Raikou Gold Star Pokemon Card: Japanese 039/106 Guide (2005 ★ Print)

What the Raikou Gold Star Print Is

The ★ in the card name is the Gold Star mark of the PCG era (2003 to roughly 2006, the period when Japanese expansions carried PCG numbering). The Japanese expansion is PCG4, “Expansion Pack: Golden Sky, Silvery Ocean” — our site also writes it “Gold Sky Silver Sea” — released on Friday, April 8, 2005. The English counterpart appeared in EX Unseen Forces on Monday, August 22, 2005.

These cards predate the 2007 start of the official Japanese card database, so the database that we use for modern Raikou prints has no page for this one. The details above therefore come from our own published guide, Entei, Raikou & Suicune: Card Value Guide, which describes the three Gold Star beasts as collector targets two decades on.

Reading the Numbers: 039/106 vs 039/088

The Raikou cards we handle share a lot of two- and three-digit numbers. The part after the slash is the printed size of the set, and together with the set code it helps identify the print. Here are the Raikou numbers that appear in this guide and in our listings.

The trap is 039. The Gold Star Raikou is 039/106, and the e-series Raikou we list as a PSA 10 back order is 039/088. They differ in set code and full number, yet a search for “Raikou 039” brings up both. When you request a card from us, give the full number with the denominator and the set name.

Two further markers help. An Old Back card (the design used from the October 1996 launch until Pokemon VS on Thursday, July 19, 2001) never carries a 1ED stamp, according to our Japanese old back guide. And only the e1 to e5 sets carry dot-code strips, per our e-Reader guide. The Gold Star print falls in neither group: it belongs to the PCG series. Our sources do not say whether a 1st Edition stamp exists on the Japanese Gold Star Raikou, so we do not assume one.

Raikou Through the Eras

The Gold Star print sits in the middle of a long run of Raikou cards. Seeing its neighbours helps with identification, because every era numbers and designs its cards differently. The first three rows come from our guides (no official database page); the rest are official database entries, where the database credits the illustrator.

Two of those cards help explain the Gold Star’s neighbourhood. The Neo Revelation Raikou is the oldest, and Premium File 3 (Thursday, November 23, 2000) carries Raikou among nine legendary-focused cards, though our guides do not give its card number. The e4 Raikou comes from the era of the Card e-Reader, which launched in Japan on Saturday, December 1, 2001, together with e1.

After the Gold Star, the Raikou line moves through the LEGEND combination cards of Reviving Legends (released Thursday, February 11, 2010), where Raikou is printed together with Entei on one pair of cards and with Suicune on another. A LEGEND card is made of two physical cards, an upper and a lower half, that are put on the Bench together; the official text tells the player the opponent takes 2 Prize cards when it is knocked out. Then comes the BW4 Dark Rush Raikou EX 025/069 by shizurow, which has 170 HP.

The modern cards are different in kind. Raikou V in VSTAR Universe has an ability that lets you draw 1 card from your deck once during your turn while it is in the Active Spot (rendering), and a secret-numbered 218/172 print illustrated by nagimiso. In 2026 the Mega era added three Raikou ex prints in Storm Emeralda and a 162/103 reprint in 30th CELEBRATION; our Raikou 162/103 guide covers that reprint and our Raikou V PSA 10 guide covers the V.

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Sourcing a Gold Star Copy

Because the Raikou Gold Star has no listing on our site, the route is a sourcing request. Sourcing requests for a specific card go through Quick Order, and the product page shows the current terms for anything we list.

A request is most useful when it names the card the way this guide does:

• Japanese number and set: Raikou★ 039/106, PCG4 “Golden Sky, Silvery Ocean”.
• Language: Japanese print. The English print is 114/115 in EX Unseen Forces.
• Condition target: raw or graded, and if graded, which grader and grade you want.
• The look-alike to avoid: say explicitly that you do not mean the e4 Raikou 039/088.

We cannot tell you in advance that a copy exists, what it will cost, or how long a search will take; those depend on what is found. What we can do is make sure the request is specific enough that the card found is the card you meant.

A final identification habit that applies to every card in this guide: compare the printed number on the card with the number in the table above before comparing anything else. Artwork can be reused across sets — our Raikou 162/103 guide covers a Classic Collection reprint — but the card name, set code, full number and any documented edition together identify a print.

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