Japanese card rarities explained

Japanese cards print their rarity as letters in the bottom corner. Here's what each code means for Pokémon and One Piece — and why the same card number can be worth €1 or €1,000 depending on its version.

Pokémon

Scarlet & Violet and Mega era (2023 – today)

Code	Name	What it looks like
C	Common	Regular card, ● symbol in English.
U	Uncommon	Regular card, ◆ in English.
R	Rare	Regular card, often holo.
RR	Double Rare	Pokémon ex and other rule-box cards.
AR	Art Rare	Full illustration of a regular Pokémon ("Illustration Rare" in English). Very collectible.
SR	Super Rare	Full-art Pokémon ex and Trainers with textured surface.
SAR	Special Art Rare	Full illustration of an ex or Trainer ("Special Illustration Rare"). Usually the chase cards of a set.
UR	Ultra Rare	Gold card.
ACE	ACE SPEC Rare	Powerful Trainer cards, one per deck.
S / SSR	Shiny Rare / Shiny Super Rare	Shiny Pokémon in sets like Shiny Treasure ex.
BWR	Black White Rare	Special rarity of the Black Bolt / White Flare sets.
MUR	Mega Ultra Rare	Top rarity of the Mega era sets.

Sword & Shield and Sun & Moon (2016 – 2022)

RR / RRR — V, VMAX, VSTAR and GX cards. SR — full arts. HR — Hyper Rare, rainbow cards. UR — gold cards. CHR / CSR — Character Rare and Character Super Rare: Pokémon shown together with their Trainer. K — Radiant Pokémon. A — Amazing Rare. PR — promo cards.

The very first Japanese sets of the late 1990s and early 2000s use rarity symbols, like English cards.

ONE PIECE Card Game

Code	Name	What it is
C	Common	Basic cards.
UC	Uncommon	Basic cards.
R	Rare	Foil.
SR	Super Rare	Strong characters, foil.
SEC	Secret Rare	The top regular rarity of a booster set — usually one or two per set.
L	Leader	The leader card your deck is built around.
P	Promo	Event, magazine and product promos (numbers like P-043).
SP	Special card	New art for a card from an earlier set, inserted into a newer booster. Same number as the original card.
TR	Treasure Rare	Very rare special prints.

Parallels and manga rares

Most One Piece cards above Common also exist as a parallel (パラレル): the same number with alternate art and foil. Japanese sellers abbreviate it as "パラ", "P" or e.g. "SR-P". The rarest version is the manga or super parallel (コミパラ, スーパーパラレル): the character drawn over a manga page background — often the most expensive card of the whole set.

That's why one number can have very different prices. OP05-119 Monkey.D.Luffy exists as a normal SEC, several parallels and a manga rare; on Cardmarket the Japanese versions range from a few euros to thousands.

How rarities appear in Japanese listing titles

SAR / AR / SR — written as is. "SAR 4枚" means four copies.
パラレル / パラ / P — parallel version (One Piece).
コミパラ / スーパーパラレル — manga rare (One Piece).
SP / スペシャル — SP card (One Piece).
プロモ — promo.
ミラー — mirror holo (Pokémon reverse-holo style), マスターボールミラー — Master Ball pattern.

JPCardHunt reads these words to choose the right version. When a title is ambiguous, we compare with the cheapest possible version, so you won't see fake deals caused by a guess.

See what every version is worth

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