Pokémon Art Academy Gourgeist Card Sells for Record $976,000 at Goldin
A 2015 Pokémon Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Gourgeist has sold for $976,000 at Goldin, setting what the auction house says is the all-time highest public sale for any Gourgeist card. The card, illustrated by rina, was graded PSA Gem Mint 10 and sold in Goldin’s Pokémon 30th Anniversary Auction. Goldin announced the final $976,000 price following the sale.
Like several of the biggest Pokémon cards to emerge from the auction, the Gourgeist traces its rarity to the 2015 Pokémon Art Academy competition in Japan. The promotion invited players to create Pokémon artwork using the Pokémon Art Academy game for Nintendo 3DS. Ten winning designs were selected, and each winning artist received just 100 copies of a promotional card featuring their artwork. Rina’s Gourgeist was one of those 10 winners.
Unlike cards distributed through booster packs or widely available promotions, the Art Academy cards were placed directly into the hands of their creators. Goldin says it remains unknown how many copies ultimately left the winning artists’ private collections, helping make surviving examples extremely difficult to find on the open market.
The 2015 Pokémon Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Gourgeist offered by Goldin was graded PSA Gem Mint 10. At the time the auction was cataloged, Goldin said 17 copies were recorded at that top grade in PSA’s population report. The card features Gourgeist in an autumn-themed illustration by rina and carries the XY-P promotional designation.
Its $976,000 final price is particularly notable because another Art Academy card from the same auction finished at exactly the same amount. Goldin also sold a 2015 Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Sableye illustrated by iwaiya for $976,000. That PSA 10 card was one of just four examples at that grade in PSA’s census when the lot was cataloged, and Goldin called the result the highest public sale ever recorded for a Sableye.
The two Art Academy results gave the auction a pair of $976,000 sales involving Pokémon that rarely appear among the highest-priced cards in the hobby.
They were joined by an even larger result at the top of the auction. A 1997 Japanese Gold 1st Place 1st Tournament Trophy Pikachu graded PSA 8 sold for $3,080,500. Goldin called that result the all-time highest public sale for any Trophy Pikachu. The Trophy Pikachu and the two Art Academy cards reached the market through very different routes, but all three share a scarcity that comes from distribution outside conventional retail products. The Trophy Pikachu was awarded to a first-place finisher at the first official Pokémon TCG tournament in 1997. The Gourgeist and Sableye, meanwhile, were created as prizes for winning artists nearly two decades later.