Card collecting is all the rage at the moment. You may have already seen the scuffles caused by avid Pokémon fans fighting over packs to open, as TCG collecting reaches a wild level of popularity again. However, in the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, we're seeing a strange case in which one of the rarest cards in the game has been over valued in a suspected "malicious bidding" war.
The card we're talking about is a Blue-Eyes White Dragon - and even if you're unfamiliar with Yu-Gi-Oh!, you may have heard of this card in passing. It's the card that all Yu-Gi-Oh! fans hope to one day acquire, and any that do come up at auction tend to sell for tens of thousands of dollars. But this card, as rare as it is, isn't worth $13.4 million - which is what it was set to sell for at a Chinese court auction.
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As spotted by IGN and reported by South China Morning Post, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in question belonged to Zhang Yujie, who has been sentenced to life in prison after embezzling millions of yuan from the government. As he probably isn't going to see outside of his prison existence ever again, his possessions are being auctioned off to the public, including the card.
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The card, if it is a genuine Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the 20th anniversary celebration (one of 500 out there), should be worth about 200-300,000 yuan, or $31,000-$46,000. But strangely, the bidding price for the card rocketed past that number and up into the millions, which caused the auction to be called off.
More than 18,000 people bid on the card, which seemed suspicious too. The company selling the card, Alibaba Group, said that $13.4 million was far too high and "malicious bidding behaviour was suspected" as a result. Nevertheless, the eye-watering sun this card can usually command just goes to show that there's money to be made in the card-collecting world, whether it's Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon or something else. Just don't get yourself imprisoned in the process.
Featured Image Credit: Konami