Torchic Gold Star Sells for Record $2.7 Million, Becomes Most Expensive English Pokémon Card

A 2004 Pokémon EX Team Rocket Returns Torchic Gold Star has sold for $2.7 million at Alt, setting a new record for the most expensive English-language Pokémon card ever sold. The card is Torchic Gold Star #108 from EX Team Rocket Returns, graded PSA GEM MT 10. Alt announced the result after the auction closed, calling it both the most expensive Torchic ever sold and the new record holder for an English Pokémon card.

The $2.7 million sale more than doubles the previous English Pokémon record set just two weeks ago. On August 29, CollectiblesNews.com reported that a 2005 EX Deoxys Rayquaza Gold Star graded CGC Pristine 10 sold for $1.02 million at Fanatics Collect. That sale established a new record for Rayquaza and, at the time, the highest known price for an English-language Pokémon card.

Torchic has now pushed that mark all the way to $2.7 million. The new result also puts another Gold Star card at the center of the high-end Pokémon market. Introduced during the EX era, Gold Stars became some of the most sought-after cards of the period, with shiny Pokémon artwork and extremely difficult pull rates.

Torchic was one of three Gold Stars included in the 2004 EX Team Rocket Returns set, joining Mudkip and Treecko. PSA has previously noted that collectors generally considered Torchic the toughest and most valuable of the three, in part because high-grade copies have historically been difficult to find.

That scarcity becomes even more pronounced at the top of the grading scale. PSA’s current population report lists only 19 examples of Torchic Gold Star #108 graded GEM MT 10, with none graded higher. The card’s record price represents an extraordinary jump from previous public sales for PSA 10 examples. Before this Alt auction, PSA’s recorded sales data showed a much lower market for the card, underscoring just how unusual the $2.7 million result is.

The result gives English Gold Stars two of the most significant Pokémon sales of 2026, with Rayquaza setting the previous $1.02 million record in August and Torchic replacing it less than a month later at $2.7 million.