Yahoo Finance Rare Pokemon card’s wild multi-million dollar price tag
The world’s ‘most valuable’ Pokemon card is about to go under the hammer and is expected to sell for about six average Sydney homes.
An extremely rare Pokemon card has been listed for sale and it comes with an eye-watering price tag.
There is serious money to be made in rare collectibles as people part with small fortunes to have a slice of history.
The Pikachu Illustrator card is one of the rarest in the trading card franchise because only 39 of them were made back in the 1990s. It was originally produced as a prize for a Japanese magazine contest in 1998 and, as a result, the card is considered a “holy grail” in the collecting community.
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Only 20 of them have been professionally graded and now one has gone up for sale. But the lucky bidder better have deep pockets as the asking price is $6.1 million (US$4 million).
For context, the median price of a home in Sydney is $1,069,000, while in any Aussie capital it’s $832,000.
Dubbed the “most valuable Pokemon card” on the planet, this particular card has a PSA mint rating of nine out of 10.
According to the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), a nine rating is reserved for cards in “superb condition” that might have “a very slight wax stain on reverse”, “a minor printing imperfection” or “slightly off-white borders”.
The seller is located in the American state of Illinois and said their particular Pikachu Illustrator is a standout.
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“This is the most documented copy of the Illustrator,” they wrote on the eBay listing.
“It was the only known Illustrator for a decade. This exact Illustrator was the first PSA 9 Mint example [and] was featured in the PSA/SMR 2017 Trophy Card Article. There is no card in this hobby that combines value, rarity, and history than the Pikachu Illustrator.”
The listing is up as ‘Buy It Now’, meaning there may not be a bidding war that could see the price skyrocket. The big question is who will step up to the plate to buy it?
Most expensive Pokemon card ever sold
YouTuber-turned-WWE wrestler Logan Paul set a Guinness World Record in 2022 for paying the most amount of money for a Pokemon card at a private sale. He paid an astonishing US$5.275 million for a Pikachu Illustrator with a PSA 10 rating.
The card itself was up for sale for US$4 million, but Paul had to buy a PSA Grade 9 Pikachu Illustrator card from prominent sports card collector Matt Allen first for US$1.275 million , as that was part of the final sale - hence the $5.275 million price tag for the PSA 10 card.
Only one Pokemon card in the world has ever been given a PSA 10 rating and Paul had to fork out a lot of money to claim it.
"Ah man, it’s literally perfect. You can almost like, feel the energy of this card,” he said after getting it.
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