When a rare Charizard card went up for auction last Friday, fans of the popular cartoon series knew the asking price would be pretty big. Dubbed as the Pokémon trading card game’s “crown jewel” by Iconic Auctions, the starting bid was set at $40,000.
At the end of the auction the mint-condition, the first-edition card was sold to Sir Robert Bryson Hall II – for a whopping $183 812. And with the 20% buyer’s premium factored in, the total price of the card rose to around $220 000.
Better known by his stage name, Logic, the rap music star took to Instagram to share the reasons behind his extravagant purchase.
“When I was a kid I absolutely loved Pokémon but couldn’t afford the cards. I remember even trying to trade food stamps for them. And now as an adult who has saved every penny he has made, being able to enjoy something that I’ve loved since childhood now as a grown man is like buying back a piece of something I could never have. It’s not about the material it’s about the experience.”
The Charizard card wasn’t Logic’s only Pokémon purchase. He also bought a base-set box for $23 000 earlier that same week.
Despite his musical success, Logic retired earlier this year and signed an exclusive deal to become a Twitch streamer instead.
The first-edition Charizard isn’t the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold. That record belongs to Japanese “Illustrator Pikachu” which sold for over $233 000 earlier this year.
In recent times the market for old card games has heated up, as those who grew up during the first wave of these games can now afford to buy all the collectables they desire. In 2019, a rare Black Lotus card from Magic: The Gathering sold for more than $166 000 at an auction – more than doubling the card’s value.
