Over the last year, there has been a significant surge in secondary market interest in trading cards, with rare cards fetching high prices.
We’ve seen it a lot with Pokémon cards, but a rare Nintendo card just sold on eBay for a whopping $10,600! The card in discussion is a Kirby “first prize” card that is Game Boy Advance e-Reader compatible. Nintendo distributed these Kirby cards as part of bundles including Pokémon and Game & Watch e-Reader cards during the 2002 E3 convention. Scanning the Kirby card revealed whether the user had won first, second, and maybe no prize.
Having won, cards were generally eliminated, making these the most scarce cards ever produced for the auxiliary. Twitter user @robertjanderson uncovered three packs of the cards. Anderson opened the packets and used the GBA e-Reader gadget to scan each card. One of these cards was the first finalist, and while it’s much too late to redeem the card, @robertjanderson received a pretty substantial prize when the winning card was auctioned off on eBay! Before DLC became popular, the cards functioned as a primitive means for Nintendo to provide new material for select games.
For those who are confused with Nintendo’s e-Reader, it was a Game Boy Advance attachment that was only available for a limited time. Users may swipe barcodes through the gadget for a variety of purposes when it was released in 2002. Some cards enabled games (as in the Manhole Game & Watch card above), while others unlocked content in games such as Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and Super Mario Advance 4.
Still, it’s incredible that this thing exists and has generated such a huge desire!
