Goldin's TCG Elite Auction Cleared $18 Million: a $713,700 Luffy Trophy and a $809,094 Bulbasaur

Goldin's Summer TCG Elite Auction closed on August 10 and pulled in more than \$18 million. That number alone is notable. What is more interesting is which cards set the records, because none of them are the ones the hobby usually talks about.

A One Piece Card Set the Category Record

The top TCG lot was the 2024 One Piece Chinese Year One World Championship 1st Place Monkey D. Luffy Trophy Card, which hammered at \$713,700 including buyer's premium. That is the highest publicly recorded price for any One Piece card.

The card is not a normal card. It is a gold-embossed one-of, presented in an 8-inch by 8-inch display, awarded to the winner of the World Championship event in China. There is no set to complete, no parallel ladder, no print run. It is closer to a trophy than a trading card, which is exactly why it prices the way it does.

For context, the previous public high-water mark for One Piece was a CGC Pristine 10 Luffy promo that realized \$315,600 at Alt. This sale more than doubled it.

Two Vintage Pokemon Promos Broke Their Own Records

The Pokemon results were arguably the bigger story for anyone who collects the category:

• 1999 Japanese Promo CoroCoro Best Photo #1 Snap Bulbasaur, PSA 8 — \$809,094. This is now the most expensive Bulbasaur card ever sold, in any grade.
• 1999 Japanese Promo 64 Mario Stadium Best Photo #7 Snap Squirtle, PSA 6 — \$55,100. The most expensive Squirtle card on record.

Why the Snap Promos Are So Expensive

These cards came out of a photography contest tied to Pokemon Snap on the Nintendo 64. Players submitted their in-game photos to CoroCoro comic, and winning entries were printed as real trading cards. The print runs were tiny and the distribution was Japan-only, so surviving copies in any grade are scarce.

A PSA 8 clearing \$809,000 is the part worth sitting with. In most vintage categories, an 8 is a mid-grade copy. Here it is close to the top of the population.

What the \$18 Million Total Tells Us

Three signals worth pulling out of this auction:

Vintage Pokemon is still the deepest pocket in TCG

Modern Pokemon chase cards have been soft for months. Vintage Japanese promos have not been. That divergence has now shown up in three consecutive major auctions, and it is the clearest evidence yet that the two markets move independently.

One Piece has a real high end

Skeptics have argued that One Piece prices were a 2023 bubble that already deflated. A \$713,700 result for a trophy card says the top of that market has actual buyers with actual capital, even if the sealed product and standard chase cards have cooled.

Trophy and prize cards are their own asset class

Across Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and now One Piece, the pattern holds: cards awarded at official events, in quantities of one to a handful, outperform every graded chase card in the same category. If you are thinking about where the ceiling is in any TCG, look at what the tournament winners took home.

Practical Notes for Sellers

If you have vintage Japanese promos sitting raw, this auction is a strong argument for getting them slabbed before consigning. Grade compression at the top of these populations is severe, and the difference between a raw sale and a graded sale on a card like this is measured in multiples, not percentages.

Need a shop that handles grading submissions? Search The Card Shop Finder for local card shops that offer grading dropoff and consignment services.