Pokémon cards that are not trading cards, and still get graded: Old Maid, amiibo and the rest

Gengar joker from the 2019 Pokemon Old Maid deck in a CGC Pristine 10 holder

Last updated 22 September 2026.

Some of the most graded Pokémon cards of the last few years are not trading cards at all. They come from a 660 yen deck of Old Maid sold at the Pokémon Center, from an NFC card packed with a Wii U game, and from trading-card lines that predate the TCG. The graders accept them, and a lot of listings describe them wrongly. This page covers what the Old Maid deck is, why its cards carry no number, how PSA and CGC label them, why Gengar is the one that costs more, what the Pokkén amiibo card actually is, which other non-TCG Pokémon cards the graders accept, and what to check before you buy any of them.

Product facts come from the Pokémon Center's own listings and the graders' own cert records, population data and articles. Market numbers are context, dated, and will move.

On this page

What is the Pokémon Old Maid deck?

ポケモンババ抜き, Pokémon Babanuki, is a children's Old Maid card game released by the Pokémon Center on 11 May 2019. It is listed at 660 yen including tax, limited to one per customer, in a paper box about 11 by 6 centimetres. The rule that makes it a Pokémon game: when you draw a card from the player on your right, you say that Pokémon's cry out loud. Draw the Old Maid and you have to say "Gengar" too, which is how the table finds out who is holding it.

Sixteen Pokémon appear, per the Pokémon Center's own list: Pikachu, Gengar, Ditto, Mew, Psyduck, Squirtle, Meowth, Jigglypuff, Chansey, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Pidgey, Eevee, Slowpoke, Gloom and Raichu. The deck also holds a Poké Ball card, a Top Player card that decides who starts, and a blank spare, which is why grader population lists show nineteen distinct fronts. Meowth, Ditto and Mew are special-effect cards that change the flow of play, and the box doubles as a matching game. The illustrations are credited to Kouichi Ooyama in the grader's article and in press coverage, though the product page itself does not name an illustrator.

A second deck, ポケモンババ抜き スーパーハイテンション (Super High Tension), followed on 5 August 2023 at the same price: 36 cards including two spares, a new cast (Comfey, Dedenne, Deoxys, Dondozo, Fuecoco, Inkay, Ludicolo, Pikachu, Snorlax, Spinda, Sudowoodo, Swirlix, Tatsugiri, Togepi, Wobbuffet), a Dive Ball card, and Koffing as the Old Maid. The graders tell the two apart by the back: the 2019 deck is the red back, the 2023 deck is the blue back.

Why is there no set symbol, number or rarity?

Because it is a playing card. There is no set, no card number, no rarity symbol and no card text beyond the Pokémon's name, its cry and, on the Old Maid, a line saying this card is the ババ and whoever holds it at the end loses. PSA's cert record for a Gengar carries no card number and no variety. CGC's population data stores the card number as blank for every card in the deck. Any listing that quotes a number for one of these, and they do turn up written as 006/068 or 31/90, has invented it or copied it from someone who did.

The same goes for TCG vocabulary. An Old Maid card has no stage, no HP, no attacks and is not a full art. The item specifics that say otherwise were filled in from a Pokémon TCG template.

How do PSA and CGC label an Old Maid card?

The two graders file the deck differently, and their labels show it.

PSA CGC
Label text 2019 · POKEMON OLD MAID · GENGAR, grade, cert Gengar · Pokémon Playing Cards (2019) JPN · Old Maid, grade, cert
Category Non-Sport Cards on the cert; the set registry files it under Pokémon TCG sets Non-sports Cards, Pokémon Playing Cards, Old Maid (Red Back), Japanese
Card number None None
2023 deck 2023 Pokemon Old Maid Super High Tension Old Maid: Super High Tension (Blue Back), Japanese

The CGC label text above is read straight off the slabs this shop holds. Neither grader uses the word "promo" anywhere on these labels; that word is a seller's addition.

Why does Gengar cost more than the rest of the deck?

The deck has a single Gengar, the odd card the game turns on, where the other Pokémon come in pairs, and it is the card the game is about. That shows up in the graded populations: CGC's report lists roughly 11,000 graded Gengars against about 17,700 Pikachu and 16,800 Eevee from the same deck, so Gengar is the scarcest of the popular cards even before demand is counted. The prices follow. In September 2026 a PSA 10 Gengar sold on the auction sites for $56 to $90 depending on the week, with the price tracker's PSA 10 figure at $106 and a Pikachu PSA 10 at about $53. Raw Gengars sold for $7 to $20 in the same month. CGC 10 Gem Mint copies have traded between $20 and $75, Pristine 10 higher. These are context, not a price list.

