An extremely rare Pokémon card from the late ’90s has resurfaced, selling for a whopping 5 million yen ($136,000) at an auction in Japan.
The card in question was one of 20 ‘Snap Magikarp’ cards given away to the winner Pokémon Snap Competition held in Japan. The contest itself requires entrants to submit their favorite snaps of certain Pokémon, with the winners having their entry to the official Pokémon card.
There are ten unique cards in total, including Magikarp, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Articuno, etc. What’s interesting about the contest is that the winners don’t get one every single card; they only get 20 copies of their own design. So, effectively, the full circulation of each design is only given to the winners of the contest.
This makes these cards extremely rare, as it is quite possible for some winners to simply box their cards and put them in storage. Indeed, while nine out of ten cards have been seen in the two decades since, ‘Snap Magikarp’ has remained elusive…so far, that is.
As stated in smpratte’s YouTube video below, the irony behind this is that Magikarp is possibly one of the most popular creatures in Pokémon Snap, appearing at least once in all of its levels. As for the remaining 19 ‘Snap Magikarp’ cards, where they are hiding is anyone’s guess.
