New Raiders linebacker Blake Martinez is the proud owner of a rare Pokémon card worth $1 MILLION!

He may not be a wide receiver, but veteran NFL linebacker Blake Martinez is trying to catch them all with one of the most valuable card collections in the world.

The pinnacle of this collection is a rare card sold only in Japan, of which only one of four exists: a Pokémon Illustrator card valued at over $1 million.

This is not a fleeting passion of Martinez, as he has been an avid Pokémon card collector since he was six years old. Though he says his collection ran out at one point when his mom threw away all his cards.

In recent years, however, he started collecting again – he teamed up with the community marketplace Whatnot to invest heavily in collectibles and expand his collection. The same goes for this map, which Martinez bought unsorted from another collector.

‘I didn’t know exactly how it would end. I didn’t know what it would get rated, or what quality it was,” Martinez said, “I just wanted one of those.”

After handing it over to CGC Trading Cards, they rated it a 9.5 out of 10, declaring that Martinez’s possession was in ‘gemstone mint’ condition, making it one of the most valuable in the world.

“This is pretty much the holy grail of Pokémon card collecting,” said Matthew Quinn, the vice president of CGC Trading Cards. “We estimate it would fetch $1 million or more at auction.”

Now that he knows its value, Martinez isn’t sure if he’ll keep it or cash in on its value.

“I go back and forth over it,” he said. “Trying to see what I want to do with it. Obviously we know it’s a very expensive card. So if there is a good buyer I might sell it. But for now I’ll hold it.’

The card was created after a competition by the Japanese magazine CoroCoro Comic in 1997 and 1998. Each winner received a rare and uniquely created card of a Pokémon monster. As time went on, these became the rarest, most desired and most expensive cards on the market.

Earlier this year, an Illustrator card rated 7 sold at auction for $900,000, making it the most expensive Pokémon card ever auctioned. Last year, Youtuber Jake Paul bought a card with a 10 for more than $5 million, breaking the record for a privately sold Pokemon card.

Martinez recently moved to the Raiders after being cut from the Giants last season. He tore his ACL back in September 2021 and has not played in the NFL since.

With the Raiders in position with multiple injuries, he is seen as an option to intervene immediately. After being signed to the exhibition squad on Tuesday, he was added to the active roster on Friday.