The Pokémon Trading Card Game is one of the most popular games of the genre, with individual cards sometimes selling for ridiculous prices. One such item has been put on auction and features artwork based on a photo taken in Pokémon Snap!, the photography game released for the Nintendo 64 way back in 1999.
One of the Rarest Pokémon TCG Cards Is Currently on Auction
Over the past two and a half decades, the Pokémon franchise has grown to be one of the biggest ones in gaming, anime, and entertainment, spawning dozens of games and many other spin-off titles and series. The Pokémon TCG is equally as popular and many of its cards are now being sold as valuable collectibles. Their prices can often go up very high, with one Pikachu card being sold for a whopping $300 000 not too long ago.
But the trend for very pricy and very rare Pokémon cards to be sold for large amounts of money does not stop there. Another similar card that is currently being sold for $60 000 is a copy of the Pokémon Gyarados Unnumbered Promo 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo Contest. It is one of just 15 pieces, all believed to have been distributed to the winners of a competition hosted in 1999.
What makes this very limited series unique is that competitors in the 1999 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo Contest had to take the best photos of Pokémon that they could in the video game Pokémon Snap!. This game is a first-person photography game with rail shooter style gameplay mechanics released the same year for the Nintendo 64.
The contest produced many photos of which only five were chosen by the judges as being the top photographs. Each of them was printed onto reprint cards from the Japanese Pokémon TCG Expansion Pack. The particular card that currently stands at a $60 000 price tag appears to show a Gyarados with its tongue out.
Another factor driving up the cost of this card is the fact that it is the only copy to have been graded by CGC, which is a company that independently judges collectibles on their quality levels and value. With a Gem Mint of 9.5, any potential buyer can be sure they will be getting a truly unique piece.
Interestingly, another card from the 1999 Pokémon 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo Contest was auctioned off for a similar price some months ago. Back in December 2022, a card with a photo of Chansey was sold for $63,000. The auction for the current card depicting Gyarados will run until tomorrow and it’s likely the item will surpass the other card in terms of pricing, as the next bid requires a minimum of $62,500.