#Rare Pokémon card already has $170K bid ahead of auction

The record for most expensive Pokémon card may be evolving.

A New Jersey auction house may be on the cusp of setting a new record for the priciest Pokémon card ever auctioned.

Goldin Auctions’ first edition holographic 1999 Charizard card boasts a $170,000 bid with 10 days to go. The card is “Black Diamond Label certified” and graded “Gold Label Pristine 10” — the most prestigious level — by the respected card grading group Sportscard Guaranty Corporation. In addition to its credentials, the card is “irresistibly cloying” and “beckons the observer through magnetic visual qualities that challenge the adequacy of verbal description,” Goldin’s description says, waxing poetic about the potent piece of ’90s nostalgia.

The rhapsodic lot blurb goes on to compare the Charizard card with the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card, arguing that “both items showcase larger-than-life figures who occupy center-stage in the fantasies of countless enthusiasts” and “radiate a physical beauty which effectively combines attributes that resonate even with the uninitiated.”

A recent private sale of a similar quality Charizard card saw the rare relic change hands for $250,000, the description adds.

Rapper Logic holds the record of most money paid for a Pokémon card in a public sale: The recently retired artist shelled out $183,000 — over $220,000 including the buyer’s premium — for another first edition Charizard card in October. YouTube influencer Logan Paul also recently shelled out a pretty penny for a pack of the cards, paying $216,000 for a booster box set, HypeBeast reported.

The fresh craze for Nintendo’s beloved Japan-born Pocket Monsters brand is sending childhood lovers of the trading card game into their attics in hopes of finding now-lucrative auction items in their dusty boxes of childhood artifacts. “I gave them away years ago and I don’t want to hear about my non-existent children’s non-existent college fund,” one former collector told Polygon.