"7,800 euros?
Considered sold.
Several hundred amateur buyers, collectors and the curious attended Thursday at the first auction exclusively devoted to Pokémon cards on French territory.
In Drouot, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, the star of the room is a Charizard card, almost new and first edition (1 999), carefully stored in its Plexiglas case, estimated between 10,000 and 12,000 euros.
With a start of sale at 6,000 euros, it finally found a taker for 1,800 more.
“It's a sector where we are quite nostalgic. We buy back what we could not have when we were little ”, explains Florian Bourguet, sales expert specializing in comics and popular cultures. Twenty-five years after its appearance, the Pokémon saga created by the Japanese giant Nintendo continues to appeal to young and old. The success of the license - one of the most profitable in the world - which comes in video games and cartoons featuring the adorable monsters, including the famous Pikachu, shows no signs of fatigue.
“It's very exciting, I've been immersed in the Pokémon universe since I was very young,” marvels Gabriel Levy, 14-year-old high school student and the happy owner of a first edition Florizarre, his most precious card. Beside him, his uncle Lionel chokes: “Pardon? Are you kidding me? He said on the announcement of the estimate price of the sale trump card. “I find that insane. I once brought him a package that I had paid 10 euros for at the flea market, and for him it was a treasure. It's very curious, ”he admits.
"I have plenty of them in my closet, I'll take them out right now," exclaims Emie Vellut, a 24-year-old student in Paris, who entered the room by chance. “I didn't expect that when I entered, especially in Drouot, I imagined jewelry, watchmaking and art, but not a horde of Pokémon! ”And even less to what the sale organized by the house Vermont & Associés brings in so much: nearly 35,000 euros auctioned, 44,000 euros including fees.
