Before “SSR” showed up on Shiny Treasure ex boxes, before Shiny Star V made a full lineup of color-swapped Pokemon the entire point of a set, there was a single 2018 high class pack that Japanese shops still reference every time they price a shiny GX card: GXウルトラシャイニー — GX Ultra Shiny.
This is the set that put shiny Mewtwo-GX, shiny Charizard-GX, and shiny Rayquaza-GX in the same box as one another, using the same idea of a dedicated high-rarity tier for shiny cards that later defined Shiny Star V and Shiny Treasure ex. Whether GX Ultra Shiny actually started that trend or just happened to arrive first is not something we can prove — but among these three packs, GX Ultra Shiny comes first chronologically.
GX Ultra Shiny (SM8b) released in Japan on November 2, 2018, and became the English Hidden Fates set (August 23, 2019, 163 cards). Its shiny GX cards — unofficially nicknamed “SSR” by shops and fan sites, not by Pokemon’s own official pages — are numbered above the set’s base /150 limit. We currently hold one single from the set in stock: PSA 10 Darkrai GX SSR 230/150, currently listed at ¥53,560. No sealed GX Ultra Shiny box is in our current inventory — our Quick Order page is the way to ask about sourcing one.
Prices below are our own current listing prices unless noted otherwise. We have not cross-checked external secondary-market prices for this set.
What Is GX Ultra Shiny (SM8b)?
GX Ultra Shiny is the Japanese high class pack officially titled “GXウルトラシャイニー,” released on November 2, 2018. That date comes directly from the official Pokemon Card Game product page’s own “11.02[金]発売！！” (releases Friday, 11/2) notation — November 2, 2018 was in fact a Friday, which lines up with the stated day of the week. We flag this because some secondary web summaries list a December 2018 date instead; the official product page’s own text is what we’re going with here.
Internationally, GX Ultra Shiny became Hidden Fates, released August 23, 2019 with 163 cards. Hidden Fates is not a straight reprint — the English set folded in a separate “Shiny Vault” subset built mostly from reprints, a structure the Japanese original didn’t use in the same way.
The theme, in both versions, is straightforward: shiny (color-swapped) Pokemon, and lots of them. More than 75 species appear in their shiny form across the set, including shiny versions of Pokemon-GX — a format where the shiny treatment usually only touched the base Pokemon, not the GX evolutions themselves. GX Ultra Shiny built an entire high class pack around shiny GX cards.
How Many Cards Are Actually in the Set?
This is one place where we’d rather show you the disagreement than paper over it. The set’s base numbering runs to /150, which is not in dispute. What is in dispute is the full count once every shiny GX, SSR, UR, and SR card is added on top of that base run.
| Source | Total cards cited | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Community card-count aggregation (Japanese shop data) | 414 | Breaks down as UR 7 / SSR 38 / SR 10, plus lower rarities |
| Bulbapedia (Hidden Fates coverage) | 250 | Japanese set: 150 base + 100 secret = 250 (Bulbapedia) |
The gap with the 414 figure appears to come down to mirror cards or a different specification’s counting method, but that’s not confirmed. What’s solid either way: the base numbered run stops at /150, and everything from 151 upward is where the set’s shiny GX and SSR chase cards live.
What Does “SSR” Actually Mean Here?
If you’ve shopped for GX Ultra Shiny cards on a Japanese marketplace, you’ve seen “SSR” stamped on the shiny GX listings. It’s worth being precise about where that label comes from, because it isn’t as official as it looks.
Japanese card shops and fan/price-tracking sites commonly explain “SSR” as short for “Super Shiny Rare” — a rarity tier applied to shiny Pokemon-GX cards specifically. That explanation shows up consistently across shop and buyback sites. What we could not find, in this research pass, is a Pokemon Company page that defines “SSR” that way in its own words. So we’re presenting the “Super Shiny Rare” reading as the standard shop/community explanation — not as a confirmed official definition.
What we can confirm from the numbering itself: SSR-tier cards sit above the set’s base /150 run, using a continuous numbering scheme — 209/150, 219/150, 230/150, 240/150, and so on. Ordinary (non-GX) shiny Pokemon in the set use a separate “S” rarity marking instead.
If a GX Ultra Shiny card’s number is above 150 out of a “/150” set, that’s your signal it’s a shiny GX in the SSR tier — not a printing error and not a different set.
