A collector accepted a $30,000-plus buyback offer for a rare Pokémon card through video game retailer GameStop on Monday.
GameStop says the deal is the most ever paid in a buyback or trade-in for the company.
A GameStop spokesperson confirmed to cllct the card — a 2003 Pokémon Skyridge Gengar Holo PSA 10 — was pulled from a digital Lunar Power Pack. Those digital packs, which launched Dec. 1, cost $2,500 each and contain one PSA-graded Pokémon card.
The collector then accepted a payout of $30,494.70 after the card received a fair-market valuation of $33,883.
According to Card Ladder, the most recent sale for a Skyridge Gengar Holo PSA 10 was the $34,173 paid on eBay on Nov. 9. The card has a PSA 10 population of 99.
In addition to Power Packs, collectors can sell PSA-graded cards to GameStop for cash or store credit at physical locations. In-store trade-ins have a maximum payout of $1,500.
GameStop launched the Power Packs program in July in what has become a major expansion of its relationship with trading card grader PSA. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said in October the program was struggling to find inventory to match demand.
The two companies first partnered in May 2024 when GameStop began buying and selling PSA-graded cards. GameStop then began accepting drop-off submissions for PSA grading at select physical locations.
That collaboration passed 1 million graded cards in May.
In May, Cohen said the retailer’s pivot to collectibles and trading cards has been a major reason for its financial turnaround.
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Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the collectibles editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.