Black Lotus and Pikachu Illustration Cards Lead $11.3 Million Auction Week

The upper end of the trading card market reached remarkable new heights last week, with five historic Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering cards selling for a combined $11,339,471!

The largest individual Magic: The Gathering sale was a PSA Gem Mint 10 Alpha Black Lotus, which was auctioned by Goldin for $2.208 million (including the buyer’s premium). Only three Alpha Black Lotus cards currently hold that grade, making it one of the rarest, and most desirable, versions of Magic’s most famous card.

The result sets a new public-auction record the card, although uit still remains below the £3 million paid privately in 2024 for a CGC Pristine 10 Alpha Black Lotus.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing for myself, and no doubt a number of older gamers, as I remember having a number of Black Lotus cards from the Beta and Unlimited sets, as well as Moxes and plenty of Dual Lands. Still have a few Dual Lands, but sadly I parted with the other cards very early on which has resulted in me writing away here for my next meal as opposed to lounging around on a Caribbean beach nestled behind my own villa…

Under almost any other circumstance, the sale of the Black Lotus would have been the week’s headline sale. However, it was eclipsed by two exceptionally rare Pikachu Illustrator cards, which sold for more than $7.8 million combined.

(The above Pokemon Pikachu Illustrator Unnumbered Promo CoroCoro Comics PSA 9 card sold for $5 million at Heritage on 18th September)

According to Card Ladder data, every card among this week’s five largest TCG sales, recorded between 13 and 20 September, exceeded $500,000. Alongside the two Pikachu Illustrators and the Black Lotus were a sealed first-edition Pokemon Base Set Booster Box and a PSA 10 Legendary Collection Reverse-holo Charizard.

(The cheapest of the ‘Top 5’ cards from last week was the above Pokemon Charizard 3 Legendary Collection PSA Trading Card Game Mint 10 which sold for $575,00 at Heritage on 18th September)

The sales arrive amid renewed interest in Pokemon following the worldwide launch of the Pokemon Trading Card Game’s 30th Celebration, which generated queues, purchases restrictions and inflated early resale prices, with one card from the set - the Red RGB Mew - having already sold for $5,670.40 in a verified completed sale. A Blue RGB Mew, from the same set released last week (15th September) was reportedly sold for $20,000, although that has not been officially verified.

A big difference is that last weeks multi-million dollar auction sales involve exceptionally rare historical cards, not ordinary modern releases, although as seen from the RGB Mew prices from last weeks brand new set they can still sell for thousands, but even those cards are unusual compared to prices for most of the set.

(The above 1998 Japanese CoroCoro Comic Promo Holo Illuistrator Pikachu CGC 9 was sold by Goldin for $2,806,271 on 19th September).

What it does show is that Pokemon, and other rare TCG cards, are increasingly resembling established markets for fine art, rare comics, and elite sports memorabilia, where provenance, condition, and extreme scarcity can attract wealthy collectors prepared to spend millions. Unfortunately there is also the flip side which has also seen criminals looking at the TCG market due to the prices involved, alongside the easy and numerous routes to liquidate the cards to cash.