Pokémon Most Valuable Magikarp Card Sells for Record $1.056 Million at Alt

A rare Japanese Pokémon Magikarp promotional card has crossed the seven-figure mark, selling for $1,056,000 at Alt and setting what the auction house says is a new world record for any Magikarp card. The card is a Japanese Tamamushi University Prize University Magikarp graded PSA Gem Mint 10. Alt announced the result following the auction, calling it the most expensive Magikarp card ever sold.

Condition scarcity is a major part of the card’s appeal. Alt says the card has a population of just 16 examples in PSA 10, a figure also reflected in PSA’s current population data. With no grade higher than Gem Mint 10, those 16 cards represent the top of the PSA population for the issue.

The $1.056 million result is particularly striking considering where the card had traded previously. PSA’s recorded auction sales include a PSA 10 example that brought $66,100 in February 2021. More recent sales had already moved substantially higher before the latest Alt auction, but the new result pushes Magikarp into an entirely different price range.

It also adds another character to the growing list of Pokémon capable of producing seven-figure sales. Just two weeks ago, CollectiblesNews.com reported that a PSA 10 Legendary Collection Snorlax sold for $651,001 at Alt, setting a record for Snorlax. That card was one of just 21 PSA 10 examples at the time of the sale.

Alt has been responsible for an even larger Pokémon record this fall. In September, a PSA 10 Torchic Gold Star sold for $2.7 million, becoming the most expensive English-language Pokémon card ever sold. The 2004 EX Team Rocket Returns card is one of only 19 examples graded PSA 10.

Other auction houses have been producing enormous Pokémon results at the same time. A PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator sold for $5 million at Heritage Auctions in September, while a Pokémon Art Academy Mudkip graded PSA 10 reached $3.72 million at Fanatics Collect.

Even below the seven-figure level, character-specific records have been falling quickly. A 2014 Pokémon World Championships No. 1 Trainer Pikachu trophy card sold for $292,800 at Goldin, and Alt previously sold a BGS Pristine 10 first-edition Slowking for a record $156,182.

The new Magikarp sale stands out even within that run. Magikarp is hardly the character most associated with million-dollar Pokémon cards, yet a combination of a scarce Japanese promotional issue and one of only 16 PSA 10 grades has now carried the card past $1 million.