A PSA 10 Tamamushi University Magikarp sold for $1,056,000 at Alt, 5.7 times the last public PSA 10 sale in February

A 1998 Japanese Tamamushi University Prize Magikarp, graded PSA Gem Mint 10, sold for $1,056,000 at Alt, per Collectibles News (October 17). Alt calls it the most expensive Magikarp ever sold. The coverage gives no close date and no lot link, so the figure is Alt's own statement as reported; Chase Society's October 16 read of Alt's feed showed all 48 readable lots there paid, which is the settlement check the hobby's other seven-figure sales have been getting lately.

The card was a prize for the Tamamushi University campaign, a 1998 Japanese mail-in contest, and PSA's population report counts 16 copies at Gem Mint 10 and 34 at Mint 9, per PSA CardFacts; Collectibles News reports the same 16 from Alt. No grade sits above a PSA 10, so the 16 are the top of the census.

The ladder under $1,056,000

The multiple on the February comp is 5.7 times; on the 2021 sale it is 16 times. The February pair is the useful one, because both copies closed at the same house on the same day and the BGS Pristine 10, a population of one, brought only 13% more than the PSA 10. Eight months later a PSA 10 brought five times either. PriceCharting's tracked values for the card, as of October 19, read $4,644 ungraded, $23,000 at grade 8, $23,000 at grade 9 and $25,300 at 9.5, with no PSA 10 value listed; those are PriceCharting values, not sales, and the card's long-term PriceCharting chart was not available to us this morning, so there is no year-ago value here.

The grade-8 row is the one to notice below the top. Three PSA 8 copies sold on eBay between May 3 and June 2 at $50,300, $20,100 and $23,000, per PriceCharting, so even the mid grades of this card have printed a 2.5-times spread inside a month. A card whose grade-8 copies can land anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 does not have a settled price at any grade.

Where it sits in the prize-card tier

The Magikarp joins a run of seven-figure Pokémon results since September. Collectibles News lists three in the same piece: a PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator at $5 million at Heritage in September, a PSA 10 Torchic Gold Star at $2.7 million at Alt in September (one of 19 PSA 10s), and an Art Academy Mudkip, PSA 10, at $3.72 million at Fanatics Collect. The Art Academy Pikachu adds two more, $8.4 million at Fanatics Collect on September 27, still unsettled, and $1,037,000 at Goldin on October 11 (Big News). Below them, a PSA 10 Legendary Collection Snorlax made $651,001 at Alt about two weeks before the Magikarp, one of 21 at that grade and a Snorlax record, and a 2014 World Championships No. 1 Trainer Pikachu trophy card made $292,800 at Goldin.

Set those beside the Magikarp's own history and the pattern is a tier moving together. The February Goldin sale was the card's record for eight months, and in those eight months the Illustrator, the Torchic and the Mudkip each set a new high for their own card. The Magikarp's February comp was not wrong when it printed; it was stale by the time Alt's auction closed, and the buyer paid against the tier's prices, not the card's.

Fanatics' value for the Art Academy Pikachu that sold for $8.4 million on September 27 is $1,037,000, the price a second PSA 10 made at Goldin on October 11, per Chase Society (see Big News). That is the other half of the same lesson: one sale makes a record and the next sale of the same card decides what it was worth.

What to watch next

The Goldin Pokémon 30th Anniversary auction closes October 25, with the PSA 8 1997 Gold 1st Place Trophy Pikachu at $2,348,500 with premium on October 8, per Star City Games. Alt's weekly auctions keep running, and with 15 other PSA 10 Magikarps in the census, the next one listed will carry a $1,056,000 comp into a room that has now seen it. The Magikarp's close date and settlement status are not in the coverage; if Alt publishes either, this file gets the update.

Figures are as reported by the sources below on the dates shown. PriceCharting figures are its tracked values and listed sales, not Collector Recon's own records. This is market data and commentary, not investment advice.

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Sources

• Collectibles News, Pokémon: most valuable Magikarp card sells for record $1.056 million at Alt, Oct 17, 2026
• PriceCharting, University Magikarp (Tamamushi University Prize) sales history and values, read Oct 19, 2026
• PSA CardFacts, 1998 Pokémon Japanese Promo University Magikarp, population read Oct 17, 2026
• Chase Society, Fanatics cancelled an $8.4 million Pikachu sale, then marked it paid, Oct 16–17, 2026
• Star City Games, Vintage Pokémon TCG Pikachu promo heads to auction, Oct 8, 2026