The 1999 Pokemon Base Set 1st Edition Holo Charizard PSA 10
Liquid Auctions
March 15, 2024
Undoubtably, the 1999 Base Set Shadowless First Edition Holo Charizard #4 PSA 10 is the most iconic and recognizable Pokémon card in the world. It's the pinnacle of TCG collecting and the heartbeat of the Pokémon market. With just 123 copies achieving the coveted PSA 10 gem mint grade, and a mere 3 boasting an MBA Diamond designation, its prestige is unparalleled. One of those 3 copies, sporting an MBA Silver Diamond, is officially open for bidding in Alt’s Liquid Auctions!
This coveted Charizard card ends in auction on Thursday, March 28th.
Check out our full interview with Gary Adams, the seller of the Charizard card that is available now in Liquid Auctions. Instagram: @Garys_Pokemart
BID NOW: 1999 Pokemon Base Set 1st Edition Holo Charizard #4Thick Stamp, Shadowless, MBA Silver Diamond PSA 10
We have Gary here. He is the seller of the 1999 PSA 10 Shadowless Charizard card that is currently running in Alt's Liquid Auctions. It's an incredible card. Gary, we'd love for you to introduce yourself.
Hey there, my name is Gary. I'm the owner of Gary's Pokémart.
As a collector I love sealed Pokemon and also high-end I've been an avid collector since the beginning in 1999. I can go back as far as remembering Nintendo sending me a Charmeleon card in the mail when Pokémon first came out ever since then I've been hooked. I was about 12 years old when it came out and I've been collecting and playing the video game and doing this most of my life, but within the last four years I've been buying and selling them and done pretty good for myself.
So when you started collecting, what was kind of the draw that got you into Pokemon the most and what was the best part? How has that evolved over time?
Well when I first started collecting the characters caught my eye for sure and it was always Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard. I liked it the aspect of it being an RPG where, in the video game, you can raise your Pokemon and level them up and battle other trainers and collect them all and giving them these move sets. Then it went on to the card collecting of it when it came out a few years later and it was wildfire and I can remember Charizard always being the most famous and most popular Pokemon and I was never able to get it when I was a kid. I never like packed it or anything of that nature, so as an adult with adult money I actually bought my first Charizard in the year 2000 and that was a BGS 9.5. I bought that off of eBay and at that time I paid $25,000 for it. It was a first edition as well.
Why do you think this Charizard card in particular has such a provenance in the hobby and is kind of that iconic Pokemon card?
Well, I mean, let's just get this right, it is Charizard. And it's the most popular. It's always the most sought after. And in the card game, it's always the Pokemon that has the highest HP for that set. So Charizard has always been the most popular and most hit points for all of them in each set. And it's just a fan favorite. I mean, it's been ranked the number one Pokemon forever. And there's only 123 of them in existence in a PSA 10 1st Edition.
It's such a rare card. It's got a crazy ownership group, you know, Logan Paul, Steve Aoki, just to name a few. It's a very high profile ownership group. Do you think there's a certain prestige that goes along with owning one of these PSA 10s?
Oh, by far there's a prestige of owning it. I mean, all the attention, all the attraction, all the dreams, all the wanting. I mean, I worked very hard in my lifespan to get this card, and now it's up for auction. And I've only seen a few of them in my life, graded in a 10. This one is pretty up there in being a 10, a real Gem 10. Pretty nice.
What is the most fulfilling part of owning a Pokemon card shop? And what is that like?
We are the only Pokemon store in Los Angeles, California with two brick and mortar locations only selling Pokemon cards. It's a dream come true. It's not like work. I work seven days a week. I actually had to come home to do this interview with you guys because I forgot my laptop because I was on my way to work. But we have employees that help out as well. And I just love collecting and seeing all the new stuff that comes in every day and seeing all the new collectors and trainers and people joining the hobby.
It's not going anywhere anytime soon. It's just getting stronger. Pokemon just hit it's 28 year anniversary a few weeks ago and I see very big things in the near future. It's definitely super big right now.
What is the weirdest thing you've seen come into your store?
The weirdest thing I seen coming to my store it was probably about two years ago during COVID and This one gentleman actually came in with some fake cards that looked real but were not. We couldn't tell the difference and I ended up buying them and I found out that they were fake at the end of the day. It was a learning experience.
You have to give and take the good and bad in this hobby. So that was probably the most craziest thing I ever dealt with coming into my store.
You touched a little bit about the, or on this in kind of the journey of the card, but you know, what comes next for your collection? What are the big things you're excited to do after this?
The big things to do after this is, I actually want to start doing more things for our stores. We're thinking about opening a third location, but not until maybe next year. Also, add more high-end cards to my collection. So that's something I'm looking to get into and way more sealed product.
We just want to keep adding to our collection and helping out other individuals achieve their goals and their collection needs. That's where the Pokemart is headed to.
I want to get your take on where the Pokemon market as a whole is headed and what is coming next for Pokemon collectors and, and, you know, the space moving into the next 28 years and how that looks.
Here's my outtake on it and a few people agree and then a few people disagree. Pokemon is correlated with Bitcoin and crypto. So I've seen within the last eight years that every time BTC goes up Pokemon goes up, so we've just seen Bitcoin hit over $64,000 and it kind of makes sense why the Snap cards went ridiculous.
The market has been in a downtrend this last two years and from now on up until the next two years I see it in going into an uptrend. So hopefully we'll hit those all-time highs that we've seen a few years ago and break that and then after that it'll probably go into a downtrend again and then it'll do the same thing over and over. So that's where I see this hobby going.
Especially vintage, there's no way that you can really lose on it if you plan on collecting it and you know holding it for a while. It's gonna be here forever and the cards are going to get harder to obtain. Especially cleaner copies and sealed product. It's just going to be very crazy. We're trying to obtain a bunch of first edition base set booster boxes right now. That's my main goal. There's probably less than a hundred of them that I know that are in existence. It's a dying breed, they're like an extinct dinosaur right now. We actually have two of them as I speak to you guys so we're trying to get more.
Is that the best thing you have in your collection right now?
Yes, that and the Charizard. That box is where the Charizard comes out from.
If you could pick who would buy the 1999 1st Edition Charizard card off of Alt, who is it?
I suggest that anyone that is in this market and that can afford this card is looking to hold this card for a long time. An individual that's secure and has a passion for this card and this hobby, you have to be in it and you have to like it as well, not just for the aspect of money because money comes and goes, but you have to like what you do and what you collect.
Collect the card, not the money. So an individual that loves it and it's looking to hold for a while because in the near future, this is a million dollar card. I mean, at one point they were hitting over $400,000. That's what I would say to the individual that's gonna get this card.
Bid on the card guys. It's a beauty, it's a grail, it's a Charizard and it's coming from Gary's Pokémart. Enjoy and good luck to all.
Live now on All It's Liquid Auctions ending Thursday, March 28th.
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