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For decades it was a whisper at trade nights. An English Base Set Raichu with a green “Prerelease” stamp that wasn’t supposed to exist. Over the weekend, that myth crossed the auction block, slabbed PSA EX-MT 6, and realized roughly $550,000 at Heritage Auctions. It’s the first time a copy has ever sold publicly and, according to Heritage, it sets a new benchmark for English-language Pokémon cards.

What this card is, and why it matters
Back in 1999, Wizards of the Coast tested “PRERELEASE” stamps for the early Pokémon League. The Jungle expansion’s Clefable was the intended promo. Somewhere in that process, a small number of Base Set Raichu cards picked up the same green stamp by mistake. No public release followed, and staff took the misprints home. For years, Wizards folks downplayed the story, which only fed the legend.

The first undeniable proof hit the internet in 2006, when former Wizards rep Mike Boozer allowed a photo of his copy to be posted on PokeGym, finally putting a face to the rumor. That image’s disappearance later added more haze, but CGC recovered it via the Wayback Machine during a 2023 authentication deep dive.

How many exist
Counts vary depending on who you ask. Longtime Wizards staffers have cited figures between eight and eleven, a range that has stuck in hobby lore. What’s clear in 2025 is that only a handful have surfaced, and even fewer have gone through a grading room.

What changed recently
In late 2023, CGC authenticated and graded two different Prerelease Raichu cards linked to former Wizards employees, using forensic tools to compare them to known Jungle Clefable Prerelease prints. That work moved the card from rumor to documented artifact. This summer, PSA authenticated another copy, the one that just sold, marking the first PSA-encapsulated example and the only one of the trio now confirmed in a PSA holder.

About the sale
Heritage’s lot described the card as “Pokémon Raichu 14 Unlimited Base Set Prerelease, PSA EX-MT 6,” and it hammered in the Trading Card Games Signature Auction held September 19 to 20. Heritage’s post-sale release framed the result as a record for an English Pokémon card, underscoring how powerful a mix of scarcity and story can be.

Why collectors paid up
Extreme scarcity is only part of it. This card sits at the intersection of error, insider history, and a mystery that outlived the Base Set boom by decades. It’s also a clean visual twist on a day-one holo that everyone knows, which helps non-specialists grasp what they’re looking at. When museum-piece lore collides with recognizable nostalgia, prices stretch. Coverage across the hobby press echoed that point as the sale made the rounds.

Graded population at a glance
As of today, public documentation supports three graded copies in total: two certified by CGC in 2023 and one authenticated and graded by PSA in 2025. Heritage and art-market recaps note the PSA example is the first and only PSA-slabbed copy to hit the market. If more cards emerge from former employee binders, that number could grow, but it won’t grow much.

A note on debate
Even with top-tier graders signing off, a thread of skepticism remains in parts of the community, mostly around how to classify a card that was never meant for public distribution. That discussion has followed Prerelease Raichu since the first whispers, and it likely won’t disappear now that real money has entered the chat.

Timeline you can pin
1999: Jungle Clefable is prepared as a Prerelease card. A small number of Base Set Raichu receive the Prerelease stamp in error. Cards are informally retained by staff.
2006: PokeGym publishes images tied to Mike Boozer’s copy, the hobby’s first solid public proof.
2018: A second staff copy surfaces privately and later heads to grading.
2023: CGC authenticates and grades two copies, releasing research on how they verified them.
2025: PSA authenticates another example. Heritage Auctions sells it for about $550,000, the first public sale of its kind.

What this means for the market
The sale plants Prerelease Raichu alongside the hobby’s highest-end English cards and gives a public comp where none existed. It also nudges museum-piece misprints and insider artifacts into a clearer spotlight. Expect immediate ripple effects for provenance-backed oddities, while routine error cards remain their own, very different category. For now, one of Pokémon’s longest-running rumors has a price tag, a slab, and a paper trail.