pikachu” refers to a pair of Japanese promo cards — 293/XY-P and 294/XY-P — both depicting Pikachu wearing a Mario costume (“poncho” in the original Japanese product description), illustrated by Kouki Saitou. They belong to the XY-P Promotional card line and have never received an official English-language release. A sibling pair, 295/XY-P and 296/XY-P, depicts the same Pikachu in a Luigi costume.
None of the four cards were ever inserted into a standard booster pack. All four came exclusively from two box products sold at Pokemon Center: the Mario Pikachu Special BOX and the Luigi Pikachu Special BOX. Both boxes were part of a wider 20th Anniversary Festa merchandise wave that paired Pokemon with Nintendo’s other flagship franchise, which is part of why the crossover appeal keeps getting cited as a demand driver alongside scarcity — this wasn’t a standard Pokemon-only promo run, it was a two-franchise collaboration item sold for a limited window and then never brought back.
The ¥1,500 Box: How the Card Was Released
Both boxes released nationwide at Japanese Pokemon Center stores on October 29, 2016, as part of a wider Mario/Pikachu collaboration merchandise wave that also included plush toys, card-pocket holders, a Nintendo 3DS LL case, and playing cards. Each box — Mario version and Luigi version sold as separate SKUs — retailed at ¥1,500 before tax.
Box contents were consistent across both versions: one “premium kira” print of the character card (293 for Mario, 295 for Luigi), one “original kira”/full-art print of the same character (294 for Mario, 296 for Luigi), plus a deck case, sleeves, and a card storage box. This is a straightforward retail purchase — buy the box off the shelf while supplies lasted, no lottery or application process is documented for this release.
The cards were never available through a standard booster pack. If you own one, it came out of one of these two boxes.
It’s worth sitting with how small that original transaction was. ¥1,500 before tax, walked out of a Pokemon Center in a box the size of a lunch container, alongside plush toys and 3DS cases sold in the same promotional wave. Nothing about the release framed either card as an investment piece — it was merchandise tied to a licensing crossover, priced like merchandise, and sold like merchandise. The gap between that price and where 293/XY-P and 294/XY-P sit a decade later is the entire story of this card: not a limited print run engineered for scarcity, but an ordinary retail item that simply never came back.
Why It Has Never Been Reprinted
Japanese secondary-market reference sites state that the Mario Pikachu Special BOX “has never been restocked in the approximately 9 years since its 2016 release,” and consider future restocking “extremely unlikely.” One source attributes the card’s price directly to having no reprints, combined with crossover demand from two popular characters (Mario and Pikachu) rather than rarity alone.
A separate factor noted in Japanese coverage: the box released before the later surge in Pokemon TCG collecting demand, which implies a comparatively limited original production run — though no official print-quantity figure has been published for either box.
No source gives an exact print run for either box. No source documents a lottery or application process for the 2016 Mario/Luigi Pikachu release — unlike some of the later store-opening promos covered below, this one reads as a plain retail sale while stock lasted.
293 vs 294 vs Luigi Pikachu (295/296)
Four cards, two costumes, two print styles each. Here is how to tell them apart and what each currently commands:
| Card # | Character | Print style | Raw ask | PSA10 ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 293/XY-P | Mario Pikachu | Regular / “premium kira” holo | ¥980,000 | ¥1,829,999 |
| 294/XY-P | Mario Pikachu | Full Art / “original kira” | ¥1,499,999 | ¥8,350,000 (single listing) |
| 295/XY-P | Luigi Pikachu | Regular / “premium kira” holo | Quick Order sourcing — see below | |
| 296/XY-P | Luigi Pikachu | Full Art / “original kira” | Quick Order sourcing — see below | |
293/XY-P is the standard-frame holo — the “premium kira” print that came bundled first in the Mario box. It is the more commonly seen of the two Mario cards and the one we carry graded in stock.
294/XY-P is the full-art version, “original kira” in the Japanese product description, with the artwork running to the edge of the card. The raw ask sits noticeably above 293’s raw ask, and the one PSA 10 ask we found for 294 — ¥8,350,000, a single listing — is a full order of magnitude above 293’s PSA 10 ask. That gap should be read as a thin, single-data-point market rather than an established price level, but it does confirm 294 as the scarcer half of the Mario pair.
295/XY-P and 296/XY-P are the Luigi-costume counterparts, structured identically (regular holo + full art) and released from the same October 29, 2016 wave via the Luigi Pikachu Special BOX. We don’t carry standing PSA 10 listings for the Luigi pair — we source them to order through Quick Order when a buyer wants one.
There is also a sealed, unopened Mario Pikachu Special BOX currently asking ¥5,390,000 — again a single listing, and a reminder of how far sealed product has moved from its ¥1,500 MSRP when a complete, unopened example surfaces at all.
The Grading Economics: Raw vs PSA 10
The raw-to-PSA10 spread on 293/XY-P is roughly 87% — ¥980,000 raw against ¥1,829,999 for the one PSA 10 ask on the market. That is a meaningfully tighter spread than 294/XY-P, where the PSA 10 single listing runs more than five times the raw ask. Two readings are possible from the same numbers: either 294 in gem-mint condition is genuinely far rarer than 293 in gem-mint condition, or the 294 PSA 10 market is so thin that one seller’s ask isn’t representative yet. We flag it as a single listing precisely so it isn’t read as an established price.
