Posted in: Card Games, Games, Games, Heritage Sponsored, Pokémon TCG, Sponsored, Tabletop, Wizards of the Coast | Tagged: 1st Edition, auction, Dark Raichu, heritage auctions, Pikachu, pokemon, raichu, rocket, TCG

Pokémon TCG: 1st Edition Dark Raichu Up For Auction At Heritage

Published Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:12:16 -0500

by Joshua Nelson

Comments

Heritage Auctions, an auction house based in Dallas, Texas, that deals mainly in auction lots and listings primarily pertaining to comics, video games, trading cards, and other items of a similarly collectible nature, has put a rare 1st Edition copy of Dark Raichu, a card from the Rocket expansion of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, up for auction! This card, printed as a scarce Secret Rare in the Pokémon TCG set, was a major source of buzzing conversation in various circles in the early days of the game, namely due to a major lack of basic Internet information. In any case, prospective bidders will only have up until Tuesday, April 26th, to place a bid on this fantastic and valuable Pokémon card.

The front face of Dark Raichu, a card from the Rocket expansion of the Pokémon TCG. Currently available at auction on Heritage Auctions' website. — The front face of Dark Raichu, a card from the *Rocket* expansion of the *Pokémon TCG*. Currently available at auction on Heritage Auctions' website.

Back in the days of 2000's Pokémania, the World Wide Web was mostly a luxury to the common school-ground connoisseur of Pokémon TCG cards. As such, information moved far slower than it does today. For the most part, as a consequence, many kids did not even know this card existed unless they subscribed to the latest copy of the Beckett book or Pojo's magazine. That is, unless they had the card themselves. As such, this Secret Rare-level card had become a fable to many hearing about it through the grapevine of hearsay. Furthermore, according to the item's auction listing on Heritage Auctions' website:

This was the fifth expansion set for the card game and was released on April 24, 2000. The set includes Dark Raichu numbered 83/82, making this set the first to have a secret rare card. And that's exactly the card that's featured in this lot! You Pokémon fans might recall that the only way for Pikachu to evolve into Raichu is by exposing it to a Thunder Stone. Raichu was a part of Gym Leader Lt. Surge's Pokémon team! The artwork was done by Mitsuhiro Arita. CGC awarded the following subgrades: centering 9, surface 9, corners 8.5, edges 9.5. CGC certified 115 copies Mint 9 and 9 graded higher.

The back face of Dark Raichu, a card from the Rocket expansion of the Pokémon TCG. Currently available at auction on Heritage Auctions' website. — The back face of Dark Raichu, a card from the *Rocket* expansion of the *Pokémon TCG*. Currently available at auction on Heritage Auctions' website.

If you wish to place a bid on this superb and scarce card from the Pokémon TCG, please kindly note that you will only have up until Tuesday, April 26th, to do so. You can find this item's auction listing on Heritage Auctions' website by clicking here. Good luck!