What is the underlying value of the paintings that have sold for millions of dollars, or the Honus Wagner card that sold for $5 million?

Pokemon is the highest-grossing media franchise in history, grossing over $100 billion. A ton of people have nostalgic memories related to Pokemon and Pokemon cards. Today, many young children continue to love Pokemon.

I would explain the ins and outs of why some particular cards are worth $X amount of money, but the bottom line is the most valuable cards are of extremely limited supply or extremely limited supply in the best available condition.

One Pokemon card (an "Illustrator" card) recently sold at auction for $225,000. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/someone-spent-225-000-one-164041734.html