One correction to the way it is usually described: the deck's own word for the card is ババ, the old maid. "Joker" is the Western gloss, and this shop uses it in the listing title because that is what buyers type, but the card does not say joker anywhere.

Why are so many of them Pristine 10 rather than Gem Mint 10?

Because the cards grade extremely well. They are machine-cut playing cards that mostly went from a sealed box into a sleeve, so centring and edges are usually clean. CGC's population for the 2019 Gengar runs to about 7,900 Pristine 10s against 2,600 Gem Mint 10s, a ratio of three to one, and a handful of Perfect 10s. That is the reverse of what you see on a booster-pack TCG card. It means a Pristine 10 on an Old Maid card is the normal outcome rather than an achievement, and it means the grade is doing less of the work in the price than it would on a set card. The card and the deck year matter more than the grade.

What is the Pokkén Tournament amiibo card?

It is an NFC card, not a paper card. The Pokémon Company announced it on 13 November 2015 as the first-production bonus for the Wii U release of Pokkén Tournament in Japan: hold the ダークミュウツー (Dark Mewtwo) amiibo card to the Wii U GamePad and the character is usable from the start, instead of after meeting the in-game conditions. The Western release of 18 March 2016 shipped the same card as Shadow Mewtwo, with region-specific variants, and download copies did not include it. The unlock is temporary, rescanned each session, until the character is earned in play, so the card was never the only way to get the character. It does not act as a Mewtwo amiibo in other games.

PSA files it as a Pokémon promo rather than as a non-sport card. A cert for the Japanese version reads 2016 · POKEMON PROMO POKKEN TOURNAMENT · DARK MEWTWO, with the variety POKKEN TOURNAMENT-JAPAN; English copies are labelled Shadow Mewtwo. CGC files it under Nintendo, Pokkén Tournament amiibo, Japanese, with no number, and its population for the Japanese card is in the dozens. One practical note from CGC's own forum: once the card is encapsulated it will not scan. A Japanese PSA 10 sold for $660 in February 2026; a PSA 9 was listed at $176 in September.

Which other non-TCG Pokémon cards do graders accept?

Several kinds, and the label is how you tell which one you are looking at.

Card line What it is Where the graders file it
Topps Pokémon, 1999 onwards Anime trading cards: Movie die-cuts, TV Animation series, Johto, Chrome PSA Non-Sport; CGC "Pokémon Topps"
Bandai Carddass and Pokémon Kids Vending-machine and candy cards from 1996 and 1997 PSA Non-Sport; CGC "Pokémon Carddass" and "Bandai Pokémon Kids"
Meiji chocolate promos Japanese confectionery cards, 1997 and 2002 PSA under TCG; CGC "Pokémon Meiji"
Battle e / e-Reader cards 2004 Japanese cards with a data strip for the Game Boy Advance e-Reader PSA under TCG
Pokémon Center poker decks Official playing-card decks from 1996 (Red and Green) to the Sun & Moon era CGC grades every standard-size official deck; PSA category not confirmed
Menko and Amada Japanese thick-card game pieces and stickers CGC "Menko" and "Pokémon Amada"; PSA not confirmed
Burger King 1999 The promotion cards, including the gold-plated set PSA "1999 Pokemon Burger King" and a separate gold-card set; CGC "Burger King Pokémon Cards"

On size and stock: PSA's standard holder takes cards up to 2 11/16 by 3 13/16 inches, with tall, supersized and oversize holders above that, and PSA publishes no rule on playing-card stock or on cards with an NFC chip; unlisted items go through a research request. CGC says it accepts virtually any factory-cut card that fits its holder safely, with no stated thickness limit. Old Maid cards fit a standard holder, as the certs show, but neither grader states the deck's card dimensions, so this page will not either.

What should you check before buying one?

  1. Look the cert up with the grader. On an Old Maid card the record will show no number; if a listing quotes one, that is the listing's error, not the grader's.
  2. Check the edition by the back colour, red for 2019 and blue for 2023, and by the Pokémon: Gengar is the Old Maid in 2019, Koffing in 2023. Pidgey, not Pidgeot, is in the 2019 deck.
  3. Read the label, not the title. PSA says Old Maid; CGC says Pokémon Playing Cards, Old Maid. "Promo", "full art" and "stage 2" are not on either.
  4. Remember what a Pristine 10 means on this deck: common, and a smaller part of the price than on a TCG card.
  5. For the amiibo card, buy it as a slabbed object. It will not scan in the holder, and the character it unlocked can be earned in the game anyway.

What this shop has

Eight cards from the 2019 red-back deck, each CGC Pristine 10, cert linked on the listing and photographed front and back: Gengar, Pikachu, Eevee, Mew, Charmander, Squirtle, Psyduck and Slowpoke. The full set of eight is under Old Maid.

Sources