Every Rainbow Charizard Card: Price History & Where to Pull One

There are exactly five canonical English Charizard Rainbow Rare cards across the Pokémon TCG's six-year rainbow era — the August 4, 2017 Burning Shadows Charizard-GX 150/147, the May 3, 2019 Unbroken Bonds Reshiram & Charizard-GX tag team 217/214, the November 1, 2019 Cosmic Eclipse Charizard & Braixen-GX tag team 250/236, the September 25, 2020 Champion's Path Charizard VMAX 074/073, and the February 25, 2022 Brilliant Stars Charizard VSTAR 174/172. The rainbow rarity tier ended when Scarlet & Violet launched on March 31, 2023, and TPCi replaced rainbow with the Special Illustration Rare (SIR) and gold-etched Hyper Rare slots — so if you came here searching rainbow charizard ex, the modern equivalents live in a different rarity tier entirely.

Search rainbow charizard in 2026 and you get an AI Overview, three shopping carousels stuffed with gold-metal novelty cards and Etsy proxies, two stale TheGamer articles from 2020 and 2022 that miss two of the five rainbows, and exactly one editorial guide that lineages every English Charizard rainbow with sourced PSA 10 price history: this one. PullMarket — operated by SKYCOAST CAPITAL LLC — runs the lineage chronologically, sources every price comp, and is direct about which rainbow to chase.

Part of: Complete Pokémon Cards Guide — the pillar overview of every era from 1999 WOTC to the 2025 Mega Evolution Pokémon TCG.

The Five Charizard Rainbow Rares, Side by Side

A Charizard Rainbow Rare card is a rainbow-holofoil treatment applied on top of the normal-color Charizard art — orange Charizard, rainbow gradient texture — and five of them were printed in English between Burning Shadows (Aug 2017) and Brilliant Stars (Feb 2022). The fastest way to make sense of the lineage is one row per print. Set codes and English release dates are cross-referenced against Bulbapedia and the matching set's pokemon.com product page; PSA 10 ranges anchor to PSA Auction Prices Realized, Card Ladder, and PriceCharting.

The rainbow tier ended in March 2023 when Scarlet & Violet replaced it with the SIR and Hyper Rare slots — see H2 8 below if you're searching for a "Rainbow Charizard ex" or wondering why no 2024–2026 rainbow exists.

Burning Shadows Charizard-GX 150/147 (Aug 4, 2017): The First

The Burning Shadows Charizard-GX 150/147 released on August 4, 2017 as the first English Charizard Rainbow Rare and the grail of the modern-era rainbow lineage. It sits in the secret-rare slot at number 150 above the set's 147-card listed total, with artwork by 5ban Graphics, and was originally printed in the Japanese subset "To Have Seen the Battle Rainbow" before localizing into the English Burning Shadows set per Bulbapedia. One honesty note: rainbow rares as a mechanic debuted in Sun & Moon Base Set (February 2017) per Bleeding Cool's Holographic History of the Rainbow Rare — Burning Shadows was the first set with a Charizard rainbow, not the first set with a rainbow rare ever. Same orange Charizard art the Burning Shadows GX 20/147 uses, rainbow-gradient holofoil layered over it.

• Set: SM03 Burning Shadows (Sun & Moon era, third main set)
• Release: August 4, 2017 English, originally from Japan's "To Have Seen the Battle Rainbow" subset
• Card number: 150/147 (secret rare slot above the 147-card set total)
• Artist: 5ban Graphics
• Rarity label: Rare Rainbow GX — note that PSA's slab label reads "Hyper Rare," a community synonym for Rainbow Rare in the S&M / S&S era (see H2 7)
• PSA 10 trajectory: ~$410 in October 2022 (per the Sports Collectors Daily hobby press coverage of that period) → ~$1,500 in 2023 → ~$2,500 in March 2024 (Elite Fourum community sales context) → holding $2,000–$2,500 through 2026 — verify the latest comps on PriceCharting's Burning Shadows GX 150 page and PSA Auction Prices Realized before paying
• Raw NM: $250–$400; PSA 9 in the $700–$1,000 range; the PSA 9 → PSA 10 spread is the textbook 3–4x on this card

The Burning Shadows GX is the only Charizard rainbow rare in four-figure PSA 10 territory and the chronological anchor of the entire lineage — every card below releases after it. For the wider Sun & Moon 2017 era context across all Charizard prints, the Charizard Pokémon card guide is the lineage pillar this article hangs off. Hunting a graded Burning Shadows GX 150 or want the rip experience instead? Find a rainbow Charizard in a PullMarket Pokémon pack → — every pack publishes its odds before purchase.

