What Is an SIR Pokémon Card?
SIR stands for Special Illustration Rare. It is a modern rarity tier, marked by two gold stars in the bottom corner, and it covers alternate art versions of Pokémon ex or Supporter cards with full art foil illustrations.
It is the tier where most of the modern chase money sits. It is also the tier where the most money gets lost, for a reason worth understanding before you buy one.
How to identify a Special Illustration Rare
Check the rarity symbol in the bottom corner and count the stars, then check the colour.
| Symbol | Tier | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| ★ one gold star | Illustration Rare (IR) | Alt art of a Common, Uncommon, or Rare |
| ★★ two gold stars | Special Illustration Rare (SIR) | Alt art of an ex or Supporter |
| ★★★ three gold stars | Hyper Rare | Gold bordered, gilded full art |
| ★★ two solid black stars | Double Rare | Standard ex card |
| ★★ two shiny foil stars | Ultra Rare | Full art ex |
Two confusions are worth heading off.
IR versus SIR. One gold star versus two. An Illustration Rare is an alt art of an ordinary Pokémon, an SIR is an alt art of an ex or Supporter. The SIR is scarcer and generally the more valuable of the two.
SIR versus Ultra Rare. Both show two stars. Gold stars mean SIR. Shiny foil stars mean Ultra Rare. Different tiers, different pull rates, different prices, and mixing them up is a common way to overpay.
Visually, SIRs typically break the standard card frame: the artwork extends across the whole card, often showing the Pokémon in a scene with trainers or environment rather than posed against a background. That look is the fastest informal tell, though the stars are the actual answer. The full rarity ladder has every tier in both the modern and classic systems.
What SIRs are worth
The honest answer is a wide range, and the range is driven by one factor more than the tier itself.
Character demand decides it. An SIR of Charizard, Pikachu, Umbreon, Lugia, Mew, or another heavily collected Pokémon can command serious money. An SIR of a character nobody collects, from the same set, at the same rarity, printed the same number of times, is a nice card worth a modest amount.
This is the modern version of the oldest mistake in the hobby. Twenty years ago people assumed holo meant valuable. Today people assume two gold stars mean valuable. Both are the same error: treating a scarcity marker as a price.
Print runs are large. Modern sets are printed in quantities that dwarf vintage. An SIR is scarce relative to the rest of its own set, and that is genuinely what the tier means, but in absolute terms there are far more copies of a given SIR than of a 1999 Base Set holo. Scarcity within a set is not the same as scarcity in the world.
Prices move on hype cycles. SIRs from the current set are priced against attention, and attention moves. A card at its peak the week a set launches often settles considerably lower once the pull rate is understood and supply accumulates.
Grades matter, and they matter more here than people expect. Modern cards with large full art surfaces show handling easily, and the premium on a top grade over one grade below can be substantial. If you are buying an SIR as anything other than something to enjoy, buy it graded or accept that you carry the condition risk.
Are SIRs worth chasing?
Depends entirely on what you are doing.
Collecting a character or set you care about: yes, obviously. They are the best looking cards in the modern game and that is a real reason to own one.
Buying to hold: treat carefully. The demand is real but the print runs are large and the price history is short, so there is much less evidence to lean on than with vintage. Chase cards as an investment is the honest version of that conversation, including why the price you pay matters more than the card you pick.
Buying to flip: the marquee character SIRs are the most watched modern cards in the hobby, which means their prices are efficient and a big discount is more likely to signal a problem than an opportunity. The gaps in modern cards tend to sit on the second tier characters that nobody is refreshing hourly, in stores that priced a card at launch and never revisited it.
Opening packs to hit one: that is gambling with extra steps, and the maths favours the house. Buying the single you want is almost always cheaper than chasing it, for reasons the pack economics make plain.
Before you pay for one
- Confirm it is actually an SIR. Count the stars and check they are gold, not foil. Two foil stars is an Ultra Rare and prices differently.
- Identify the exact card and set. Character plus set plus card number. Alt arts of the same Pokémon exist across multiple sets at different values.
- Price it against the same grade. A raw SIR compared to PSA 10 sold results is not a comp. This is the most common way people convince themselves a listing is a bargain.
- Check recent sales, not asking prices, and look at the direction. Modern cards trend more sharply than vintage in both directions.
- Look hard at the surface on a raw copy. Full art cards show scratches and print lines that a compressed listing photo hides.
What yours is worth now walks through the pricing method properly. And if you are comparing tiers, reverse holo compared covers the other finish people mistake for a rarity.
Where the gaps actually are
Modern chase cards are the most efficiently priced part of the modern market, because everyone is looking at them the moment a set drops. That efficiency is exactly why a large discount on a marquee SIR deserves suspicion rather than excitement.
Real mispricing in modern cards concentrates where attention does not: second tier characters, sets that are no longer current, and independent storefronts that set a price at launch and never came back to adjust it while the comps moved.
FoilSide scans thousands of those independent Shopify storefronts continuously, which is the part eBay-based tools structurally cannot see. Every card gets priced against grade matched comps, so a CGC 9 is valued against CGC 9 sales rather than a blended average that folds in PSA 10 results and makes ordinary listings look like steals. What reaches the board shows its comp and its arithmetic, with a link to the comp so you can check the reasoning yourself.
FAQ
What does SIR mean on a Pokémon card? Special Illustration Rare. It is a modern rarity tier marked by two gold stars, covering alternate art versions of Pokémon ex and Supporter cards.
How do I know if my card is an SIR? Look at the rarity symbol in the bottom corner. Two gold stars means Special Illustration Rare. Two shiny foil stars means Ultra Rare, which is a different and usually less valuable tier.
What is the difference between IR and SIR? An Illustration Rare has one gold star and is an alternate art of a Common, Uncommon, or Rare Pokémon. A Special Illustration Rare has two gold stars and is an alternate art of an ex or Supporter. SIRs are scarcer.
Are SIR cards valuable? Some are worth a great deal and some are worth very little, and the deciding factor is character demand rather than the tier. An SIR of a heavily collected Pokémon commands real money. An SIR of an unpopular one, from the same set at the same rarity, does not.
Is an SIR rarer than a Hyper Rare? Hyper Rare (three gold stars) is the top listed tier, but SIRs frequently sell for more because the artwork and the characters drive more demand. Listed tier and market price are not the same ranking.
Should I get my SIR graded? Only if the gap between the raw price and the graded price at the grade you realistically expect clearly beats the fees and shipping both ways. Full art surfaces show handling easily, so be honest about the condition before you submit.
Related: the full rarity chart, reverse holo explained, and chase cards as an investment.
Has collected Pokémon cards for over 20 years and handled more than 10,000 of them. A marketing professional by trade, he writes FoilSide's identification and valuation guides, covering print runs, rarity tiers, grading economics, and counterfeit detection.