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I have an answer but you might not like it
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Speaking from my own research since Iâve been hunting this card the past few months. Besides the usual waifu tax and the illustrator being Naoki Saito, I think the main two components are:
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Tons of publicity it has gotten from HIKARU (a popular japanese Youtuber). Heâs made several videos in the past few weeks/months related to the PSA 10 version of the card (buying, showing, talking about the card and its price). He also appeared in a live event back in March 2023 holding the card itself (similar to Logan Paul and his Illustrator Pikachu).
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PSA being relatively new in Japan and its rising popularity and demand, coupled with card shops very public buy offers that set a continously increasing floor price (referencing rabby250âs post with a more thorough explanation: post
Buy offers were 2M JPY (~15k USD) back in Feb/Mar 2023
and now they have doubled to 4.2M JPY (~31k USD)
The card doesnât seem to be very common in the west, so price seems to be mostly controlled by the japanese market. However, I can say that supply doesnât seem to be a problem since you can see several PSA 10 copies available on mercari and PSA 10 pop has increased by 20% since Mar 2023. (Pop was ~450 for PSA 10 back in March 2023)
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Japanese Pokemon Hype + Trainer FA Hype + Underraged Girl + Japan + Skirt + Colours + Degeneracy
Do you need me to keep going?
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The multiplier between Japanese and English PSA 10s is ~20x. 
And itâs a set card.
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At the very least, Lillie had a great character arc in the Sun & Moon games. Going from being her motherâs doll (ever notice how uncanny the resemblance between Lillie and Nihilego was?) to a confident trainer (who actually saves Lusamine from her madness) was great to see. Despite the bar being pretty low, she easily the best character development Iâve seen in a Pokemon game.
Now whether any of that has any relevance on the crazy spike in this cardâs price, I donât know. But I think thereâs a variety of reasons one would like Lillie for, not solely because of the âwaifuâ label.
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I feel like in some sense itâs also like a âlostâ card. A very modern style and in-demand card from what was a basically kind of dead era for Japan. It might be set card but due to circumstance itâs becomes more like a promo card.
Maybe Lilie is the âCharizardâ for Japan
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She sure does, but that promo wasnât available in a booster box 
Naoki Saito premium ripple effect
If the EBD winner promo is out of reach, more will target the next best Lillie, which is in the tcgâs 2nd High Class Pack set
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Was SM era really dead in Japan when that gen started the explosion of ultra rare cards and like sets practically every month?
Could anyone even name more than a few Sun and Moon Japanese sets before GX Ultra Shiny? There was probably one cabinet in a store dedicated to modern Pokémon. Now most stores have 5 or 6. Maybe not dead but it was niche especially compared to now.
Sorry if my question came across as sarcastic, it was a genuine question lol.
I thought the only reason sets got so frequent and large was because of popularity.
The Japanese have a thing for blondes.
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Didnât think it was sarcastic, sorry if my response came across as sarcastic!
Collecting Japanese set cards at that time was definitely a niche interest. Also, yeah there were lots of sets but they were also pretty small. I got back into the Pokemon games with the Sun and Moon release in Japan but the TCG wasnât on my radar again until a lot later. GX Ultra Shiny was when Sun and Moon definitely started to pick up in popularity.
Lillies full force from Dream League is creeping up too it seems.
When I saw â30Kâ I assumed it was about a trophy card. Are people really out here spending down payment money for a modern PokĂ©mon set card of an 11 year old girl?
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Welcome to 
sir, their investments in anime culture surpass Western understanding
One example of store purchase prices („)
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waifu up, we need to analyze this, thanks for the info