If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Shiny Charizard card signed by Pokémon co-creator Ken Sugimori sells for $13,000

Only PSA-graded copy of 1997 card to feature signature of series co-creator and illustrator behind original 151 Pokémon.

Image credit: PWCC

A holographic Charizard Pokémon card signed by legendary artist and series co-creator Ken Sugimori has sold at auction for over $13,000.

The Dark Charizard card dates from the Pokémon TCG’s Team Rocket expansion, which was released in 1997 in Japan, and was originally illustrated by Sugimori himself.

The card featured in the auction is the Japanese-language version of the card, and bears Sugimori’s iconic signature - featuring the illustrator’s name in both Japanese and English, along with a doodle of Pikachu’s face.

See a PSA shiny Charizard put through the ultimate survival test!Watch on YouTube

Sugimori is best known for being the lead art director and character designer for the Pokémon series, working alongside Atsuko Nishida - the designer of Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle and more - Mew creator Shigeki Morimoto and Eevee designer Motofumi Fujiwara on the series’ first generation of 151 Pokémon.

Sugimori also co-founded Pokémon developer Game Freak with Satoshi Tajiri and Junichi Masuda, co-creating the Pokémon franchise in 1996 and going on to become the lead artist for its trading card game.

While a number of other rare Pokémon cards signed by Sugimori - including numerous Charizards, and the English version of Dark Charizard - have previously sold at auction, the signed Charizard card currently up for auction is reportedly the only copy of the Japanese Team Rocket Dark Charizard that has been graded by card condition specialist PSA. The grading company determined the card to be in a “Near Mint 7” condition on its ten-point scale.

Image credit: PWCC

PSA estimates the value of a standard holographic Japanese Dark Charizard in NM 7 condition to be around $100, with almost 400 such cards graded to date.

Sugimori’s signature, of course, adds a significant extra rarity and value to the card. The signed Dark Charizard sold for $13,200 via auction house PWCC on August 14th.

Dicebreaker is the home for friendly board game lovers

We welcome board gamers of all levels, so sign in and join our community!

In this article

Pokémon Trading Card Game

Tabletop Game

About the Author
Matt Jarvis avatar

Matt Jarvis

Editor-in-chief

After starting his career writing about music, films and video games for various places, Matt spent many years as a technology, PC and video game journalist before writing about tabletop games as the editor of Tabletop Gaming magazine. He joined Dicebreaker as editor-in-chief in 2019, and has been trying to convince the rest of the team to play Diplomacy since.

Comments