The most common way to organize Pokemon cards is by set. To identify the set, look for a little symbol at the bottom of the card, next to the card number. There are a bunch of these set symbols… 5-6 sets are released every year, each with a different set symbol, and they’ve been printing cards since 1999!
The following table is a complete list of Pokemon card sets, sorted by date… the newest sets are at the top… the oldest are at the bottom. If I missed something, let me know if the comments! I want this to be THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR POKEMON CARD SETS!
McDonald’s Pokemon Cards
| McDonald’s 2022 | © 2022 |  |
| McDonald’s 2021 | © 2021 |  |
| McDonald’s 2019 | © 2019 |  |
| McDonald’s 2018 | © 2018 |  |
| McDonald’s 2017 | © 2017 |  |
| McDonald’s 2016 | © 2016 |  |
| McDonald’s 2015 | © 2015 |  |
| McDonald’s 2014 | © 2014 |  |
| McDonald’s 2013 | © 2013 |  |
| McDonald’s 2012 | © 2012 |  |
| McDonald’s 2011 | © 2011 |  |
Do we have something missing or wrong? How could we improve this reference? Please let us know in the comments so we can make this the best possible guide for Pokemon card sets!
Good info. This helped me narrow down that a misprint card I have is fake. But it worries me that all my cards have always come from booster packs. So a lot of my cards could be fake. Damn shady comic book stores.
If the cards came from real booster packs then the cards should be genuine… unless it was a fake pack of Pokemon cards… I’ve never seen that before. I’ve just seen reprints of high dollar cards sold online (usually, but not always, marked as “reprint”). All the cards I’ve collected have come from booster packs… I don’t buy individual cards because I’m not that serious about collecting/playing specific cards. I make due with what I get from the packs.
I have this 1999 trainer card with a little meda symbol on it. Came here to see what it meant but cant see it anywhere. Any idea? Thanks in advance
Matthew – It’s hard for me to say without seeing the symbol. Cards from 1999 can be valuable… especially if it’s a Pikachu Trainer No. 1, 2, or 3… these were given out at the winners of the Pokemon World Championships… they fetch 10’s of thousands of dollars! But those cards have a Poke Ball symbol… and that doesn’t sound like the media symbol you describe. It could be a Snap Pikachu Trainer card, that set has a camera symbol, it’s in Japanese so not sure if that’s it. The Snap cards are from 1999 release of the Snap 64 Nintendo game. Players could take snapshots in the game and compete to get their snapshot printed on real Pokemon card with credit to the player that snapped it. I’d have to see a picture of the card to tell you more.
Sad as it may be there are plenty of fake packs out there. Including all the way up till around 2010-2011. I have tons of fake cards from that set time and just like you he’ll had there’s always been fake cards with fake packs they even the store passes off as real because they are unsure at the time and especially getting Shady vendors to know what’s real or not. They just care about the money until lately with people being so specific and threatening everybody. If you look on wish or even online for cheap cheap packs then you can find fakes left and right. Though they are cracked down more on Amazon eBay etc for people scamming than they used to be
You have to add the new set, Unbroken Bonds to the list of symbols
Hopefully you noticed I posted the Unbroken Bonds set! Sorry if I was a late a few days!
Any chance of updating this through to forbidden light? It’s one of the most concise references to set symbols around and it would be great if it could be updated for the laat 5 or so sets!
I just updated it! Sorry for the delay… I’ll try to stay on top of these when new sets are released.
Where are:
Crimson Invasion
Burning Shadows
Ultra Prism and
Forbidden light
Thanks Richard, I just added them!
Where are the black and white promos
Alex, are you referring to the Nintendo Black Star Promos or Wizards Black Star Promos? Or maybe some other year… they use the same black star promo symbol for many Pokemon series promos, so look at the copyright year and you’ll be able to figure out what series it came from. Good luck!
I believe the promos he is talking about are the Black and White promos that came out in 2011 through 2012 with tepig zoroark reshiram etc. i had the same question lol
I had same question but I found them if you scroll to bottom of page there’s a list of all sets a few aren’t at the top in order. Probably just a small coding error. But they have them at the bottom in the list.
Hey, does this website still get updated, wondered if it was possible to get the latest versions?
Done! Thanks for letting me know.
It’s good, just needs updating up to forbidden light.
I added a bunch of new set symbols for the 2018 sets… I’ll try to keep it up to date. Thanks for the heads up Mal!
Where is furious fists?
