A golden fish, a seven-figure headline
Alt’s 5 November auction page displays US$1,131,095 for a Japanese Shining Magikarp Fan Club promo, PSA 10, cert 19421750. The figure includes a 20% buyer’s premium. The lot is still marked Pending at our 7 November check.
The photograph shows a small gold fish swimming through blue water. The story behind it runs from an old Japanese fan-club rewards scheme to the top end of Pokémon auctions. The exact printing—and the exact meaning of the price—matter.
Which Magikarp? Start with this slab
This is the Japanese 600-point Fan Club Shining Magikarp, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Alt lists 34 bids. That is a count of bids, not a count of different bidders.
The Fan Club printing has embossed foil on Magikarp and no rarity symbol. Those details distinguish it from the regular Japanese set version. Fanatics’s printing description ↗
Before the auction, there were GET points
Members earned GET points through club activities, including tournaments and magazine contributions. The reward catalogue in Trainers Vol. 11 shows Shining Magikarp as Prize G: 600 points. The panel below is an excerpt from that original page, preserved in Pokumon’s archive.
Fanatics and Heritage catalogue the reward’s distribution from May 2001 to December 2002. It belonged to a system that rewarded taking part in the hobby. That history gives collectors something beyond a familiar character and a shiny finish. It does not tell us how many copies were originally distributed. Heritage’s historical description ↗
US$942,579 becomes US$1,131,095
Alt’s bid-history panel shows a highest bid of US$942,579. Its published fee rule adds 20%. That contributes about US$188,516 to the displayed total.
| Component | US dollars | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Highest displayed bid | 942,579.00 | Alt bid history |
| 20% buyer premium | 188,515.80 | Calculated |
| Calculated total | 1,131,094.80 | Before rounding |
| Displayed auction total | 1,131,095 | Alt lot page |
Download the dated auction data (CSV) · Download the calculation graphic (SVG)
Pending is not proof of a payment problem. Alt gives auction purchases of US$10,000 or more up to five days for payment and describes holds for wires in transit. We have no settlement receipt or confirmed definition of this lot’s Pending label. Alt’s payment terms ↗
An earlier PSA 10 adds context
A different copy of the same printing, PSA 10 cert 77121318, sold through the auction platform now called Fanatics Collect for US$49,200 including buyer’s premium. Its own page dates that sale 19 July 2024.
| Lot / cert | Original-platform date | USD incl. premium | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fanatics / 77121318 | 19 July 2024 | 49,200 | Sold |
| Alt / 19421750 | 5 November 2026 | 1,131,095 | Pending on 7 Nov |
These are two dated lot records, not a price index or a demonstrated return available to every owner. PSA currently lists 19 examples in grade 10. Population is a grading record; it is not the print run or a count of every surviving card. Check the exact PSA entry ↗
Alex Koh
Collector and creator of BuyTrigger.Cards.