Celebi Star
Quick take
- Card 100/100, the top Gold Star and headline chase of EX Crystal Guardians
- Mythical Pokemon shown in shiny coloring by sought-after artist Masakazu Fukuda
- Roughly one Gold Star per two booster boxes, so realistically a singles-market buy
- The card that sets the budget for the whole master set
Collector's readWhat it means for your master set
Set landscapeWhere this card sits in EX Crystal Guardians
VariantsCard variants
Holofoil 100/100 · $750.00 — the only variant this card was printed in (no reverse holo or special pattern), so a master set needs just this one copy.
The storyA top-tier Gold Star chase from the back half of the EX era
Celebi Star is card 100/100 in EX Crystal Guardians, a 2006 set, and it sits at the very top of the checklist. Gold Stars were the marquee pull of the EX era. Each one shows a Pokemon in its shiny coloring with frame-breaking art, and you only got about one per two booster boxes. For a master-set builder, this is the card that decides whether the set is realistically completable on a budget.
“Card 100/100, the top Gold Star and headline chase of EX Crystal Guardians”
Celebi is a mythical Pokemon, so it carries the same draw as other event-only species. Add the late-era timing and a fairly narrow print run for Crystal Guardians, and you get a card that has stayed in demand for well over a decade. It is the headline reason people open this set at all.
If you are assembling the EX Crystal Guardians master set, plan around this card first. Most of the rest of the set is achievable with patience. This is the piece that sets your budget and your timeline.
By the numbersMarket analysis
Celebi Star is the clear top card in EX Crystal Guardians and trades well above the rest of the set. Raw copies command a strong vintage price, and graded examples climb into serious four-figure territory. The live market figure is shown elsewhere on this page.
Gold Stars as a category have held collector interest steadily for years, with graded high-grade copies seeing the most upward pressure. Demand runs on long-term scarcity rather than hype cycles, so prices tend to grind up rather than spike.
This is a blue-chip vintage piece. The supply is fixed and shrinking as copies get graded and locked into collections. High-grade examples are the strongest hold. Raw copies carry more risk because Crystal Guardians had softer print quality, so condition matters a lot.
Graded copies carry a large premium over raw, and gem-mint examples are scarce because the set's print quality makes high grades hard to hit. The gap between a 9 and a 10 here is significant. Buy graded if you are spending real money.
Gold Stars from this era were pulled at roughly one per two booster boxes, or about one in 72 packs, and that is the rate for any Gold Star in the set, not this specific card. Since Crystal Guardians has more than one Gold Star, the odds of pulling Celebi specifically out of a pack run considerably longer. For context, the later EX Power Keepers bumped Gold Star frequency up to around one or two per box, but Crystal Guardians sits at the harder, roughly one-per-two-box rate. In practice, almost nobody completes this card from packs. The singles market is how it gets done.
Compared to modern Scarlet and Violet chase cards, where any Special Illustration Rare lands around one in 90 packs and a Hyper Rare can be one in several hundred, vintage Gold Stars are scarcer in absolute terms. The print runs were far smaller, and twenty years of attrition has thinned the surviving population further.
ArtworkWhy the art matters
Masakazu Fukuda is one of the most collected illustrators of the EX era, with a long run of Gold Stars and ex cards to his name. His Gold Star work is a big part of why this subset is so chased. Plenty of collectors hunt his cards specifically, and his name on a Gold Star adds to the desirability.
The card shows Celebi in its shiny coloring, swapping the usual green body for a lighter, silvery palette with pink accents. Fukuda gives it a clean, bright composition with strong green and yellow contrast and the Pokemon centered in frame. It reads clearly even at a glance and holds up well in a slab.
Gold Star cards use a thick holo layer that covers the full card face, with the gold star symbol next to the Pokemon's name marking the rarity. The shiny color treatment is the tell. This is the alternate-color Celebi, not the standard green one. The holo layer on Crystal Guardians cards is prone to surface wear, which is part of why clean copies are tough.
It is one of the more visually balanced Gold Stars. The centered design and bright palette make it photograph and display better than many of its busier siblings, which feeds collector demand on top of the rarity.
BackgroundAbout Celebi Star
Celebi is the mythical Grass and Psychic Pokemon introduced in Generation II as a time-traveling guardian of the forest. It has long been an event-distribution Pokemon in the video games, which kept it desirable and a little mysterious for years. That scarcity in the games carries over to how collectors treat its cards.
- ›Mythical status and event-only history in the main games
- ›Strong nostalgia for Generation II among older collectors
- ›Distinctive design that translates well to card art
- ›Recurring appearances across many TCG sets keep it familiar
- ›Headlined the movie Pokemon 4Ever as the central legendary
- ›Featured as an event-distribution Pokemon across multiple game generations
Own it wellCollector guide
Crystal Guardians had softer print quality than earlier EX sets, so edge whitening and holo surface wear are common. Inspect the holo under angled light for scratches and check the corners closely. Centering varies, which matters a lot at the top grades.
Buy graded for any serious purchase. The premium for a gem-mint copy is large and the population at the top grade is small, so a slab from PSA, CGC, or BGS protects you on both authenticity and condition. If you grade a raw copy yourself, set your expectations low given the print quality. Read the grading guide →
Keep raw copies in a penny sleeve inside a top loader or a sealed magnetic holder, away from light and humidity. The holo layer is the vulnerable part, so avoid anything that drags across the surface. For graded slabs, store upright and out of direct sunlight. See the storage guide →
This is one of the most counterfeited vintage cards, so authenticate before you pay. Light test for the black core layer inside the card stock. Check the front surface for the correct linen texture. Look at how the holo reflects, since fakes often get the holo pattern wrong. Compare the back swirl gradient against a known-genuine card. For anything beyond a low raw price, buy a copy already graded by a reputable company. See the singles buying guide →
Hold the card to a strong light. Genuine vintage cards show a dark core layer between the front and back paper, which most fakes lack. Feel the front for the correct surface texture. Compare the holo behavior and the back's blue swirl gradient to a card you know is real. Misaligned fonts, wrong holo patterns, and a missing black core are the usual giveaways.
Protect your card
High Chase Score — protect and consider grading. · Amazon affiliate links · Storage guideWord on the streetCommunity sentiment
Collectors consistently rank Celebi Star among the more desirable Gold Stars, both for the mythical subject and for the clean, displayable art. It has a loyal following that spans vintage purists and newer collectors chasing the Gold Star subset.
- ›High-grade graded examples have publicly traded in serious four-figure territory, with mid-grade copies commanding a strong premium over raw
Gold Star completion runs are a popular long-term goal in collecting communities, and Celebi regularly comes up as a standout in those threads. Discussion centers on grading difficulty and the hunt for clean copies rather than short-term flipping.
Good to knowFrequently asked questions
Keep collectingRelated cards
Plan your Other EX Crystal Guardians master set
Track every card, see what you're missing, and lay out your binder page by page.
