NEW YORK: One of the rarest and most highly coveted Pokemon cards in the world fetched US$360,000 (almost RM1.5 million) at a Sotheby’s auction in New York yesterday.
The Japanese 1998 “Pokemon Illustrator” holographic card, depicting the iconic franchise cartoon character Pikachu, is one of only 39 official copies.
The card in question is also the only one known to have been signed by Takumi Akabane, one of the three founders of the trading card game, said Sotheby’s.
The seller and successful bidder have not been disclosed.
The cards were awarded to winners of a 1998 drawing contest by the Japanese magazine CoroCoro Comic. One of them, considered the best-preserved card, was purchased for a whopping US$5,275,000 in 2021.
It received recognition from Guinness World Records the following year as the most expensive Pokémon card ever.