A common Pokémon card from the late ’90s has become one of the most talked-about collectibles in the hobby—thanks to one collector whose hyper-specific mission has turned Kabuto into an unlikely market disruptor.
As reported by The New York Post, the card in question is a first-edition Kabuto from 1999’s Fossil set. For years, it traded for pocket change. That changed fast.
According to sales data, near-mint copies jumped from roughly $4 in early November to more than $40 by early December, representing a surge of about 971 percent in just a few weeks. Some listings climbed even higher, with sellers asking $80 or more—while others leaned into the chaos with meme-level prices reaching five figures.
Behind the surge is a collector who goes by “Kabuto King.” Since August, he’s been buying up first-edition Kabuto cards at scale, focusing only on near-mint condition. He now claims ownership of more than 2,000 copies and regularly posts updates on X, where his following has grown past 33,000 users.
As the buying spree became public, speculation exploded on Reddit and collector forums. One popular thread framed it bluntly: “He’s trying to collect every First Edition Kabuto card on the market so it can be artificially inflated to the most expensive card.”
Others pushed back on the idea that this could ever translate into real profit. “This man is the market for first edition Kabutos,” one commenter wrote. Another added, “Even if he owned 100% of them, who’s actually buying?”
Some collectors broke down the math. Estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of Kabuto cards were printed during the original Fossil run. Even with 2,000 copies in hand, Kabuto King would control a fraction of the total population. As one Redditor put it: “It’s impressive, but not price-warping unless people FOMO like morons.”
Kabuto King, for his part, has shown no interest in flipping. “Everyone thinks I’m gonna sell out,” he wrote on X. “You have no idea what’s coming.”
The moment has spilled into the mainstream. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, himself a Pokémon fan, was asked about the Kabuto surge and laughed before saying, “The market for it has really exploded. I think it’s pretty cool.”
The wildest moment so far? A single Kabuto card signed by Kabuto King was listed on eBay for $51,000, and he later said the money would be donated to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.