Japanese McDonald's Pikachu promo (020/M-P): price, English version, fakes

The Japanese McDonald’s Pikachu (ピカチュウ, 020/M-P) sells raw for about $25 to $29 and as a PSA 10 for about $74, as of 25 and 26 October 2026: a median of $24.94 over 20 recent eBay sales on PriceCharting, $26.48 on PokeInvest and a $29.33 market price on TCGplayer. Japanese shops list it at ¥2,980 to ¥3,480, about $19 to $22. It is the most-graded Japanese promo: PSA has graded 335,226 copies.

What is the Japanese McDonald’s Pikachu and why do people want it?

It is a promo card given out with the McDonald’s Japan Happy Set in August 2025. Pikachu sits at a table with a burger and a glass of orange juice, with the McDonald’s logo on the art; the card is a Basic Lightning Pokemon with 70 HP, illustrated by Yuu Nishida, with the attack でんじスパーク (10 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokemon, ignoring Weakness and Resistance on the Bench) and the number 020/M-P (official card page).

Nobody wants it for the game text. Collectors want it because it is cheap, it is the face of a McDonald’s collaboration, and it has become the card people send to PSA by the hundred thousand.

How was it given away, and is it still available?

According to Samurai Sword Tokyo’s reading of McDonald’s Japan’s 4 August 2025 release, Happy Sets went on sale from 8 August 2025 for about three weeks, and the cards were handed out on 9, 10 and 11 August 2025 (the guide notes it is not confirmed that every store gave them on all three days). Each set held two cards: Pikachu 020/M-P in every set, plus one random card out of five: Sprigatito 017, Fuecoco 018, Quaxly 019, Ralts 021 or Riolu 022. A customer could buy up to 5 sets. That is the one source for the dates; the official database confirms the card and its number but not the campaign.

The giveaway is over, so today you buy it on the secondary market. A sealed two-card set was asking ¥2,700 (about $17) on SNKRDUNK on 2 October 2026, and five sets ¥13,500 (about $85), which are asks, not sales.

How much is the Japanese McDonald’s Pikachu worth?

Each line is a median of completed sales, a marketplace price or a shop’s listed price, with the sample and date. Prices move daily; read these as a late-October 2026 snapshot, with yen converted at ¥158 to the dollar.

The raw prices agree on about $25 to $29, and the spread is wide because most listings do not state a condition: the 20 PriceCharting sales run from $12.13 to $38. A PSA 10 is easy to price because there are so many: 30 sold in two days. PokeInvest shows $74.37 for the PSA 10, but labels it an estimate and not a sales median.

Is it worth grading?

Not for profit. By PokeInvest’s own inputs (raw $26.48, PSA 10 $74.37, $60 fee), a copy has an 87.5% chance of a 10, which our arithmetic puts at a loss of about $21 a card; PokeInvest’s page shows -$18.07. Buy a PSA 10 if you want the slab, because it costs about $50 more than a raw copy and has already been graded. Fees and turnaround are in grading Japanese Pokemon cards.

Why is it the most-graded Japanese promo?

PSA’s population shows 335,226 graded copies, 293,453 of them PSA 10 (87.5%). That is rank 1 of 949 Japanese promos in PokeInvest’s report (refreshed 22 September 2026), 3.5 times the next card (Pikachu 001/SV-P, 96,395) and about 15% of all 2,241,356 grades on Japanese promos. No source explains why, so we don’t. What the data does show is a card that was handed out widely, is cheap enough to submit in bulk, and nearly always comes back a 10.

Is there an English version of the McDonald’s Pikachu?

No. The Japanese card is 020/M-P with the McDonald’s logo on the art, and we found no English print of it. The US McDonald’s promotions are a separate English-language program with their own cards (Samurai Sword Tokyo), so a US Happy Meal card is a different card, not a translation of this one. If a listing calls a US card “Japanese McDonald’s”, check the number.

How do you spot a fake Japanese McDonald’s Pikachu?

No published report of counterfeit copies of this card turned up in our research. Because it is cheap and very common, the main risk is a mix-up, not a fake. Compare the details with the official card image on this page:

1. The number and mark. 020/M-P with the PROMO mark and regulation mark H, with ©2025 Pokémon / Nintendo / Creatures / GAME FREAK.
2. The art. Pikachu with a burger and a glass of juice, and the McDonald’s golden-arches logo on the right edge of the art box.
3. The illustrator. Illus. Yuu Nishida.
4. The siblings. The set has six cards, 017 to 022/M-P. A seller listing “Pikachu” with another number is describing a different card; there is a different Pikachu 133/M-P illustrated by DOM (official database).
5. The graded label. A slab label must read 020/M-P; confirm the certification number with the grader.
6. The price. A “PSA 10” at $20 or a raw copy at $2 is not a bargain; recent sales ran $65 to $178.99 and $12.13 to $38.

The foil, edge and light tests are in how to tell if Japanese Pokemon cards are fake.

Where do you buy it, and what does delivery to the US add?

In the US, TCGplayer’s lowest listing was $23.99 on 25 October 2026 and eBay sold at least 20 raw copies in the week to 25 October (PriceCharting). Buying from a US seller means no customs paperwork, at the $25 to $29 above.

In Japan the sticker price is lower, ¥2,980 at Cardrush (about $19), but the trip costs more than the card. Shipments from Japan to the US have paid a combined 12.5% duty since 24 July 2026 under the Section 301 action (Holland & Knight), about $2.40 on a $19 card, and Japan Post EMS costs ¥3,900 (about $25) for up to 500 g (Japan Post). That is about $46 for one card, against $25 to $29 in the US. A single Pikachu is not worth importing; the saving only appears when you buy dozens of cards in one parcel. The full build-up is in shipping from Japan to the US and the seller options in where to buy Japanese Pokemon cards. Readers outside the US pay their own country’s import rules; the Japanese prices are the same.

We don’t sell anything yet. When that changes, our listing will be labeled, and the prices here stay what collectors have paid elsewhere.

What else is in the McDonald’s set?

The six M-P cards from the Happy Set are Sprigatito 017, Fuecoco 018, Quaxly 019, Pikachu 020, Ralts 021 and Riolu 022 (Samurai Sword Tokyo). On 2 October 2026 their PSA 10 back orders at that Tokyo store ran from ¥4,347 (Ralts) to ¥10,710 (Pikachu), about $28 to $68 at ¥158, so the Pikachu slab is the dearest of the six. What the “Promo” label and the other rarity codes mean is in Japanese Pokemon card rarity symbols.

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