Though it’s true that any long-lasting hobby can end up being incredibly expensive, when it comes to Trading Card Games (or TCGs, for short), you can end up spending a small fortune on cards that may or may not end up being worth significantly more than you paid for them.
With Yu-Gi-Oh having been around for a quarter of a century, it’s stood tall as one of the most popular and best trading card games around. Of course, with that longevity and popularity, it’s inevitable that some cards, among the many thousands that have been released, will end up being more sought after, and therefore more expensive, than others.
One of the key aspects that sets Yu-Gi-Oh apart is that, a small number of banned or forbidden cards aside, card legality doesn’t rotate in and out as it does in other games. For example, in Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering, cards are only legal for competitive play for a certain number of years or a limited number of sets; that doesn’t apply with Yu-Gi-Oh!
So, given that cards which date way back to the beginning of the game retain their practical use within the game, it’s quite often the case that they can hold their value not just from a collector’s perspective, but also with players intending to use them in-game too.
As these particular cards we’re about to check out cost so much, however, you’re unlikely to see them being used anywhere except the wealthiest player’s decks. Note that we’ve taken pricing data from TCG Player, and have used their current average prices to compile this list.
So, without any further ado, let’s take a look at the most expensive Yu-Gi-Oh cards!
1. Dark End Dragon – Shonen Jump Championship Series Prize Card, Ultra Rare ($3,000)
Given to the winners of the 2009 Shonen Jump Championship in 2009, this Dark End Dragon is among the rarest Yu-Gi-Oh cards ever. It’s not the only Dark End Dragon, of course, with cheaper, more readily available variants selling for around $11 at most; however, this Championship card’s rarity has pushed its price up astronomically, to an average of around $3,000!
So, in terms of its in-game mechanics, what does Dark End Dragon actually do? Well, it’s a Synchro Monster with 2600 Attack and 2100 Defense, but its appeal is more due to its ability than those raw stats.
Its ability, as long as you have at least 1 Tuner and 1 or more non-Tuner DARK monsters (with Dark End Dragon being a DARK monster itself), you can have it lose 500 Attack and Defense to send 1 monster your opponent controls to the Graveyard. Though this can only be used once per turn, it can be very effective indeed, in getting rid of a particularly powerful opposing Monster that could otherwise prove troublesome!
2. Crush Card Virus – Shonen Jump Championship Series Prize Card, Ultra Rare ($2,000)
An Ultra Rare Trap card, this variant of Crush Card Virus is another card that was given as a prize in a Shonen Jump Championship tournament. In this instance, it was the 2007 Championship, so of course its age and scarcity are definitely big factors in pushing this card’s average value to $2,000!
Game-wise, Crush Card Virus will be able to carry out its ability if you sacrifice (or, in Yu-Gi-Oh terminology, TRIBUTE) 1 of your DARK monsters that has 1000 Attack or less. Though this then leads to your opponent not being able to take any damage until the end of the next turn, it leads to you being able to do something potentially very nasty.
That’s because you then look at your opponent’s hand and all monsters they control; you can then destroy the monsters you find with Attack of 1500 or more. Your opponent is then able to destroy up to 3 monsters in their Deck which have 1500 Attack or more.
Not bad, right? Numerous variants of Crush Card Virus exist, so you’re not priced out of owning it (with the lowest priced version selling for less than $1 on average), but if you want the most highly sought after version, it’s this one; there were 46 copies of it printed originally, but who knows how many have survived in the years since it was given out as a prize for the 2007 tournament.
3. Blue-Eyes White Dragon – Dark Duel Stories, Prismatic Secret Rare ($2,000)
One of the most well-known cards in Yu-Gi-Oh overall, Blue-Eyes White Dragon is an iconic card that established itself very early in the lore of the saga.
Blue-Eyes White Dragon was a card played by Kaiba as his ace monster, boasting an impressive 3000 Attack, that, at the time it was released, made it one of the strongest cards in the game.
This particular version is a promo card that was packaged with Game Boy Color game, Dark Duel Stories. Interestingly, and very cleverly on publisher Konami’s part, the card included with the game was 1 of 6 to collect, so if you wanted to get your hands on all of them back in the day, it would have proven very expensive to do so!
Which explains why this variant sells for $2,000, despite the fact that Blue-Eyes White Dragon has been made available countless times in Yu-Gi-Oh’s 25 year history, and some variants will cost just pennies to acquire!
4. Cyber Dragon – Duel Terminal Preview, Duel Terminal Rare/Parallel Rare ($1,730)
Arcade machines such as beetle-battling Mushiking (which was initially released in 2003), as well as its many sequels and spin-offs, as well as more recent fare such as DC superhero-based fighting game Injustice and even Minecraft Dungeons Arcade, dispense trading cards with every credit. It’s a concept that’d lend itself brilliantly to the collectible and deck-building aspects of trading card games, so why haven’t the main trading card games taken arcade game form?
Well, it may surprise you to learn that Yu-Gi-Oh has done this. From 2008 to 2012, seven Duel Terminal arcade machines were released, each with their own series of cards to collect. Players could build up their card collections to scan and use in each game played, with the ‘DUEL TERMINAL’ branding on the card to denote its compatibility with the arcade machine’s scanner.
This Cyber Dragon card, from the original Preview Wave release of Duel Terminal, is easily the most expensive card of them all, with a value of $1,730.
