One of two extremely rare Blastoise Pokémon cards has been sold at an auction for $360,000 (£266,000) making it the most expensive card ever to be sold. This is one of two Blastoise presentation cards that were produced for international use, but the whereabouts of the second one is currently unknown. It could be hiding in someone's garage, hidden among a deck of Pokémon cards, who knows.
This is an extremely rare card and the Heritage Auctions site cites that the Wizards of the Coast commissioned Cartamundi in 1998 to only print two of these cards to be used as "Presentation" pieces. These pieces would be used to seek Nintendo's approval to begin printing more of these Pokémon cards in English.
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The site goes into further detail about the card's history saying, "The artwork is by Ken Sugimori. In summary, the historical significance of this card is unquestioned. It's simply a "cannot miss" lot for the most discriminating collector and/or investor seeking the rarest and very best!" So all in all, it's a pretty huge card for someone to have nabbed.
Before this Blastoise card was sold, a shiny Charizard card held the title of being the most expensive card sold at an auction. It was sold last October to rapper-turned-streamer Logic for $228,000 (£169,000) and surpassed the previous record-holder, which was a copy of Pikachu Illustrator.
However, the Blastoise Pokémon card was not the most expensive thing sold on that day that was Pokémon-related. Heritage Auctions also put up a Base Set Booster Box, which contained a total of 36 sealed booster packs and featured cards from the original 102 set. This box sold for £301,000 at the auction. Someone is definitely currently having an absolutely wild time just opening up each of those packs in the hopes of getting another shiny Charizard. Or squirrelling them away never to be touched. Either works.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Pokemon