As Benjamin Franklin once famously said, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” The increasing value of Pokemon trading cards would likely be tacked onto that statement were he around today, as a particular Water-type card has just sold for the most expensive single Pokemon card, ever.
Beginning in its native Japan in 1996, the Pokemon TCG came to the United States three years later in 1999. The “Pokemania” craze the franchise created stateside more than 20 years ago doesn’t seem to have subsided, as a first-edition sealed booster box recently sold for nearly half a million at auction. Although that is certainly a massive price, the Water-type card in question sold for close to the same amount, and that’s for a single card versus an entire deck.
Confirmed by auction site Heritage Auctions as the highest amount a single card has gone for at auction, the holographic Blastoise card has sold for a whopping $360,000. While this may seem like a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a single Pokemon card (or any card, for that matter), the story behind it asserts its ultra-rarity. Created by Wizards of the Coast, the original publishers of the Pokemon TCG, this was one of two presentation cards used to convince Nintendo about going ahead with the trading card game. As a result, it commands a significantly higher value than a typical first-edition Blastoise card.
The sale is the latest of a greater trend in recent months around original Pokemon cards going for extremely high prices. In addition to the Blastoise sale, retired rapper Logic recently purchased a first edition holographic Charizard for almost $200,000. Last month, a student paid his med school tuition after selling his card collection for $80,000. The most notable detail of that story, however, is that the student bought the same collection in 2016 for only $4,000, which goes to show the massive increase in value Pokemon cards have had in recent years.
The majority of 90s kids and Pokemon fans when these first editions launched have lost their collections to the sands of time. While the majority of that demographic may not have the ludicrous amounts of money to spend on getting their favorites back, fear not, because classic Pokemon cards are getting re-released in celebration of the franchise’s 25th anniversary.
The Pokemon Company appears to be revisiting its past in its quarter-century celebration. In addition to the re-release of old cards, the company is soon to launch New Pokemon Snap, a sequel to the original 1999 game on the Nintendo 64. While there are heavy rumors of a Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remaster coming next month, some fans are hoping for even more titles to make a comeback, like a remake of Pokemon Colosseum.
Source: Nintendo Life
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