$200,000 Serialized Golden Chocobos: 35 Remain

Last updated on January 5, 2026

Bird | Illustration by Constantin Marin

Collectability in Magic: The Gathering is at an all-time high, with every new set offering some sort of super chase card(s) worth bringing all the MTG whales out of hiding. There have always been big-money cards in MTG boosters, but the game entered a new age of collectibles with the advent of serialized cards. There was plenty of experimentation with these ultra-rare versions of cards for a while, and Wizards of the Coast landed on a “Headliner” system, where one card from a new release gets the royal treatment as the signpost card of the set, complete with extremely rare serialized versions found only in collector boosters.

For Final Fantasy, that card is Traveling Chocobo, which was given multiple neon ink treatments, but more importantly, one of the rarest serialized treatments we've seen on Magic cards thus far. It's basically textless, has a gold foil shine to it, and they're not cheap.

The Numbers

Sorry to anyone who likes their meat medium or well-done, because these birds only come extra rare.

For starters, there are 77 serialized “Gold Chocobos” in Final Fantasy collector boosters. While that's not quite as tantalizing as the 1:1 The One Ring that sold to Post Malone for $2 million in late 2023, a card with only 77 copies in existence is still Holy Grail territory when it comes to the rarest MTG collectibles.

Since the release of Innistrad Remastered in January of 2025, Wizards set most headliners to receive 500 versions. There are much fewer golden chocobos to be opened than the average serialized card, and they're part of a Universes Beyond crossover with a massive and ravenous fandom, so they are sought after by collectors who don't necessarily play the game.

In case you're curious about the exact number, 77 was chosen as a reference to Final Fantasy 7, the video game that this exact depiction of the Traveling Chocobo comes from. For players, the default card with the rules text is still really good and valuable at around $20 for the regular printing. Of course, the easiest way to play it is with a mythic Arena wildcard, or less than one ticket on Magic Online.

Have All 77 Golden Chocobos Been Found?

No, there are still golden chocobos to be opened in Final Fantasy collector boosters. As of Dec. 20, 2025, 42 of 77 have been found, and 35 remain.

Gallery of Golden Chocobos Found in the Wild

I want to find all the golden chocobos. I don't expect to catch 'em all, just get pictures of them. There's a lovely tracker app for golden chocobos that is updated by some dedicated folks, but a few entries are considered found without photo evidence. Here's a condensed gallery in numerical order without gaps. Believe me, I tried to find the most legible pictures with a clear number.

How Can I Get a Gold Chocobo?

The only way to open up a gold chocobo from a sealed WotC product is a Final Fantasy collector booster. This best of the best premium booster pack is expensive, even for a collector booster. Their availability rarely included a featured offer on Amazon, and much of the product has moved to the secondary market.

Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy Collector Booster Box

• THE ENTIRE FINAL FANTASY SAGA IS HERE—Step into the unforgettable stories of all 16 FINAL FANTASY core games brought to your tabletop with the strategic gameplay of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game
• CUE THE VICTORY FANFARE—Cast powerful spells, meet iconic characters, and visit familiar locales on the back of a Chocobo with cards featuring FINAL FANTASY-themed art and mechanics
• THE FINEST CARDS FOR PLAY AND DISPLAY—Collector Boosters are the ultimate way to add unique and exclusive cards to your collection; tons of foils, special card treatments, and more await you inside every pack
• COLLECTOR BOOSTER-EXCLUSIVES—Collector Boosters are the only boosters that may contain cards featuring special foil treatments, and in <0.1% of Collector Boosters (English-language only) you may even find an extra special serialized card printed with a unique number
• COLLECT SPECIAL ALT-FRAME CARDS—Collect Borderless cards featuring beautiful alternate art or Extended-Art cards that put a card’s art on full display; every Collector Booster is packed with special alternate-frame FINAL FANTASY-themed cards

Buy on Amazon

Should I Sell the Golden Chocobo or Wait?

Whether or not you should sell a golden chocobo is a tough answer, but if you must have an answer right away, I'd find the card grading service I trust the most, get the chocobo in a slab and hold onto it.

Let's back up a moment and congratulate you on finding the jackpot! Take a breath and really consider your options to sell a gold chocobo or keep it. If the finite printing of serialized cards behave anything like the Reserved List, the value is definitely there and likely to go up. That said, I don't think any readers here would blame you if you turned a bird in for $200,000.

Prerelease Hits

Traveling Chocobo | Illustration by Ashley Mackenzie

The prerelease weekend was the first chance people had to start opening Final Fantasy product. The golden goose chocobos are not in prerelease kits, but those who splurged on the admittedly super-expensive collector boosters had a shot at opening any of the colored Traveling Chocobo variants. Some of them landed in the hands of players on week one!

Golden chocobo #11 was pulled by @xopher314 on that June 6, Friday morning before many people even got out of bed for the day.

A comment on @xopher314's post by @hawkzii shows off #10 as well.

Gamer's Guild in North Carolina revealed #14, pulled by a player that Friday night.

Golden chocobo #41 sat on eBay for a whopping $200,000. Six figures was a bit outrageous, but it did sell for $40,000, and that's still an astonishingly high mark for a single Magic: The Gathering card.

A Bird in the Hand

Sazh's Chocobo | Illustration by Domenico Cava

That's all the golden chocobos reported so far (assuming there's not a 0/77 version as well). This all comes with the caveat that none of these photos were faked and the cards on display are all legitimate. Regardless, there's still a golden-feathered friend just waiting to be cracked open.

Of course, it's tricky with serialized cards, because there's always the chance certain versions basically never get opened. They're definitely out there, but some of them could end up in a collector's pile of booster boxes that won't be opened for another 10+ years or so. Maybe someone's basement floods and some serialized cards get lost in the wreckage, never to be discovered by players. Or maybe in the future, Wizards happens across a warehouse full of surprise Final Fantasy booster boxes, where a few numbered chocobos have been hanging out for years.

That's all to say that more of these 77 chocobos will be revealed in the coming weeks, with wildly expensive sales prices; just don't expect the full 77 to show up any time soon. And if you're sitting at your local game store and you hear someone singing “I've got a golden chiiiicken” in Charlie Bucket's voice from the other side of the store, rest assured they hit the jackpot with one of these.

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