Collector stories · 20
Every collectible
has a story.
First pulls, attic finds, lost-and-found treasures and the ones that got away.
From the newsTrading cards
The Charizard he couldn’t afford as a kid
Growing up, the rapper Logic loved Pokémon but couldn’t afford the cards. In October 2020 he won a gem mint, PSA 10 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard at Iconic Auctions with a $183,812 bid, which came to more than $220,000 after the buyer’s…
From the newsTrading cards
The Charizard the government took
In January 2021, Vinath Oudomsine of Dublin, Georgia, spent $57,789 on a 1st Edition Charizard. The money came from an $85,000 pandemic relief loan he…
From the newsTrading cards
A Charizard worn to a boxing match
Logan Paul wore a 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard around his neck to his June 2021 exhibition bout with Floyd Mayweather. He had bought the card…
From the newsTrading cards
The Pikachu a museum had to stop giving away
This promo card came with entry to the Pokémon × Van Gogh Museum exhibition in Amsterdam, which opened on 28 September 2023. Crowds and resellers…
From the newsTrading cards
When Happy Meals sold out over Pikachu
For Pokémon’s 25th anniversary in February 2021, McDonald’s put card packs in Happy Meals, with this holo Pikachu as card 25 of 25. Within a day…
From the newsComics
Stolen in 2000, found in a storage locker
Nicolas Cage bought this copy of Action Comics #1 in 1996 and kept it framed on his wall. It was stolen from his Los Angeles home in January 2000…
From the newsComics
Found inside the walls
While restoring an old house in Minnesota, David Gonzalez found a 1938 copy of Action Comics #1 tucked into the wall insulation. The back cover had…
From the newsComics
A $3.2 million eBay listing
In August 2014, Darren Adams of Pristine Comics listed a CGC 9.0 copy of Action Comics #1 with unusually white pages on eBay. After ten days of…
From the newsComics
Batman’s debut in a great-aunt’s closet
In 2011, Michael Rorrer was clearing out his late great-aunt’s house in Martinsville, Virginia, when he found a stack of about 345 old comics in a…
From the newsTrading cards
The one-of-one card a boy designed
In 2005, 14-year-old Tyler Gressle was being treated for a rare liver cancer. His Make-A-Wish request was to create his own Yu-Gi-Oh! card. He drew…
From the newsCoins
The first $10 million coin
The finest known 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar is a specially struck early piece that experts believe may be among the very first silver dollars…
From the newsCoins
A keg of cents in a bank basement
The Bank of New York took in a keg of brand-new 1787 Fugio cents soon after they were struck, and then forgot about it. The coins reportedly turned up…
From the newsDie-cast
The pink Beach Bomb that never went on sale
Hot Wheels’ first Volkswagen Beach Bomb was designed with surfboards sticking out the back window. That version didn’t work with Mattel’s powered…
From the newsTrading cards
The one-of-one Ring, sold to Post Malone
When Magic: The Gathering released its Lord of the Rings set in 2023, Wizards printed a single serial-numbered copy of The One Ring and hid it in a…
From the newsTrading cards
The $999 Black Lotus nobody could play
For Magic’s 30th birthday in 2022, Wizards of the Coast reprinted Black Lotus and other famous early cards in a $999 box of four packs. The cards had…
From the newsDie-cast
A road roller small enough for a matchbox
In 1952, engineer Jack Odell made a tiny brass road roller for his daughter that fit inside a matchbox. Accounts differ on why: either her school…
From the newsDie-cast
The first Hot Wheels car ever made
Mattel co-founder Elliot Handler challenged his designers to make a die-cast car faster and flashier than anything else on the market. The first car…
From the newsComics
From a Denver basement to $450,000
Edgar Church, a Denver artist, bought comics off the newsstand for decades and stacked them in his basement, where the dry air kept the pages bright…
From the newsComics
The copy mailed to Harper’s
This copy of Wonder Woman #1 came in a 1942 press packet that DC associate editor Alice Marble, also a tennis champion, mailed to the editors of…
From the newsComics
Bought off an artist’s drawing board
Comics writer Paul Kupperberg has written that he bought a near-mint Showcase #4, the first appearance of the Barry Allen Flash, straight off artist…