Gyarados Promo Certified by CGC Cards Realizes More than $87,000 in PokeColor Auction

Tidal wave! A Gyarados Best Photo Contest Promo card certified by CGC Cards™ realized an incredible 631,101 RMB (about $87,200) in a recent PokeColor auction. It was one of the many certified cards in a Gyarados and Magikarp-themed auction hosted through PokeColor, the largest consignment auction house focused on the Pokémon TCG in mainland China.

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The Gyarados, Pokémon (1999) Japanese Unnumbered CoroCoro Best Photo Contest Promo graded CGC Gem Mint 10 was the centerpiece of the auction. Not only is it graded CGC Gem Mint 10 — one of the highest grades on the CGC Cards Grading Scale — but it is one of the mere two examples in the CGC Cards Population Report, with none graded higher.

The 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo Contest promo Pokémon cards may be better known, but there was another Best Photo Contest held in Japan. Also held to commemorate the release of Pokémon Snap, CoroCoro Comic held their own version of the Best Photo Contest in June 1999. Participants were asked to take their game cartridges to a Lawson convenience store and print their chosen photos onto stickers, which would then be pressed onto sticker sheets. These sheets were then mailed to the Pokémon Company for judging.

Winners of the CoroCoro Best Photo Contest were announced in the August 1999 issue of CoroCoro Comic. Gyarados’ photo was taken by Ryouichi Abe from the Miyagi prefecture, and he is credited in the artist section of the Gyarados card. Each winner of the CoroCoro Best Photo Contest received 20 copies of their winning cards. They are extremely scarce on the secondary market and rarely come to auction.

About PokeColor

PokeColor is one of China’s largest consignment auction houses for trading cards, with a special focus on the Pokémon TCG. In addition to hosting auctions for rare Pokémon cards, PokeColor also sells supplies to enhance collectibles, such as slab protectors, carrying cases, display stands and more. As CGC Cards continues to expand its market into China, CGC-certified cards have had an increased presence on PokeColor’s auction platform and have sold well, including examples such as this Gyarados promo.

About CGC

Since revolutionizing comic book grading in 2000, CGC has grown to include certification services for a vast variety of pop culture collectibles. These divisions include CGC Cards, CGC Video Games and CGC Home Video. CGC Cards provides expert card grading for sports cards, TCGs and non-sports cards. CGC Video Games is dedicated to video game grading for the most popular consoles, including Nintendo, Sega, Atari, PlayStation and more. CGC Home Video provides expert VHS grading in addition to other types of videocassettes, DVD, Blu-ray and more.

Realized price is provided by the auction house.