'Holy grail' 1990s Pokémon card sold for £30k

A rare first-edition Pokémon card described as a "holy grail" has been sold for £30,000.

Hansons Auctioneers, based in Etwall in Derbyshire, previously said the shadowless base set Charizard card would be the centrepiece of its auction on Friday, held to mark the 30th anniversary of Pokémon.

Bids for the card, which had a guide price of £30,000 to £40,000, fell short of the reserve price during the auction, but Hansons said the card was afterwards sold to a private buyer.

Cards related to the hugely popular Japanese animation franchise have soared in value over recent years - with some being sold for thousands of pounds.

Ahead of the auction, David Wilson-Turner, head of the toy department at the auction house, said: "Back in 1999, you could buy pack of 11 Pokémon cards at any Woolworths [store] for anything between £1.50 and £2.

"A Charizard was the rarest holographic in the base set, so pulling one from a pack was like winning a mini-lottery.

"Only 4,000 to 10,000 cards were produced, most of which were played with and are now dogeared - so to find one in mint condition like this one, which has a grading of 9 (out of 10), makes it all the rarer."

Other rare items listed for Friday's Pokémon Day auction included a full set of mint condition Jungle 1st Edition cards from 1999 valued up to £20,000, which went unsold.

A sealed booster box from the first English Pokémon set from 1999 sold over its guide price for £15,500, while a sealed EX Sandstorm booster box dating from 2003 reached £20,000.

A Japanese promo card from 2016 showing a Pickachu wearing a Mega Charizard X poncho also doubled its guide price, selling for £6,500.

Auction house owner Charles Hanson said Pokémon was a "market that has grown rapidly" and would "only continue to grow".

"Wealthy young people in their 20s and 30s, who got into Pokémon when they were children, are buying rare cards and prices began to spike a few years ago," he added.

Another reason given by experts for the rise in the cards' popularity was YouTuber Logan Paul wearing a Pikachu Illustrator card - the best preserved example of one of the rarest Pokémon cards ever - for WrestleMania, a major wrestling event in April 2022.

Earlier this month Paul sold the ultra-rare trading card for a record-shattering $16.5m (£12m), according to an auction firm.

The winning bidder was venture capitalist AJ Scaramucci, son of financier and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

AJ Scaramucci said it was the first acquisition of a planned "planetary treasure hunt".

Correction 2 March - This article has been updated to make it clear the card was sold after, not during, the auction.

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