One lucky Pokémon fan was so intent on catching 'em all they forked over nearly $200,000 for a single playing card.
That's right — your fifth-grade obsession may actually have fiscal value now if a recent auction of a Pokémon card is any indicator. An ultra-rare Pokémon card in near mint condition fetched $195,000 on auctioneer website Invaluable.
According to the description on the website, the item was a "Pokémon Illustrator" card from 1998, more commonly known as a "Pikachu Illustrator" card.
So why is this such a hot ticket item for collectors? According to Invaluable, there are only 39 of the cards in existence and only 10 are PSA-certified, meaning less than a dozen cards have been verified as authentic.
"What makes it so rare is that it was not sold, but awarded as a prize in an illustration contest through CoroCoro Comic," the item description from Weiss Auctions states. "This unique card was created specifically for the contest. In the January 1998 issue, three 1st Place winners won a copy of the card, as did another 20 2nd Place winners. With cards awarded in two more contests that year, there were a maximum of 39 copies released. It is not known exactly how many surviving copies are still around; however, only 10 PSA certified copies are known, a very important note because there are many counterfeit copies."
According to several reports, this sale make this item the most expensive Pokémon card on the planet.
But this certainly isn't the first time Pokémon items have fetched big dollars. A complete set of first-edition Pokémon cards from 1999 sold for more than $100,000 in August and another "Pikachu Illustrator" card sold for a mere $54,970 back in 2016.