Unbroken Bonds Reshiram & Charizard-GX 217/214 (May 3, 2019): The First Tag-Team Rainbow

The Reshiram & Charizard-GX tag-team rainbow released on May 3, 2019 inside Unbroken Bonds as the first English Charizard Rainbow Rare in tag-team format — pairing Reshiram and Charizard on a single card with a shared GX attack. It sits in the secret-rare slot at number 217 above the set's 214-card listed total. Tag Team GX was a Sun & Moon-era mechanic that put two Pokémon on one card; this print is the Charizard slice of that mechanic in the rainbow tier. A common point of confusion: Reshiram & Charizard-GX also has a non-rainbow gold version (TG30/TG30) from the 2023 Crown Zenith Trainer Gallery subset — different card, different rarity, different price tier. Don't conflate them.

• Set: SM10 Unbroken Bonds (Sun & Moon era, tag-team-themed set)
• Release: May 3, 2019 English
• Card number: 217/214 (secret rare slot above the 214-card set total)
• Rarity: Rare Rainbow Tag Team GX
• Don't confuse with: Reshiram & Charizard-GX TG30/TG30 in Crown Zenith (2023) — that's a non-rainbow gold print in the Trainer Gallery subset
• PSA 10 values: typical $150–$300 range across 2025–2026 per PriceCharting and Card Ladder; raw NM $40–$90 — the mid-tier of the five rainbows

The Unbroken Bonds tag-team is the cheapest doorway into a rainbow Charizard slab that still carries the headline "Charizard" name (the Cosmic Eclipse tag-team below splits the headline with Braixen). Hunting a tag-team rainbow? Open a Pokémon pack on PullMarket — see the published odds →.

Cosmic Eclipse Charizard & Braixen-GX 250/236 (Nov 1, 2019): The Second Tag-Team Rainbow

The Charizard & Braixen-GX tag-team rainbow released on November 1, 2019 inside Cosmic Eclipse as the second English Charizard Tag Team Rainbow Rare and the final Sun & Moon-era Charizard rainbow. It sits in the secret-rare slot at number 250 above the set's 236-card listed total. Cosmic Eclipse was the closing set of the SM block, released right before the Sword & Shield transition — and the Charizard & Braixen pairing is less collector-iconic than the Reshiram tag-team because Braixen isn't a flagship draw, which keeps the price band the lowest of all five rainbow Charizards. This is the budget entry into the rainbow rare tier.

• Set: SM12 Cosmic Eclipse (Sun & Moon era, final SM-era set)
• Release: November 1, 2019 English
• Card number: 250/236 (secret rare slot above the 236-card set total)
• Rarity: Rare Rainbow Tag Team GX
• PSA 10 values: typical $80–$150 across 2025–2026 per PriceCharting; raw NM $20–$50 — the cheapest of the five canonical rainbows
• Why it's the budget rainbow: Braixen isn't a marquee Pokémon, the Cosmic Eclipse rainbow class as a whole sits below comparable Unbroken Bonds rainbows, and the supply on this card sustains the lower price band

If a sub-$200 PSA 10 rainbow Charizard slab is what you want, this is the only one in the lineage that currently fits the band. For the rip path, open a Pokémon pack on PullMarket — odds are published before purchase →.

