The Story
A Fish Worth More Than Most Cars
The Tamamushi University Magikarp was awarded to students who aced the "Tamamushi University Hyper Test" — a Pokémon knowledge exam administered by Shogakukan publishing in 1998. Only top scorers in this nationwide quiz received the card.
There's an absurd poetry to a Magikarp — the most useless Pokémon in the franchise — being worth $66,100. The card proves that in collecting, provenance and scarcity trump everything. It doesn't matter that Magikarp is a joke in the games; the card's origin story makes it priceless.
The limited distribution through an academic test gives it a unique provenance that no other card shares. You had to prove your Pokémon knowledge to earn this fish.
You had to pass a Pokémon exam to earn a picture of the franchise's most useless fish. That fish is now worth $66,100.
