Raikou and the ex★ Buying Window: What the Gold Star Tells You About ME07 Timing
By Dexhaul Team · September 28, 2026
The structure that makes ex★ cards valuable is not new.
Raikou has been here before.
In 2005, EX Unseen Forces printed Raikou ★ as card 114 in a 115-card set. The above-ceiling number was a built-in signal: this pull sits outside the visible set boundary. Twenty years later, ME07 Aura Seeker will place ex★ cards at the same structural position above its main set ceiling.
The foil treatments differ. The era differs. The logic is identical.
Understanding the Gold Star shapes every decision you make about Raikou between now and November 27, 2026, when Aura Seeker ships in Japan.
The Gold Star Is the Precedent
Raikou ★ 114/115 from EX Unseen Forces is the only Gold Star card for the Thunder Pokémon in English TCG history. The above-ceiling number signals deliberate scarcity within the print run: not a standard rare, not a modern secret rare, but a curated pull from a smaller subset of the overall print allocation.
A CGC 10 copy currently lists at $17,999.99. That ceiling matters less for its specific number than for what it says about demand concentration.
When the only Gold Star for a given Pokémon exists at one condition ceiling, raw near-mint copies hold sustained collector interest at a fraction of that price. Raikou has no other Gold Star to dilute that concentration.
The ex★ rarity in ME07 will not reproduce the Gold Star's scarcity exactly. Print runs, distribution structures, and the collector landscape are all different in 2026 than they were in 2005. But the pricing mechanism is analogous: an above-ceiling card for a specific Pokémon, in a set where most buyers are pulling for the main set, with a fraction of total supply dedicated to the bonus tier.
That fraction is what collectors are positioning around right now.
Two Above-Ceiling Raikou Cards on Sale Today
You do not have to wait for ME07 to hold an above-ceiling Raikou card. Two exist in the current market.
The first is Raikou V SAR 218/172 from the Japanese VSTAR Universe set (S12a, December 2022). SAR cards are numbered above the VSTAR Universe set ceiling of 172, using the same above-ceiling numbering logic as Gold Stars in 2005 and as ex★ cards will in ME07.
The current floor is $36.70 to $39.00 raw, depending on the importer.
The second is more directly tied to the Mega Evolution arc. Japanese ME06 Storm Emeralda, the set that became English Delta Reign ME06, contains a Raikou ex numbered 108/076: above the ME06 set ceiling of 076. This is Raikou's first modern-era ex card in a Mega Evolution product line.
English Delta Reign ME06 ships November 6, 2026. If the English edition carries the same above-ceiling Raikou ex at a comparable price point, the Japanese import window at $39 will look like the early-entry price in retrospect.
What ME07 Changes for Raikou
Raikou debuted in Pokémon Gold and Silver as one of the three Legendary Beasts. In the 26 years since, it has received cards across every TCG mechanical era, a model kit, multiple plush formats, and a competitive history that includes tournament play in the HGSS and Black and White eras.
What it has never received is a canonical Mega Evolution. No main series game, no Pokémon GO Mega raid, no official art of a Mega Raikou form exists in the franchise.
ME07 Aura Seeker, confirmed for a Japanese release on November 27, 2026, will print an ex★ card for Raikou. It will be the first and only visual definition of a Mega Raikou design in the franchise.
There is no competing in-game art to reference, no animated sprite already known to collectors, no pre-existing canonical look. The card will define the character's Mega form, full stop.
This is structurally different from every other Mega ex card in the ME series to date. ME06 Delta Reign, ME05 and earlier: every ex card in those sets referenced a Mega Evolution that existed in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
Collectors of those cards had a canonical in-game design to anchor demand. Raikou ex★ will have no such anchor. The card IS the design.
Buyers who understood this distinction have been building Raikou positions since the ex★ announcement. The ME07 Japan launch window is less than nine weeks away.
Building a Raikou Collection Right Now
Entry points run from $7.00 to five figures. The Gold Star CGC 10 is the ceiling case and the collector reference point. It is not where a new Raikou collection starts.
The Pokemon Center Fit Raikou plush is the standard character display format and is in stock across multiple importers at $15.21 to $24.99.
For a three-dimensional option that requires no booster packs and no randomness, Pokemon Model Kit 010 Raikou is currently in stock at $7.00. It is the lowest-cost in-stock Raikou product in the catalogue and produces a poseable display piece from the classic movie-era Raikou design.
On the card side, the current spread offers two closely priced options that sit in very different structural positions. Raikou V GG41 from Crown Zenith Galarian Gallery ($45.00) is the premium card from the final Sword and Shield era set, with the GG full-art horizontal format. It is a beautiful illustration in a well-regarded limited format.
The VSTAR Universe SAR 218/172 at $36–39 lands at almost the same price as the GG41 but occupies a structurally different position: above the set ceiling, the same structural slot ex★ will occupy in ME07.
A GG card and an above-ceiling SAR are not interchangeable buys. One is format-based. The other is precedent-based.
For buyers who want a holding position without committing to the $36–45 import tier, Raikou V 048/172 Brilliant Stars trades at $2.40. That is a functional player copy, not a collector position, but it is the most efficient way to get a modern holofoil Raikou into a binder ahead of the ME07 announcement cycle.
Search DexHaul for Raikou to see the full in-stock spread from independent shops, in your currency. DexHaul is independent and unofficial, with no affiliation with Nintendo, Game Freak, or The Pokémon Company.