Mega Darkrai ex SAR (Abyss Eye): price, English version, fakes

The Japanese Mega Darkrai ex SAR (メガダークライex, 114/081, Abyss Eye) sells raw for a median of $117.60 on PriceCharting (30 eBay sales, 9 to 24 October 2026) and $136.74 on PokeInvest (120 sales, 26 October 2026); a PSA 10 is $190 to $203. That is as of October 2026, five months after the card launched in Japan at ¥85,000 (about $538). Here is what it sells for now, how it compares with the English Pitch Black print, and how to check that yours is real.

What is the Mega Darkrai ex SAR and why do people want it?

It is the Special Art Rare (SAR) print of Mega Darkrai ex from the Japanese expansion Abyss Eye (拡張パック「アビスアイ」, set code M5), released 22 May 2026 at ¥200 for a 5-card pack (pokemon-card.com). The card is 114/081: a secret-rare number above the set’s 81 regular cards, illustrated by AKIRA EGAWA, the artist behind the Charizard ex SAR from Ruler of the Black Flame. The art is a full-card vortex of darkness built around the single eye that gives the set its name.

The game text is the same on all four Mega Darkrai ex prints: a Basic Darkness Pokemon with 280 HP, an attack called ナイトレイド (Night Raid, 110 damage plus 110 more if your Benched Pokemon have damage counters) and アビスアイ (Abyss Eye), which Knocks Out an opposing Active Pokemon that has a Special Condition, regardless of its HP. As a Mega Evolution ex, it gives up 3 Prize cards when it is Knocked Out (official card page).

People want this version for three reasons the data supports. It is the set’s mascot in the hands of a popular illustrator; it launched at ¥85,000 (about $538 at ¥158 to the dollar, the rate used throughout this page), the highest price of any Abyss Eye SAR on SNKRDUNK Magazine’s 23 May 2026 guide; and it is the most-graded card in the set by a wide margin, with 11,768 PSA submissions against 3,971 for the next card (PokeInvest population report, data of 14 October 2026).

How much is the Mega Darkrai ex SAR worth?

Each line below is a median of completed sales or a marketplace price, with the sample and date. Prices move daily; read these as a late-October 2026 snapshot.

The three raw figures disagree because they measure different things. PriceCharting and PokeInvest take the median of completed eBay sales; TCGplayer’s market price is its own marketplace’s figure, not an eBay median, and it sits $30 to $50 above them. Of PriceCharting’s 30 October sales, 28 landed between $85 and $136, so $118 to $137 is the range to expect for a near-mint copy, and $167 is the high end.

How far has it fallen since launch?

A long way. SNKRDUNK Magazine’s price history gives the Japanese market price for a condition-A copy on launch weekend; the later points are SNKRDUNK’s own lowest asks and sales.

From ¥85,000 to about ¥15,000 is a fall of roughly 82% in five months. Nobody official has said why, so we don’t guess. What the record does show alongside the price is volume: PSA had graded 11,768 copies by 14 October 2026, 94.9% of them PSA 10, and SNKRDUNK’s listing logged eight PSA 10 sales and four condition-A sales in the few hours before we checked on 26 October.

Mega Darkrai ex SAR vs the English SIR: what is the difference?

The English print is Mega Darkrai ex 116/084, a Special Illustration Rare in Pitch Black, which released worldwide on 17 July 2026 (pokemon.com, announced 30 April 2026). Same AKIRA EGAWA illustration, same 280 HP, same two attacks (Dusk Raid and Abyss Eye in English). The two differ in number, language, back design, and above all in what a PSA 10 costs.

All prices and populations are PokeInvest medians of eBay sales on 26 October 2026; pull odds are from TCGplayer’s 21 July 2026 count of its own English pack openings.

Raw, the Japanese card is about 12% cheaper. Graded, the gap is four to one: an English PSA 10 sold for $811 against $202.50 for the Japanese, because only 59% of English submissions gem while 94.9% of Japanese ones do.

