An aircraft mechanic has discovered an old Pokémon card from his childhood that could earn him $50,000. The iconic card will be familiar to many fans who were children in the 1990s and 2000s.
Morten Sørensen of Kastrup in Denmark found the card in his attic, according to the country's TV 2, and is now seeking to sell it through Danish trading portal DBA, partly because he does not want to have something so valuable in his possession.
The card is a Charizard-Holo (Shadowless) from 1999, some versions of which may be worth as much as $100,000. Sørensen has already received offers for around 300,000 Danish kroner, which is over $48,000 at current exchange rates.
The 27-year-old received the card in a trade when he was in the third grade when he swapped it for another Pokémon card depicting a Rayquaza.
Sørensen told TV 2 that the person who traded him the Charizard card has taken the news of its valuation well.
"We exchanged them, showed them to each other and brought them to school, but we actually did not know how to actually play with them," he said.
Sørensen discovered the card's rarity after watching a YouTube video about childhood objects that might have become valuable. The video mentioned the Charizard card.
He sent the card to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), a U.S. company that offers authentication and grading services for trading cards. That is how he discovered the card was worth a large sum.
"They sent it back with the rating 9 out of 10, which is the second best you can ever achieve," Sørensen said.
"At the same time, it is in good quality, it is from 1999, and it is a first edition. Taken together, it makes the card extremely rare, and that means the price gets right up to where it is now," he said.
Sørensen said he's already had bids around the 300,000 kroner ($48,457) mark but his preferred price is 315,000 kroner ($50,880). He considers the price to be reasonable.
"I actually just want to get rid of it. I think it is too strange to have a card that is worth so much money," Sørensen said. He is reportedly not keeping the rare trading card in his own home.
"I am sure that there is someone who will be able to enjoy it even more and who will be able to take better care of it than I can," he said.
The Pokémon Trading Card Game (PTCG) first became popular among children in western countries in the 1990s at the height of the Pokémon craze and has remained a major player in the trading card game world, selling more than 30 billion cards worldwide, according to the Pokémon Company.