Spotlight: Darkrai GX SSR 230/150
Of the four SSR cards pictured above, Darkrai GX is the one we can speak to directly — it’s the single GX Ultra Shiny card in our current inventory. Across the shop and buyback listings we checked, the card’s specs line up consistently: a Basic Pokemon, HP180, with the ability “リザレクション” (Resurrection).
Grading matters more than usual on a shiny GX chase card from 2018 — nearly eight years of handling on holofoil cardstock shows up fast in the corners and edges. Our copy is a graded PSA 10, and it’s currently listed at ¥53,560. This is currently one graded copy listed — availability changes when it sells.
We don’t currently hold graded copies of the Charizard, Mewtwo, or Rayquaza SSRs shown above, and we have not cross-checked outside marketplace prices for those three — we’re showing them here for identification purposes, not as active listings.
The Shiny-Rarity Blueprint That Followed
Here’s the part of GX Ultra Shiny’s story that connects it to sets most collectors know better today. Shop and price-tracking sources describing “SSR” cards consistently list them as appearing across three high class packs: GX Ultra Shiny, Shiny Star V, and Shiny Treasure ex — the same “color-swapped Pokemon promoted to a top rarity tier” idea, reused across three different Pokemon TCG eras spanning Sun & Moon through Scarlet & Violet.
We want to be careful about what that similarity does and doesn’t prove. It shows the same naming convention and the same insertion concept — shiny Pokemon as a standalone rarity tier — getting reused. It does not establish that GX Ultra Shiny was the deliberate design template Creatures / The Pokemon Company built the later sets from, and we haven’t found an official statement confirming any direct lineage between the three. For a closer look at how GX Ultra Shiny’s own pull rates and best cards compare against its nearest Sun & Moon-era shiny successor, see our GX Ultra Shiny vs Shiny Star V guide. For how the two Sword & Shield/Scarlet & Violet-era sets that followed compare to each other, our Shiny Star V vs Shiny Treasure ex box guide breaks down pull mechanics and pricing, and our standalone Shiny Star V pull rates and best cards guide goes deeper on that set alone.
For the broader Sun & Moon era GX Ultra Shiny belongs to — the TAG TEAM GX cards, the other high class packs, and how Japanese SM-block sets are numbered — our Sun & Moon era Japanese Pokemon guide covers the wider set family this pack sits inside.
Where to Buy GX Ultra Shiny Cards from Japan
We ship graded and sealed Japanese Pokemon product out of Tokyo with tracked delivery worldwide. GX Ultra Shiny is a 2018 set, so sealed booster boxes move in and out of our stock unpredictably rather than sitting on the shelf — we do not currently have a GX Ultra Shiny box listed. If you’re after sealed product from this set, the fastest way to ask is our Quick Order page, where you can request a specific box or single and we’ll confirm sourcing and price directly.
For the single we do have listed, PSA 10 Darkrai GX SSR 230/150 is currently listed at ¥53,560. For other graded singles from the Sun & Moon era and beyond, browse our full PSA10 collection — stock is graded singles, so availability changes as each one sells.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was GX Ultra Shiny released in Japan?
November 2, 2018, according to the official Pokemon Card Game product page’s own release notation. Its English counterpart, Hidden Fates, released August 23, 2019.
What does “SSR” mean on a GX Ultra Shiny card?
Japanese card shops and fan sites commonly explain “SSR” as short for “Super Shiny Rare,” a rarity applied to shiny Pokemon-GX cards. This is the standard shop/community explanation; we were not able to confirm an official Pokemon Company page that defines the term this way.
How many cards are in the GX Ultra Shiny set?
The base numbered run goes to /150. Sources disagree on the full total once SSR, UR, and SR cards are included — one community aggregation cites 414 cards, while Bulbapedia’s Hidden Fates coverage cites 250. We present both rather than pick one.
Is GX Ultra Shiny the same set as Shiny Star V or Shiny Treasure ex?
No — they are three separate Japanese high class packs from three different eras (Sun & Moon, Sword & Shield, and Scarlet & Violet respectively). They share a similar naming convention and insertion concept for shiny rarity cards, but we have not found confirmation of a direct design lineage between them.
Do you have GX Ultra Shiny booster boxes in stock?
Not currently. We hold one graded single from the set, PSA 10 Darkrai GX SSR 230/150, currently listed at ¥53,560. For sealed box requests, use our Quick Order page and we’ll confirm sourcing directly.
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