Champion's Path Charizard VMAX 074/073 (Sep 25, 2020): The COVID Hype Card

The Champion's Path Charizard VMAX 074/073 released on September 25, 2020 as the rainbow rare almost everyone in the hobby names first when they hear "rainbow Charizard" — the COVID-lockdown release that dragged the Pokémon TCG into mainstream collector attention. It sits in the secret-rare slot at number 074 above the set's 73-card listed total (the leading zero is convention-dependent — both 074/073 and 74/73 reference the same card; this guide uses 074/073 throughout). The set itself — SWSH 3.5 Champion's Path — was a Sword & Shield mini-set sold only as an Elite Trainer Box and ETB-style product, never as standard booster boxes, which compressed supply and amplified the demand spike when Walmart sellouts, Logan Paul's 2020 Pokémon moment, and pandemic-era boredom converged on this single card.

• Set: SWSH 3.5 Champion's Path (Sword & Shield era, mini-set; ETB-exclusive product, no standard booster boxes)
• Release: September 25, 2020 English
• Card number: 074/073 (secret rare slot above the 73-card set total; styled either 074/073 or 74/73 — both reference the same card)
• Rarity: Rare Rainbow VMAX
• PSA 10 price history: $700+ at Sep–Dec 2020 peak → $1,000+ at the 2021 hype peak → $400–$600 correction through 2022–2023 → $250–$380 stabilization across 2024–2025 → January 2025 eBay sales clustered $255–$432 → late-2025 sales clustered $280–$320 → currently ~$280–$320 early 2026; verify on PSA Auction Prices Realized and PriceCharting before paying
• Raw NM: $80–$150 across 2026; PSA 9 typically sub-$200
• Sealed product context: Champion's Path ETBs sustained $200+ resealed pricing for years after exit, with Sports Collectors Daily covering the 2020–2021 sealed-product spike across the broader Pokémon TCG market

The Champion's Path VMAX is the rainbow Charizard cluster's single most-searched card (rainbow charizard vmax runs ~2,300 monthly searches in the US per Ahrefs) and the most volatile of the five — losing roughly two-thirds of its 2021 PSA 10 peak before stabilizing. For the wider VMAX mechanic across all colors — pull rates, the SWSH-era VMAX class, the Shining Fates shiny VMAX comparison — see the dedicated Charizard VMAX guide. Hunting a Champion's Path rainbow? Land a Charizard VMAX in a PullMarket Pokémon pack →.

Brilliant Stars Charizard VSTAR 174/172 (Feb 25, 2022): The Last Major Rainbow

The Brilliant Stars Charizard VSTAR 174/172 released on February 25, 2022 as the last major English Charizard Rainbow Rare before TPCi retired the rarity tier entirely. It sits in the secret-rare slot at number 174 above the set's 172-card listed total. VSTAR was the Sword & Shield-era successor to VMAX — a single-Pokémon stage with a VSTAR Power ability — and Brilliant Stars was the set built around that mechanic. Important disambiguation: Brilliant Stars also ships Charizard VSTAR 215/172, a Trainer Gallery alt-art print, which is NOT a rainbow rare — it's a separate alt-art rarity tier at a different price band. If you're looking at a Charizard VSTAR from Brilliant Stars and the art is a stylized alternate scene (not the standard battle art with rainbow holofoil), it's the 215 alt-art, not the 174 rainbow.

• Set: SWSH 9 Brilliant Stars (Sword & Shield era, VSTAR-focused)
• Release: February 25, 2022 English
• Card number: 174/172 (secret rare slot above the 172-card set total)
• Rarity: Rare Rainbow VSTAR
• Don't confuse with: Charizard VSTAR 215/172 in the same set — that's the Trainer Gallery alt-art, not a rainbow rare
• PSA 10 values: typical $150–$280 across 2025–2026 per PriceCharting and Card Ladder; raw NM $40–$80 — the modern collector chase
• Why it's the "last": Pokémon GO (July 2022), Lost Origin (September 2022), Silver Tempest (November 2022), and Crown Zenith (January 2023) shipped no English Charizard rainbow rares; Brilliant Stars is the chronological end of the lineage

Brilliant Stars sits in the modern collector chase band — cleaner art than the SM-era tag teams, a recognizable VSTAR mechanic, and a price floor that hasn't slipped much through 2026. Find a Brilliant Stars rainbow in a PullMarket Pokémon pack — see the published odds →.