It should be there… here is the link to the set: https://cardmavin.com/pokemon/xy/furious-fists-set-list
Since you included Dragon Vault, Double Crisis, and the Kalos Starter Set
Where’s Southern Islands, the Pokemon Rumble set, and the POP series?
They’re coming! Each set takes me a few hours to put together. I’m slowly making my way through the remaining Pokemon sets.
Anyone have a ballpark on a 1999 1st edition holo rare machamp mint condition by Ken sugimori
Try searching for something like this “Machamp Base Set 1st Edition 8/102 Holo“.
Everyone got a 1st edition machamp. I was gutted too
You can find 1st edition Machamp for a few bucks… depends on if you want a well played card or something graded in good condition. Good luck!
Do you know where I could find the set symbol for lost thunder? (The newest set)
Posted it!
this is fantastic adding these to each file of cards as a means of showing each set off with the identifying symbol. this is truly great thankyou
I really like this site! I’ve definitely bookmarked it!
Any idea if/when you’ll update the original black star promo cards (‘99-‘03)?
Doug, I’ve been adding a lot of sets lately. I added the Nintendo Black Star Promos and the Wizards Black Star Promos. If you notice other sets I”m missing or have any feedback to make this Pokemon resource better, let me know! I really appreciate your feedback!
There are the McDonalds and other special sets?
Sean, Thanks for letting me know about the McDonald’s sets. I recently added them… you can find them here: https://cardmavin.com/category/pokemon/mcdonalds
Great reference, thanks for keeping this updated as time permits! Really useful for me as a novice player who bought a bunch of random expansion packs and didn’t know how to tell which card was from what expansion!
Where’s neo genesis expansion sets
D3rp… here is a link to all the Neo Genesis series sets.
What is A on some of the cards
Are you referring to a little yellow “A” symbol at the bottom of the card? If so, these are “alternate artwork” cards… they are reprints of older cards with new artwork. Usually they also have a card number that involves an “a”… like “55a/111”. Hope that solves the mystery for you!
Does anyone know who buys cards, as ones I have were never used. Taken out of pack and put into sleeves.
thank you,
Dawn
You have some options… you can look them up on mavin.io and see what they’re worth. If they’re worth a lot of money you might try to sell them individually on eBay. If you have a big box of mostly worthless cards you could sell they whole lot of them on eBay. Anyway, you can find more info about what to do with your cards (including tips on selling them) in this article. You could also try to sell them on Craigslist or Facebook. Good luck!
Hey, could you please add TeamUp?
Done! I also added the rarity symbols and all the secret rare cards. Thanks for the heads up!
Southern Islands still missing only one I can think of.
Jared, I just added the Southern Islands set symbol to the table and a page with a complete list of cards in the Southern Islands set. Thanks for letting me know!
Why isn’t there a section for Black and White promos?
There is! You can find it here: https://cardmavin.com/pokemon/black-white/black-white-promo-set-list
Where is the “Pokemon Unbroken Bonds” set?
It’s posted! Check it out here: Unbroken Bonds Set List
Will you be adding sets like the Trainer Kits and the POP series?
Within the past week I added all 9 POP series sets and a few promo sets… I might be missing a few trainer sets though… what am I missing?
Hi Andrew,
First of all thanks for all of the information on this page. I might have missed it but do you have the EX Trainer Kit 2 Player Starter Set with Latias Latios listed? I think that might be one your missing?
Many thanks :)
Sarah – Thanks for the heads up about the missing Trainer Kits. I recently added them… including the EX Trainer Kit 2 featuring Plusle and Minun. I believe it’s the first EX Trainer Kit that contains Latias and Latios half decks.
I think you might be missing the Latias and Latios Kalos set.
Thanks for the heads up about the missing Pokemon sets… I recently added all the trainer sets… There’s the EX Trainer Kit with Latias and Latios… and the XY Trainer Set with Latias and Latios… I also added the Kalos Starter set recently. Let me know if I’m still missing a set!
Thanks!
I have a guardian rising card. Letter (white) A in black circle 19a/145 common Alolan Sandshrew. I can’t see to find it? Any ideas?
I would start by typing in something like “Alolan Sandshrew 19a/145” into Mavin.io and then pick out some comparables that are just like yours (holo, non-holo… white “a” etc.) to get an accurate price of what they’ve sold for recently.
Does anyone know what set has the latias and Latios symbol at the bottom? It’s from 2004
Tyler – It’s probably the EX Trainer Kit with Latias and Latios… copyright 2004. I just posed the set list here.
