A rare Pokémon card is once again up for auction with the current bid being considerably higher than the average American household’s annual income, and the rare 1st edition Charizard in question is set to sell for a higher price than the current record holder. It’s not often that a Pokémon card with such a high value is sold, but that’s to be expected from a card as rare as the first edition holographic Charizard.
Card collecting has been a favored pastime of many for several decades, but over the last couple of months, the Pokémon card collecting community has grown substantially. From spending a few hundred thousand dollars on vintage boxes to opening hundreds of packs of the latest set on stream, Pokémon card collecting has hit an all-time high. With the increase in hobbyists and collectors, the prices of vintage sets and cards have gone up as well causing some collector’s pieces to skyrocket in value.
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One of the rarest and arguably most valuable Pokémon cards is the 1st-edition base set holographic Charizard from 1999. There is currently an ongoing auction on eBay from PWCC Auctions for a PSA 10 graded Charizard with the bid at the time of writing being $270,200.00 USD. The bid ends Saturday, December 12th, so it is likely that the final bid will be even higher. However, the current bid is already $50k+ over the previous record for the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold. The previous record-holding holographic Charizard sold to rapper Logic for $220,000 USD.
The astronomical value of the Charizard is largely due to its pristine grading. While loose Pokémon cards hold some value, most of their value comes from being graded by professional card graders. Cards are graded on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the absolute best condition. The card that is currently up for auction is a PSA 10 which means it is in Gem Mint condition and has zero blemishes or factory errors. The trickiest part about getting a card graded is that even if the card goes directly from pack to grader, there can still be errors that are out of the owner’s control that occurred during printing.
If any collectors are sitting on a goldmine of classic Pokémon cards, now could be the best time to sell. With the interest in Pokémon card collecting being at an all-time high, people are more susceptible to purchase rare cards at ludicrous prices. While cards likely won’t lose their value after the Pokémon card hype dies down, it’s possibly easier now more than ever to find a willing buyer. Even if collectors don’t have a PSA 10 Charizard, there are plenty of vintage cards that are worth a good chunk of change.
Source: PWCC Auctions/eBay
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