A Pokémon card sold for record-breaking $16M US. An auctioneer from Whitbourne helped make the deal

A deal that saw a Pokémon card sell for a record-breaking $16.5 million US has the finger prints of Whitbourne, N.L. on it.

Peter Petipas, who lives in the Avalon Peninsula community and is an auctioneer with Goldin auctions, said it was “kind of surreal” to be involved.

“I thought we were going to break the trading card record at $13 million. But I didn’t think we were going to beat the all time collectibles record at over 15,” Petipas told CBC Radio’s The St. John’s Morning Show on Wednesday.

The rare Pikachu Illustrator card, featuring the iconic mouse-like mascot, was owned by American social media influencer Logan Paul.

After weeks of being on the auction block, it finally sold for roughly $22 million CAD on Monday.

Petipas said Goldin auctions CEO Ken Goldin is friends with Paul, and that Goldin had been trying to get Paul to sell this particular card for some time. Eventually, Paul agreed to consign the card with the company.

Petipas has been involved in auctions for some time, but hadn’t seen anything like what happened before.

On top of the Pikachu card, they auctioned off a box of first edition base-set Pokémon cards. The winners of the auctions were in the room during the process, which Petipas called a spectacle.

Every time a bid came in, Petipas said, the head of sales would strike a gong and announce the price.

“It was kind of wild,” he said.

Nostalgia fueled prices

As for the high price tag, the Pikachu card is special, Petipas said. Only a few dozen were ever made, and Paul’s card was the only one that had been highly graded by the German authentication company PSA.

Petipas said Paul, who was also present for the auction, was excited for the sale, but was also just as shocked with the result.

“I was right up on stage at the end of it, so that was really cool to be a part of and be that close to everything,” he said.

Paul bought the card in 2021 for $5.275 million US.

Since its inception 30 years ago, the Pokémon franchise has grossed over $100 billion US, with License Global reporting $12 billion US in profit in 2024.

Petipas said Pokémon beats Disney’s massive list of properties as the highest grossing media franchises of all time — by a long shot — which explains why the cards can fetch such a big reward at auctions.

He said the franchise also still has plenty of room to grow.

“They’re constantly reinventing itself with new generations, with the new video games and the new merchandise, to constantly putting out the new trading cards that come out every couple months,” he said. “So they’re always attracting those new customers, those new fans.”

And as those fans grow up, Petipas said, they have the disposable income to spend money on nostalgia.

Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.