A player in the American football league NFL, 28-year-old Blake Martinez, makes so much money trading rare Pokémon cards that he is quitting his career as a professional athlete. Although he had earned millions of dollars a year until recently, he was no longer a salary millionaire after a serious injury.
What kind of card did the man sell? As reported by the “Las Vegas Review Journal,” Martinez received $672,000 for a Pokémon card from 1998 via an auction:
- The card is called “Pokémon Illustrator” and features a painting Pikachu: It is a special Trainer card. This card is also known as “The Swirllustrator.”
- It is said that there are only 4 of these cards known to exist. It is an extremely rare card, often referred to as the “Holy Grail.”
- The card received a grade of “9.5” – meaning it is extremely well preserved, nearly perfect (via youtube).
The U.S. media reports: The card sold for $560,000 at auction, and an additional fee brought the total to $672,000. According to Martinez himself, the card could have brought him as much as $1.5 million.
Career End at 28 – Mid-Season
This was the surprising announcement: About two weeks after Martinez sold the card for so much money, he announced his retirement from the NFL at just 28 years old. This is relatively young for a linebacker in the NFL. He is ending his career “mid-season,” which is unusual, as professionals typically retire after a season.
He cited that he wants to focus on his family and “future passions.”
In the U.S., it is believed that he now earns so much money from Pokémon cards that he doesn’t want to risk his body in the NFL any longer.
Previously earned $14 million a year, but after a serious injury “only” $311,000
How did his career go? Martinez joined the NFL in 2016, played 4 years with the Green Bay Packers, then went to New York for 3 years, where he earned a lot of money, until he ended up in Las Vegas. There, he played a good role as a linebacker, making 11 tackles in his last game before retirement.
How much did he earn as an athlete? According to reports from a U.S. site, Martinez earned quite well during his time in New York:
- In 2020, he reportedly earned $14 million,
- but after that, it steadily decreased. In 2022, he received $2 million from New York.
- With the Las Vegas Raiders, he supposedly earned “only” $311,000.
In 2021, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament.
How did he get into Pokémon? As the U.S. site Kotaku reports, Martinez has been collecting cards for years, but with the pandemic in 2020, his hobby got a new spark: He opened card packs on his Instagram account. And during one of these pack openings, he found the extremely valuable card.
Martinez even started his own business to trade cards.
However, with Pokémon cards, you can also have bad luck:
Clueless man buys Pokémon cards for 3,000,000 €, without asking experts – Gets scammed
