An exceptionally rare Pokemon card featuring a young artists design of Pikachu's pre-evolution has sold for a ridiculous amount of money at auction, making it the most expensive Pichu card ever. While not as popular or well-known as the Pokemon franchise mascot Pikachu, Pichu is easily recognizable as part of the same evolutionary line thanks to the yellow coloring and features it shares with its more mature relatives; it has the same red cheeks, black ear tips, and a tail that resembles a thunderbolt.Pichu was introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver as one of the first baby Pokemon. For the uninitiated, the series staple breeding mechanic was introduced with Gold and Silver. It allowed players to breed some of the rarer Pokemon for trading purposes, and at the time fans were delighted to find that there were some baby Pokemon that could only be found through this mechanic. Several popular first generation Pokemon also received pre-evolutions. Other examples include Magby, Cleffa, and Elekid, who are baby forms of Magmar, Clefairy, and Electabuzz respectively.A rare Pichu card that features a design from a second-grader has sold at auction for a whopping $25,800. The auction was hosted by PWCC, the biggest trading card marketplace in the world. The card's design comes from a 2009 magazine competition for school children hosted in Japan where one design from each age group was turned into physical cards. The contest was part of a promotion for Arceus and the Jewel of Life, a theatrical release from the same year. According to PWCC, the number of cards created for each winning design is not known, but is less than 100, which makes them some of the rarest cards in existence. While it isn't the highest amount a Pokemon card has ever fetched at auction, $28,500 is nothing to sneeze at.
The design itself features spiky-eared Pichu sitting in a patch of yellow flowers, with a bright blue sky and a rainbow in the background. Pichu is also wearing a daisy chain on its head. Bright pink petals and flowers create a pleasant complementary effect against the blue of the sky. It appears that the design was created using crayons. There might be more of these rare Pokemon cards out there waiting to be discovered as part of someone's old collection.
There have been three cards with this particular design graded by PWCC, but this is the only one to be deemed perfect. Rare Pokemon cards can be so valuable that they are occasionally targeted by thieves, which may seem crazy until they are seen fetching such lofty prices at auction.
Source: Dicebreaker