Logan Paul's Pokémon PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator Surges to Over $6 Million
After just over a week at auction, Logan Paul's Pikachu Illustrator card has already passed $6 million with 48 bids placed. With a month left in the auction, it will set the record for a Pokémon sale. The previous record was also set by Paul in 2022 with the purchase of this very card at $5.2 million.
RELATED: Logan Paul's Pikachu Illustrator Card heading to Goldin Auction in 2026
What is a Pokemon Illustrator card?
There are rare Pokémon cards, and then there are the Illustrator cards. Made in the late 1990s, these cards were not commercially distributed, but created and distributed to winners of the Pokémon Card Game Illustrator Contest. Though print numbers were never specifically made public, it's estimated that only about 40 exist.
The market has just continued to rise on these cards. In early December 2025, a PSA 8.5 sold for $600,000. Just a year earlier, that same card went for $300,000.
What makes Paul's card the rarest of the rare is PSA GEM MT 10 grade, making it a pop 1 with PSA. The back of the card is a special design, different from that of the 1998 versions of the regularly distributed Pokémon set. Though a Japanese company, the designers decided to use the English version of the title, Pocket Monsters.
Paul talked about selling in 2025
While the auction started just after the calendar turned to 2026, Paul had been toying with the idea of selling the Pikachu card almost year ago in February 2025.
He ultimately held on to the card, until Ken Goldin came along. Featured on the Netflix series 'King of Collectibles,' Paul was convinced to put his prized possession up for auction on Goldin Auctions.
Winner gets to meet Logan Paul
The winning bidder gets the unique experience of meeting Logan Paul himself. According to the item page title, Logan Paul will be personally hand delivering it to the winner. With a card valued that high, a hand delivery assures it arrives safe, but it also gives Paul a marketing opportunity to give the card a send off the whole public can witness.
The auction is set to end on February 15, 2026 with 30-minute extended bid increments.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz