S'pore man turns down S$1.3 million offer for rare Pokémon card, hoping for value to go up more

At the Singapore Card Show held over Dec. 13 and 14, a myriad of collectable cards were up for sale and trade, but one Pokémon card came under the spotlight.

It was a Pikachu Illustrator card, said to be one of the rarest Pokémon cards in the world.

Only 39 copies are believed to exist, as they were created as awards to the 39 winners of a comic illustration contest in Japan in 1997 and 1998, according to Sports Illustrated.

Chew Zhan Lun owned a copy and brought it to display at his company's booth at the card show.

A million-dollar offer

Chew had bought the Pikachu Illustrator card several months ago from a private collector, he told Shin Min Daily News.

It had a Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) grade of 9, which meant it was in mint condition with only minor flaws.

A week before the card show, someone reached out to Chew offering to buy the card for US$1 million (nearly S$1.3 million).

However, he turned down the offer.

"I'm hoping that the value of this card will go up even more," he told Shin Min. "At that time, I might consider selling it."

Appreciating value

Chew has reason to be confident, especially after the card attracted a lot of attention over the two days of the card show.

More than 10 people approached him at CTRL Collectible's booth to ask about the price of the card, mainly out of curiosity, Chew shared.

Many attendees also snapped photos of the card, carefully displayed in its own glass box for extra security.

Additionally, the value of the card has more than doubled over the past year.

In early December, a PSA 8.5 version of the Pikachu Illustrator sold for US$610,000 (S$790,000) on Goldin, an international trading card marketplace, Sports Illustrated reported.

That was just over a year after the same card with the same PSA grade sold for US$300,000 (S$390,000).

Childhood memories

Besides the prized Pikachu Illustrator, Chew owns over 300 trading cards whose value ranges from S$50 to hundreds of thousands.

He told Shin Min that he used to collect cards as a child.

When he got good grades, his parents would buy him Pokémon cards as a reward, and card collecting became a happy childhood memory for Chew.

Although he stopped collecting for a long time, he picked up the hobby again a year ago and has since invested over S$1 million in trading cards.

Collecting trading cards has become a form of investment, the organiser of the Singapore Card Show told Shin Min.

He shared that most collectors in Singapore are working adults between 25 and 40 years old. When the market is good, they would use extra money to buy trading cards as a way of investing their money.

A whopping 50,000 attendees were at the card show over the two days, including many families who brought their young children, according to Shin Min.

Top images from Shin Min and seathebreezee/Instagram