Lugia
Aquapolis · #149/147 · Rare Secret · 2003
Price history
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Graded values
Grades 1–6 are estimates modeled from the raw price — PSA/CGC/BGS 7–10 and Ungraded are live tracked market values.
PSA 10 chart is building — graded values are tracked nightly, a new point appears each day.
Graded population census · updated 2026-07-07
Population data from PriceCharting, updated monthly.
CardPrice Score S-TIER
An iconic legendary, the rarest tier of a cult-favorite e-Card set, and a punishing gem rate — Crystal Lugia is a textbook S-tier vintage grail.
- The crown jewel of Aquapolis — a full-art "crystal" secret rare Lugia that closes out one of the e-Card era's most beloved sets.
- Gem rate is brutal; these came out of packs with edge and centering issues baked in.
- One of the most iconic legendary chase cards of the entire early-2000s WOTC-to-EX transition.
- Thin, sporadic supply keeps every clean copy contested.
- An S-tier card that anchors serious vintage Pokémon collections.
This analysis covers every printing of Lugia — the score and live figures use our primary tracked printing, and the price panels above follow whichever printing you have selected.
Where Lugia fits in the hobby
The Crystal Lugia sits at the very end of the Aquapolis checklist — card 149, a Rare Secret. Aquapolis was the second set in the short-lived e-Card era, released in the window when WOTC's license had ended and the game was transitioning fully into Nintendo/Pokémon Company hands. That era produced the "crystal" cards: hyper-glossy full-art secret rares with a distinctive faceted holo pattern that framed the Pokémon rather than sitting in a window. Lugia is the marquee one.
Lugia itself needs no introduction. The mascot of *Pokémon Silver* and the star of *The Movie 2000*, it's a legendary that has carried chase-card weight in nearly every set it has appeared in. Pairing that character with the rarest tier of a scarce e-Card set made this a grail almost immediately. Naoyo Kimura's artwork gives it the dramatic, oceanic presence the crystal treatment demands.
What makes it a genuine condition nightmare is the crystal print run itself. The holo foil is prone to scratching, the borders show every whitening flick, and centering was never a strength of the era. Cards that survived two decades in true gem shape are the exception, not the rule — which is exactly why the grading premium on a perfect copy is so steep.
Market read
This is a blue-chip vintage chase card, and it behaves like one. Demand comes from three overlapping camps — Lugia character collectors, e-Card era completists, and vintage grail hunters — and that trifecta keeps interest steady even when broader hobby sentiment cools. Sales are infrequent by nature; there simply aren't many clean copies changing hands in any given stretch, and each listing draws attention.
The card sits near its historical high-water mark rather than in a slump, which tells you the market treats it as a hold-and-cherish piece, not a flipper's card. Raw copies command real money before grading even enters the picture, and the gap between a raw or mid-grade example and a top-graded one is dramatic — a direct reflection of how few survive in gem condition.
- <parameter name="0">Lugia's enduring status as a headline legendary — one of the most collected Pokémon across all eras.
Exact figures — price, population, gem rate, grading EV — are live in the panels above and refresh nightly.
Why the art matters
Naoyo Kimura handled the illustration, rendering Lugia with the poise and scale its legendary billing calls for. The crystal secret-rare treatment lifts the Pokémon out of the usual holo window and lets the artwork breathe across the whole card, wrapped in the faceted, gem-like foil pattern unique to Aquapolis and Skyridge.
The result reads more like a display piece than a standard holo. Lugia's plumage and the oceanic tone of the piece play beautifully against the reflective crystal facets, which is exactly why these cards photograph so strikingly — and why collectors chase them for the case as much as the checklist.
Collector guide
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Frequently asked questions
How much is Lugia #149/147 worth today?
As of August 14, 2026, a raw Lugia #149/147 trades around $4,500.00, and a PSA 10 copy around $81,130.00. Prices update nightly from live market data — the chart above has the full history.
Is Lugia worth grading right now?
Yes, the math currently works: after buying a raw copy and paying ~$25 in grading fees, the expected value of grading is about $12,173.72 positive, based on live PSA 10/9 prices and this card's real gem rate.
Abilities
Attacks
How much is Lugia #149/147 worth?
Lugia #149/147 is a Rare Secret card from Aquapolis (2003) — today it trades at roughly $4,500.00 ungraded.
Grading changes the math on this one: a PSA 10 is valued around $81,130.00, roughly 18.0x the raw price, while a PSA 9 sits near $13,429.90. 3,078 copies have been graded to date, and 4% of them came back a 10 — worth knowing before you pay grading fees.
These figures come from nightly market-data syncs verified against completed sales. Use the chart above to see the trend before you buy or sell.
