Yu-Gi-Oh! Blue-Eyes White Dragon LOB-001 1st Edition PSA 10

A dragon written to be unbeatable

Blue-Eyes White Dragon began as a drawing in a comic. Kazuki Takahashi launched the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in September 1996, and when he needed a monster for the hero's rival, Seto Kaiba, to throw at the hero, Yugi Mutou, he invented one. He chose the name because he wanted it to let readers conjure up its colors.

In the story the card is impossibly rare. Kaiba learns that Yugi's grandfather owns one, takes it, and later gathers the other three in existence through extortion and blackmail. The anime's first episode, The Heart of the Cards, told viewers that only four copies were ever made. Its card text is pure swagger: a legendary dragon, 'virtually invincible,' that very few have faced 'and lived to tell the tale.'

When the fictional game became a real one, the dragon arrived with the biggest numbers in the opening set: Level 8, 3000 attack and 2500 defense. It was also printed as the first card in the first English set, LOB-001.

Takahashi, Konami and Upper Deck

Takahashi was born Kazuo Takahashi in Tokyo on October 4, 1961, and drew manga under the pen name Kazuki. Yu-Gi-Oh! ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1996 to 2004 and sold more than 40 million copies. He died on July 4, 2022, drowning off Nago, Okinawa, while reportedly helping rescue three people caught in a rip current.

Konami launched the real card game in Japan in 1999 as the Official Card Game. On February 11, 2002, Upper Deck Entertainment announced exclusive rights to distribute it in North America, noting that more than 3.5 billion cards had already sold in Japan. Upper Deck held the license until it lost the rights at the end of the decade, and Guinness World Records named Yu-Gi-Oh! the top-selling trading card game in the world on July 7, 2009.

March 2002

Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon reached North American stores on March 8, 2002. Its 126 cards were drawn from two Japanese sets, Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon and Phantom God, both released in 2000. Booster packs held nine cards and boxes held 24 packs. The set had 2 Secret Rares, 10 Ultra Rares and 10 Super Rares, and a box usually yielded only two Ultra Rares.

The same packs carried Yugi's Dark Magician, Joey's Red-Eyes B. Dragon and the five pieces of Exodia the Forbidden One, along with game-defining cards like Raigeki, Monster Reborn and Pot of Greed. Early 2002 was also the season of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and, that May, the first Spider-Man film.

1st Edition and Unlimited versions were released the same day, in hobby and retail boxes. Later releases followed in Asian-English, European English (coded LOB-E), Oceanic English and other languages, and the cards were reprinted many times in tins and collections. Only the North American 1st Edition LOB-001 is the card this entry describes.

Wavy, glossy and the grade

A 1st Edition card carries the words '1st Edition' on its face and a gold Eye of Anubis seal; other prints have a silver one. The PSA population report treats the North American 1st Edition, the Asian-English, the European, the Australian and the various language versions as separate cards, so the grading label matters.

Collectors also split the North American 1st Edition into two card stocks. Some cards have a glossy finish; another batch, known in the hobby as 'wavy,' shows a rippled foil. A 2019 survey by the grading company reported that 1st Edition boxes came in three known variations, only one of which yielded wavy cards, and that many collectors believe wavy cards are about one third of the 1st Edition population. Wavy copies usually bring a premium.

Gem Mint copies are scarce because the production was rough. Collectors quoted in that survey describe centering problems, ink splotches, factory lines, square-cut corners, white edge dings straight from the pack and colors that range from very light to very dark. A PSA 10 has to clear all of that. PSA's CardFacts page lists 106 LOB-001 1st Edition copies at PSA 10, against 309 at PSA 9.

From $999 to five figures

One longtime Yu-Gi-Oh! collector recalled in 2019 that the first PSA 10 Blue-Eyes he remembered selling went for $999 in March 2015, which he called the starting price for these cards. By May 2019, PSA 10 copies had sold for more than $5,000 at least seven times since December 2018, with wavy copies higher still.

