How Many Pikachu Illustrator Cards Exist That Set New Price Floors
Pikachu Illustrator cards are the holy grail of Pokemon collecting. These ultra-rare promos from 1998 come from a Japanese illustration contest. Only a tiny number were ever printed as prizes for the top winners. Experts believe just 39 of them exist in total worldwide. That scarcity drives their insane prices. But not all copies are equal. The ones that set new price floors are the top-graded gems, especially those hitting PSA 10, the perfect score.
What makes a Pikachu Illustrator set a price floor? It is when a sale beats all recent comps and resets what collectors expect to pay. Low-population grades, meaning few copies at that level, spark these jumps. For Pikachu Illustrator, PSA 10s are the kings. Sources track only a handful graded at this elite level. Logan Paul grabbed one in 2022 for over 5 million dollars. That sale crushed prior records and set a sky-high floor. No public count pins down exactly how many PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrators exist today. Estimates hover around 10 to 13 based on auction logs and grading data. But fewer than five have surfaced in major sales without controversy.
Lower grades also move the needle sometimes. A PSA 9 Mint sold for 4 million dollars in a September auction. That came from collector smpratte and locked in a new floor for non-perfect copies. Population reports show maybe 20 to 30 PSA 9s out there. These sales prove even mint-but-not-perfect cards demand millions when supply stays frozen.
Why so few high-grade survivors? These cards are 25-plus years old. Handling wear, bad storage, and print quirks from the 90s ate into supplies. Grading services like PSA log everything. Their pop reports confirm Pikachu Illustrator totals stay under 40 across all grades. Recent checks show single-digit PSA 10s. Each fresh high-grade pop report or verified sale ripples through the market. It bumps floors for ungraded raw cards too, often by tens of thousands.
For everyday collectors eyeing values, watch these elites. A new PSA 10 auction could spike prices across the board. Sites like PriceCharting track modern Pikachu promos like the 2024 Illustration Contest version at 100 to 150 dollars for PSA 10s. But the original Illustrator? Its price floors trace back to those vanishingly rare top copies. Fewer than a dozen pristine ones fuel the frenzy. That is what keeps every Pikachu Illustrator hunt thrilling.
