2000 Pokemon Neo Genesis 1st Edition Lugia #9 Holo PSA 10

The first card of a new generation

Neo Genesis was the first set of the Pokemon Trading Card Game to feature the second generation of Pokemon, the creatures introduced in the Game Boy Color games Pokemon Gold and Silver. Japan got it first, as 'Gold, Silver, to a New World...', on February 4, 2000. Wizards of the Coast released the English version on December 16, 2000, as the eighth English set.

The English set has 111 cards, and the first 19 are holos. Like the Base Set, it came in 11-card booster packs of seven commons, three uncommons and one rare, with a holo in roughly one pack of every three, and 36 packs to a box. There were four pack wrappers, featuring Lugia, Feraligatr, Meganium and Typhlosion. Neo Genesis also introduced Baby Pokemon such as Pichu.

As with the earlier sets, Wizards printed a 1st Edition run, marked by a small black stamp at the left below the art box, followed by a much larger Unlimited run without it. Wizards never released production figures. Collectors interviewed by PSA in 2016 believed the Neo sets were printed in smaller quantities than the first-generation sets, while stressing that this was opinion.

Hironobu Yoshida's Diving Pokemon

The art is by Hironobu Yoshida. It shows Lugia, the Diving Pokemon, descending across a dark holo background dotted with stars, a spare composition that has become one of the best-known images of the Neo era. One leading collector told PSA that Lugia 'almost looks like a Pokemon that's just stuck up there with a lot of holofoil around it,' and meant it as a compliment to the set's simple style.

In the game, Lugia is a 90 HP Colorless Basic Pokemon with one attack, Elemental Blast, which does 90 damage and requires discarding a Fire, a Water and a Lightning Energy. It was the first attack in the card game to require three different kinds of Energy, a nod to Lugia's role as leader of the three legendary birds, Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos, whose card types those are.

The Pokedex text on the card says Lugia quietly spends its time deep at the bottom of the sea because its powers are too strong.

The mascot of Pokemon Silver

Pokemon Gold and Silver came out in Japan on November 21, 1999, and in North America on October 15, 2000, two months before the English cards. Lugia was the box-art Pokemon on Silver, and Nintendo promoted the games by dressing five Chrysler PT Cruisers as Lugia and driving them around the United States. The two games sold over 23 million units, the best-selling titles for the Game Boy Color.

Lugia was also the star of the second North American Pokemon movie, released in 2000. By then the first wave of Pokemania was fading: the market for Base Set cards had crashed about a year after their 1999 launch.

A collector who was buying cards at the time later recalled that by late 2000 the craze had subsided. Plenty of people were still collecting and playing, he wrote, but not nearly as many as in 1999.

From $1,000 to $360,000

A Pokemon collector writing in late 2020 recalled the 1st Edition Lugia as a $1,000 card in mid-2019. On November 25, 2020, a PSA 10 copy sold at auction for $129,000. At that point PSA had graded 1,205 1st Edition Lugias and only 41 had earned a 10, against 121 PSA 10s out of 2,707 graded for the 1st Edition Base Set Charizard.

PSA's auction log shows PSA 9 copies selling between $4,050 and $7,400 in 2025, a fraction of what a 10 brings.

In 2026 the top grade took off. A PSA 10 sold for $205,794 in June 2026 on an online collectibles platform, then the public record. On August 30, 2026, another PSA 10, certificate 28683528, sold in an online weekly auction for $360,000 after 25 bids, about 75 percent above the June sale. The same auction sold a CGC Pristine 10 1st Edition Typhlosion from the same set for $336,000.

Why a 10 is so rare

Neo Genesis is notorious among graders for holo surfaces, edges and print quality that make perfect grades elusive. In 2016 PSA had graded 389 copies of the 1st Edition Lugia and given 32 of them a 10. By October 2026 the count had reached about 7,250 graded with 45 PSA 10s, 613 PSA 9s and 1,831 PSA 8s, so well under one copy in a hundred earns the top grade.

To identify the card, check for 9/111 at the lower right and the black 1st Edition stamp at the left edge below the illustration. Unlimited copies have no stamp. Some collectors also hunt for copies with a 'swirl' pattern in the holo background, a random feature of the foil.

The scarcity runs through the Unlimited version too. In late 2020 there were only 13 PSA 10 Unlimited Lugias, compared with 489 PSA 10 Unlimited Base Set Charizards.

The numbers

Set

Neo Genesis (English), 111 cards; first 19 are holos; Japanese version 96 cards

Card

#9 of 111, holofoil rare; Colorless Basic, 90 HP; Elemental Blast, 90 damage

Print run

1st Edition then Unlimited; Wizards never released production numbers

PSA 10 population

45 (PSA census as fetched October 2026); 41 in late 2020; 32 in 2016

PSA 9 population

613 (same census)

PSA 8 population

1,831 (same census)

Total graded by PSA

About 7,250 (same census)

Timeline

1. Nov 21, 1999

   Pokemon Gold and Silver are released in Japan, with Lugia on the Silver box.

2. Feb 4, 2000

   The Japanese Neo set 'Gold, Silver, to a New World...' is released.

3. Oct 15, 2000

   Pokemon Gold and Silver reach North America.

4. Dec 16, 2000

   Wizards of the Coast releases the English Neo Genesis set; Lugia is holo #9.

5. 2016

   PSA reports 32 PSA 10s out of 389 1st Edition Lugias graded.

6. 2019

   The 1st Edition Lugia is remembered as roughly a $1,000 card in mid-2019.

7. Nov 25, 2020

   A PSA 10 sells at auction for $129,000; PSA has 41 PSA 10s out of 1,205 graded.

8. Jun 2026

   A PSA 10 sells for $205,794 on an online platform, a public record at the time.

9. Aug 30, 2026

   A PSA 10 sells for $360,000 after 25 bids in an online weekly auction, a new record.

10. Oct 2026

    PSA's census shows 45 PSA 10s of the 1st Edition Lugia.

The world in 2000

• Mar 10, 2000

  The Nasdaq Composite reaches an all-time high of 5,048.

• Apr 22, 2000

  Federal agents seize six-year-old Elian Gonzalez in Miami and return him to his father.

• Oct 15, 2000

  Pokemon Gold and Silver launch in North America.

• Nov 8, 2000

  An automatic recount begins in Florida after the razor-close presidential election.

• Dec 12, 2000

  The U.S. Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore ruling ends the Florida recount, four days before Neo Genesis goes on sale.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 2000 Pokemon Neo Genesis 1st Edition Lugia #9 Holo PSA 10 is number 14 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (78 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Lugia's Elemental Blast was the first attack in the card game to need three different Energy types: one each for the three legendary birds Lugia leads.
• Nintendo built five Lugia-themed PT Cruisers to tour the United States promoting Pokemon Silver.
• Fewer than one in a hundred 1st Edition Lugias graded by PSA has earned a 10.
• Collectors prize copies with a random 'swirl' in the holo foil.
• The English Neo Genesis set changed the Moo-Moo Milk trainer art, which in Japan showed a Sentret nursing from a Miltank.