Unikarp PSA10

How difficult is it to obtain a gem mint copy of Unikarp and score a grade of 10 from PSA? Why is this grade hard to get for this card? Any comment will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Between damn near impossible and literally impossible.

There was a collector who wanted a PSA 10 Unikarp above any other card. He probably had 5-6 unikarps go through his hands trying to find that illusive psa 10. At the time there was not a PSA 10 example, and now there is only the one.

The biggest dilemma with the unikarp is how they were distributed. Which is the typical issue on most older japanese promos.

1 Like

Thanks @bagoly14 and Scott. I was very surprised to find out that no Unikarp has been graded 10 until now. I had one before that I thought would get at least an 8 but got a 5 instead. I was very disappointed and ended up selling the card. After searching for many months, I finally found a copy in near flawless condition and this is now the only copy graded Gem Mint 10.

1 Like

Hmm that is interesting. I wonder if that was my previous copy which earned a 5. Whoever had it after me tried to grade it as well and had the same issue.

I always get unikarp and fan club karps mixed up… Which looks exactly like the shining magikarp card?
Unikarp is the icebeam one right?

Firstly, congrats on the PSA 10 Unikarp, again as discussed that is awfully hard to get! From what I’ve noticed, a lot are extremely beat up as a result of being given to really young children (this is the case for a lot of early Japanese tournament-type cards, but especially the ones that are not No.1,2,3 etc). Also, the cards have a tendency to have a bit of whiting on the front face corners as Bags mentioned. It’s not even real whiting, it’s more of a peeling or light fraying, perhaps due to the way they were printed or cut. I’ve seen it on a number of nice copies that otherwise look like perfect 10’s.

Fan Club looks like the Neo3 version but it is gold embossed, and the unikarp is using hyper beam! :blush:

Thanks for the info @cbd1235. For a while I was tempted to sell the card as there were a couple of really great offers for it from fellow members. I will keep it for now as the card looks quite impressive particularly with the grade that it got.