Pokemon Uncut

Eagle-eyed reporting from Matt Jarvis at Dicebreaker. He caught this unusual item up for auction: an uncut sheet of Pokemon cards from the 1998 Base Set.

The uncut sheet - produced before the individual cards are cut out later in the manufacturing process - includes all 16 of the holographic ‘shiny’ cards from the Pokémon TCG’s 1999 Base Set, its first English-language release. Among the holo cards is the ever-popular shiny Charizard, along with fellow first-gen evolutions Blastoise and Venusaur, which appeared on the front of the series’ Game Boy games Pokémon Red, Blue and Green.

Dicebreaker

The auction house Goldin has the listing for the sheet of 99 cards. As of the time I'm writing this, it has five bids and it is fetching a price of $34,000. Given the rarity of this set and these cards, I am surprised it's not going for even more money. Pokemon cards had an incredible resurgence in demand during the pandemic. It was so crazy that stores limited or removed in-person purchases. If you gotta catch 'em all this is a prized possession for collectors with a big enough bank account.