What do you mean by āIs this for real?ā
dang thats the most realistic looking sugimori art iāve ever seen
It is pretty amazing!
Is owning a card with a photo of a random child on, more or less weird than collecting a waifu card?
@admiral . Might be , except that child is probably getting close to 40 now. Making it perhaps weirderā¦collecting a random card of some thirty-something year old 
Not just any child, but a child that placed 2nd in a pokemon card tournamentā¦ yeah, still weird but 1/1 piece of history nonetheless.
Would have been infinitely better if they got Ken Sugimori to illustrate the winners faces onto the cards. Obviously less convenient but the lazy photoshop is just lame.
Yo! Iām mad we never got that growlithe pose on a card!
IDK dude. This is so perfectly ā2000ā that Iām actually really digging it. 
May someone tell me what it sold for? The site says it sold on July 7th, but I canāt see the price without an account.
Personally I think these are about the coolest of all trophies (minus the very first '97 Pikas maybe). It doesnāt get much more rare and mysterious in all of Pokemon. Iād choose this one card over a 100 card stack of Mysterious Pearls, Master Scrolls and CGI Pika trophies any day of the week.
Sold on Jul 7, 2023 for $137,500.00 (including Buyerās Premium)
Wouldve been better if it was another indistinguishable sugimori trainer face? Youre joking, right?
In what world is cheap photoshop better than a personal Ken Sugimori portrait on an official 1/1 card? Are you joking?
What I think is always so funny about an item like this is that I guarantee most the bidders do not know who this kid is, canāt read the card, donāt know anything about the tournament and donāt know how to play the tcg.
Not that these are requirements at all. Itās just funny that any āhistoryā and āsignificanceā of this card is 100% overshadowed by the fact itās 1 of 1. Even the auction description is self-aware of this fact.
It reminds me of the Dr. Sameji autograph. Most people that own one couldnāt name a single thing heās done in Pokemon. But cool shark + slightly hard to find makes it approximately as valuable as an Obama autograph apparently
Imo, the photo is the way to go. It captures the time in space like nothing else. I love ken, hes my favorite artist by a mile, but his trainer art of that time didnt capture the expressions a photograph can.
Im sure his drawing wouldve looked good, but what happens if the drawing looked nothing like the actual person? Not only that, but a photo can transport you back in time to revel in the moment, and for those who werent there the photo still snaps you back to the 90ās to a greater effect than a drawing.
Overall, photo imo
Iāve always thought the cards with pictures of people are weird as hell. Glad Iām not the only one.
so, every single sports card ever made?
Thats a really good point, too each their own. I still prefer full Ken art personally but I can see a winner wanting their actual face on a card.
Haha touchĆ©. Yāall know what I mean
I think thatās a slippery slope. Most trophy cardsā values arenāt actually 100% derived from their āhistory and significanceā. Theyāre trophies for winning a certain competition and thatās basically it for the most part.
Please correct me if Iām wrong, but, for example, was the '98 championships that much different from the first one in ā97? What is itās historical significance other than being a trophy card thatās not from the first tournament and not even being a āTropicalā or āSuper Secretā Mega Battle? At least the trophies with the winnersā faces are one-of-a-kind, thatās more than most trophies have going for them imho.
Iām being intentionally provocative here, but you get my point.