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EX Crystal Guardians: the sealed Pokémon booster box from 2006, featuring the two Gold Star cards that make it one of the most sought-after items in trading card collecting.
EX Crystal Guardians is the Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion released in 2006, now one of the most sought-after sets among vintage trading card collectors. The sealed booster box preserves intact the remote but real possibility of finding inside one of the set’s two “Gold Star” cards: the most prized of the entire expansion. For those who collect print runs and condition as much as individual specimens, a still-sealed box is an intact document of how the game presented itself twenty years ago, before any booster pack was opened.
What is EX Crystal Guardians
The set debuted in Japan on March 10, 2006, and arrived in the English edition on August 30 of the same year, with 100 cards and no secret cards: it is the fourteenth set of the game’s third generation. The story continues that of the previous sets in the EX series: Pokémon Delta Species, Pokémon-ex, and Pokémon Star live on a mysterious island off the coast of Holon, in one of the most elaborate narratives ever built around a card game expansion. It is a chapter that closes a storyline begun with Holon Phantoms and Dragon Frontiers, and for this reason holds a precise place in the game’s chronology: those who follow the EX expansions immediately recognize it as one of the final acts of that narrative season.
The sealed booster box and the two Gold Stars
A sealed booster box of the English edition contains 36 booster packs of 9 cards each: 324 cards in total, still in the original 2006 packaging, with the outer cellophane intact. It is the form in which the set reaches collectors today who seek it intact, unopened, with the electric blue cover artwork that distinguishes it.
Inside those booster packs hide the two most important cards of the set: Alakazam ☆ and Celebi ☆, the only two “Gold Star” cards in EX Crystal Guardians. They are the last two cards in the numbering, a position that in EX-era sets was reserved precisely for this rarity: an illustration of the Pokémon in its alternate coloration, extending beyond the usual illustration borders. In the entire English EX-era series, released between 2004 and 2007, there were only 27 Gold Stars: two or three per set, distributed across nine EX expansions plus POP Series 5. It is a rarity that was never repeated in subsequent game series, and is one of the reasons why sets from that season remain a reference point for vintage trading card collectors.
What the set’s Gold Stars are worth today
According to specialist card market pricing databases, a specimen of Alakazam ☆ in PSA 10 condition is worth approximately $13,100 today, while a Celebi ☆ in the same grade is worth approximately $17,500: the highest figure among all EX Crystal Guardians cards. For both cards, the population in maximum grade remains limited compared to the total number of cards graded: just over eighty copies of Alakazam ☆ and about one hundred of Celebi ☆, out of over two thousand six hundred specimens of each submitted for grading. The difference from an ungraded specimen, worth approximately $1,200 for both cards, demonstrates how much condition matters in this type of collecting.
These are values that apply to specimens graded at the maximum, not to the box’s contents, but they explain why this expansion continues to be followed with attention: a still-sealed box is also the last opportunity to open those booster packs in the same conditions in which they were released twenty years ago, before someone else did it in one’s place.
How to purchase shares of EX Crystal Guardians on Collecto
On Collecto, you don’t need to purchase the entire box to own a part of it: you purchase shares, and each share corresponds to a portion of ownership of the box, stored and insured by the platform. The mechanism is the same as for the platform’s other assets: you consult the asset’s listing, decide how many shares to purchase, and track your portfolio from the app. Those who want a broader sense of what it means to collect rare assets on Collecto can start from the showcase of available assets.
A sealed booster box from 2006 cannot be recreated: once opened, those 324 specimens cease to be the same thing.
Discover EX Crystal Guardians on Collecto
On Collecto you can purchase shares of this sealed EX Crystal Guardians booster box starting from €50, becoming co-owner of a piece of trading card collecting history stored and insured by the platform.
Frequently asked questions about EX Crystal Guardians
What is EX Crystal Guardians and when was it released?
It is a Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion, released in Japan on March 10, 2006, and in English on August 30, 2006, with 100 cards and no secret cards.
What story does the set tell?
It continues the story of Pokémon Delta Species, Pokémon-ex, and Pokémon Star on a mysterious island off the coast of Holon, already begun in the Holon Phantoms and Dragon Frontiers sets.
What does a sealed booster box contain?
36 booster packs of 9 cards each, for a total of 324 cards in the original 2006 packaging.
What are the most sought-after cards in the set?
Alakazam ☆ and Celebi ☆, the only two “Gold Star” cards in EX Crystal Guardians: a rarity reserved, in the EX era, for only two or three cards per expansion.
Why are Gold Stars so important in Pokémon collecting?
Because in the entire English EX-era series, between 2004 and 2007, only 27 were published, across nine sets plus POP Series 5: a rarity that subsequent series never replicated.
What are this set’s Gold Stars worth today?
According to industry pricing databases, a specimen in PSA 10 condition is worth approximately $13,100 for Alakazam ☆ and approximately $17,500 for Celebi ☆, the highest figure in the set.