If you want the artwork in hand, the Japanese card is the cheaper route; if you want the scarce slab, that is the English one. Why the two languages gem so differently is in Japanese vs English Pokemon cards.

One more difference: the gold cards are not twins. The Japanese Mega Darkrai ex MUR 118/081 and the English Mega Hyper Rare 120/084 pair up by slot, but Samurai Sword Tokyo notes the Japanese gold has an engraved Darkrai emblem and the English a flat silhouette.

How do you spot a fake Mega Darkrai ex SAR?

No published report of counterfeit copies of this specific card turned up in our research, but it trades daily on eBay and sells for over $100, so it is worth checking. Compare these details against the official card image on this page before the general tests.

1. The printed details. The number is 114/081 with the SAR code beside it, the illustrator credit reads AKIRA EGAWA, the HP is 280, and the attack names are ナイトレイド and アビスアイ in Japanese. A “Japanese” card with Dusk Raid in English, a different HP or a missing illustrator line is wrong.
2. The other prints. The same art exists only once in Japanese. The RR (046/081), SR (099/081) and MUR (118/081) are different artworks by 5ban Graphics, so a “SAR” with gold etched foil or regular ex framing is one of those or a fake (official database search, 26 October 2026).
3. The graded label. Samurai Sword Tokyo’s tip is the simplest: a PSA label for the Japanese card reads 114/081; one that reads 116/084 is the English card. Look up the certification number with the grader before paying a PSA 10 price.
4. The price. Raw copies sold between $85 and $136 in 28 of 30 October eBay sales, and PSA 10 slabs for $180 to $203. A “PSA 10” offered far below that deserves a second look, not a quick checkout.

Texture, the dark core layer, the holo pattern and the light test apply to this card as to any Japanese SAR; the walk-through is in how to tell if Japanese Pokemon cards are fake.

Where do you buy the Mega Darkrai ex SAR, and what does delivery add?

In the US, TCGplayer had 64 sellers and 66 listings from $131.68 on 26 October 2026, and eBay turns over about 2 raw and 4 PSA 10 copies a day (PriceCharting volume). Buying from a US seller means no customs paperwork, at the $118 to $167 raw prices above.

Buying in Japan is cheaper on the sticker: ¥15,400 lowest A-grade ask on SNKRDUNK (about $97, with a ¥0 buyer fee), ¥15,800 at Cardrush with 40 in stock, ¥17,800 at Yuyu-tei, all on 26 October 2026. Then add the trip. Shipments from Japan to the US have paid a combined 12.5% duty since 24 July 2026 under the Section 301 action (Holland & Knight), so a ¥15,800 card carries about $12.50 of duty before shipping, insurance and any proxy or forwarder fee.

On a card trading around $100, the saving over a US seller is real but thin once those are added. The full cost build-up is in shipping from Japan to the US and the seller-by-seller options in where to buy Japanese Pokemon cards. Readers outside the US pay their own country’s import rules instead; 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 Abyss Eye?

Abyss Eye has 81 regular cards and 37 secret rares, 118 in total (Serebii), released 22 May 2026 at ¥200 a pack (pokemon-card.com). It is the fifth MEGA-era expansion and became the English Pitch Black 56 days later; the set-by-set pairings are in Japanese sets and their English equivalents. Three other cards worth knowing:

The MUR is the set’s hardest PSA 10 and its most valuable, and it is the card that holds a real premium in Japan: ¥29,800 at Yuyu-tei on 26 October 2026 against ¥17,800 for the SAR. The rest of the SAR block (Mega Chandelure ex 113, Morpeko ex 115, グラジオの決戦 116) had lowest SNKRDUNK asks of ¥1,000 to ¥3,300 on 30 September 2026. What the rarity codes mean is in Japanese Pokemon card rarity symbols.

More guides: Mega Greninja ex SAR (Ninja Spinner) · Mega Rayquaza ex SAR (Storm Emeralda) · Mega Charizard X ex SAR (Inferno X) · How to buy Pokemon cards from Japan · All Pokemon guides