This Yu-Gi-Oh Card Mysteriously Shot to $13.4 Million at a Chinese Auction

When it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh, there are tons of high-end collectibles you can buy, but few if any could top the million-dollar milestone. Sure, there are cards and figures out there that might hit triple digits, but the franchise isn’t big enough to pull in millions during an auction. But over in China, that is exactly what happened.

The whole thing went down when an auction in China went viral for its take on Yu-Gi-Oh. During the event, a rare Yu-Gi-Oh card was included which Konami released for the franchise’s 20th anniversary. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon gold edition card is made of solid gold, and there are only 500 in the world. At its release, the card was valued around $1,800 USD but is now expected to cost $45,000

So, you can see why things got wild when the auction bidding shot up to $13.4 million. The whole thing began when an initial bid of $77,000 was put in before 2,000 additional bids were placed. By the end of things, the bidding was up in the millions, and the auction site put a hold on the Yu-Gi-Oh collectible.

After all, some issues have arisen with the card and its auction. For one, Konami gave certificates of authenticity to those who purchased these gold edition cards, but the seller did not have one present. And moreover, the auction house is wanting to explore whether the seller had acquaintances jack up the card’s price by putting in stock bids. This is because the card hit up auction after its owner was sentenced to life in prison for embezzling over $10 million from a federal fund. But for now, the investigation has not provided any updates.

The Yu-Gi-Oh card was taken down from the auction site after bidding “diverged considerably” from what experts estimated the card to earn. If “malicious” bidding is what jacked this price up too much, the auction house might try a more vetted auction down the road. And if someone did want to pay $13 million for this card, well – we hope they get their card ASAP!

What do you think of this mysterious auction? Do you think this Yu-Gi-Oh blip was just a scam…? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.

HT – Kotaku