There are very few one-of-one products in the world—creations that have only been made once and will never be made again in the same form. For card games, this holds true despite how rare some printings can be. And for Yu-Gi-Oh!, there is one example that goes even further beyond and will soon be up for grabs.
Tyler The Great Warrior is not only the only Yu-Gi-Oh! card of its name but also the only card printed as part of a kid’s dream thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Tyler The Great Warrior is known now as a legendary card created and gifted to Tyler Gressle in 2002 by Konami and 4Kids Entertainment after he was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer and had to undergo multiple surgeries to combat it. It was created using Gressle’s original art, drawn while he was still in the hospital, which was then taken and expanded upon by Yu-Gi-Oh!’s creator, the late Kazuki Takahashi.
As part of a documentary created in part with popular Yu-Gi-Oh! content creator Cimoooooooo, we now have the full story behind the card’s origins along with a deeper look at what else Gressle has as part of Tyler The Great Warrior’s legacy.
Not only did Takahashi do the official art for the card, which was printed in front of Gressle and immediately put into a special display case, but he also handed the then-child multiple pieces of concept art that have never been seen before. This includes the original sketch of the art on the card and an alternate concept that was also available to be selected for the final printing.
In the video itself, you can see the original casing removed for the first time, in a room as silent and tense as it would be if a bomb was being defused, as the Beckett Grading Services prepared to grade what is likely Yu-Gi-Oh!’s “holy grail.”
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The Beckett team goes into detail about the grading process before revealing that this legendary card only received a seven due to a number of imperfections, such as a small crease. But that hasn’t deterred Gressle from his next move.
“Even though I’ve had [the card] for 20 years, I haven’t considered selling it up until recently,” Gressle said. “It was one of those things where they told me when I got the card, cherish it, don’t sell it, hang on to it, it’s the only one. I’ve cherished it for a really long time and I think it would be nice for others to be able to cherish it in a public space or by someone who is going to really, truly value that card and the history and everything that kind of came to create it.”
Along with wanting the card to be cherished by others, Gressle also notes that he felt the time is right to auction this one-of-one product as he feels avid collectors have been anticipating a big Yu-Gi-Oh! item for some time, the fact it is the series’ 25th anniversary, and his personal life goals such as starting a family will benefit from the process.
You can watch the full mini-doc on Cimoooooooo’s YouTube channel and the auction for Tyler The Great Warrior, which will likely break multiple records for a single card sale, will be live on April 19.
