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Pokémon as a video game franchise is an undeniable sales juggernaut, but its spin-off trading card game is its own overwhelming force to be reckoned with. The Pokémon TCG is so popular in its own right that in the two decades since it launched, there have been quite a few cards which have gone on to garner insanely high asking prices. One such example is the “Trainer No.3” card.
Image of card courtesy of Dexerto.
The card was given away to the third-place winner at the 1999 Japanese Pokémon TCG competition Super Secret Battle and is the only one in existence. At some point, Trainer No.3 wound up in the hands of eBay seller pokemonplace, which in turn sold the card for $60,000 to a collector, promptly putting the purchase into the mail for delivery. Insured at $50,000 (the maximum amount for a parcel of this ilk), Trainer No.3 was on its way. Until suddenly it wasn’t.
As it turns out, at one point on its journey the card made a stop at a third-party named Aramex which was supposed to transfer the package over to USPS for the last leg of its trip. While someone signed for the parcel in which the card was a part of, Trainer No.3 has since gone missing, with no one the wiser as to where it’s wound up. As of this writing, there is still no concrete conclusion as to where Trainer No.3 currently is, but the very solid point has been raised that if whoever stole the card tries to resell it, the community at large will instantly pounce knowing it’s a one of a kind item.
Still, very lame for the person who wanted to add Trainer No.3 to his or her collection. If we hear more, we’ll let you know!
Source: Polygon
