Admit it: you kind of want to keep that collection of old Pokémon cards, don’t you?
But it’s likely that you’ve never seen a rare card: a holographic Blastoise that sold for $ 360,000 at an online auction last week.
Collectible authenticator CGC Trading Cards broadcast the bid live on January 14 via YouTube, noting that the “presentation” card – one of the two prototypes used in marketing and promotion “to demonstrate what an English Pokémon card would look like “- is the only known one that still exists.
“This is a historic moment, ladies and gentlemen,” said the auctioneer before reaching the final bid. The buyer was anonymous, while almost tied the record for the highest amount paid by any English Pokémon card, according to the CGC.
The test print, commissioned by Wizards of the Coast in 1998, is one-sided, showing a blank space where the Pokémon logo should be. Cardmaker Cartamundi has produced other similar Blastoise cards, some of which feature designs for “Magic: The Gathering” – a different game also distributed by the Wizards brand.
The whereabouts of the second blank Blastoise card “are unknown,” said CGC.
At the end of last year, a pair of Charizard cards sold for $ 369,000 each at Goldin auctions. This broke the previous record, for the rapper and, of course, the collector of Pokémon Logic, who lost more than $ 220,000 on a Charizard card of the same edition.
“The first record was only set last month,” wrote the CGC, “demonstrating how heated the business card market is becoming, with CGC business cards adding fuel to the fire through its expert certification services.”