Another $1 Million Charizard Leads the Week’s Biggest TCG Sales
It was another monster week for trading card game sales, led by one of the most recognizable Pokémon cards ever produced, crossing the seven-figure mark.
A PSA 10 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard sold for $1,000,952.84 on eBay, while another Charizard, Lugia, and Gengar also topped $200,000. A complete 295-card 1993 Magic: The Gathering Alpha set was the lone non-Pokémon entry.
Combined, this week’s five biggest sales totaled $2,193,672.77. Here’s the countdown of the five biggest TCG sales of the week, with data from Card Ladder.
5. 1999 Pokémon Japanese Vending Masaki Promo Gengar #94 PSA 10
Gengar starts this week’s countdown with another massive result for a vintage Japanese Pokémon card.
The Masaki Promo is one of Gengar’s most distinctive early cards and was originally available through Japan’s Communication Evolution Campaign. A PSA 10 example sold for $207,000 on eBay on Sept. 12.
PSA has graded just 84 copies with a Gem Mint 10 grade, helping make the unusual Japanese promo one of the biggest Gengar cards in the hobby.
4. 1993 Magic: The Gathering Alpha Complete Set
The lone non-Pokémon entry this week isn’t an individual card—it’s the complete set that started Magic: The Gathering.
Released in August 1993, Alpha was the first Magic set and consisted of 295 cards. A complete Alpha set, described by the seller as being in excellent/lightly played condition, sold for $234,499.93 on eBay on Sept. 11.
More than three decades after its release, owning all 295 cards from the set that launched Magic: The Gathering remains a significant collecting achievement.
3. 2011 Pokémon Call of Legends Lugia #15 PSA 10
One of the more surprising results of the week came from Lugia.
A 2011 Pokémon Call of Legends Holo #15 Lugia graded PSA 10 soared to $367,220 to lead Goldin’s wide-ranging pop culture auction. The high-grade Lugia attracted 49 bids before closing early Thursday morning and finished at nearly twice the price of the auction’s next-highest reported sale.
The result put Lugia within striking distance of the No. 2 card on this week’s list.
2. 2006 Pokémon EX Dragon Frontiers Charizard Gold Star #100 PSA 10
The first of two Charizards in this week’s Top 5 comes from 2006 EX Dragon Frontiers.
According to Card Ladder, there are just 98 PSA 10 examples, adding to the appeal of one of the era’s biggest Pokémon cards.
1. 1999 Pokémon 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard #4 PSA 10
And then there’s Charizard. There are few cards more synonymous with the Pokémon hobby than the 1st Edition Base Set Charizard. The combination of Charizard, the inaugural English Pokémon set, and the difficulty of finding pristine examples has made the PSA 10 one of the hobby’s ultimate trophy cards.
This example crossed the seven-figure threshold with a $1,000,952.84 sale on eBay on Sept. 9—more than $600,000 ahead of the No. 2 card on this week’s list.
With two Charizards leading the way and five sales combining for nearly $2.2 million, this week offered another reminder of just how much money continues to chase the biggest cards at the top of the TCG market.
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Lucas Mast is a writer based in California’s Bay Area, where he’s a season ticket holder for St. Mary’s basketball and a die-hard Stanford athletics fan. A lifelong collector of sneakers, sports cards, and pop culture, he also advises companies shaping the future of the hobby and sports. He’s driven by a curiosity about why people collect—and what those items reveal about the moments and memories that matter most.
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