I’m trying to organize my cards by set…found i had two sets of cards and im not sure if they’re fake? (neither listed here) One has a set symbol of a yellow Pikachu (30 card set) and one has a symbol of a blue suicune (30 card set). Anyone know what these cards are? Fakes?
TadaKiba… I did recently add the XY Trainer Kit with Pikachu Libre and Suicune half decks… I’ll bet that’s what you’re referring to. Definitely not fake… just a set I was missing until last week! Thanks for letting know!
I miss the Southern Islands Set ? Otherwise great resource thank you.
Wim, good catch! Thank you for letting me know. I spent some time this afternoon adding this set… it’s only 18 cards. Here’s a link to all the cards in the Southern Island set.
Yo, Andrew. The “EX Trainer Kit” isn’t a part of the list, and it has a couple special symbols. I don’t know if it’s left out intentionally, but I found some cards with their odd blue and red card set symbols and just thought I should make note of that. It seems most of these cards are just re-prints of other sets, but the symbol is unique. Here’s the source of info if any of you want to take a look.
It seems the set had been comprised of two half-decks of Latias and Latios. https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EX_Trainer_Kit_(TCG)
CommanderKohai… you’re right! I need to add the Trainer Deck sets and symbols… they’re unique so I should add them to the list. Thanks for the heads up!
No problemo. :)
Where did all the pop series and the updates you added?
Stephen, there are links in the Pokemon menu… or go to this page, it lists all the POP sets: https://cardmavin.com/category/pokemon/pop
Plasma Storm was in 2012
You are correct! The Plasma Storm set was released in February of 2013… but the copyright on the card is 2012. I updated the Pokemon sets table with the copyright symbol and updated the dates to reflect the copyright date, not the year the set was released. Good catch… and thank you!
Hi. Thanks for the info. Its been a great help organizing some cards. However i have a bunch that don’t match the symbols you’ve provided for the dates they were published. I found a couple that match different sets with different symbols. Does this mean that the cards i have are fake? Or is it possible you’ve missed some? They all came from legit booster packs.
Ryan – I just added a bunch of trainer sets… those set symbols tend to have color… as opposed to black/white set symbol for a regular expansion set. Let me know if it’s still on the list of set symbols and I’ll add it.
there is a set missing, i have a card for it, and the symbol looks like a latias facing forward, it’s red, the copyright year is 2015, and there are 30 cards (i think, because mine says 14/30).
and it’s not the EX trainer kit i don’t think…
Hey thanks for the heads up! I just added all the Pokemon Trainer sets… for example here’s the XY Trainer Kit with Latias and Latios half decks from 2015… and the much older EX Trainer Deck with Latias and Latios from 2004. Again thanks for the reminder to add these trainer sets!
no problem! :)
also can you add the search bar for the sets back? i really liked that, it made things a lot easier.
Hey Justbrix… Thanks for your feedback! I got rid of the search box when I added the divider rows with the name of the series. These rows mess up the sorting and filtering so I had to remove them. I figured people could do CTRL+F to search the page… but I guess that doesn’t work so well on mobile or when you’re trying to filter the list down eh? I’ll try to figure out how to add the search box back AND keep the divider rows. Again, thanks for helping me make this better!
Is this all the sets now? How many more need to be added?
Hey Stephen… thanks for your comment. I’ve been adding a bunch of sets lately… all the trainer sets, POP sets, McDonald’s sets, etc. I even added Unified Minds… the set latest set that’s yet to be released. Let me know if I’m missing any and I’ll add them.
This is very useful! Seems like the Pokemon website would have this accessible by now, but luckily we have a resource like this. Keep it up!
This site has been a lifesaver helping me organize my collection dating back to original series base set!! Thank you so much! I was wondering if you had an ETA on putting Unified Minds up… I know it’s brand new and take your time, I was just curious. Again, excellent job and thanks!
Hey Adam – thanks for your encouraging words… glad this site helps you organize your Pokemon sets. The Unified Minds set is posted… sorry for the delay!
This was very helpful to use to sort out my cards into sets while getting ready to sell them! Do you possibly know any websites that would be the best to sell individual cards on? Going to be using eBay and possibly Etsy, but was curious about other websites I could post the listing to.
It’s best to only sell the high value cards individually… it’s probably not worth your time to create a listing, respond to buyers, and ship the item if the card is only worth a few bucks. My suggestion would be to sell the high value cards individually… then sell groups of cards as “lots”… for example, package up all the rare/holo cards and sell them as a lot… or sell all the cards from one set as a lot. Good luck!
