Chinese government stops auction after bids for Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card hit $13.4 million

Chuzhou, China - Trading cards from games like Pokémon or Magic The Gathering have been considered a popular investment for several years now, sometimes selling for astronomical prices. But the latest offer for a single Yu-Gi-Oh! card was so extreme that a Chinese federal court intervened and shut down the auction.

Old trading cards can be worth good money nowadays, but the bids for a Yu-Gi-Oh! card at an auction are beyond anything you've ever seen before! (Archive image).
Old trading cards can be worth good money nowadays, but the bids for a Yu-Gi-Oh! card at an auction are beyond anything you've ever seen before! (Archive image).  © IMAGO / Niehoff

As reported by The South China Morning Post, the incredible sum of $13.4 million was offered for a very limited "gold" edition of the "Blue-eyes White Dragon" at an auction in China!

As the cards for the franchise went beyond collecting and were used in actual strategy card games and tournaments, having a powerful Blue-Eyes White Dragon in your deck was more than handy. That particular dragon was central to the storyline of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TV series and the corresponding card proved a powerful weapon during gameplay.

According to the report, the card being auctioned was one of just 500 ever made out of real gold and was released in 2018 to mark the 20th anniversary of the trading card game.

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Sold exclusively through the online shop of manufacturer Konami, the gold edition was predicted to sell for "only" up to $46,000.

The auction was held on an Alibaba-owned platform and the initial bid was set for just $15 as that was what the court estimated the value of the card to be.

Also offered PlayStation 4 of gold and diamonds

An auction for a single USB drive suspected to hold Bitcoin was also stopped after reaching $77,000. (Stock image).
An auction for a single USB drive suspected to hold Bitcoin was also stopped after reaching $77,000. (Stock image).  © 123RF/Hugo Kurk

The card belonged to a young man named Zhang Yujie, who was serving life in prison for embezzling more than $10 million from the government. In China, the norm in such cases is to auction off the confiscated possessions of convicts.

The auction attracted a huge audience of bidders in a very short time, with some 18,000 people reportedly bidding, and two million watching as bidders drove the price to an unimaginable sum within a few minutes.

This although the authenticity of the card had never been verified!

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A Chinese court finally pulled the emergency brake and stopped the auction. According to the Morning Post, the authorities of the People's Republic suspected a "malicious bidding behavior", warning punishment could come to those who were found guilty of messing with the procedure.

Incidentally, this wasn't the only unusual item sold at the auction – a PlayStation 4 adorned with gold and diamonds was also reportedly on offer. The court also suspended the auction of a USB drive suspected to hold the criminal's Bitcoin when bids for it reached $77,000.

Cover photo: IMAGO / Niehoff

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