The Most Expensive Pokémon Card

Everyone knows or has heard about Pokémon in the past 20 years, especially millennials worldwide, who most likely have watched the animated cartoon.

In 1999, Pokémon released a set of cards with the base Pokémon characters printed on them for their new card game. Pokémon characters such as Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur were all part of the card game.

In the past 20 years, the Pokémon card collection has become so popular that it is considered the most valuable card collection in the world. Specifically, the 1st base set of Pokémon cards released in 1999 is so rare and valuable that collectors worldwide are willing to pay millions for even one card.

PSA Grading increases the value significantly

For a card to be so valuable, it has to be verified and graded by some professional grading companies, the most popular among them being Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).

The card’s value is graded with numbers 1 to 10 in multiple categories such as surface, edges, corners, printing, and cutting. All these requirements need to be in perfect shape for a card to be graded as PSA 10, which will increase the card’s value significantly.

The Pokémon card worth the most from the 1st edition base set of cards is Charizard, referred to as the holy grail of cards by the Pokémon community. There are only 2 PSA-graded Charizard cards from the base set that are graded PSA 10, which spikes their value to astonishing $340,000 US Dollars per card as of 2022.

If you thought that’s crazy, you’d be surprised to know that the most expensive Pokémon card is worth way more.

In 1998, the Japanese magazine Coro Coro organized a Pokémon illustration contest where 39 winners were awarded the rarest Pokémon card in the world, the Pikachu Illustrator. From the 39 Pikachu illustrator cards ever made, only 20 were submitted to PSA for grading. Of all 20 Pikachu illustrator cards submitted, only 1 exclusive card is graded PSA 10, which makes it the rarest and most valuable Pokémon card in the world.

In the past couple of years, one Pikachu illustrator card graded PSA 7 of the 20 PSA-graded Pikachu illustrator cards, was sold for $900,000 US Dollars which was the biggest sale made in the Pokémon world to that date.

Logan Paul brought a lot of attention to Pokémon.

In 2022, Logan Paul, a famous Youtuber and entertainer known for his interest in collecting Pokémon cards, walked out on his first WWE appearance with the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator around his neck. Afterward, he confirmed that he was wearing the rarest Pokémon card ever and that he spent an astonishing $5,300,000 US Dollars to own it. This transaction is by far the biggest ever in the Pokémon community and broke the Guinness world record for the most expensive Pokémon trading card sale. The way that Logan Paul obtained the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator was a long journey.

$4,000,000 Bid

Logan’s first bid of $4,000,000 US Dollars was rejected. After a couple of months, Logan made a deal with the previous anonymous owner of the Pikachu Illustrator that he was willing to trade a PSA 9 Pikachu illustrator that he had yet to find on top of the $4,000,000 US Dollars that he previously offered. Somehow, Logan found a Pikachu illustrator PSA 9 card for around $1,300,000 US Dollars, which he later traded for the PSA 10 Pikachu illustrator, making the purchase a total of $5,300,000 US Dollars.

It might sound silly or not worth paying so much for 1 Pokémon card. Still, the Pokémon card market has been going up ever since their first release, and collectors worldwide are willing to pay more and more money to own one Pokémon PSA 10 card.

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