Rainbow Rare vs Shiny vs "Hyper Rare" vs Proxy: The Four-Way Disambiguation

Three terminology confusions dominate the rainbow-Charizard SERP, and the article that sorts them out wins on the head term. Rainbow rare is a holofoil texture applied over the standard-color Charizard art; shiny is an alt-color treatment where Charizard's scales literally change color; "Hyper Rare" carries two different meanings depending on which TCG era you're in; and the gold-metal "rainbow Charizard" cards flooding Amazon and Etsy are not official Pokémon Company prints at all. Three callouts settle each pitfall.

Why There's No "Rainbow Charizard ex" — The End of the Rainbow Tier (March 2023)

There is no Scarlet & Violet-era Charizard Rainbow Rare. When Scarlet & Violet launched on March 31, 2023, TPCi retired the rainbow holofoil treatment entirely and replaced the rainbow tier with two new top-tier slots — the Special Illustration Rare (SIR) for the borderless full-art storytelling card and the modern gold-etched Hyper Rare for the secret-rare slot. The five Charizard rainbows in the lineage above (2017–2022) are the complete English print run; nothing rainbow has been issued for any Charizard since Brilliant Stars in February 2022.

How to Identify Which Rainbow Charizard You Have

If you've pulled, inherited, or are eyeing a rainbow Charizard slab and aren't sure which print it is, the identification path is solvable in five steps:

1. Read the card name. "Charizard-GX" with rainbow holo = either Burning Shadows 150 (solo Charizard) or one of the two tag teams (Reshiram & Charizard / Charizard & Braixen). "Charizard VMAX" with rainbow holo = Champion's Path 074. "Charizard VSTAR" with rainbow holo = Brilliant Stars 174 (the 215 alt-art is a different card and is not a rainbow rare).
2. Find the set symbol. Bottom-right of the art on every card. Burning Shadows uses the sun-and-moon-era flame emblem; Unbroken Bonds uses a chain-link emblem; Cosmic Eclipse uses a galaxy emblem; Champion's Path uses a trophy-cup emblem; Brilliant Stars uses a star-burst emblem.
3. Check the card number against the lineage table in H2 1 above. The five canonical numbers — 150/147, 217/214, 250/236, 074/073, 174/172 — map every English Charizard rainbow. Anything not in that table is either a non-rainbow Charizard print, a Japanese-only rainbow, or the gold-metal / proxy novelty discussed in H2 7.
4. Confirm the rainbow holofoil treatment. Full-card rainbow-gradient texture layered over standard-orange Charizard art. If the foil is gold (not rainbow), it's a different tier — either a modern S&V gold Hyper Rare (see H2 8), a Trainer Gallery gold like the Crown Zenith Reshiram & Charizard TG30, or a metal-plated novelty. If the Charizard's scales are non-standard color (black, navy, dark grey-blue, gold-toned), it's a shiny — see the shiny Charizard guide.
5. Verify the slab cert. Every authentic PSA, CGC, or SGC slab carries a printed cert number that resolves directly on the grader's website — PSA cert lookup, CGC cert lookup, SGC cert lookup. If a seller can't produce a working cert lookup, walk away. Also check the back of the card in the listing photos — proxies and metal novelties typically have warped or non-Pokémon-standard backs. That cert-lookup workflow is the verification of last resort, and the same workflow PullMarket uses on every slab it sources, per the trust & safety page.

What Each Rainbow Charizard Is Worth (Honest Values, 2026)

The five canonical rainbow Charizards sit on a clear five-tier price ladder, and the right card to chase depends on which tier of the ladder fits the collector. Each tier below cites the per-card range, the raw-NM context, and the linked source to verify before paying.

Vintage of the modern era — Burning Shadows GX 150/147 (Aug 4, 2017): PSA 10 ~$2,000–$2,500 typical 2025–2026 per PSA Auction Prices Realized and Elite Fourum community sales context; peaked ~$2,500 in March 2024. PSA 9 ~$700–$1,000. Raw NM $250–$400. PSA 9 → PSA 10 spread: 3–4x; the grail of the lineage.

