One of the world’s rarest Pokemon trading cards is currently being sold at auction for almost $500,000. The Pokemon Trading Card Game has spawned thousands of unique cards over the past few decades, ranging from standard releases that can be found at any local hobby store to specialized exclusives that were only made available to the public during specific Pokemon-themed events.
An extremely noteworthy example of the latter would be “Illustrator Pikachu,” an unnumbered promotional card that was released as a contest prize for CoroCoro Comic magazine subscribers that sent in their own Pokemon Trading Card Game artwork. Only 39 copies of this extremely rare Pokemon card were created and distributed across three different contests, none of which were held outside of Pokemon’s native Japan. Thus, Illustrator Pikachu is considered to be one of the rarest and most valuable Pokemon cards out there, with some copies even being sold at prices over $100,000.
Now, the rare Illustrator Pikachu card is being auctioned on eBay for a hefty $480,000. The latest auction started roughly a week ago by Pokemon Club Shangri‐La, a seller that specializes in high-value Pokemon cards. The Illustrator Pikachu being offered is said to be in near-mint condition or better and features the card's usual Japanese Text and artwork of Pikachu holding a pen and quill while surrounded by Pokemon-themed artwork.
This is far from the first time that an Illustrator Pikachu card has been spotted in the wild, as early last year Logan Paul purchased a copy online for roughly $5.3 million, a significantly higher price than the latest auction is asking for. He would go on to wear the extremely rare Pokemon card around his neck during his highly-publicized tag-team match with The Miz against Rey and Dominick Mysterio at last year’s WrestleMania 38.
Thanks to its recent association with Logan Paul and WWE, Illustrator Pikachu has gained more attention from high-price Pokemon Trading Card Game collectors than ever before, and its value has only gone up as a result. Copies of this extremely rare card are being sold at nearly $500,000, meaning that fans who wish to own this relatively obscure piece of Pokemon Trading Card Game history are going to have to shell out a significant amount of money, and it’s likely that the price of Illustrator Pikachu will only grow further from here on out.
Source: eBay