The most expensive Pokémon card ever: Pikachu Illustrator sold for $16.5 million

©Giorgio Trovato via Unsplash

A Pokémon card has rewritten the history of the collecting world. The Pikachu Illustrator, rated PSA 10 - the highest possible rating assigned by the Professional Sports Authenticator - was hammered off for $16,492,000 at an auction organized by Goldin (one of the world's most renowned auction houses specializing in pop culture collectibles, from cards to sports memorabilia), setting the record, as set by the Guinness World Records, for the most expensive trading card ever sold at an auction.

The seller of the collectors item was YouTuber and wrestler Logan Paul, who had previously purchased the same card in 2021 for $5.275 million. In less than four years, the value has tripled.

The auction and transfer

The card was purchased by AJ Scaramucci, son of Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director. At the time of the transfer, Paul hung the card around the new owner's neck: the Pikachu Illustrator was in a protective holder attached to an austere diamond necklace worth $75,000.

The 'holy grail' of Pokémon collecting cards

The Pikachu Illustrator is not your average card. It was designed by Atsuko Nishida, illustrator and original designer of Pikachu at Game Freak, and awarded exclusively as a prize in a drawing contest held in Japan in 1998 by CoroCoro Comic magazine. Very few copies were printed - some estimates put it at no more than 39 - and the cards that have survived in perfect condition can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

A map rated PSA 10 must meet strict criteria: four sharply delineated corners, a surface without scratches or imperfections, razor-sharp printing and the original gloss completely intact. Even the slightest flaw is enough to miss out on the maximum score.

A market that just keeps growing

The Pokémon card hype is not a new phenomenon (we too have talked about it in this article), although over the past decade the market has reached proportions that even insiders would have had a hard time imagining. The value of each copy depends on a combination of factors: the rarity of the print, the character depicted - Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo and Mew have been topping the price lists for years - and the identity of the illustrator, which is always listed on the front of the card.

(GreenMe.it 2026/Managing Editor: Selma Keshkire - The Press Junction/Picture: ©Jonas Leupe via Unsplash)