Thank you so much Andrew…without this site I would of just put my Sons old card collections back in the cupboard. I knew nothing about Pokémon cards 4 months ago, but now have manage to make up sets and have learnt so much, it’s taken hrs but have enjoyed every minute..well done and thanks again
Hey thanks! I’m in the same boat… my son got into Pokemon cards… we’ve had a lot of fun organizing them and looking up values.
I believe your missing black and white promos. If you could add then it would be awesome
Jacob – I posted the Black and White promo set here… am I missing some cards?
Thank you
The new Cosmic Eclipse is not on your list.
Did you intend to leave it off until it is legal play?
Hi Finn, I just posted Cosmic Eclipse. Thanks for the heads up!
Any updates for Cosmic Eclipse??
I just posted it! Sorry for the delay!
Are you going to update to the Cosmic Eclipse set list and symbol soon?
Hi Ryan, I just posted the Cosmic Eclipse set, you can find it here: https://cardmavin.com/pokemon/sun-moon/cosmic-eclipse-set-list
Can’t seem to see 2019 McDonald’s and also the best of game set logos
Sorry about that… I was a bit lazy getting the latest McDonald’s set posted. I should have posted it back in October when it came out. I just posted it a few days ago here: 2019 McDonald’s Pokemon Set
I got back into Pokémon last year for the first time since I gave it up in 2001. (I thought I was “too old” for by the age of 12… Well, this year I turn 31, and just look at me now! Haha) I am very particular about having my cards in the right order, and this page was a huge help to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to create this!
Hi, just wondering how assembling the Sword and Shield promo cards is coming, any chance you have the prices posted but not the cards themselves yet?
How about the Sword and Shield promo set? I notice xy and sun and moon both have there promo lists up!
Matt… you’re right… I’m missing this set. I’ll post it soon, thanks for letting me know!
Sun & Moon was released in late 2016.
You are correct! They started releasing Sun & Moon Promos in 2016… I mistakenly had 2017 as the start date. It was also showing 2019 as the end date, and I know they were adding Promo cards into 2020. I updated the end date too. When I reviewed the Sun & Moon Promo checklist, I noticed it’s missing some cards, and their many variations… so I’ve added it to my to-do list to update and fill in the missing cards. Thanks a lot for letting me know, I appreciate it!
Thank you SO much for this!
I am on this site daily, and I really appreciate how much work you have put into keeping this updated!
This has been a HUGE resource for me and I cannot wait for the Chilling Reign set to be posted. Thanks for all that you do!
First of all – just want to say this is AMAZING. It’s helped me organize my collection so much. Thank you for all of your hard work and effort!
One issue I’m encountering – The “Darkness Ablaze” link is taking me to the Rebel Clash set.
Hey Kyle… thank you for letting me know! I fixed it… should be all set now!
Time for you to update it for Chilling Reign!!!
April… Done! And it was posted more than a week before the official set release date! This is based on my best intel… I’ll be updating the set checklist if things change. Thanks for the heads up!
Just wondering if you will be doing Fusion Strike and Brilliant Diamond together? I cannot find the set symbol for Fusion strike anywhere else and your list is always my go to. Thanks for everything you do!
Hey just wondering when you will be updating silver tempest. I can not find the card symbol anywhere. Thanks you for everything you do! It helps so much
Sara, I recently posted the Silver Tempest set list and set symbol… you can find it here.
The link on this page for Brilliant Stars is broken. It shows the link as /pokemon/sword-shield/brilliant-stars-set-list when the page is actually at /pokemon/sword-shield/brilliant-stars
Fixed it! Thanks Mike!
I’m not sure if this website gets updated often, but I recently started collecting and some of my cards aren’t on any of the lists. I looked them up on the Pokémon website and they say they are from the set Sword and Shield Silver Tempest. Think you can point me to that list if I just missed it on here?
I updated the list with the latest sets… should be up to date now. Thanks for letting me know!
Hi,I was sorting out my Pokémon cards and I found a card that looked like it could be worth something,so I looked at your guide and found that the symbol wasn’t there.I can’t remember where I got it…The symbol kind of looks like a open book and a weird U coming out. Thank you, MJ.
MJ, this list is up to date and fairly complete for Pokemon cards in English. Based on your description of the “open book with a weird U”… could it be the Roaring Skies set?