Pokemon Card Rarity Symbols Explained: From Common to Hyper Rare
A Pokemon card's rarity symbol marks its print tier and pack slot, not its price: in Surging Sparks the median Special Illustration Rare evaluated at $25.35 on September 29, 2026, against $10.13 for the harder-to-pull Hyper Rare.
A Pokemon card's rarity symbol is the small mark beside its collector number at the bottom of the card. A black circle means Common, a black diamond means Uncommon and a black star means Rare. Since Scarlet & Violet, stacked and colored stars mark the higher tiers, from two black stars for Double Rare up to three gold stars for Hyper Rare, per CGC Cards' rarity-symbol guide.
The symbol tells you how a card was printed and how often it turns up in packs, not what it costs. In Surging Sparks on September 29, 2026, Cardboard Alpha's evaluated raw prices put the median Special Illustration Rare at $25.35 and the median Hyper Rare at $10.13, even though TCGplayer measured Hyper Rares as more than twice as hard to pull.
The rarity symbols at a glance
CGC calls the first four symbols universal. The rest arrived with Scarlet & Violet and later sets, per CGC, Bulbapedia's rarity reference and PokeGuardian.
ACE SPEC cards first appeared in the Black & White series and returned in Temporal Forces, per The Pokemon Company's launch announcement; in Scarlet & Violet sets they carry the pink-star ACE SPEC Rare mark, per Bulbapedia. Mew ex 216 is a hollow-star Shiny Ultra Rare.
Bulbapedia also lists a Mega Attack Rare, marked with pastel pink and green stars, whose English cards were Black Star Promos until Ascended Heroes. Black Bolt and White Flare each carry two Black White Rare cards in Cardboard Alpha's catalog.
How the number completes the symbol
Read the symbol with the collector number. A card numbered above its set's printed total, such as 109/105 or 247/191, is a secret rare, per CGC and Bulbapedia.
Surging Sparks shows the rule at work. Its printed total is 191, but Cardboard Alpha's catalog carries 252 cards, so 61 carry secret numbers, matching TCGplayer's count:
192 to 214: the 23 Illustration Rares.
215 to 235: the 21 Ultra Rares.
236 to 246: the 11 Special Illustration Rares.
247 to 252: the six Hyper Rares.
Double Rares and ACE SPEC Rares stay inside the 191-card run. The symbol also names the pack slot: TCGplayer's opening study found Double Rares and Ultra Rares in the Rare slot, ACE SPEC Rares in the first reverse-holo slot, and the three gold-star tiers in the second.
Older symbols and conventions
Before Scarlet & Violet, most ultra rare cards were marked like an ordinary holo rare, so treatment and numbering did the sorting, per Bulbapedia's rarity reference (CGC for the Holo Rare and Full Art rows).
Convention
Introduced
How to spot it
Holo Rare
Original sets
Black star, holo shine on the art box only
Shining Pokemon
Neo Revelation
Shiny colors, Shining Holofoil mark, secret number
Japanese cards differ: from the Black & White era, they print letter codes such as C, U, R and RR instead of symbols, per Bulbapedia.
What each tier is worth in Surging Sparks
Surging Sparks, released November 8, 2024, fills every standard Scarlet & Violet tier. Each price is Cardboard Alpha's evaluated raw Near Mint price for a card's standard printing, without reverse holos or stamps, on September 29, 2026. All 252 cards had one.
Tier
Cards
Median
Range
Tier odds
Common
88
$0.09
$0.02 to $0.91
Not published
Uncommon
61
$0.11
$0.03 to $1.59
Not published
Rare
16
$0.18
$0.08 to $0.23
Not published
Double Rare
18
$1.45
$0.78 to $5.99
1 in 6 packs
ACE SPEC Rare
8
$1.18
$0.44 to $4.41
1 in 20 packs
Ultra Rare
21
$2.29
$1.05 to $26.24
1 in 15 packs
Illustration Rare
23
$8.15
$2.43 to $29.71
1 in 13 packs
Special Illustration Rare
11
$25.35
$7.82 to $281.26
1 in 87 packs
Hyper Rare
6
$10.13
$2.92 to $77.89
1 in 188 packs
Prices: Cardboard Alpha evaluated raw NM, September 29, 2026; even-count medians are the midpoint of the two middle cards; 158 of the 165 Common, Uncommon and Rare prices are guide-only. Odds: TCGplayer, more than 8,000 packs opened, November 8, 2024.
Surging Sparks median raw price by tier
Common$0.09
Uncommon$0.11
Rare$0.18
Double Rare$1.45
ACE SPEC Rare$1.18
Ultra Rare$2.29
Illustration Rare$8.15
Special Illustration Rare$25.35
Hyper Rare$10.13
Cardboard Alpha evaluated raw NM price, standard printings, September 29, 2026.
The Special Illustration Rare median is the highest, about 280 times the Common median. The ladder breaks in three places:
Hyper Rare under SIR: the hardest tier to pull, 1 in 188 packs, with under half the SIR median.
ACE SPEC under Double Rare: rarer per pack, 1 in 20 against 1 in 6, yet a lower median.
Illustration Rare over Ultra Rare: slightly more common in TCGplayer's sample, yet about 3.6 times the Ultra Rare median.
The 11 Special Illustration Rares account for $753.62 of the $1,213.26 summed across all 252 cards, about 62 percent, while the 149 Commons and Uncommons add up to $20.86.
The evidence is uneven. Of the 165 Common, Uncommon and Rare prices, 158 are guide-only, resting on a quoted market-guide value rather than a recorded sale, so read those three medians as indicative. Megaton Blower's $0.44 is guide-only too, while every Special Illustration Rare and Hyper Rare carries the pricing engine's top evidence rating.