The COVID hype card — Champion's Path VMAX 074/073 (Sep 25, 2020): PSA 10 ~$250–$380 typical 2026 (down from ~$1,000+ at the 2021 hype peak); January 2025 sales ranged $255–$432; late-2025 clustered $280–$320 per PSA Auction Prices Realized and eBay completed sales. Raw NM $80–$150. The most volatile of the five; the COVID-era pricing peak isn't likely to return.

Modern collector chase — Brilliant Stars VSTAR 174/172 (Feb 25, 2022): PSA 10 ~$150–$280 typical 2025–2026 per PriceCharting and Card Ladder. Raw NM $40–$80. Clean art, modern VSTAR mechanic, stable floor.

Tag-team mid-tier — Unbroken Bonds Reshiram & Charizard-GX 217/214 (May 3, 2019): PSA 10 ~$150–$300 typical per PriceCharting. Raw NM $40–$90. The first tag-team rainbow; mid-tier; pair with the Cosmic Eclipse tag team for the full tag-team rainbow set.

Budget rainbow — Cosmic Eclipse Charizard & Braixen-GX 250/236 (Nov 1, 2019): PSA 10 ~$80–$150 typical per PriceCharting. Raw NM $20–$50. The cheapest of the five; the only sub-$200 PSA 10 rainbow Charizard in the lineage.

Grading economics across all five: PSA Standard service runs $15–$25 per card plus shipping at current public tiers (live pricing on psacard.com). On the Burning Shadows GX, the PSA 9 → PSA 10 spread is wide enough that even raw NM copies can pencil for grading submission; on the four other rainbows, PSA 9 grades typically don't clear grading cost — PSA 10 is the grading bet, and centering / surface / corners / edges decide the actual return. Every figure above is a starting point — re-verify the linked comps before paying.

Which Rainbow Charizard Should You Chase?

The buyer's decision frame is a five-question fork. Each row maps a collector goal to the right rainbow Charizard and the reason that print fits the goal:

A note for buyers across all five tiers: the values listed throughout this guide move weekly, the PSA 9 → PSA 10 spread is the single biggest variable on grading-submission ROI, and chasing any of these prints in 2026 is best done with live comps open in another tab. PullMarket isn't an investment platform — the product is collecting real, third-party-graded slabs, and PullMarket Gems is store credit, not cash.

Buy a Graded Rainbow, Open Sealed, or Rip a Pokémon Pack on PullMarket?

Three legitimate paths exist for any collector who wants a rainbow Charizard in-hand — and the right one depends on what experience you're actually buying:

A short, plain note on the third path: PullMarket runs a hybrid fulfillment model — every pulled card is a real third-party-graded slab, some held in PullMarket custody and some reserved against verified supplier and partner-vault inventory per Terms §5.5. PullMarket Gems is store credit and explicitly not cashable. PullMarket isn't a sweepstakes, lottery, or wagering product — the product is collecting and ripping real graded cards with the odds disclosed before purchase. The full operating model is on the trust & safety page; the rip → decide → vault / ship / sell-back flow is on how PullMarket works.

Closing: The Five-Card Rainbow Lineage in One Frame

There are five canonical English Charizard Rainbow Rare cards across the Pokémon TCG's six-year rainbow era — the August 2017 Burning Shadows GX 150/147, the May 2019 Unbroken Bonds Reshiram & Charizard-GX 217/214, the November 2019 Cosmic Eclipse Charizard & Braixen-GX 250/236, the September 2020 Champion's Path VMAX 074/073, and the February 2022 Brilliant Stars VSTAR 174/172. The tier ended in March 2023 when Scarlet & Violet replaced rainbow with the SIR and gold-etched Hyper Rare slots. Pick the era and tier you want, identify the print you actually have, and chase the specific slab you actually need. The five-card table at the top of this guide is the map; the pillar guide and the sibling deep-dives (VMAX, shiny, ex) are the field guides for adjacent rarity tiers; and the three buying paths — graded single, sealed Champion's Path / Burning Shadows product, or a Pokémon-curated rip on PullMarket — are mapped in H2 12 above.