What are your thoughts on the recent PSA 9 Illustrator Pikachu Sale of $625,000 on Heritage Auctions? Also I wanted to see what peoples thoughts were on the extra copies that are mint condition coming to market via auction houses?
I calculated total number of copies graded so far and here is the breakdown by each individual grading company:
SGS (French) > 1 (Previously this was an authenticated PSA copy that was cracked and became SGS 5)
BGS> 3 ( 7.5 (1), 8.5 (1), 9 (1) ) There was a BGS 8.5 that was crossed over to CGC 9 so that’s why BGS has total graded of 3 in pop report, not 4)
TAG> 8
CGC> 17 ( 10 (4), 9.5 (1), 9 (6) , 8.5 (2) , 8 (4) ) There were 2 CGC 10’s (1 crossed to TAG 9 and 1 crossed to TAG 10), there were 2 CGC 8.5’s (1 crossed to PSA 7 recently at Nationals and 1 crossed to BGS 9), there was 1 CGC 8 that was crossed over to BGS 8.5 > Hence, CGC has total graded of 17 in pop report, not 23.
PSA> 51 Total (This is not including those that were cracked out or resubmitted, crossed over again or to other grading companies, 1 PSA authenticated copy was crossed to SGS 5, hence not 52 in pop report but 51 currently!! )
That makes Total of 80 Illustrator Pikachu’s among all grading companies!!
We have to remember that 39 were originally awarded in total.
My genuine thoughts, are that even if there was no shenanigans afoot here, its so far beyond my price range as to be completely irrelevant. If someone wants to buy something laundered through a grading company and an auction house with no pedigree then I can’t stop them. If I were a billionaire and in the market for such a thing, I would only buy one with full chain of custody. I don’t know how possible that is…Maybe we can look at the ink dot alignment of these cards and see if there is a discrepancy. A single sheet of cards is more than enough for even 80 cards, let alone 39.
The Logan 10 was cracked and submitted a few times from a previous 9 and it’s likely that at least some of the other PSA ones were resubs also. That said, japanese old back sheets were 64 cards right? There should likely be 64 illustrators out there then as it would not have made sense to print a sheet with just 39 illustrators and leave the extra spots
Although 39 were officially distributed to winners/runner ups, it’s likely they printed extras in case there were any mailing issues. There were a couple recipients that didn’t include their contact information so who knows if those copies ever made it to those winners. Unofficially these may have distributed in-person as a way to promote the tcg. Additionally, it’s alleged that several of the tcg creators or notable employees at Creatures/partner companies have a copy of their own. I just don’t know how you can make an accurate estimate given all the information we don’t have, let alone rumors of illustrators being printed in 2024/2025.
Personally, if I had the opportunity to purchase this card, I would get an old cert (memes aside).