'Rampage' Discovers 'Inner Child' with $340k Purchase of Rare Pokemon Card
Ethan "Rampage" Yau made one of the most lucrative Pokémon trading card purchases ever.
The popular poker vlogger revealed his $340,000 purchase of the rare card on X. He left a lengthy note for his followers and explained why he bought the collector's item.
Rampage, who teased buying into the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game in May with the Pokémon card, said he began collecting six months ago and that he's become "hooked getting back into this franchise I once loved as a kid."
"It started with late nights researching what cards existed, then being completely overwhelmed with the catalogue of modern, mid-era, and vintage cards on the market, and finally flabbergasted at the prices of these little cardboard squares could amount to," Rampage wrote.
Worth the Money?
Rampage, a vlogger who quickly went from low to high-stakes in poker, explained that, in his research of Pokémon cards, there was "one card that stuck out amongst all else - the Rayquaza Gold Star." More specifically, he desired to acquire the card in Gem Mint condition graded by Professional Sports Authority (PSA), the most popular and trusted collectibles grading company in the U.S.
A PSA 10 (Gem Mint) grade on a sports or Pokémon card typically increases the value of a raw card (ungraded) by 200% or more. With rare chase cards such as the one Yau bought — there are only 47 PSA 10's in existence — a Gem Mint grade from PSA often increases the value even further.
The card now in Rampage's possession is a 2005 edition Pokémon Rayquaza EX Deoxys Holo Gold Star. According to 130point.com, the last sale of this card in a PSA 10 grade was in October 2022, and it went for $34,200 in an eBay auction, 10 times less than Rampage paid. But the Pokémon card hobby has grown in popularity the past four years, and many coveted cards such as this have skyrocketed in value.
"There are only 47 of these cards in the world and the demand seems higher than ever for high end collectibles. Sadly this one is now off the market, whether price goes up or down doesn’t matter to me. This one will be safe in my (personal collection)," Rampage wrote.
A trading card is worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay. It's to be determined if Rampage will get his money back, or turn a profit, if he were to one day decide to put it up for auction. But it appears he's content on keeping it in his personal collection, anyway.
The purchase, while expensive, pales in comparison to the $16,492,000 boxer Logan Paul received when he sold a Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon card earlier this month, the most expensive Pokémon card ever. Only seven Pokémon cards have sold for more in a public auction than the amount Rampage paid for his card, according to WarGamer.com.
The future value of the card doesn't seem to matter to Rampage, an investor in The Lodge Card Club in Texas. He told his X followers that the purchase was more about his "journey of personal growth and rediscovery of my inner child" than an investment.
Many other high-profile poker players have an interest in collecting sports cards and Pokémon cards, most notably Jared Bleznick, owner of Blez Sports, a Las Vegas-based card breaking company. Bleznick opened some boxes of basketball cards with Nick Schulman during a recent livestreamed high roller final table on PokerGO.
