Van Gogh Pikachu Release Was an Easy $1,000 for Scalpers

News

By RC Staff

02 October 2023

Last week, a new Pokemon card dropped. Part of a collaboration between the Pokemon Company and the Van Gogh Museum, Van Gogh themed Pikachu cards were handed out to museum guests. They proved far more popular than anybody anticipated, and created a tremendous stir at the museum. After being handed out, the cards would go on to resell for hundreds online. They would later be available as promotional gifts for an online sale the next day. Here’s everything you need to know about the collab.

Pokemon Van Gogh Collaboration

We’re not exactly sure where the idea for this collaboration came from. Is there much of an overlap between Pokemon and Vincent Van Gogh? It seems like it.

On September 12, the Pokemon Company announced a special collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Guests would be able to participate in a wide variety of Pokemon-related activities. Special oil paintings done in the style of Van Gogh but depicting various Pokemon were hung in the museum, and a special “Pokemon Adventure” was available to guests six and up.

Additionally, there was also a host of exclusive merch available in the gift shop. Pins, accessories, toys, just a bunch of cool stuff. But by far, the most hyped part of the collection was a card (of course).

The Van Gogh Pikachu card was available as a promotional gift for any attendee to the Van Gogh Museum during the exhibit, which runs from September 28 to January 7. The cards were not available in the gift shop or for purchase in any way, but they were freely handed out. Apparently, there were no limits either.

You can imagine the kind of behavior this policy caused…

It’s clear the Van Gogh Museum really didn’t think this through. The announcement for the exhibit and follow-up tweets showing off the card got a ton of attention, so what did they expect? Adult museum attendees to act like adults? Be real!

In any case, the people who stocked up on Van Gogh Pikachu cards were set up pretty well. These were not available online, or anywhere other than the Van Gogh museum. They had blown up on social media, and the only way to get one was through a reseller.

Pikachu Van Gogh Cards Resell

After the cards were first handed out on September 28, they immediately started to resell. At first, Pikachu Van Gogh Pokemon cards were reselling for anywhere from $200 to $400, with some sales passing $500.

It’s a neat card, for sure. Even though it’s not tournament legal, collectors are clearly willing to pay out the nose for it. Unfortunately for them though, the cards were about to become a lot less rare.

Van Gogh Pikachu Cards Sell Online

Yep, in less than 24 hours after the exhibit went live, the Pokemon Company made these cards available for purchase online. Many of the items from the Van Gogh collaboration were added to the Pokemon Center website on the morning of September 29.

Here’s how it worked:

If you bought any item item from from the Van Gogh collection online, you would receive a Van Gogh Pikachu card added to your cart, free of charge. Buy two items? Get two cards. Each order was limited to two items max, and products would continuously sell out and restock during the next few hours.

For resellers, this drop was an absolutely incredible opportunity. The cards themselves were reselling easily. You could buy two card savers from the drop for under $20 and receive two cards that flipped for around $100 each. Not only that, but many of the individual items from the collection were also reselling.

The Van Gogh Pokemon pin sets for example, would resell for upwards of $200 (retail $50). Van Gogh Pikachu plushes are going for $50 right now, after retailing for half that. Since September 29, eBay has recorded over 4,000 sales for items from the collection.

A dedicated reseller with a free morning was able to snag multiple orders as items restocked. Between 7 and 9 A.M, there were around 10-15 different waves of restocks for items. If you went after cheap items, or picked up several of the most popular pieces like the pin set, a reseller could have made around 10 or so orders.

Two items per order with two Pikachu cards thrown in gets you twenty total cards if you were really hustling. Even if you sold these at the cheapest, that comes out to about $1,000 in cards alone, never mind the potential profit for all the other items picked up.

In short, this was a great cook. Even casual buyers could expect to make a few hundred dollars that morning with minimal effort.

By the end of the day, all of the Pikachu Van Gogh cards had been given out, and the collection was pulled from sale through the Pokemon Center website.

Did you miss out on these? RC Elite members didn’t. Many of them were able to score hundreds to thousands of dollars on September 29, all without leaving their house. If you’re sick of watching from the sidelines, maybe it’s time you joined RC Elite too.

Otherwise, subscribe to our newsletter for more updates and tips on new items to flip. While the biggest flips like this are reserved for Elite members, we do try to keep our newsletter readers informed on new ways to make money.