2017 Welcome Festa Rare Candy PSA 9 Sells for $29K

The 2017 Pokémon Japanese Sun & Moon Promo “Welcome Festa” Pulverizing Pancake Battle 1st Place #SM-P Rare Candy card just recorded a notable auction result that has collectors talking.

On May 18, 2026, Goldin sold a copy graded PSA MINT 9 for $29,281. This example is labeled:

• 2017 Pokémon Japanese Sun & Moon Promo
• Welcome Festa Pulverizing Pancake Battle – 1st Place
• Card #SM-P “Rare Candy”
• Graded PSA 9 (Mint)
• Population (pop) 1 in PSA 9 at the time of sale

In hobby terms, “pop 1” means this is the only copy in that grade in PSA’s population report, the company’s public count of how many copies they’ve graded at each grade level.

What exactly is this Welcome Festa Pulverizing Pancake Battle card?

The Welcome Festa promos are Japanese Sun & Moon era event cards tied to organized play and celebration events, not standard booster-pack releases. This specific card is a Prize/award-style promo that references Snorlax’s Z-Move “Pulverizing Pancake,” with the “Battle 1st Place” text indicating it was awarded for top performance at an event rather than being a regular pack-pulled card.

Key identifiers:

• Year & era: 2017, early Sun & Moon (considered “ultra-modern” in the Pokémon hobby)
• Region & language: Japanese release
• Set type: Sun & Moon Promo (SM-P), event/award promo rather than a main expansion
• Card number: SM-P Promo, titled “Rare Candy” for this specific prize card
• Award designation: “Welcome Festa Pulverizing Pancake Battle 1st Place” on the label
• Grading: PSA MINT 9

Award-style Japanese promos from this era are generally printed in far lower quantities than mass-release cards, and their distribution is often restricted to specific events, dates, or performance levels.

Grading and population context

This copy is graded PSA 9 (Mint). For modern and ultra-modern cards, a PSA 10 is usually the most chased grade, but with low-print, event-style promos, even PSA 9 can be extremely difficult to source.

At the time of this Goldin sale, the card was recorded as pop 1 in PSA 9. That does not necessarily mean it’s the only graded copy overall (there may be other grades or other grading companies), but it does underline how thin the graded supply currently looks in PSA’s database.

For collectors who prioritize scarcity plus condition, a pop 1 Mint example of a niche, event-only Japanese promo can carry a meaningful premium over raw (ungraded) copies or lower grades, simply because so few hit the market in encapsulated, high-grade form.

Market context and recent sales

This $29,281 result is not occurring in a vacuum. To understand it, it helps to look at:

• sales of this exact card in other grades
• sales of closely related Welcome Festa / event promos from 2017
• the broader pattern for rare Japanese prize and trophy-style cards

Based on available auction and marketplace data up to this sale date, public sales for this exact 1st Place Rare Candy promo in any PSA grade are very thin. When sales are this sparse, we lose the ability to anchor the number against a robust stack of “comps” (short for comparables, or comparable recent sales).

Instead, the price context comes more from:

• Known pricing on other 2017 Japanese prize/event promos in strong grades
• The general premium attached to event-awarded, text-labeled cards (e.g., “1st Place”, “Winner”, “Prize”)
• The broader trend of collectors and high-end buyers turning more attention to Japanese exclusives and award cards in recent years

Within that framework, $29,281 is at the upper end of expectations for niche Sun & Moon-era Japanese promos, but not out of line with what we’ve seen for particularly rare, competition-tied cards — especially when they combine:

• low print / limited distribution
• a clear performance-based award (“Battle 1st Place”)
• strong eye appeal and a clean design
• very low graded population

Because this is a pop 1 and there are no frequent transactions to reference, it’s more accurate to view this Goldin result as a data point rather than a definitive market level. If another copy appears in PSA 9 or PSA 10, that sale could land higher, lower, or near this figure depending on timing, bidders, and overall market conditions.

Why collectors care about this card

Even among modern Pokémon promos, not all cards are created equal. A few factors make this card stand out:

1. Event and award pedigree

Award and prize promos sit in a different lane than pack-pulled cards. They usually require:

• attending the right event in the right region
• performing well enough to earn a prize

That combination means many copies never leave local collections and only a fraction ever get graded. The “Pulverizing Pancake Battle 1st Place” text signals that this card isn’t just a decorative promo; it’s effectively a small trophy from a defined event.

2. Early Sun & Moon promo history

2017 marks the early phase of the Sun & Moon era, when Pokémon was actively transitioning into a new ruleset and visual style. For collectors who like to build complete promo runs, the SM-P promos form a historically important checklist that captures limited-time events, collaborations, and organized play initiatives.

Welcome Festa promos fall into that timeline as part of the organized-play ecosystem, linking the card directly to the culture of playing, not just collecting.

3. Japanese exclusivity and design

Japanese promos often feature:

• unique artwork
• text and branding that never appear exactly the same in English
• distribution through region-specific events, stores, or programs

This has fueled a steady rise in attention toward Japanese-exclusive and event-driven cards. They offer something fresh even for seasoned collectors who already own the main English sets.

4. Condition sensitivity and low supply in grade

Event promos can be:

• handled at tournaments
• stored casually as mementos
• not immediately recognized as long-term collectibles by their original recipients

That means fewer pristine copies survive. When those survivors are finally submitted to grading companies, you often see a thin population in high grades. With this card sitting at pop 1 in PSA 9 at the time of the sale, the supply side is clearly constrained.

Where this sale fits in the broader Pokémon market

The ultra-modern Pokémon market (roughly mid-2010s onward) has matured from a focus on base-set nostalgia to a layered ecosystem:

• flagship set hits (e.g., popular chase cards from major expansions)
• serialized and special-art cards
• high-end trophy and event promos

This Goldin result positions the 2017 Welcome Festa Pulverizing Pancake Battle 1st Place Rare Candy among the higher-end Japanese promo outcomes of the Sun & Moon period, even if it doesn’t reach the level of the most famous trophy cards.

Instead, it sits in a middle lane that appeals to:

• collectors focused on competitive history and organized play
• Japanese promo specialists building deep runs of SM-P and related prize cards
• advanced set builders searching specifically for pop 1 or very low-pop examples

As always, this is not a guarantee that future sales will match or exceed this price. It simply tells us that, as of May 18, 2026, when Goldin offered a pop 1 PSA 9 copy, the market was willing to spend $29,281 to secure it.

Takeaways for collectors and small sellers

For collectors and smaller sellers trying to interpret this sale:

1. Low-pop award promos behave differently than mass-print chase cards. They transact less often and prices can jump or slide more significantly between isolated sales.
2. Grade scarcity matters. Even in ultra-modern, a pop 1 in a strong grade can find a motivated bidder base when the right card shows up at a reputable auction house.
3. Event context adds narrative. Cards tied to specific events, moves (like Pulverizing Pancake), or prize tiers often carry more long-term collecting interest than generic promos.
4. Use this as a reference point, not a benchmark. With such limited sales history, it’s best treated as one more data point for the emerging price history of this card and similar Welcome Festa promos.

For now, this PSA 9 pop 1 example stands as a noteworthy marker in the ongoing story of Japanese Sun & Moon promos — a reminder that some of the most interesting pieces of Pokémon history never came out of booster packs at all, but were earned one match at a time.