5. Dragon Master Knight – Retro Pack 2, Secret Rare ($1,000)
2009 set Retro Pack 2 brought some of the most powerful and popular cards back to print for the first time since Yu-Gi-Oh launched. Despite the fact that these cards are reprints, some of the cards in Retro Pack 2 are now highly sought after and valuable themselves!
This Dragon Master Knight is the most valuable card from Retro Pack 2, and with a current selling price of $1,000 on average, it’s one of the most expensive Yu-Gi-Oh cards in general.
It’s a Monster card that must be Fusion Summoned, using a Black Luster Soldier and Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. It gainst 400 Attack for each other Dragon type Monster under your control, which adds to its already phenomenal 5000 Attack value! Which is matched by its equally high 5000 Defense value, making this a seriously strong card.
6. Cyber End Dragon – Cybernetic Revolution, Ultimate Rare ($1,000)
Dragons are a hugely popular Monster type in Yu-Gi-Oh, as you can see from the various examples on this list. This Ultimate Rare variant of Cyber End Dragon, from the Cybernetic Revolution set, is another one; it’s also another Fusion Monster, requiring 3 Cyber Dragons to be used as Fusion Material before it can be played.
The Cyber End Dragon’s ability triggers when it battles a Monster whose Defense is lower than the Attack of Cyber End Dragon; the difference between the values can be dealt as Battle Damage to the opponent’s Life Points.
Given that Cyber End Dragon has 4000 Attack points, it’s stronger than the majority of Monsters it’ll face off against, making it a pretty useful card to have in your deck. Which goes some way, along with the card’s rarity in general, to explaining why it’s currently selling for $1,000 on average.
Of course, if you’re after a copy of Cyber End Dragon for your deck, rather than just for your collection, you can find other variants for just a few dollars!
7. Ten Thousand Dragon – Battles of Legend Reborn, 10000 Secret Rare ($800)
We’ve mentioned that Yu-Gi-Oh has been around for 25 years, and, as you’d expect, the number of cards that have been released for the game has grown significantly in that time. In fact, there have now been more than 10,000 different cards!
How do we know this? Well, the Ten Thousand Dragon is a very special card, with its own, separate rarity level. The name of the card and its rarity refer to the fact that it’s the 10,000th card to be released. In fact, even the card’s ability and (potential!) stats have the 10,000 figure baked in!
So this card can’t be normal summoned or set, but instead it can be summoned by tributing Monsters with a combined Attack and Defense of at least 10,000. Then, when summoned, the Attack and Defense of Ten Thousand Dragon becomes exactly what you’re likely expecting: 10,000.
It’s not an especially easy card to find, and both that scarcity and its powerful ability has seen its current average selling price reach significantly less than $10,000, but $800 is certainly not a low value!
8. Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess – Rising Rampage, Starlight Rare ($800)
In contrast to other TCGs, the style of Yu-Gi-Oh’s cards has remained incredibly consistent since it was first released. There are very few cards or card types that look fancy by modern standards, such as those you’d find in, for example, Pokemon, Disney Lorcana or Star Wars Unlimited. That said, many card do feature one of a number of different foil treatments to give them an extra allure.
This Apollousa card is a Starlight Rare, which features a holographic foil pattern that’s applied across the card; though Prismatic Secret Rare cards have a similar treatment, with a Starlight Rare it’s applied across the whole card, and not the artwork alone.
This particular card, Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, is one such Starlight Rare card, and its $800 value makes it the highest priced Starlight Rare of them all.
9. Elemental Hero Chaos Neos (Misprint) – Gladiator’s Assault, Ghost Rare ($700)
You would be forgiven for thinking that we’ve used the wrong image for a card named Elemental Hero Chaos Neos, given that the card shown above is a Rainbow Dragon.
Except all of the card text does refer to the Elemental Hero Chaos Neos, as does the image on the card. The title is erroneous and marks this out as a Misprint, but it’s a surprisingly common error that makes this card’s value much higher than it otherwise would be. Though certain errors on a card can add to their value over a standard printing, its current average selling price of $700 seems way beyond what you’d normally expect!
This card’s rarity is Ghost Rare, which is a treatment that gives it a shiny, black and white look with an image that’s almost split in two, making the monster on the card appear almost three dimensional. That unusual rarity, coupled with the misprint on the card, makes it one that many Yu-Gi-Oh fans would definitely like to have for their collection.
10. Harpie’s Feather Duster – Tournament Pack 8, Super Rare ($700)
The final card on our list is one that was printed in Tournament Pack 8, way back in 2006. Tournament Packs were a series of booster packs containing 3 cards, that were given out to participants at tournaments. Tournament Pack 8 was the last series of these boosters, before they were replaced by Champion Packs, then Turbo Packs, followed by Astral Packs and, currently, OTS Tournament Packs.
Harpie’s Feather Duster has appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh many, many times, but its the Tournament Pack 8 variant that’s currently highly valued by fans. It’s just about as straightforward as Yu-Gi-Oh cards get in terms of what it does; it’s a Spell card that has a very effective ability, in that it destroys all of your opponents Spell and Trap cards currently on the field.
With a current average selling price of $700, it’s a real collector’s item, but you can buy other versions of Harpie’s Feather Duster for much cheaper.
That’s a wrap for the most expensive Yu-Gi-Oh cards. If you want to see what else is coming up for Yu-Gi-Oh, check out our release schedule for more details!
