At Heritage’s Latest TCG Signature Auction; Charizard #4 Sets a Record, PSA Holders More Desirable
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Hammer prices on high-end Pokemon TCG and Magic: The Gathering vintage singles and sealed boxes rebalanced a bit from prices realized in recent years at Heritage Auction’s latest TCG Signature Auction. This auction took place from December 12-13, 2025 (see “Cornucopia“).
The post-pandemic era of TCG auctions has been a wild ride with high-end singles prices for Pokemon TCG and Magic: The Gathering hitting all-time highs circa Q1 2022. However, since then, prices on these high-end cards have been doing a rebalancing act to find stability. The latest Heritage TCG Signature Auction provided some clarity in this department as it had multiple major cards up for sale.
Two copies of the iconic Pokemon TCG Charizard #4 from the 1E Base Set sold in this auction. The PSA Gem Mint 10 version sold for $550,000 and the CGC Gem Mint 10 version sold for $106,250. The PSA-graded card sale is a record at auction, surpassing the previous record sale of $420,000 at PWCC sale in March 2022 (up roughly 20% in a little over three years). The more than $400,000 disparity between the PSA-graded card and CGC-graded card is something of note; clearly, HA buyers believe the PSA grading process is the “gold standard” for grading.
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On an even more interesting note, a CGC Gem Mint 9 Pikachu Illustrator Promo sold for $325,000. A similar card, in a PSA Gem Mint 7 grade, sold for $900,000 in 2022 (see “Scarce ‘Pokemon’ Card“) and there was a very high eBay sale of this type of card for $4 million in 2025 (see “‘Pokemon TCG’ Single Card Sales“). This hammer price is problematic on a number of levels, the primary issue being that the 2025 sale is almost 64% below the 2022 sale for a lower-graded card. There are only 39 copies of this card in existence, and if this is another PSA-grading vs. CGC-grading preference issue, some lucky buyer might’ve just gotten a serious bargain if they just get their CGC 9 card re-graded by PSA.
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Four Pokemon TCG Pikachu Trophy cards sold at this auction. The 2nd Tournament card in a PSA 9 fetched $450,000 and the three 1st Tournament cards went for $275,000 (Trainer #2), $237,000 (Trainer #1), and $225,000 (Trainer #3), respectively. These cards are very scarce as they were only given out at specific tournaments; a similar Gem Mint 8 set of these promos sold in 2024 for about $800,000.
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As for Magic: The Gathering single card sales, a CGC NM/Mint 8 Alpha Black Lotus hammered at $68,750. This is far off the mark of the top-end sale of a CGC Pristine 10 version of the card in 2024 for $3 million (see “Black Lotus Card Sells for $3 Million“), but it seems fairly close to the mark for a mid-grade Alpha Black Lotus in a CGC holder based on recent TCGplayer market price. Also, an Arabian Nights sealed box hammered at $218,750, which is up a little over $6000 from a previous 2024 Heritage sale (see “Hammers at Over $200,000“), and an unsealed box of Beta Edition cards went for $237,500.
Source: ICv2
