A rare 1st edition Pokémon TCG booster box is being auctioned off for thousands of dollars

Pokémon Trading Card Game fans may be able to own a piece of the series’ history if they’re willing to part with over $50,000.

There’s an incredibly rare piece of Pokémon history for sale, and it doesn’t take a Pokémon Trading Card Game expert to know just how important it is.

Late last week, Huggins and Scott Auctions opened up an auction for a 1999 first edition print for a Pokémon Trading Card Game booster box. And because the box is unopened, it could sell for as much as $54,000.

The item, which is described as “tightly sealed,” has just a ding on its corner and remains completely sealed. For that reason, the box’s presentation shows how the booster boxes first appeared when they were released in 1999. In total, the box holds 36 packs filled with 11 cards, which include five common cards, three uncommon cards, two Energy cards, and one either Rare or Foil card.

Huggins and Scott Auctions calculate that whoever purchases the pack could receive a one-in-three chance for a Foil card per pack, and that there are essentially 396 chances for Gem Mint 10 holos and other incredibly rare cards within the box. That’s pretty good, seeing how the Pokémon Trading Card Game has become quite an expensive piece of the series’ history over the past two decades.

This isn’t the first time that a first edition booster box has been on sale. In late 2017, an eBay auction for a sealed booster box ended up earning its seller $54,200.

While the Pokémon Trading Card Game booster boxes themselves remain quite rare, interested collectors can still pick up sealed booster packs from the original Wizards of the Coast run on sites like eBay. Just be warned, one booster pack alone can cost you a fair whack, especially for cards released in 1999.