Rare Pokemon Card Sells For Record Breaking Amount

A rare Pokemon card has sold for over $200,000, breaking a previous record set by another copy of the same card. A "Mint 9" version of the Pikachu Illustrator card recently sold for $233,000 to an American collector, marking the second time in a year that a copy of the card has sold for six figures. A previous sale of a similarly graded "Pikachu Illustrator" card sold for $220,000 last October after a fierce bidding war between two buyers.

The "Pikachu Illustrator" card is one of the rarest Pokemon cards in existence, with only 10 of the original 39 cards believed to still exist today. The cards were originally given out to winners of a Pokemon card illustration contest in Japan and features artwork by Atsuko Nishida, the original illustrator for Pikachu. Because of the artwork and the extreme rarity of the card, "Pikachu Illustrator" cards have skyrocketed in value as the demand for rare Pokemon cards keeps increasing.

This isn't the first rare Pokemon card to make headlines this year, as a "No. 1 Trainer" card sold for $90,000 in a similar auction. Like the Pikachu Illustrator card, the No. 1 Trainer card was given out as a prize to players, but that card also served as an invitation to a "secret tournament" in Japan to crown that country's top Pokemon TCG player. No. 1 Trainer cards are still given out as prizes today, although they aren't considered to be nearly as valuable. We'll note that the seller of the "Pikachu Illustrator" card is also selling a set of "No. 1 Trainer," "No. 2 Trainer," and "No. 3 Trainer" cards for approximately $200,000.

To learn more about the world of Pokemon card collecting as major investments, be sure to listen to ComicBook.com's recent interview with Jeremy Padawer, one of the world's leading Pokemon card collectors, on A Wild Podcast Has Appeared, ComicBook.com's official Pokemon podcast.