Hello, I’m recently searching for a FC Magikarp and I noticed prices went to the roof, insanely in the last months. Guess I could’ve chased it sooner but this is not a regret post cos it makes no sense at all. Been wondering, I know FC magikarp was available for a shorter period of time in the FC event, and that makes it rarer than the eevee/porygon counterparts. I was also told last year a PSA 10 copy price range was around 1500 usd (idk if this is true or not) and now asking price went to +7k. Wanted to know if anyone had a good answer rather than natural growth or higher demand because I honestly can’t tell why it rised so much. Also I heard this was the first shiny pokemon ever released as it was prior to the Awakening Legends one. All info is appreciated, thanks all!
Where is the cheaper option?
^ That is honestly the tl;dr for any rare collectible. We can speculate on the variables of demand, unique art, history, etc. But if a cheaper option doesn’t exist, there is only one way the price can go.
Ofc with rare items price is more likely to be influenced by top sales and speculation, thanks for the answer Scott. Just curious why raw karp price is higher than PSA 10 Eevees or Porygons, I guess pop report explains part of it, but been wondering why the karp hype in the lasts months. But yeah maybe there isn’t a single or easy explanation. It is what it is.
- Theres speculation that points didn’t accumulate after using them to get cards. Meaning most probably stopped at Porygon since it was the highest, use their points, and if they had a enough time would get Eevee. I’m assuming the two had more popularity back in the day being Holos, where the Karp was probably surprisingly enough, not as sought after.
You almost always see sellers in Japan, have Porygon and Eevee for sale, but never Magikarp. Which plays into this speculation even more.
- Japanese Shinings are notoriously difficult to grade in a 9/10 due to centering + easy to chip corners.
Overall, it’s just a very very limited card, with estimated low distribution and is insanely hard to grade… with these factors in mind, prices were bound to catch up sooner or later.
Moral of the story: Collect things that people don’t currently like.
There’s no escaping it. Another factor to consider is that even at the ground floor, it already costs so much. 
Wrong magikarp.
Lol my mistake. Sorry.
Still amazing picture !!!