Where this matters practically: our PSA 10 293/XY-P is priced at ¥1,674,780, below the ¥1,829,999 PSA 10 ask that is currently the only comparable on the market. It is graded, it is the version most collectors are chasing, and we hold exactly one copy.
The sealed box single listing at ¥5,390,000 adds a third reference point worth keeping in mind. A sealed Mario Pikachu Special BOX still holds both a 293 and a 294 inside — unopened, ungraded, with no way to know the condition of either card until it’s opened. At more than three times the current PSA 10 293 ask, that price only makes sense if the buyer is betting on the 294 inside being gem-mint too, since a graded 293 alone already clears a large fraction of that number. It’s a useful illustration of how differently sealed and singles markets price the same underlying scarcity.
For more on how PSA grading changes pricing across Japanese promo cards generally, see our PSA 10 Pikachu buying guide and our broader Japanese PSA 10 price guide.
The Japan-Exclusive Promo Pikachu Ladder
Mario Pikachu is the top of a pattern, not a one-off. Japanese Pokemon Center stores have repeatedly issued Pikachu-in-costume promo cards tied to store openings, anniversaries, and collaboration campaigns — sold or given away only in Japan, never reprinted, never released in English. Here is where the rest of that lineup sits, all currently listed in our own stock:
| Card | Occasion | Distribution | Our price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pikachu 400/SM-P | Sun & Moon Limited Collection Master Battle Set (Dec. 2019) | Pokemon Center Online bundle, ¥12,000+tax | ¥958,518 |
| Kanazawa’s Pikachu 147/S-P (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) (No Mark) | Pokemon Center Kanazawa opening (Nov. 2020) | Special box insert, mirror holo | ¥215,579 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) |
| Kanazawa’s Pikachu 144/S-P (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) (With Mark) | Pokemon Center Kanazawa opening (Nov. 2020) | Store-visit giveaway nationwide | ¥71,482 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) |
| Fukuoka’s Pikachu 289/SV-P | Pokemon Center Fukuoka reopening (2025) | Online lottery, one application per person | ¥41,113 |
The distribution method explains most of the price spread inside this ladder. 144/S-P was a free store-visit giveaway available at any Pokemon Center or Pokemon Store nationwide, so it is the most common card here and priced accordingly. 147/S-P shares the same Kaga-Yuzen-style Pikachu illustration but in a mirror-holo finish, and it required buying the Kanazawa opening box — a purchase requirement that shows directly in the price gap between the two. Fukuoka’s Pikachu (289/SV-P) went through an online lottery with a one-application-per-person cap during a June 2025 application window, which caps supply structurally rather than by walk-in demand. Pikachu 400/SM-P came bundled inside a ¥12,000 accessory set sold through Pokemon Center Online rather than as a standalone promo, which is a different acquisition path again.
Mario Pikachu sits well above all four of these in current pricing, and the distribution history explains why: it is the only one of the five sold as a plain nationwide retail box with no purchase cap, no lottery, and no bundling requirement — and it is also the oldest by four to nine years, giving it the longest stretch of “never reprinted” to compound against.
Our top 10 Japanese Pikachu cards roundup and PSA 10 Pokemon promo cards guide cover more of this same store-exclusive promo category, and if a shiny black secret rare from a different Legendary is more your target, our Moonbreon card guide walks through that comparison.
Where to Buy Mario Pikachu from Japan
We ship graded and single Japanese promo cards out of Tokyo with tracked delivery. The PSA 10 293/XY-P below is a one-of-one in our current stock.
View Card → (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order)
For 294/XY-P, the Luigi Pikachu pair, or any other Japan-exclusive promo not listed as a standing single on our site, our Quick Order page is the fastest way to request sourcing. For the full range of graded Japanese cards we carry, browse our PSA 10 collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Mario Pikachu?
Mario Pikachu is a Japanese promo card pair (293/XY-P regular, 294/XY-P full art) depicting Pikachu in a Mario costume, sold exclusively through the Mario Pikachu Special BOX at Japanese Pokemon Center stores starting October 29, 2016. It has never received an official English release and has never been reprinted.
Why is Mario Pikachu so expensive?
The Mario Pikachu Special BOX has never been restocked in the roughly nine years since its 2016 release and is considered extremely unlikely to be reprinted. It was never inserted into standard booster packs, and demand is boosted by the Mario/Pikachu character crossover. As of August 2026, 293/XY-P asks around ¥980,000 raw and ¥1,829,999 in PSA 10.
What’s the difference between 293/XY-P and 294/XY-P?
293/XY-P is the regular, standard-frame “premium kira” holo. 294/XY-P is the full-art “original kira” print with edge-to-edge artwork. 294 carries a higher raw ask (¥1,499,999 vs ¥980,000) and its one PSA10 listing (¥8,350,000) is a single data point, not an established market.
What about the Luigi Pikachu versions (295/296)?
295/XY-P and 296/XY-P are the Luigi-costume counterparts to Mario Pikachu, released the same day (October 29, 2016) from the separate Luigi Pikachu Special BOX, in the same regular-holo plus full-art structure. We source these to order via Quick Order rather than holding them as standing listings.
How do I buy a Mario Pikachu card from Japan?
We stock a PSA 10 293/XY-P directly on our site, shipped from Tokyo with tracked delivery. For 294/XY-P, the Luigi pair, or other Japan-exclusive promos, use our Quick Order page to request sourcing, or browse our full PSA 10 collection for other graded Japanese cards in stock.
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