An unopened First Edition box of the original Pokémon cards from 1999 were recently sold at auction for $56,000.

On July 27th, Huggins & Scott Auctions put up the card box at a starting bid of $20,000. Bidding continued for over a week until August 10th when the pack was finally sold. $20,000 may seem like a steep price but, aside from the untouched nostalgia, most were after the First Edition holo card featuring Charizard that was in the box.

Some may not understand the appeal but this card is exceedingly rare. In fact, one was sold in April this year for roughly $55,000 - almost as much as the whole box set. According to Beckett Grading, this card has been compared to iconic baseball and basketball cards; even non-Pokémon fans know what it is.

rare charizard pokemon card

The auction description states:

"A box break will yield (36) 11-card packs. Additionally, each pack will deliver: (5) common, (3) uncommon, (2) Energy and (1) Rare or Foil card. Based on production, the odds of pulling a foil card are nearly 1:3 packs. With 396 chances for Gem Mint 10 holos and other high-grade treasures, “the sky’s the limit” for this transcendent non-sport box!"

Naturally, this will no doubt have many people scrambling to see if they have any rare cards that they can sell for thousands of dollars but it's important to remember that this situation is very unique and not every card is incredibly rare or highly demanded. Also, the cards in question are First Edition (which are differentiated by a small bit of foil). Even if collectors do have a Charizard card, it's not going to get as much attention if it doesn't have that foil. If anyone does happen to have the first edition card, though, it could grab some attention even if it isn't in pristine condition.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game continues to be played to this day, with new booster packs releasing to coincide with the latest entries in the games, like last year's Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon for the 3DS. In recent news, Pokémon GO players can look forward to a new raid boss, Regirock, appearing and can even check out our guide on how to defeat it, following the departure of the current raid boss, Registeel, which we have also made a guide to help you beat it before it vanishes in a couple of days.

Source: Kotaku