Bids for rare solid gold Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG game card reached $13.4 million in China before authorities cancelled the auction

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-06-22 09:58 (JST)
Translated by. Aki Oshima

News of an auction selling frozen assets that belonged to a man in jail for embezzlement is trending in China. On June 21, a courthouse in Anhui, China began an online auction, which included the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Blue-Eyes White Dragon trading card. Made entirely of solid gold, this game card appears to be a super rare item, released to commemorate the franchise’s 20th anniversary and can fetch up to US$40k within Japan’s second hand market.

Initially, the auction began with a starting bid of 80 yuan (roughly US$13). Within 30 minutes, the bids skyrocketed to 80 million yuan (around US$13.4 million) before they were promptly canceled due to suspicion of fraudulent activity.

The card at issue is the solid gold Blue-Eyes White Dragon that was released back in February 2019 for Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG’s 20th anniversary. Limited to only 500 cards, the collectible was priced at US$1800 at the time of release, but due to its rarity, may command up to US$40k in Japanese second hand markets.

Although the Anhui auction card seemed to be devoid of any proper authentication, it still received massive attention simply because of its status as a solid gold limited edition item, long before the bidding began on June 19.

The bids poured in as soon as the auction opened at 4pm local time and, in the blink of an eye, pushed the price to an astronomical US$13.4 million. By 4:32pm, the auction was suspended under suspicion of malicious bidding. Altogether, the number of bids totalled 2105. This is despite the auction platform’s clear notice stating that malicious bidders may face consequences and are punishable by a fine or detention.

According to Chinese news agency Yangtse Evening Post, this solid gold Blue-Eyes White Dragon card allegedly belonged to a man who worked for a brokerage firm in Xuzhou, China. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2020 for embezzling nearly 70 million yuan (US$10.8 million) from government coffers and among his seized assets was this ultra rare Yu-Gi-Oh! collectible.

The commotion caused at the Anhui judicial auction by this listing of the rare Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Blue-Eyes White Dragon trading card has led to the suspension of all bids. However, this doesn’t mean they won’t attempt to auction it again at a later date.

For those who are also interested in throwing your hat into the ring, please note that auctioned items cannot be mailed, so you’d need to make your own way to Anhui province to claim your prize, should you make a successful bid. Considering all the travel restrictions and arrival quarantine due to COVID-19, it doesn’t seem realistic at this point for anyone outside of China to try their luck.