Paldean Fates: the most expensive Pokémon cards

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Paldean Fates came out on 26 January 2024 and it is the shiny set: from 91 official cards it reaches 245 printings once you count the shiny versions. Mew ex #232 leads at 310.64 €, but the real character of the set is the shape of the ranking: three cards hold everything up, and from fourth place down you are under 36 euro.

We ran every card through the DarkDex pricing engine and sorted by value. Real single-card prices, Near Mint, lowest across sellers, updated on 30 July 2026. Graded copies excluded.

In short. Three cards hold the set up: Mew ex (#232) at 310.64 €, Charizard ex (#234) at 152.07 € and Gardevoir ex (#233) at 75.62 €. Fourth place drops to 35.52 € and fifth falls under 15. It is the cheapest recent set to collect. Prices as of 30 July 2026.

The ranking: the 10 most expensive cards

1Mew exSpecial Illustration Rare · #232€310.64

2Charizard exSpecial Illustration Rare · #234€152.07

3Gardevoir exSpecial Illustration Rare · #233€75.62

4PikachuShiny Rare · #131€35.52

5MimikyuShiny Rare · #160€14.21

6IonoSpecial Illustration Rare · #237€13.15

7CharmanderShiny Rare · #109€9.64

8CliveSpecial Illustration Rare · #236€9.26

9PennySpecial Illustration Rare · #239€9.15

10DittoShiny Rare · #201€9.10

We stop at ten on purpose: the set's eleventh card is worth 8.20 € and the twentieth 4.56 €. On the other sets we go to twenty places, but here anything below tenth would no longer be a ranking of the most expensive cards.

The gap between third and fourth is the number to look at: from 75.62 € to 35.52 €, and from there down the set is cheap. Add your cards to DarkDex and keep track of the value while you finish the affordable half.

The chase cards of Paldean Fates

There are three: Mew ex (#232), Charizard ex (#234) and Gardevoir ex (#233), all Special Illustration Rares. Together they are worth more than the rest of the ranking combined.

Then the set changes character. What follows are the shiny cards: Pikachu (#131) at 35.52 €, Mimikyu (#160) at 14.21 €, Charmander (#109) at 9.64 € and Ditto (#201) at 9.10 €. They are what the set was designed for, and they are cheap because there are many of them.

How much is Mew ex from Paldean Fates worth

Mew ex #232 is worth 310.64 € Near Mint, with 22 sellers. It is the set's signature card and the only one above 300 euro.

It is worth double Charizard ex #234, which in most sets is the single most expensive card. Here it is not, and the reason is that Mew's illustration is the one the set uses as its own image: when a card becomes a set's cover, the market pays it as such.

How much is Charizard ex from Paldean Fates worth

Charizard ex #234 is worth 152.07 € Near Mint, with 36 sellers: the deepest market among the three top cards, so the most reliable price of the three.

It is also the entry to the podium: half of Mew, double Gardevoir. If you had to keep one of the three with long-term stability in mind, Charizard has the broadest and most persistent demand in the whole game.

The Iono case: a Special Illustration Rare at 13 euro

The set contains a detail that explains how card prices work better than anything else. Iono #237 is a Special Illustration Rare, the same rarity as Mew ex, and it is worth 13.15 €: twenty-four times less.

Same rarity, same set, same category print run. The only difference is demand for the card's subject. Valuing a collection by rarity gets you wrong by a factor of twenty-four, and this is not an edge case: the same set has two more Special Illustration Rares under 10 euro, Clive (#236) and Penny (#239).

The best cards in Paldean Fates

It is the most accessible recent set, so the budget list is short:

• under 15 euro: Mimikyu (#160), Iono (#237), Charmander (#109), Clive (#236), Penny (#239) and Ditto (#201), all cheaper than dinner out
• around 35 euro: shiny Pikachu (#131), the most wanted card in the affordable half
• above 150 euro: Mew ex (#232) and Charizard ex (#234), the two the set is measured by

If you are starting a collection, this is the right set to begin with: most of the interesting cards cost under twenty euro.

The shiny cards of Paldean Fates

The set exists for its shiny cards, and that explains the shape of the ranking. With 245 total printings across 91 official cards, most of the set consists of shiny versions of existing Pokémon. They look great, there are many of them, and so they cost little: that is supply doing its normal work.

The exception is Pikachu #131 at 35.52 €, worth three times the other shinies for the same reason Pikachu is always worth more than the rest.

Is Paldean Fates worth buying today

This is not investment advice, but the numbers from this scan say two things. First: it has the lowest barrier to entry we have measured, because the collectable bulk costs 417 € across 242 cards and most of the interesting cards sit under twenty euro. Second: the high value is concentrated in three cards, so buying "the set" and buying "the three cards" are entirely different decisions with entirely different budgets.

If you are after the shinies, timing matters little: there are many of them and prices have been flat for a while. If you are after Mew ex, you are buying a single card with a 22-seller market, and there the spread between offers matters more than the date you buy.

How many cards are in Paldean Fates

The set has 91 official cards and reaches 245 counting shinies and secrets. Our scan found at least one Near Mint offer for 245 singles: full coverage.

What it costs to complete Paldean Fates

We added up the cheapest Near Mint copy available for each of the set's 245 singles: 955 €. It is the cheapest recent set to close, and not by a little: 151 costs 1,574 € and Prismatic Evolutions 2,544 €.

Within that total, 538 € is the top three cards, or 56%, the highest share of the three sets. Put the other way round, and this is the number that matters if you are starting out: without Mew, Charizard and Gardevoir, the other 242 cards in the set cost 417 € in total.

One detail makes Paldean Fates different from the other two. The median card costs 1.10 €, ten times the median of 151 and Prismatic Evolutions, which both sit at 11 cents. The reason is that there is no tail of few-cent commons here: most of the set is shiny, and a shiny does not drop below a euro. The set is cheap at the top and slightly more expensive at the bottom.

Two caveats: it is the sum of minimum prices from different sellers, so shipping gets added in practice, and it only counts cards with a Near Mint offer. A theoretical floor, not a quote.

Heads up. Prices move constantly. The numbers above are a snapshot of the market on 30 July 2026.

How to keep an eye on them

On DarkDex you add your Paldean Fates cards to your collection and the value updates itself. On a set with 245 printings it is the only sensible way to know where you stand and what you hold.

To understand how a whole collection is valued, read how much your Pokémon collection is worth. If you want a set where value sits at the top instead of spread out, see the most expensive Prismatic Evolutions cards.