Highsnobiety

The world's most valuable Pokémon card sold for ¥25,000,000 (approx $233,578.75) over the weekend, greatly exceeding the previous world record of $200,000 set in 2019. It was sold on e-auction platform Invaluable to an anonymous buyer.

Your Highsnobiety privacy settings have blocked this Instagram post.

The card in question shows the Pokémon Pikachu armed with a paintbrush and drawing tools. This shiny Pikachu Illustrator card features artwork from Atsuko Nishida, who conceived the original Pikachu design back in the early ’90s where she pulled inspiration from squirrels and daifuku, a soft and squidgy Japanese rice cake.

The card was able to fetch such an exorbitant price due to its scarcity. Pikachu Illustrator cards were originally given out to winners of a CoroCoro Comic Illustration Contest in 1998. Only 39 were made and of those, it's reported that only 10 are in circulation.

As the cultural cache of Pokémon continues to grow – Daniel Arsham drew some for his disintegrating Uniqo collab – perhaps it's worth going through your old stuff to see if you're sitting on any valuable cards.

We Recommend
  • Fashion Really Wants to Catch 'em All
    • Style
  • For the Year of the Dragon, Fendi Made Pokémon Luxury
    • Style
  • Look Out Pokémon: Takashi Murakami's Got His Own Trading Cards
    • Design
  • Nail Card Never Declines: These Press-Ons Double as Business Cards
    • Beauty
  • EXCLUSIVE: Pokémon, Tiffany & Daniel Arsham Choose You
    • Culture
What To Read Next
  • Veja's New Running Shoe Is a Surprisingly Slick Crossover Sneaker
    • Sneakers
  • The Trader Joes Tote Bag Is No Stanley Cup
    • Style
  • Ghettotech, Bootytech, Sextech, meet the Detroit trio HiTech
    • Culture
  • Kendall Jenner in Business Bottega Is Best-Dressed Material
    • Style
  • 2024, the Year of the Beautiful Celeb Couple
    • Culture
  • A Love Letter to Ferrari's IYKYK Super Car
    • Culture
*If you submitted your e-mail address and placed an order, we may use your e-mail address to inform you regularly about similar products without prior explicit consent. You can object to the use of your e-mail address for this purpose at any time without incurring any costs other than the transmission costs according to the basic tariffs. Each newsletter contains an unsubscribe link. Alternatively, you can object to receiving the newsletter at any time by sending an e-mail to info@highsnobiety.com

Web Accessibility Statement

Titel Media GmbH (Highsnobiety), is committed to facilitating and improving the accessibility and usability of its Website, www.highsnobiety.com. Titel Media GmbH strives to ensure that its Website services and content are accessible to persons with disabilities including users of screen reader technology. To accomplish this, Titel Media GmbH tests, remediates and maintains the Website in-line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which also bring the Website into conformance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that our efforts to maintain accessibility and usability are ongoing. While we strive to make the Website as accessible as possible some issues can be encountered by different assistive technology as the range of assistive technology is wide and varied.

Contact Us

If, at any time, you have specific questions or concerns about the accessibility of any particular webpage on this Website, please contact us at accessibility@highsnobiety.com, +49 (0)30 235 908 500. If you do encounter an accessibility issue, please be sure to specify the web page and nature of the issue in your email and/or phone call, and we will make all reasonable efforts to make that page or the information contained therein accessible for you.