An unopened box of Pokémon cards released in 1999 turned out to be treasure, as it was sold for an eye-popping $56,000 in an auction.
The Pokémon franchise has mostly focused on video games, such as the upcoming Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu! and Let's Go Eevee for the Nintendo Switch and Pokémon GO for smartphones and on its anime shows and movies. The Pokémon trading card game, however, remains popular to this day and, for some collectors, also presents a lucrative venture.
Unopened Box of First Edition 'Pokémon' Cards Sold For $56,000
An unopened box of Pokémon cards from the trading card game's First Edition was sold in an auction in the United States at $56,000 after bidding was opened at a whopping $20,000.
According to the description of the auction carried out by Huggins & Scott, the box of Pokémon cards contains 36 packs of 11 cards each. Each pack, in turn, contains five common cards, five uncommon cards, two energy cards, and one rare or foil card. The chance of getting a foil card is almost one out of every three packs.
The auction house said that the box has been in the possession of its owner since it was released in 1999, and it is in perfect sealed condition except for a small ding in one of the corners.
The price of the unopened box reached such a staggering amount due to the immense value of First Edition cards in the secondary market. The winner of the auction is likely hoping that the box contains a foil Charizard, one of which was sold last year for $55,000. That card, by itself, would already make up for the cost of the unopened First Edition box.
Expensive Trading Card Games
With prices reaching $56,000 for an unopened box and $55,000 for a single card, the Pokémon trading card game is certainly a serious and very lucrative business.
Pokémon is not alone in the space, though, as another trading card game recently made the headlines for a card that reached an astronomical price in an auction.
Last month, a card named Black Lotus from the Alpha set of Magic: The Gathering was sold for $87,672. There were only 1,100 copies of the card printed as part of the trading card game's first set released in 1993. Making that particular Black Lotus even rarer and more expensive is that while it is unknown how many Alpha Black Lotus cards have survived to this day, the card in the auction was graded 9.5 Gem Mint.
