'Van Gogh Pikachu' worth $5m steals the show as HK hosts biggest-ever trading card festival

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Hong Kong on Saturday opened the mammoth two-day Grade10 Festival at the Hopewell Hotel, drawing over 120 exhibitors from the United States, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and mainland China, with organizers expecting more than 23,000 visitors.

The undisputed star of the weekend is the world’s first public display of the “Van Gogh Pikachu” wall, an eye-watering installation of more than 400 PSA 10-graded copies of the ultra-rare grey-felt-hat Pikachu card, collectively valued at close to HK$5 million.

Released in 2023 as a limited promotional tie-in between Pokémon and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the card reimagines the artist’s famous self-portrait with Pikachu sporting the iconic hat and instantly became one of the most coveted modern Pokémon cards.

American collector heavyweight Nick Uliano flew in specially for the event, while the opening ceremony brought together high-profile guests including Our Hong Kong Foundation chairman Bernard Charnwut Chan, MemeStrategy CEO Ray Chan Chin-ching, managing director of Grade10 Carvin Chan, and Will Li Kin-man from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

Celebrities and industry insiders such as swimmer-actor Alex Fong, CASETiFY co-founder Wesley Ng, and Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao also joined the ribbon-cutting.

Chan declared Hong Kong perfectly positioned to become Asia’s premier trading-card hub, citing the city’s deep-pocketed collectors, high transaction volumes, diverse inventory, and world-class infrastructure.

He said unveiling the Van Gogh Pikachu wall globally for the first time was a deliberate statement that Hong Kong is now where the rarest cards converge.

Adding to the excitement, organizers are giving away four of the grey-felt-hat Pikachus, two of them PSA 10 gems, to lucky attendees who win on-site games and quizzes.

The festival also features the world’s first live “Threads Wall” collaboration with Meta’s platform, letting visitors share their finds instantly.