The boom of 2020 and 2021 carried the card much further. A wavy PSA 10 is recorded selling for $85,000 in August 2021, although its record does not say whether it was an auction or a fixed-price sale. In September 2022 a PSA 10 crossed the block at a major U.S. auction with 22 bidders; its catalog noted that PSA had certified 94 copies at Gem Mint at the time.

The clearest verified public result is in PSA's own sales record: a PSA 10, certification number 27415739, sold for $33,600 at a winter auction of comics, video games and trading cards on March 8, 2023. More recent offers on the open market have reached $35,000 to $64,999 for glossy copies and up to $99,999.99 for a wavy one, but those are listings whose terms are not recorded.

The face of the game

Blue-Eyes has been reprinted for more than two decades, as a Kaiba starter-deck card, a prize card and a 25th-anniversary Quarter Century Secret Rare, which keeps the dragon in play while leaving the 2002 1st Edition as the original. Collectors interviewed in 2019 described Legend of Blue Eyes as the base from which every other Yu-Gi-Oh! set begins, and the set with the highest submission rate at PSA.

For collectors who grew up with the anime, the Gem Mint LOB-001 sits at the top of that first set: the dragon from the first episode, on the first card of the first English set, in the top grade.

The numbers

Set

Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon (LOB), 126 cards; 2 Secret, 10 Ultra, 10 Super Rares

Packaging

9 cards per pack, 24 packs per box; about 2 Ultra Rares per box

Card

LOB-001, Ultra Rare; Level 8 LIGHT Dragon, Normal Monster, 3000 ATK / 2500 DEF

PSA population (1st Edition LOB-001)

PSA 10: 106; PSA 9: 309; PSA 8: 202; PSA 7: 102 (PSA CardFacts)

Earlier count

94 PSA 10s, September 2022

Variants

Glossy and 'wavy' card stock; wavy believed to be about one third of 1st Edition

Timeline

1. Sep 17, 1996

   Yu-Gi-Oh! begins serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump.

2. 1999

   Konami launches the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game in Japan.

3. 2000

   The Japanese sets Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon and Phantom God are released.

4. Feb 11, 2002

   Upper Deck announces exclusive North American distribution rights.

5. Mar 8, 2002

   Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon goes on sale in North America, 1st Edition and Unlimited.

6. Oct 14, 2003

   Upper Deck announces the original booster packs, including LOB, will be retired.

7. Jul 7, 2009

   Guinness World Records names Yu-Gi-Oh! the top-selling trading card game.

8. Mar 2015

   An early PSA 10 LOB-001 1st Edition sells for $999, as one collector recalls it.

9. Aug 14, 2021

   A wavy PSA 10 is recorded selling for $85,000; sale type not stated.

10. Jul 4, 2022

    Kazuki Takahashi dies off Okinawa.

11. Sep 23, 2022

    A PSA 10 sells at a U.S. auction with 22 bidders; PSA population then 94.

12. Mar 8, 2023

    PSA 10, cert 27415739, sells at auction for $33,600.

The world in 2002

• Jan 8, 2002

  President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act.

• Feb 3, 2002

  The New England Patriots win their first Super Bowl.

• Feb 8, 2002

  The Winter Olympics open in Salt Lake City.

• May 3, 2002

  Spider-Man opens in theaters.

• Jun 12, 2002

  The Los Angeles Lakers win a third straight NBA title.

• Sep 4, 2002

  Kelly Clarkson wins the first American Idol.

• Nov 25, 2002

  The Department of Homeland Security is established.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Yu-Gi-Oh! Blue-Eyes White Dragon LOB-001 1st Edition PSA 10 is number 47 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (84 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• In the anime, Kaiba owns three Blue-Eyes White Dragons and the fourth belonged to Yugi's grandfather.
• Takahashi named the dragon so readers could imagine its colors from the name alone.
• The 'wavy' foil was not an intended variation, but collectors now pay extra for it.
• A 1st Edition card has a gold Eye of Anubis seal; other prints have a silver one.
• Counterfeit LOB boxes are common; collectors check the green Upper Deck logo on the box back under magnification.
• As late as 2010, a box of LOB could be bought for as little as $150.