Ultra rare Pokémon card sells for $300,000 at auction

Pokémon card collecting is a wild hobby, with dedicated fans dropping thousands in cash on the latest packs or shopping around online for specific cards they can’t find in the wild. Recently, one serious collector spent $300,000 to acquire a very special card for their collection.

The incredibly rare Trophy Pikachu card, with a PSA-8 grading, was put up for auction for only the most hard-core collectors to bid on, selling to a lucky (and loaded) bidder for $300,000.

You may be wondering why this card in particular sold for such an extraordinary amount of money… Well, it was originally given as a prize to those who secured first, second and third place in the very first Japan Pokémon TCG Tournament, across all the divisions.

It’s estimated that less than 100 of these cards were produced, meaning you’re not gonna find one easily.

Aside from its origins as a limited edition card, it was also graded by the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) and given the PSA-8 grading. Only three other Pikachu Trophy cards have been graded by the PSA, with this one having the highest grading out of all of them.

Obviously, this isn’t the only time a Pokémon card has sold for a frankly ridiculous amount of money, as the value of 1st edition cards has essentially skyrocketed since their initial release, with a popular example being the elusive 1st edition Charizard card.

The Pokémon card collecting hobby has also seen some increased popularity since a number of influencers joined the scene, such as YouTuber Logan Paul who achieved a Guinness World Record for dropping an unbelievable $5 million for a Pikachu Illustrator card, one of the rarest cards in the world.

So if you’ve got a box of Pokémon cards lying around from your childhood, it might be worth having a rummage to see if you’ve got anything special, and hope they’re still in good condition…

In other news, it seems some of the newest Pokémon cards are becoming just as hard to find as the old ones, as Japan recently ran out of their newest packs…