Charizard is the game's most valuable card.
One of the Pokémon: Trading Card Games' most valuable cards has just sold on Ebay for over $300,000.
The card, a first edition shadowless Base Set Charizard, was sold out of Portland, Oregon to an unknown bidder for a whopping $311,800. As a rare PSA 10-graded card, it is essentially in pristine condition, with many cards even straight from a pack struggling to hit the grade. The owner of the card is unknown, but it was sold via PWCC Auctions, a service that appraises and manages auctions of high-value trading cards.
While the legitimacy of big Ebay bids is often called into question, this auction had special rules that required bidders in the last 24 hours to be approved in advance. It doesn't guarantee the winning bid was real, but it certainly does raise the chances of it.
The reason a shadowless Charizard is worth so much is that it signifies the card was one of the first printed, as later print runs added a drop shadow to the art frame. Any base set shadowless card is valuable, but Charizard (and, to a lesser extent, Blastoise) in particular semi-regularly grab thousands in auctions. Charizard is regularly cited as one of the franchise's most popular Pokémon, and so a combination of nostalgia, popularity, and the feedback loop of a card selling for a large amount prompting others to also sell theirs for a lot are to blame for the massive value.
Shadowless Base Set Charizard has been in the news multiple times in the past year, with the most noteworthy appearance coming after rapper Logic purchased one for around $220,000. That was, at the time, the highest the card had ever sold for. However, the current record is $369,000, sold by Goldin Auctions.
While it's unlikely you have a PSA 10 Base Set Shadowless Charizard in your collection, there are other valuable cards you might own!
Source: NintendoLife
