Rare Pokémon Card Sold for Nearly $200,000 USD at Auction
The near-mint card was graded a 9.
During a recent auction put on by auctioneer web site Invaluable, a very rare Pokémon card sold for nearly $200,000 USD.
The elite Pokémon playing card in question — that came up in Lot 182 of the auction — is the ultra-rare “Pikachu Illustrator” card illustrated by Atsuko Nishida. The card spotlights Pikachu holding a number of paint brushes, and the starter appears to be coloring numerous pocket monsters. Because the near-mint card was graded a 9, Invaluable managed to sell the item for $195,000 USD.
To give some background on the “Pikachu Illustrator” card, it is without a doubt one of the sequence’s rarest items, seeing as only 39 of them were ever launched. The card was distributed in 1998 and given to the winners of a CoroCoro Comic Illustration Contest for Pokémon.
Just three years ago, the elusive card sold for $55,000 USD via Heritage Auctions and has since more than tripled in value.
Earlier this year, a complete Pokémon card collection nabbed $100,000 USD at auction.
