What is a chase card in Pokemon?

A chase card is one of the scarcest and most wanted cards in a Pokemon set: the card you open packs hoping to pull. In recent sets the chase cards are usually the top rarities numbered past the set's printed total, like Special Illustration Rares and Hyper Rares; in vintage sets they're often the holo rares of popular Pokemon.

The word is personal too. Your chase cards are the ones you're hunting, whatever set they come from. It's collector slang, with no official definition.

Before you buy one

• Buy the single. Pokemon publishes what a booster pack contains, not the odds of pulling a given card, so no number of packs guarantees a chase card. If you want one exact card, buying the single is the only sure way.

• Ignore "chase" in titles. In a listing title it's a selling word, so searching for it mostly turns up hype. Search by the Pokemon's name and card number instead.

• Pin down the version. A chase card often shares its name with other versions in the same set, like a regular ex and a full art, and the number is what tells them apart, so search by the number.

• Write it down first. Note the exact card number, the version and the most you'll pay before you start looking.

That note is a ChaseBoard watch already: the card, its number and your price range. Every card you're chasing gets its own tile on one board, and you hear about it when a listing fits.