Admit it: You wish you had kept the old collection of Pokémon cards, right?
But you’ve probably never set your eyes on a weird card: a holographic Blastoise that sold for $ 360,000 at an online auction last week.
The collectible authenticator CGC Trading Cards issued the offers live on January 14 via YouTube and noted that the “presentation card”, one of the two prototypes used in marketing and promotion “to demonstrate what a English Pokémon card “, is the only one known to still exist.
“This is a historic moment, ladies and gentlemen,” the auctioneer said before reaching the final bid. According to CGC, the buyer was anonymous while almost tying the record for the highest amount paid for any English Pokémon card.
The test print, commissioned by Wizards of the Coast in 1998, is one-sided, showing a blank space where the Pokémon logo would have been. Card maker Cartamundi produced other similar Blastoise cards, some of which carry designs from “Magic: The Gathering,” a different game also distributed by the Wizards brand.
CGC said “the whereabouts of the second Blastoise card are unknown.”
Late last year, a couple of Charizard cards sold for $ 369,000 each to Goldin Auctions. This surpassed the previous record, held by the rapper and, of course, the Pokémon Logic collector, who dropped more than $ 220,000 on a Charizard card of the same edition.
“The first record was only set last month,” CGC wrote, “demonstrating the degree of heat in the trading card market, with CGC trading cards adding fuel to the fire through their expert certification services.”