The world’s most valuable Pokémon card sold for ¥25,000,000 (approx $233,578.75) over the weekend, greatly exceeding the previous world record of $200,000 set in 2019. It was sold on e-auction platform Invaluable to an anonymous buyer.
The card in question shows the Pokémon Pikachu armed with a paintbrush and drawing tools. This shiny Pikachu Illustrator card features artwork from Atsuko Nishida, who conceived the original Pikachu design back in the early ’90s where she pulled inspiration from squirrels and daifuku, a soft and squidgy Japanese rice cake.
The card was able to fetch such an exorbitant price due to its scarcity. Pikachu Illustrator cards were originally given out to winners of a CoroCoro Comic Illustration Contest in 1998. Only 39 were made and of those, it’s reported that only 10 are in circulation.
As the cultural cache of Pokémon continues to grow – Daniel Arsham drew some for his disintegrating Uniqo collab – perhaps it’s worth going through your old stuff to see if you’re sitting on any valuable cards.