These Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charmander cards won Pokémon Snap photo contests - and just sold for record sums

A trio of expensive Pokémon cards featuring first-generation starter Pokémon Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charmander have broken multiple sales records under the hammer. The cards all date from 1999, and feature pictures of the Pokémon taken by players in Nintendo 64 video game Pokémon Snap. Those photos were entered into a series of photo contests held in Japan that year, with the winning entries made into limited-edition Pokémon cards awarded to each successful contestant. The Squirtle card sold on November 19th was one of 15 copies awarded to one of the winners of the Best Photo Contest hosted by Japanese TV show 64 Mario Stadium in 1999. The copy sold by auction house Goldin was rated as being in a Near-Mint 7 condition on the 10-point scale of card grading specialist PSA, making it the highest graded copy of the card recorded by PSA to date alongside just four other cards at the same tier. Read more