Last week, an ultra-rare Pokémon card sold for a whopping $300,000 and now, a Yu-Gi-Oh! card of equal rarity has sold for the same jaw-dropping price.
As reported by ComicBook, Tyler Gressle listed the one-of-a-kind card - Tyler the Great Warrior - in an eBay auction last week, and amassed over 180 bids, skyrocketing the price all the way up to $311,211. It was won by a very lucky (and wealthy) collector.
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The card itself was made specially for Tyler over 20 years ago, who was battling a form of cancer as a child. It was created in response to a wish made by Tyler, which was then fulfilled by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Yu-Gi-Oh!’s late-creator Kazuki Takahashi was approached by the charity, and worked with them to create the unique card. Several designs were pitched, before the final design was settled on and the card was gifted to Gressle, becoming a legend amongst the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG community.
Tyler the Great Warrior’s design also features a reference to another anime franchise, Dragon Ball Z, as the warrior’s artwork was greatly inspired by the DBZ character Trunks - one of Tyler’s favourites. Tyler was also invited on a tour of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s New York headquarters to see the card’s creation for himself, as well as meet some of the artists and voice actors of the card game and anime adaptation.
Gressle went on to beat cancer and owned the card for many years before deciding to pass it on to a new owner. He stated that he’ll be using the money raised by the card’s auction to travel the world, and will also be donating a sizeable amount to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which enabled the card’s creation.
The Tyler the Great Warrior is amongst good company for the rarest of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, with first edition versions of Dark Magician, Blue Eyes White Dragon, and Red Eyes Black Dragon all selling for thousands depending on condition and grading. However, it’s unlikely that there’ll ever be a card as special as Tyler’s given its emotional and heart-warming origins.