DALLAS, TX.- A complete PSA Gem Mint 10 Pokémon First Edition Base Set sold for $1,218,750, the record price paid for such a set in a public sale, at Heritage Auctions’ June 26–27 Trading Card Games and Manga Signature® Auction. The event took in a Heritage Trading Card Games auction record of $7,894,456, surpassing the previous all-time high of $7,620,617 set in March.

Heritage Auctions Trading Card Games Managing Director Jesus Garcia says assembling a complete set in any condition of the 1999 First Edition Base Set is an accomplishment in itself, given the low population of some of the cards. To collect all 102 in PSA Gem Mint 10 condition?

“Extraordinary,” Garcia says. “It takes extreme dedication, resources and patience over the course of years to find every single Pokémon from the set in top condition. I was glad to see the price show that buyers understood the incredible rarity of some of these cards and appreciated the work it took to create such an impressive assemblage.”

The rare Pokémon Pikachu Illustrator Unnumbered Promo CoroCoro Comics — one of the hobby’s Grail cards, Garcia says — reached a final price of $843,750 for a PSA 8.5-graded copy. Three other Grail cards are the Gold No. 1, Silver No. 2 and Bronze No. 3 Trainers, trophy cards awarded at the 1998 Lizardon Mega Battle, known as the Charizard Mega Battle outside of Japan. Fewer than 20 of each in any condition are listed on the PSA census, so opportunities to pick them up are exceedingly rare. In this case, the consignor chose to sell all three in one lot, and the winning bidder pounced on the chance to catch all three in one go for $875,000.

A uncut First Edition/Shadowless Base Set that hung in the office of Wizards of the Coast CEO Vincent Caluori, which is labeled “Form 7” and includes both Shadowless and First Edition cards from the set, sold for $375,000.

A Gem Mint 10 Pokémon Pikachu Art Academy Winner Prize Card set a card record at $156,250.From late 2014 to early 2015, the Pokémon Art Academy Competition had fans create pictures in the Pokémon Art Academy Nintendo 3DS game and made winning entries into cards. Winners each receive 100 copies of their prize card, and only 56 copies of this one have earned a Gem Mint 10.





A Pokémon Chinese First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Box realized a record $78,125 — more than triple the $24,000 price of the last example sold by Heritage, in 2024. And Heritage sold its first Pokémon-e: Expedition Base Set Sealed Booster Box for $112,500. The box is the first main expansion set of the e-Card Series of the Pokémon Trading Card Game made for use with the Nintendo e-Reader for the Game Boy Advance.

Bidders appreciated, to the tune of $575,000, the value of a Magic: The Gathering Artist Proof Limited Edition (Beta) set of 285 signed and sketched CGC-graded cards, another extraordinarily rare — this one likely unique, in fact — set from another iconic game launched in the 1990s. In 1993, publisher Wizards of the Coast created a Collector’s Edition featuring all cards from the original release. Artist Proof copies, blank-backed cards with standard card fronts made to show artists what the final versions would look like, were printed in very limited amounts. Many of them were destroyed, lost or given away before they took off as precious collector’s items, so gathering all 285 known Artist Proofs itself is a feat. Finding signed and sketched versions or obtaining signatures for every single one is an incredible accomplishment that took the consignor 15 years, Garcia says.

From the Manga section of the sale, Shonen Jump No. 1, the 1968 debut issue of the publication — which did not yet contain “Weekly” in the title, as it was initially biweekly — took in $37,500.