The Art Academy cards took the headlines from the Goldin Pokémon 30th Anniversary Auction, and our October 27 report covered the biggest of them. Underneath those results sat a second story that came into focus when ComicBook pulled the Darkness type results together on October 29. The Gold Star cards of the mid 2000s just posted some of the largest prices they have ever made, and the single biggest of them belongs to Umbreon.

Umbreon sets the pace at $738,100

WorthPoint, reporting on the Goldin auction after it closed on October 25, records a PSA 10 copy of the 2007 POP Series 5 Umbreon Gold Star at $738,100. ComicBook reports the same price and adds that the lot drew 47 bids, and ComicBook calls it a new public high for the card at PSA 10. The card itself explains part of the pull. It shows Umbreon in its shiny colors, drawn by Masakazu Fukuda, whose name sits right on the card. ComicBook adds that the card was handed out through the Pokémon Organized Play program rather than sold in booster packs, and that PSA counts 53 copies at PSA 10.

ComicBook also reports that a second PSA 10 copy sold at Fanatics Collect for $456,000 about an hour earlier the same night, and that a PSA 10 copy made $216,000 in August. Those two figures rest on ComicBook reporting for now. The Goldin price is the one two independent reports agree on, and it is the benchmark worth quoting.

Charizard Gold Star and the unpaid headline

The Charizard Gold Star from the 2006 Dragon Frontiers set shows why collectors should read auction results with care this season. A PSA 10 copy sold at Goldin on October 25 for $430,660. A paid sales record kept by Polkastarter lists that Goldin sale with 30 bids, and ComicBook mentions the same Goldin price in its report. The Polkastarter record puts the same card at $384,000 at Fanatics Collect on September 6, so the Goldin result is a real step up on confirmed money. The card is a Delta Species printing that gives Charizard the Darkness type and the shiny black colors, again with artwork by Masakazu Fukuda.

ComicBook also reported a PSA 10 copy at Fanatics Collect at $504,000 and treated it as the record for the card. The Polkastarter record, checked on October 28, lists that $504,000 result as unpaid and leaves it out of its ranking. Until a paid record confirms it, the honest headline for this card is the Goldin price. A result is not a sale until the money moves, and our October 28 report made the same point about Gold Star Mewtwo results at Fanatics Collect that were still listed as unpaid.

The rest of the Gold Star board

WorthPoint puts two more Gold Star results from the same Goldin auction on the board. A PSA 10 Espeon Gold Star, the companion card to Umbreon in POP Series 5, made $573,400, and a PSA 10 Mudkip Gold Star from EX Team Rocket Returns made $610,000. Polkastarter records one more from that night, a PSA 10 copy of the Japanese Dragon Frontiers Charizard Gold Star at $329,400 after 91 bids at Goldin. Each of those figures rests on one report for now, so we are listing them as reported results from named sources rather than as settled records.

Tyranitar and the slab that sold for $10,555 last year

The wildest line in the ComicBook report belongs to Tyranitar. ComicBook reports that a PSA 10 copy of the POP Series 1 Tyranitar ex sold at Fanatics Collect for $360,000, and that PSA sales records show the very same slab, certification 109777264, sold on eBay for $10,555 in April 2025. ComicBook puts the PSA 10 count for the card at eight copies, and the card art by Hisao Nakamura is printed right on the card. We have not found a second report of the $360,000 result yet, so it sits in this story as a ComicBook claim, and it is exactly the kind of number that needs a paid record behind it before it becomes a benchmark.

What this means for collectors

ICv2 reports that the Goldin auction totaled over $28 million in sales and logged 18 record setting sales, so the Gold Star strength was part of a much bigger night. Our take is that the pattern matters more than any one price. Cards handed out through Organized Play in the mid 2000s, in tiny numbers, with shiny artwork, are now trading like trophy cards. Supply cannot answer that demand, because no new POP Series packs are coming. What can change is which prices count. Collectors quoting comparables this month should quote paid and confirmed results, name the house, and keep unpaid results in a separate column until they clear.

What to watch next

Watch the Fanatics Collect paid records first. If the $504,000 Charizard Gold Star result and the reported $360,000 Tyranitar ex result appear there as paid, both cards gain a new benchmark, and if they never appear, the Goldin prices stay the story. Watch Espeon next, because an Umbreon at $738,100 will pull fresh attention to its POP Series 5 companion. And watch whether more Gold Star copies come to market at all, because at populations this small, the next copy offered may matter more than the last price paid.