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Check your old Pokemon cards, you might be sitting on a fortune

One of the rarest Pokémon cards in existence was just sold for $4 million through eBay

An image of Pokémon "Pikachu" Illustrator Unnumbered Promo CoroCoro Comics PSA Trading Card Game Mint 9 (The Pokémon Company, 1998) — Image credit: Heritage Auctions

News by Jules Chin Greene, Staff Writer

Published on Mon Sep 15 2025

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Just as archaeologists are uncovering new dinosaurs all the time, Pokémon TCG collectors are discovering incredibly rare Pokémon cards that are in remarkably good condition all these years later.

ICv2 reports that eBay recently sold one of the rarest cards in Pokémon TCG history, a PSA 9 Pokémon TCG "Pikachu" Illustrator Unnumbered 1998 CoroCoro Comics Promo (the name of Elon Musk's next child, I'm assuming) for $4 million. Only 39 copies of the card were printed, and I'm going to guess that most of them wouldn't be graded a PSA 9 at this point, given that it's been 27-some-odd years since the card was first printed. That said, in 2022, another copy of the card, also graded a PSA 9, sold for $840,000 through Heritage Auctions, a relative bargain in comparison to the most recent eBay sale.

So why were only 39 copies of the card printed? And what's an Illustrator card? In 1998, there was an illustration contest publicized by CoroCoro Comics, and the winners of the contest were awarded a copy of this promo card. It's the only Pokémon card to have a pen symbol in the lower right corner and to be an "Illustrator" card. The pen is mightier than the Doublade, etc.

So I don't know, maybe you're one of those illustration contest winners. If so, a belated congratulations! I'm not here to tell you what to do, but you might want to consider getting your Illustrator card graded.

The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We've got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer:

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Jules Chin Greene: Jules Chin Greene is a journalist and Jack Kirby enthusiast. He has written about comics, video games, movies, and television for sites such as Nerdist, AIPT, and Multiverse of Color.