Same Pokemon, four symbols
Surging Sparks prints Pikachu ex at four rarities, holding the subject fixed.
Three gold stars. Cardboard Alpha evaluated raw NM price $77.89, September 29, 2026, the set's top Hyper Rare.
The gold Hyper Rare is the hardest of the four to pull, yet the Special Illustration Rare costs about 3.6 times as much. Every Pikachu ex printing also sits above its own tier's median, so the subject adds a premium at each rung.
Why Hyper Rares can trail SIRs
Four of Surging Sparks' six Hyper Rares are Trainer or Energy cards, priced from $2.92 for Counter Gain to $10.78. Pikachu ex, at $77.89, is the only Hyper Rare above $11; Alolan Exeggutor ex sits at $10.18.
The Special Illustration Rare tier is seven Pokemon ex and four Supporters. Its top three are ex cards, Pikachu ex, Latias ex at $187.33 and Milotic ex at $112.45, while its lowest, Drayton at $7.82, is a Supporter.
One gold star. Cardboard Alpha evaluated raw NM price $29.71, September 29, 2026, above the median Special Illustration Rare.
Lower tiers spread too. The priciest Illustration Rare, Latios at $29.71, costs more than the median Special Illustration Rare. Among ACE SPEC Rares, Enriching Energy at $4.41 is about ten times Megaton Blower at $0.44.
Pink star. Cardboard Alpha evaluated raw NM price $4.41, September 29, 2026, the set's top ACE SPEC Rare.
The ladder in Mega Evolution
The Mega Evolution set, released September 26, 2025, runs the same check. Its medians rise at every step, and its top tier holds.
Tier
Cards
Median
Common
67
$0.11
Uncommon
43
$0.14
Rare
12
$0.22
Double Rare
10
$1.08
Ultra Rare
22
$3.20
Illustration Rare
22
$4.01
Special Illustration Rare
10
$55.09
Mega Hyper Rare
2
$177.58 and $231.57
Cardboard Alpha evaluated raw NM, standard printing, September 29, 2026; both Mega Hyper Rares shown; 108 of the 122 Common, Uncommon and Rare prices are guide-only.
Gold star with black border. Cardboard Alpha evaluated raw NM price $231.57, September 29, 2026, the set's top card.
Both Mega Hyper Rares are Mega Evolution Pokemon ex, Mega Lucario ex at $231.57 and Mega Gardevoir ex at $177.58, so no Trainer or Energy card drags the top tier down. Those two and the 10 Special Illustration Rares account for about 81 percent of the set's summed raw value.
Every figure here is a raw, single-day read, not a graded price, and tier medians shift as cards move. The Cardboard Alpha market screener tracks the same cards going forward.
Frequently asked questions
What do the symbols on the bottom of a Pokemon card mean?
They mark the card's rarity. A black circle is Common, a black diamond is Uncommon, a black star is Rare and a black star with PROMO marks a promo, per CGC Cards. Scarlet & Violet added two black stars for Double Rare, two silver stars for Ultra Rare, and one, two or three gold stars for Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare and Hyper Rare.
Which Pokemon card rarity symbol is the hardest to pull?
In Scarlet & Violet sets, the three gold stars of a Hyper Rare. TCGplayer's study of more than 8,000 Surging Sparks packs found a Hyper Rare in 0.53 percent of packs, about 1 in 188, the lowest rate of any tier it measured. The Mega Evolution series adds a Mega Hyper Rare, a gold star with a black border, used for Mega Evolution Pokemon ex.
Is a Hyper Rare worth more than a Special Illustration Rare?
Not reliably. In Surging Sparks, Cardboard Alpha's evaluated raw Near Mint prices on September 29, 2026 put the median Hyper Rare at $10.13 and the median Special Illustration Rare at $25.35, partly because four of the set's six Hyper Rares are Trainer or Energy cards. In the Mega Evolution set the order holds: its two Mega Hyper Rares, at $177.58 and $231.57, sit far above the $55.09 Special Illustration Rare median.
What does a pink star on a Pokemon card mean?
A single pink star marks an ACE SPEC Rare, a Trainer or Energy card limited to one copy per deck. ACE SPEC cards first appeared in the Black & White series and returned in Temporal Forces, per The Pokemon Company, and Bulbapedia lists the pink star as their Scarlet & Violet rarity mark. In Surging Sparks, TCGplayer found one in about 1 in 20 packs, and the tier's median evaluated raw price on September 29, 2026 was $1.18. A pastel pink star paired with a green one is a different mark, the Mega Attack Rare.
How can you tell if a Pokemon card is a secret rare?
Check the collector number. A card numbered above its set's printed total, such as 247/191, is a secret rare, per CGC and Bulbapedia. In Surging Sparks, all 61 cards numbered 192 to 252 are secret rares: every Illustration Rare, Ultra Rare, Special Illustration Rare and Hyper Rare in the set.
Do Japanese Pokemon cards use the same rarity symbols?
No. From the Black & White era, Japanese releases print letter codes such as C, U, R and RR instead of symbols, per Bulbapedia. Bulbapedia maps the English Scarlet & Violet tiers to Japanese codes, for example Illustration Rare to AR, Special Illustration Rare to SAR and Hyper Rare to UR.
Janelle Sazon writes collecting guides and best-card roundups for Cardboard Alpha, with an eye on what makes a Pokémon card worth chasing: the artwork, the rarity tier, the condition it survives in, and what it really costs to own once the hype is set aside. Articles under this byline are written for collectors at every level, lean on published pricing and population data rather than speculation, cite every source inline, and are fact-checked against those sources before they are published.
Janelle Sazon's articles describe the collecting market using published pricing and population data. They are informational and are not personalized investment advice.
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