The Kanto Tax: how much is Pokémon nostalgia worth?
“Gen 1 hits different” is a collector truism. So we measured it. We took 534 modern Illustration Rares at the same rarity tiers and grouped them by the Pokémon’s generation. The original 151 don’t just win, they lap the field.
Typical card value, by generation
Median Cardmarket EUR trend price of Illustration and Special Illustration Rares. Median, not average, so a few Charizards cannot inflate a generation.
Nostalgia is a price factor you can measure
Every card here is the same rarity, printed in the same modern era, on the same kind of stock. The only thing that changes is which Pokémon is on it. A Kanto card trades at a median €35, multiples above every later region. The set designers know it too: the biggest-selling modern sets lean hard on Gen 1 alternate arts, and the market rewards it. If you are deciding what to keep, the original 151 hold value in a way later Pokémon, at the same rarity, simply do not.
Every generation, ranked
| Generation | Typical (median) | Priciest card | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gen 1 · Kanto | €35 | Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex | €571 |
| Gen 4 · Sinnoh | €13 | Cynthia's Garchomp ex | €254 |
| Gen 2 · Johto | €12 | Ethan's Ho-Oh ex | €284 |
| Gen 3 · Hoenn | €11 | Latias ex | €136 |
| Gen 6 · Kalos | €8.44 | Greninja ex | €224 |
| Gen 9 · Paldea | €8.08 | Roaring Moon ex | €47 |
| Gen 5 · Unova | €7.48 | Zekrom ex | €181 |
| Gen 7 · Alola | €5.61 | Golisopod ex | €17 |
| Gen 8 · Galar | €4.13 | Hop's Zacian ex | €36 |
Method & sources
- We pulled every card at the Illustration Rare and Special Illustration Rare tiers with a Cardmarket price via the open pokemontcg.io API.
- Each card is mapped to its Pokémon’s National Dex number and generation. Holding the rarity tier constant isolates the generation effect.
- Per generation we took the median Cardmarket EUR trend price, robust to one chase card. Generations with fewer than 8 priced cards were excluded.
- Cardmarket EUR trend price via the open pokemontcg.io API. Valued 2026-07-05. Reference estimates, not sold records; prices move. Reproducible from the open API.
FAQ
Are original 151 (Kanto) Pokémon cards worth more?
Yes, and the gap is large. Across 534 modern Illustration and Special Illustration Rares at the same rarity tiers, a Generation 1 (Kanto) card trades at a median €35 versus €7.95 for every later generation combined, about 4.4×. Rarity is held constant, so the difference is the generation, that is, nostalgia and mainstream recognition of the original 151.
Which Pokémon generation is the most valuable?
Generation 1 (Kanto) by a wide margin, at a €35 median. After that the field is bunched in the €4–13 range, with Sinnoh (Gen 4), Johto (Gen 2) and Hoenn (Gen 3) slightly ahead of the newest sets. Kanto is not a little ahead; it is multiples ahead of everyone else.
Is it just a few expensive Charizards dragging Gen 1 up?
No, that is why we use the median. A handful of chase cards cannot move a median of 76 cards; the whole Gen 1 distribution sits higher. The single priciest card in the study is Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex at €571, a Gen 1 Pokémon, but even setting the whales aside a typical Kanto card is worth multiples of a typical later-gen card at the same rarity.
Where does this data come from, and is it reliable?
We pulled every modern Illustration Rare and Special Illustration Rare with a Cardmarket price via the open pokemontcg.io API, mapped each card to its Pokémon's National Dex number and generation, and took the median per generation (Cardmarket EUR trend price via the open pokemontcg.io API, valued 2026-07-05), excluding generations with fewer than 8 priced cards. These are reference estimates, not sold records, and prices move. We never scrape marketplaces and never invent a number; the figures are reproducible from the open API.
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</p>Foilio (2026-07-05). The Kanto Tax: how much is Pokémon nostalgia worth?. Retrieved from https://foilio.net/studies/kanto-tax