Pikachu

Pikachu is card 5 of 25 in Celebrations, released in October 2021, a Rare Holo. It is a Basic Lightning-type with 60 HP.

As a Basic Pokémon, Pikachu needs no prior evolution to put into play, which made it a practical card in the era's decks.

Illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita. Arita painted the Base Set Charizard and much of the early holo run, and his work has a painterly weight that set the visual tone of the Wizards era.

The Pokédex entry printed on Pikachu reads: "It has small electric sacs on both its cheeks. If threatened, it looses electric charges from the sacs."

The franchise mascot. An Electric-type rodent with red cheeks, a lightning-bolt tail, and a vocabulary limited to its own name in the anime. The most-printed Pokémon card in history. The Base Set print has a famous yellow-cheeks variant that commands a premium over the standard red-cheeks 1st Edition.

Pikachu is a holo rare, one of the cards that holds Celebrations's value. The rarity tier decides most of it, since the same card prints at several tiers with very different prices. In top-grade 1st Edition, Celebrations holos range from the mid hundreds for the lesser cards up to the set's marquee chase; raw and Unlimited copies trade for a fraction of that. The live market price above shows the current figure by grade.

Confirm the print and finish on Pikachu before pricing it, since variant and rarity set the market more than the card name alone.

Expect the holo window to set the grade on Pikachu. Print misregistration and fine scratches in the lightning foil are the usual reasons a copy lands at a 9, and edge whitening against the frame is the next thing a grader notes.

If you are buying Pikachu, work in order: confirm the print variant first, then the grade, then price against recent sales for that exact variant and grade. Price the Pikachu against the population report, since modern holo supply is large.