Pokémon Art Academy Mudkip Sells for Record $4.88 Million at Goldin
A 2015 Pokémon Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Mudkip has sold for $4.88 million at Goldin, setting what the auction house says is the all-time highest public sale for any Mudkip card. The card, featuring artwork by Daisuke Ochiai, was graded PSA Gem Mint 10 and sold in Goldin’s Pokémon 30th Anniversary Auction. Goldin announced the $4,880,000 final price after the sale.
The 2015 Pokémon Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Mudkip is one of the rarest cards from the 2015 Pokémon Art Academy promotion. Goldin says just three examples were recorded in PSA’s census when the lot was cataloged, with all three graded Gem Mint 10.
The card came from the inaugural Pokémon Art Academy promotion, which invited players to create Pokémon artwork using the Pokémon Art Academy game for Nintendo 3DS. Ten winning designs were selected in the Japanese competition, with each winning artist receiving just 100 copies of the card featuring their artwork. Ochiai’s Mudkip was one of those 10 winners.
That distribution method has made the Art Academy cards particularly difficult to acquire. The copies were awarded directly to the artists rather than released through booster packs or conventional retail products, and Goldin says it is unknown how many ever left the original winners’ private collections.
Mudkip also stands out within the Japanese Art Academy group because six of the 10 winning cards depicted Pikachu. The Daisuke Ochiai design is one of the non-Pikachu cards from the promotion and has become one of the most valuable examples from the series.
The $4.88 million sale was part of a remarkable run of results in Goldin’s Pokémon 30th Anniversary Auction. As CollectiblesNews.com reported, 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.
Two other Art Academy cards from the auction each reached $976,000. A 2015 Art Academy Sableye illustrated by iwaiya sold for a record $976,000. The PSA 10 Sableye was one of only four examples at that grade in PSA’s census when Goldin cataloged the card. A 2015 Art Academy Gourgeist illustrated by rina also sold for $976,000, establishing what Goldin called the highest public sale for any Gourgeist.
Together, the Mudkip, Trophy Pikachu, Sableye and Gourgeist accounted for $9,912,500 in final sales from just four cards in the same auction. The results also highlight how important prize and contest cards have become at the highest end of Pokémon collecting. None of the four cards came from conventional booster-pack distribution. The Trophy Pikachu was awarded at Pokémon’s first official TCG tournament in 1997, while the three Art Academy cards were produced for winning artists nearly two decades later. Among them, Mudkip now carries the largest price.
Goldin emphasized the card’s population of only three PSA-graded examples when promoting the lot, comparing its scarcity with other celebrated Pokémon rarities. The auction house noted that the Art Academy Mudkip had far fewer PSA-recorded examples than cards such as Pikachu Illustrator and the 1997 1st Place Trophy Pikachu at the time the lot was cataloged.