14 November 2025

Pokemon GO Player Selling Rare Shiny for an Eye-Watering Amount of Money

By newsgame

A Pokemon GO player is currently selling a shiny Galarian Articuno and one more creature for the equivalent of over $13,000 each. While their listings are a clear violation of Pokemon GO Terms of Service, it remains uncertain whether Niantic can take effective action.

Though the regular variants of the Legendary birds have been available in the game for years, Galarian Articuno only had its Pokemon GO debut in early October 2024, having arrived as part of the Galarian Expedition event. While it remains obtainable as of today, the only way to encounter it is through the Daily Adventure Incense, which, according to crowdsourced data, offers roughly a 1 in 500 chance for it to spawn. Like other Legendaries in the game, it has about a 5% chance of being shiny upon spawning, making the odds of encountering a shiny Galarian Articuno from a Daily Adventure Incense approximately 1 in 10,000, or 0.01%.

Pokemon GO’s Shiny Galarian Articuno and Armored Mewtwo Currently Selling for Over $13,000 Each on eBay

This ultra-rare variant of Galarian Articuno has recently appeared on eBay UK, where it is listed for £10,090.31, or approximately $13,250, going by November 12 exchange rates. The same seller is also offering an Armored Mewtwo—which was only available during two brief Raid windows in 2019 and 2020—for the same price. Both listings state that the seller will deliver the mons by spoofing their Pokemon GO location in order to “reach” the buyer and then perform a regular trade with them. They are also offering to increase the CP of both Pokemon beforehand.

Most Expensive Pokemon GO Shiny on eBay US Is Currently ‘Only’ $2,467

Shiny Pichu Witch Hat eBay listing by Pokemon GO Store 2.4 grand screenshot November 12 2025

The shiny Galarian Articuno and Armored Mewtwo listings on eBay UK far exceed the prices of any Pokemon GO creatures presently available on the US version of the site. According to publicly available listings reviewed by Game Rant, the most expensive current listing on eBay US is a shiny Witch Hat Pichu, priced at $2,467.50. This shiny, Halloween-themed version of Pichu has long been considered one of the rarest Pokemon GO creatures.

Selling Pokemon GO Trades Is Against Niantic’s Terms of Service

Selling Pokemon is a clear violation of Pokemon GO Terms of Service. Even if no money exchanges hands, section 5.4 of Niantic’s TOS explicitly forbids trading using any means not provided by Niantic. However, enforcing such violations is difficult. One possible approach for Niantic would be to conduct sting operations, purchasing listings to identify and ban accounts involved in the transactions. Alternatively, the company could analyze its telemetry data to detect suspicious patterns, such as accounts appearing to trade from multiple global locations. That said, such methods may be ineffective if sellers take precautions, like not conducting all of their sold trades from a single account.

It is currently unclear whether Niantic is actively taking steps to curb Pokemon GO trade sellers. The aforementioned seller offering a shiny Witch Hat Pichu currently has many other active listings, with over 30,000 completed sales and more than 7,500 (99.9% positive) buyer reviews since November 2017.