Pikachu Illustrator Card: The $16.5 Million PSA 10
There is only one PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card, and it sold for $16,492,000 at Goldin on February 16, 2026, the highest price ever paid for a Pokemon card. Every other copy is a lower grade, and in 2026 those sold for roughly $840,000 to $5 million, depending on the grade and the month.
Key takeaways
- PSA has graded exactly one Pikachu Illustrator a 10. Logan Paul bought it in 2021 for $5,275,000 and sold it in February 2026 for $16,492,000.
- Only 39 copies were ever handed out, as prizes in three CoroCoro Comic illustration contests in 1998.
- In 2026, a PSA 9 sold for $1.4 million in March and $5 million in September. Prices for this card jump between sales.
- There is no English version. Every Pikachu Illustrator is the Japanese 1998 promo.
- Before paying for any Illustrator slab, look up the cert number on PSA's site and buy through a major auction house with a clear history for that copy.
How much is a PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator worth?
The only PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator sold for $16,492,000 on February 16, 2026, at Goldin's auction in New Jersey. The winning bid was $13.3 million, and the rest was the buyer's premium. Guinness World Records lists it as the most expensive Pokemon card ever sold at auction (Guinness World Records).
That sale is the PSA 10 price, because there is no other PSA 10 to compare it with. It isn't a market in the usual sense, where dozens of sales a month settle into an average. One copy, one owner at a time, and a new price only when it changes hands.
For a sense of how fast that number moved: the same card set a record in July 2021, when Logan Paul bought it from Marwan Dubsy in Dubai for $5,275,000. He paid $4 million in cash and traded in a PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator valued at $1,275,000 (Guinness World Records, 2022). Four and a half years later it sold for more than three times as much.
What is the Pikachu Illustrator card, and why is it so rare?
The Pikachu Illustrator was never sold in a pack or a store. CoroCoro Comic, the Japanese magazine, gave it to the winners of its Pokemon card illustration contests in 1998. Heritage Auctions' catalog puts the count at 39: 23 copies from the first contest and 8 each from the next two (Heritage Auctions).
It's a Japanese promo with no card number, and there was never an English printing. Collectors call it the Pikachu Illustrator because it was an award for illustrators, not a card anyone could pull.
How many are graded, and at what grade
Not all 39 survive or have been graded, and the ones that have are spread across companies:
- PSA: one PSA 10 and 15 PSA 9s, per Heritage's September 2026 catalog ("PSA has certified 15 copies earning a Mint 9 grade with only 1 graded higher") (Heritage Auctions).
- CGC: three CGC 10s as of Heritage's September 2023 catalog.
So "PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator" means one specific card. If you see a listing that calls a second copy a PSA 10, the label or the slab is the first thing to check.
What do the other grades sell for?
The lower grades trade more often, but "more often" still means a handful of times a year. These are public auction results from 2026:
| Grade | Price | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 | $16,492,000 | Goldin, February 16, 2026 |
| PSA 9 | $5,000,000 | Heritage, September 2026 |
| PSA 9 | $1,400,000 | Heritage, March 2026 |
| PSA 8.5 | $843,750 | Heritage, June 2026 |
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Sources: Guinness World Records, Polkastarter on the September PSA 9, Star City Games on the March PSA 9, ICv2 on the June PSA 8.5.
Look at the two PSA 9s. In March one sold for $1.4 million. In September a PSA 9 sold for $5 million. Same grade, six months apart, more than three times the price. The September copy also carried an extra MBA Gold Diamond designation, which doesn't change the PSA grade but may have helped. Either way, the lesson is the same: for this card, the last sale is a data point, not a price you can count on.
Half a grade matters too. ICv2 pointed out that the June PSA 8.5 sold for about $556,000 less than the March PSA 9, a drop of roughly 39% for half a point. On a card this expensive, the exact grade on the label is worth checking as closely as the card itself.
Why does one sale move the whole market?
Most cards have enough sales that one odd result barely moves the average. The Pikachu Illustrator has so few that every sale becomes the new reference point for the next one. A seller points to the last record. A buyer points to the sale before it. Both are real numbers.
Three things make that worse for this card:
- Tiny supply. With 39 copies awarded and about a dozen and a half graded by PSA, most months have no sale at all.
- Different copies, different stories. Provenance, a famous owner, an extra designation, or a TV moment (Logan Paul wore his to WrestleMania 38 in 2022) all show up in the price.
- Auction timing. A big auction with two determined bidders can set a number that a quieter sale a few months later doesn't repeat.
That's why the honest answer to "what is a PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator worth" is a sale, a date, and a range for the grades below it, not a single price.
How do you check a Pikachu Illustrator card before paying?
At these prices, checking the slab matters more than haggling. Before you bid or pay:
- Look up the cert number. Type it into PSA's cert verification and make sure the record names the Pikachu Illustrator, the 1998 CoroCoro promo, and the same grade as the label. A cert that comes back as a different card, or not at all, ends the conversation.
- Match the copy to its history. With so few graded, most PSA copies have a public sales trail. Ask which auction the copy last sold at and compare photos of the slab and label.
- Buy through a house that stands behind it. Goldin and Heritage sold every copy in the table above. A private deal is possible, but get the cert, the history, and an escrow or authentication step in writing.
- Watch for reproductions. Fakes of this card are common. An ungraded "Pikachu Illustrator" at a show is almost certainly not one of the 39.
The PSA 10 Ancient Mew guide walks through checking a slab label step by step, and the same checks apply here.
Where can you check Pikachu Illustrator prices?
Because public sales are so rare, the best sources are the auction houses themselves:
- Heritage Auctions and Goldin list past results with the final price, including the buyer's premium. Search their archives for "Pikachu Illustrator" and the grade.
- News coverage of record sales fills in dates and terms, as the Guinness pages above do for the PSA 10.
- Price guides like PriceCharting list the card, but with so few sales, check the date of the last sale behind any number they show.
Asking prices on marketplaces tell you what someone hopes to get, not what the card sells for. For any grade, start from the last two or three auction results and their dates.
Can TCG Marquee track a card like this?
TCG Marquee is built for the cards you actually keep: it shows each card's market price with its 7 and 30 day change on your phone, a TV, or a price board, updated once a day from Scrydex. That works well for cards that sell every week. For a card that sells a few times a year, a daily price can sit unchanged for months and then jump, so treat it as a reminder to check the latest auction result, not as the price.
If you sell graded cards at shows, show mode puts your asking price next to the market price on a TV at your table, and the graded prices post explains how graded prices work on the Pro plan.
FAQ
How much is a PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator worth?
The only PSA 10 sold for $16,492,000 at Goldin on February 16, 2026, including the buyer's premium. There's no other PSA 10 to compare it with, so that sale is the price until it changes hands again.
How many PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator cards exist?
One. PSA has graded a single Pikachu Illustrator a 10, with 15 PSA 9s below it, according to Heritage Auctions' September 2026 catalog.
How many Pikachu Illustrator cards were made?
39 were awarded to winners of three CoroCoro Comic illustration contests in 1998: 23 from the first contest and 8 from each of the next two.
Who owns the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator?
Logan Paul owned it from 2021 until February 2026, when it sold at Goldin. News reports at the time named the buyer as A.J. Scaramucci.
Is there an English Pikachu Illustrator?
No. The Pikachu Illustrator is a Japanese 1998 promo with no English printing, so an English-language copy is a fake or a fan card.