A 1997 Pokemon card that was incredibly rare recently sold for no less than $300K at auction!
This very expensive card is a Bronze Trophy Pikachu No. 3 Trainer that was given only to a select group of competitors in a Japanese competition.
Furthermore, to paint the picture of how exclusive it really is, this card was one of only 4 total PSA-certified copies.
It was auctioned off by Heritage Auctions and before the item’s final sale price was reached, it received a total of 50 bids.
This Pokemon card is not only one of the most uncommon in the entire world, but it is also one of the earliest promo cards in the series.
Jesus Garcia, the director of trading card games consignment at Heritage, emphasized the value of the card during a new press release.
Garcia stated that “The historical importance of this Pokemon card had us confident that it would do well, but the result exceeded everybody’s expectations. This card wasn’t in the booster boxes offered at the time. It was only available to trainers who finished third at the First Official Pocket Monsters Tournament in Chiba, Japan, back in 1997. It’s an extraordinarily rare card, now stands as a centerpiece in the winning bidder’s collection.”
As mentioned before, the card was bought and sold as part of an auction for Heritage Trading Card Games, which netted over $2.4 million in total.
In the auction, Pokemon cards occupied the top 7 positions and 8 of the top 9 positions.
Other rare Pokemon items, including a never opened first Edition Base Set Booster Box that sold for over $237K were offered in addition to the Trophy Pikachu card.
Also selling for $250K was a Base Set Test Print Uncut Sheet, the latter of which Heritage stressed that it was “more than 8 times its pre-auction estimate.”
Undoubtedly, the auction had a number of excellent options available!
It is not surprising that there was a lot of demand from the Pokemon fan base given the rarity of such collection items.
That being said, the tremendous amount of money these items generated illustrates just how expensive vintage Pokemon cards are nowadays.