An incredibly rare 1998 Pikachu Silver Trophy card has just sold for $444,000 in the TCG's second-highest sale of all time. This card was originally the second-place prize in a 1997-'98 Lizardon Mega Battle tournament event. The only card to sell for higher than this is the Pikachu Illustrator which Logan Paul bought for $5.275 million.

This sale has now dethroned the 1999 First Edition Shadowless Holographic Charizard #4 which sold for $420,000 in March 2022. The Pikachu Silver Trophy card went for a final price of $24,000 higher this morning at 3:30am, with 28 bids total. The final, winning bid was $370,000.

According to Goldin, the card was "Graded GEM MT 10 by PSA [...] Among all of the scant four examples of this piece in PSA's census reporting, this is the sole piece at this unimprovable tier. Among the top tiers of Pokemon collecting, various cards have vied for a spot on the 'Most Sought After' lists, spectacular pieces that haunt a collector's dreams, only to be seen at intermittent extended intervals, if ever spied at all."

Final sale price on this 1998 Pokemon Japanese Promo Silver 2nd-2nd Tournament #2 Trophy Pikachu - PSA GEM MT 10: $444,000 pic.twitter.com/3dm5uQ6385

— Goldin (@GoldinCo) September 7, 2023

The Pikachu Silver Trophy card has artwork from Mitsuhiro Arita who has worked on the TCG since its inception. He has also worked on Monster Hunter, Shin Megami Tensei, and Super Sentai. This card in particular is so rare, that there are only 14 believed to be in existence due to the "number of events held and the two age groups participating".

The tournament this card hails from is often regarded as the first official national championship, being as it was the largest TCG event held up until that point with over 21,500 people attending. Each winner would receive a card depicting Pikachu holding the corresponding trophy - there is a bronze number three variant, the silver number two variant that just sold, and a gold number one variant. Each came in an acrylic plaque which also corresponded with your placement.

While there is still a huge gap between the first and second-highest-selling cards, the reason for that is because the Pikachu Illustrator that Logan Paul bought was the only PSA 10 to exist. Paul exchanged a PSA 9 version of the same card, which is worth around $1,275,000, while also paying $4 million. This netted him the Guinness World Record for the most expensive Pokemon TCG sale.

Posted: Sep 12, 2023 11:38 am
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/pikachu-silver-trophy-card-444000-dollars-trading-card-game-second-highest-sale/