Two incredibly rare Pokémon cards put on sale by two different eBay users were purchased on September 12, both fetching millions of dollars at auction. Both were Japanese promo cards from the 1990s that have gone for huge sums in the past.
The more pricey of the two was sold by user Smpratte, and is a PSA 9 copy of the famous Pikachu Illustrator, lauded as the most valuable card in the Pokémon hobby. It fetched up an immense $4 million.
Staggering though that amount is, this card has actually sold for more in the past. In 2021, the YouTuber Logan Paul spent $4 million on a PSA 10 copy, but also parted ways with a PSA 9 copy previously purchased for over a million bucks.
Awarded to winners of an illustration contest in a Japanese magazine, the 39 recipients of the Pikachu Illustrator card had no idea what they'd received would one day be close to priceless, which is why so few are in good condition.
The second card, sold by Stephychu025 for $3 million, is another PSA 9, this time a 1998 No. 1 Trophy Pikachu card. These Trophy promos were given to winners of the first Pokémon tournaments, and though we've seen No. 2 and No. 3 trainers sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, we've never seen a 1998 No. 1 in such good condition hit the market before.
A Near Mint PSA 7 sold several years ago for about $80,000, but that's a long way off from $3 million. So while most will focus on the larger number attached to Illustrator, it seems to us it's actually the Trophy that's the more significant sale.
It's also worth noting that Stephychu has several other rarities still up on sale. They're asking for $5 million for a Trophy Pikachu No. 2 for instance. If it sells, that'll be the most cash ever spent on a Pokémon card.
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