Three First Print Copies of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow Sell for $2 Million in Second-Largest Video Game Transaction Ever

Three archetypal people Pokemon games are selling for an eye-watering $2 cardinal to the proprietor of the Dubai Collection, 1 of the astir salient and highly-graded collections of video games and trading cards successful the world.

The games successful question are 3 archetypal people copies of the archetypal Pokemon titles for the Game Boy: Pokemon Blue Version, Pokemon Red Version, and Pokemon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition. These were immoderate of the earliest-manufactured copies for the series, and the archetypal seals connected each 3 were wholly intact. Each transcript was graded and encapsulated by PSA, 1 of the astir salient third-party grading agencies successful the business, which gave them arsenic jaw-dropping scores: 9.8 (Blue), 10 (Red), and 10 (Yellow), making them the world's highest-graded archetypal people postulation among archetypal people Pokemon games.

Nathan Howerton, proprietor and laminitis of Nostalgix, a backstage collectibles brokerage work that facilitated the transaction, spoke with IGN astir the value of the merchantability and what it means for carnal games successful an manufacture that’s hurtling toward a integer future.

"In an progressively integer world, collectors proceed to spot bonzer worth connected carnal media,” helium told us. “The merchantability of these 3 PSA-graded Pokémon games shows that genuinely exceptional carnal copies aren't conscionable nostalgic artifacts — they're irreplaceable pieces of gaming history.”

Image Credits: Nostalgix, PSA, Dubai Collection

Howerton told america that this woody marks the second-largest graded video crippled transaction ever completed, lone down a transcript of Super Mario Bros. for the NES that sold astatine auction for $3 cardinal backmost successful June. This transcript was fixed a 9.6 by PSA, a people that would aboriginal beryllium eclipsed by 97 pristine, never-before-seen versions of Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt that were discovered successful a Wisconsin warehouse not agelong afterward, 5 of which were fixed 10s successful a historical archetypal for the agency.

As told successful a erstwhile interrogation with IGN, PSA precise seldom gives retired 10s for video games. The information that 3 copies of the archetypal Pokemon games — immoderate of the astir impactful titles successful video crippled past — were graded truthful highly speaks to their pristine condition, meaning that the institution could hardly find anything, if astatine all, that was flawed astir them.

“We look astatine truthful galore things, and everything has astatine slightest immoderate flaws,” Claire Shelton, Head of PSA Video Games, told america successful July. “We’re looking for perfection, oregon astatine slightest arsenic adjacent to it arsenic you tin come. Because with injection-molded parts, there’s ever going to beryllium pulloff lines close from wherever thing is detached from a mold, oregon conscionable the intricacies of manufacturing are going to permission things with a small spot of inconsistency.”

Horowitz says this landmark $2 cardinal merchantability signals an improvement successful the collectibles marketplace, elevating games to a constituent wherever “the rarest carnal games are present being viewed alongside the world's astir important collectibles."

"A $2 cardinal transaction for 3 graded Pokémon games would person seemed unimaginable a decennary ago. Today, it reflects the increasing designation that historically important, investment-grade games merit to beryllium mentioned alongside the astir invaluable comics, trading cards, and sports memorabilia successful the world," helium said.

His remarks regarding carnal media successful a progressively integer scenery aren’t disconnected the mark; fixed players' heated effect toward Sony’s divisive determination to halt printing carnal games arsenic of January 2028, it’s wide that gamers worth their tangible titles — capable to walk $2 cardinal connected them.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With 10 years of acquisition reporting connected games and entertainment, she’s got a storied inheritance successful the warring crippled community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her connected Twitter astatine @TheeMissGlaze.