A rare Pokémon card has been auctioned off for £700,000 ($900K USD), beating previous bidding records.
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Earlier this week, the auction company Goldin announced that the “Illustrator” Pikachu Pokémon 1998 card had finally sold for £700,000 (as reported by Kotaku).
Right now, it’s unconfirmed who exactly bought the holographic collectable, but the bid beat the previous record of £279,000 ($375,000 USD) that a similar card sold for last year.
The Pokémon card features the series’ icon Pikachu – illustrated by designer Atsuko Nishida, credited as one of the character’s creators – on a holographic background and Japanese lettering. The top of the card also features the word “Illustrator” and is one of 39 ever produced.
It is so rare because they were never sold after they were created but were instead released as prizes in a CoroCoro Comic illustration contest back in 1998. The fact that Nishida also designed it also brings the rarity up.
This isn’t the first time a Pokémon card has sold for such a high price. Last year, a rare Blastoise card sold for just over £268,000 ($360,000 USD), certified as one of two presentation cards ever produced.
What the T206 Honus Wagner is to baseball cards, this Pikachu-Holo Illustrator essentially is to Pokémon cards.
Fewer than 40 copies exist, with 24 of them currently graded by PSA, and this *Pop 2* PSA 7 made some history last night over at @GoldinCo.
pic.twitter.com/LfZLWDXJQC
— PSAcard (@PSAcard) February 24, 2022
The presentation cards were produced as a test print “for media use to demonstrate what an English Pokémon card would look like”, making them exceedingly rare to get a hold of.
Last year, it was reported that Pokémon card prices skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the executive vice president of Texas-based Heritage Auctions, “When Covid-19 hit, a lot of Gen X and Millennials were looking for things to do, and we found a lot of these guys and girls started playing Pokémon again because they grew up with it.”
In other gaming news, The Pokémon Company has announced Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet will arrive in late 2022 for the Nintendo Switch.
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