Charizard ex
Quick take
- Top card of the FireRed & LeafGreen set and a blue-chip vintage Charizard
- Main-set Rare Holo ex at 105/112, required for set completion, not a secret rare
- Charizard plus Kanto-remake nostalgia drives durable demand
- Big price gap between raw near-mint and gem-mint graded copies
Collector's readWhat it means for your master set
Set landscapeWhere this card sits in EX FireRed & LeafGreen
VariantsCard variants
Holofoil 105/112 · $500.00 — the only variant this card was printed in (no reverse holo or special pattern), so a master set needs just this one copy.
The storyThe Charizard everyone in this set is chasing
FireRed & LeafGreen came out in 2004 and leaned hard into Kanto nostalgia. The set rebuilt the original Kanto Pokemon as EX-era cards, and Charizard ex at 105/112 is the headline. It is a Rare Holo ex, the premium rarity tier of the era, and it carries Charizard's usual weight in any collection.
“Top card of the FireRed & LeafGreen set and a blue-chip vintage Charizard”
This card is part of the main set numbering, not a secret rare. That matters for master set builders. You need it to call a FireRed & LeafGreen set complete, and unlike a hidden secret rare it shows up on the standard checklist. Demand is steady because two things stack here, the Charizard name and the Kanto-remake theme that pulls in players who grew up with the original Game Boy games.
Hiromichi Sugiyama handled the art. The card reads as a clean, aggressive Charizard pose typical of the EX run. It is not a frame-breaking alt art, but it does not need to be. The name and the era do the heavy lifting.
By the numbersMarket analysis
This is the top card of the FireRed & LeafGreen set and one of the more valuable mainline Charizard ex cards from the period. Raw near-mint copies sit in solid vintage territory, and prices climb steeply with grade.
Vintage Charizard demand has held firm over the long run. Like most early EX-era Charizards, this card has trended up over multiple years, with the sharpest moves concentrated in high grades. Raw and low-grade copies move more slowly and track overall vintage sentiment.
Treat it as a blue-chip vintage Charizard rather than a flip. The ceiling lives in graded gem-mint copies, where supply is thin and the Charizard name keeps a floor under it. Raw copies are more about completing the set than appreciation. Centering and holo condition are the main variables that decide which bucket your copy lands in.
The premium for a high grade is large and widens fast at the top. A clean gem-mint copy sits well above a raw near-mint one, so the jump from raw to gem mint is the single biggest price lever on this card. A PSA 9 lands in a middle tier between the two.
FireRed & LeafGreen predates the modern Scarlet & Violet rarity ladder, so there is no published per-pack figure for it the way newer sets have. As a Rare Holo ex it sat in the top rarity tier of the set, and like all EX-era holo ex cards it was a genuinely scarce pull, several boxes deep per copy on average. Two decades on, the practical supply that matters is clean graded stock, which is thin. For collectors, the realistic path is the singles market, not ripping vintage packs.
This is not a Gold Star card. Gold Stars came slightly later in the EX run, showed shiny alternate-color art, and were pulled at roughly one per two booster boxes, around 1 in 72 packs. This Charizard is a standard Rare Holo ex from the main set, more common at print than a Gold Star but still the rarest and most desirable card in FireRed & LeafGreen.
ArtworkWhy the art matters
Hiromichi Sugiyama is a long-running Pokemon TCG illustrator with credits across many sets, including a stretch of EX-era cards. His work shows up throughout the early 2000s run, so collectors of this period will recognize the name on multiple cards in their binders.
The card shows Charizard in an aggressive, dynamic pose against a fiery backdrop, in the standard full-art-within-frame layout of the EX era. It is a clean action illustration rather than an experimental composition. Some collectors have noted the perspective reads a little unusual, but the overall look is unmistakably Charizard.
This is a Rare Holo ex card, so the foil treatment runs across the artwork area in the EX-era holo pattern. The EX yellow border and the ex name styling are the visual markers of the rarity tier.
It is the marquee Charizard of a Kanto-themed set. The combination of the most popular Pokemon and the FireRed & LeafGreen branding makes it the card people open the set hoping to pull.
BackgroundAbout Charizard ex
Charizard has anchored the Pokemon TCG since Base Set in 1999 and remains the most sought-after creature in the hobby. The FireRed & LeafGreen version slots into that lineage as the Kanto-remake-era Charizard, carrying the same draw that every Charizard chase card has.
- ›Charizard is the face of the franchise and the default chase across nearly every set it appears in
- ›FireRed & LeafGreen leans on first-generation Kanto nostalgia
- ›Stage 2 Fire-type with the high-damage Burn Down attack that felt powerful for its era
- ›Strong crossover demand from collectors who do not otherwise buy vintage but want a Charizard
- ›Headline card of the EX FireRed & LeafGreen set (2004)
- ›Part of the broader EX-era run of Charizard ex cards that collectors track as a group
Own it wellCollector guide
Condition is everything on vintage holo ex cards. Check the holo area for scratches and print lines under angled light, inspect all four corners and the yellow border for whitening, and look hard at centering front and back. EX-era cards are prone to edge wear and surface scuffing, so truly clean raw copies are scarcer than listings suggest.
Grading makes sense here given the price gap between raw and gem mint. If your copy has sharp corners, clean holo, and good centering, a high grade can multiply its value. Marginal copies with edge wear or off-center cuts often grade lower than hoped, so be realistic before paying submission fees. Read the grading guide →
Sleeve it in a snug penny sleeve, then a top loader or a graded slab. Keep it out of direct light and away from humidity, and avoid binders with loose pockets that let the card shift and rub the foil. For a card at this value, a sealed graded holder is the safest long-term home. See the storage guide →
For any serious money, buy graded from a reputable seller. This is a heavily counterfeited Charizard, so for raw copies inspect carefully. Check the holo behavior in hand, look at the back swirl gradient, and run a light test for the black core layer that genuine cards have. Surface texture and the feel of the card matter too. If a raw deal looks too cheap, assume it is fake until proven otherwise. See the singles buying guide →
Confirm the black core layer with a bright light through the card, check the back swirl pattern for the correct gradient and color, and feel the surface texture against a card you know is real. Fakes often have the wrong holo pattern, off colors, or a flat feel. When in doubt, a graded copy removes the guesswork.
Protect your card
High Chase Score — protect and consider grading. · Amazon affiliate links · Storage guideWord on the streetCommunity sentiment
Collectors treat it as a must-have vintage Charizard and the clear top card of its set. Sentiment is positive and durable, driven more by the Charizard name and Kanto theme than by the card's gameplay. A few people note the art's perspective looks slightly off, but that has not dented demand.
- ›High-grade copies command large premiums over raw near-mint, and that gap is the most-discussed feature of this card's market
Discussion clusters around grading results and the raw-to-gem-mint price gap, which is typical for a vintage Charizard. It comes up regularly in EX-era set-completion and Charizard-collection threads.
Good to knowFrequently asked questions
Keep collectingRelated cards
Plan your Other EX FireRed & LeafGreen master set
Track every card, see what you're missing, and lay out your binder page by page.
