Vintage Pokémon Promo is Most Valuable Bulbasaur Card Ever
Bulbasaur has long been one of the most well-known Pokémon out there as one of the three starters from the very first generation. Despite admittedly having the least popularity among the trio, even at the final stage of its evolution line, Bulbasaur is still an integral part of the franchise and has a sizeable number of fans out there.
That being said, a Bulbasaur card recently made history that neither Squirtle nor Charmander has ever matched before.
Incredibly Rare CoroCoro Best Photo Bulbasaur Shatters All-Time Record
Most Pokémon TCG fans may have never even seen or heard of this card before, and honestly, that's a testament to just how rare this piece is. This is a CoroCoro promo all the way from 1999 that was created through a magazine competition in collaboration with the Pokémon Snap video game.
Players of the game were given an opportunity to submit their best photographs of specific Pokémon, which were then submitted to CoroCoro for judging. The best photos were printed as real cards, with the winning contestants receiving multiple copies of the card.
With a worldwide population of 20, a total PSA population of seven, and a PSA 9 population of just two, this is by far one of the rarest Bulbasaur cards in the entire world and truly has the makings of a record-breaking collector's item from the start.
It's not even the 9 that made history, but a PSA 8 copy that went for a massive $809,943 through auction at Goldin and became the most valuable Bulbasaur card by more than $600,000.
Comparing CoroCoro Best Photo Promo Card Top Sales
Now, while some entries came from the 64 Mario Stadium TV show rather than CoroCoro magazine, the promotion was largely the same and used photographs taken entirely in Pokémon Snap.
First up is Charmander, who's arguably the most popular and supposedly most successful of the three Kanto region starters by every single metric. The all-time record for a Best Photo Charmander card is $640,500, which was the price paid for the incredibly rare POP 1 PSA 8 variant. In third place is the Best Photo Squirtle card, graded only a PSA 6, that still fetched a massive $555,100 at auction.
Other extremely valuable Best Photo promo cards outside of the Gen 1 starter trio are Chansey in a PSA 7, which sold for $488,000, Articuno in a PSA 7 at $231,800, and Koffing in a BGS 9 that ultimately closed at $180,000.
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Joaqin is a journalist with a strong passion for the Hobby. He has published work for HLTV.org, Rappler.com, and DLSU Sports. A decade-long Pokémon TCG collector, he recently shifted into sports cards to collect Lakers, Dodgers and Chargers players with growing PCs of Shohei Ohtani and Justin Herbert.