Logan Paul’s PSA Grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card sold for $16,492,000 at Goldin Auctions on February 16, 2026, shattering the record for the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction. The sale, certified by Guinness World Records, represents roughly a 3x return on the $5.275 million Paul originally paid to acquire the card in 2021 — netting him an estimated $8 million or more in profit after auction fees. The buyer was A.J.
Scaramucci, a venture investor and son of former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who also received the $75,000 diamond necklace Paul famously used to wear the card around his neck. The sale caps a wild chapter in the Pokémon collecting world that has included record-breaking prices, celebrity speculation, and a controversial attempt to fractionalize the card as NFTs. Only 39 Pikachu Illustrator cards were ever produced — distributed to winners of a Pokémon illustration contest in Japan back in 1998 — and Paul’s copy is the only one in existence graded a perfect 10 by PSA. This article breaks down the full timeline of the card’s ownership, what the sale means for the broader Pokémon card market, the NFT controversy that trailed the auction, and what collectors should take away from a transaction of this magnitude.
Table of Contents
- How Did Logan Paul Turn a $5.3 Million Pokémon Card Into a $16.5 Million Sale?
- What Makes the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator the Most Valuable Pokémon Card in the World?
- From WrestleMania Necklace to Auction Block — The Card’s Public Life
- Who Is the Buyer, and What Does This Sale Signal for High-End Pokémon Collecting?
- The NFT Controversy That Followed the Card
- How Does This Sale Compare to Other Record-Breaking Trading Card Sales?
- What Comes Next for the Pokémon Card Market?
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Did Logan Paul Turn a $5.3 Million Pokémon Card Into a $16.5 Million Sale?
Paul acquired the psa 10 pikachu Illustrator on July 22, 2021, in a deal brokered with collector Marwan Dubsy in Dubai. The price was not a simple cash transaction. Paul traded a PSA Grade 9 Illustrator card — valued at approximately $1.275 million, which he had previously purchased from collector Matt Allen in Italy — plus $4 million in cash, bringing his total outlay to $5.275 million. At the time, it was the most expensive Pokémon card transaction ever recorded, and Guinness certified it as such. Fast forward to early 2026, and Paul consigned the card to Goldin Auctions, one of the most prominent auction houses in the sports and collectibles space. After a 41-day auction window, the hammer dropped at $16,492,000. Even after Goldin’s buyer’s premium and seller fees, Paul walked away with an estimated $8-plus million in profit. For context, that return dwarfs most traditional investments over the same period.
The S&P 500 returned roughly 40-50% cumulatively from mid-2021 through early 2026. Paul’s card returned over 200%. It is worth noting, however, that this kind of return is not typical of the Pokémon card market — or any collectibles market. The Pikachu Illustrator is a singular asset. There is no other PSA 10 copy. Most high-grade vintage Pokémon cards appreciated significantly during the 2020-2021 boom but have since corrected. Collectors who bought raw or lower-graded cards near the peak have, in many cases, seen values decline by 30-50%. Paul’s outcome is the exception, not the blueprint.
What Makes the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator the Most Valuable Pokémon Card in the World?
The Pikachu Illustrator card occupies a category entirely its own. Produced in 1998, the card was never sold commercially. It was awarded to winners of the CoroCoro Comic Pokémon Card Game Illustration Contest in Japan, making it a prize card with an extremely limited print run. Of the 39 copies believed to have been produced, many have been lost, damaged, or remain in unknown hands. Only a handful have been professionally graded, and Paul’s is the sole copy to receive a PSA Gem Mint 10 designation. That distinction matters enormously. In the grading world, the gap between a PSA 9 and a PSA 10 is not just one point on a scale — it often represents a multiple in value. Paul’s own acquisition illustrates this perfectly.
The PSA 9 Illustrator he traded away was worth roughly $1.275 million. The PSA 10 commanded $5.275 million at purchase and ultimately sold for $16.5 million. The premium for perfection in a one-of-one scenario is difficult to overstate. However, collectors should understand that this dynamic is most extreme at the top of the market. For more common cards, the PSA 9-to-10 jump is meaningful but far less dramatic in dollar terms. The card also carries cultural weight that extends beyond its scarcity. It has become a symbol of the modern collectibles boom, the intersection of internet celebrity and alternative investing, and the growing legitimacy of Pokémon cards as a recognized asset class. When Guinness certified the sale as the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction — surpassing records previously held by sports cards — it signaled a shift in how the broader world views Pokémon collecting.
From WrestleMania Necklace to Auction Block — The Card’s Public Life
Paul did not keep the Pikachu Illustrator locked in a vault. He debuted the card publicly at WrestleMania 38 in 2022, wearing it around his neck in a custom diamond-encrusted necklace reportedly valued at $75,000. The spectacle drew both admiration and horror from the collecting community — admiration for the sheer audacity, horror at the risk of damaging a one-of-a-kind graded card. The necklace was included in the Goldin auction as part of the sale lot, adding a novelty element to an already extraordinary listing. The WrestleMania appearance was a calculated move. Paul understood that visibility drives value in the modern collectibles market.
By turning the card into a wearable spectacle on one of the most-watched events in professional wrestling, he created a provenance story that no other Pokémon card can match. Collectors and investors increasingly value narrative alongside condition and rarity, and Paul’s card now carries a story that connects it to pop culture in a way that a card sitting in a safe deposit box never could. That said, the stunt also raised legitimate concerns about preservation. A PSA 10 grade is based on the card’s condition at the time of grading, and PSA cases are not indestructible. Wearing a graded card as jewelry, even briefly, introduces risks — impact, temperature fluctuation, moisture — that most serious collectors would never accept. The card appears to have survived unscathed, but it set a precedent that grading companies and collectors alike view with some unease.
Who Is the Buyer, and What Does This Sale Signal for High-End Pokémon Collecting?
A.J. Scaramucci, the buyer, is a venture investor who has been building a presence in the alternative assets space. His willingness to pay $16.5 million for a single Pokémon card reflects a broader trend: wealthy younger investors are allocating capital to collectibles with the same seriousness previously reserved for fine art, rare wine, or vintage automobiles. The Pokémon market, once dismissed as a children’s hobby, now attracts participants who view trophy cards as both passion purchases and stores of value. The comparison to the art market is instructive. A Basquiat painting that sold for $110 million at Sotheby’s in 2017 was purchased for $19,000 in 1984. That kind of appreciation over decades is what some collectors hope to see with the rarest Pokémon cards.
The difference, however, is that the fine art market has centuries of institutional infrastructure — museums, academic scholarship, insurance frameworks, established auction records — that Pokémon collecting is still developing. A single high-profile sale does not make a stable market. If Scaramucci ever tries to resell the Pikachu Illustrator, there is no guarantee the next buyer will pay more. The pool of potential purchasers for a $16 million trading card is vanishingly small. Collectors watching this sale should resist the temptation to extrapolate. The Pikachu Illustrator is not a bellwether for the broader market. A PSA 10 Base Set Charizard or a Gold Star Rayquaza will not follow the same trajectory simply because one ultra-rare card set a record. The fundamentals for most Pokémon cards — supply, demand, condition scarcity, and cultural relevance — operate on a completely different scale.
The NFT Controversy That Followed the Card
The record-breaking sale reignited scrutiny of Paul’s earlier attempt to fractionalize the Pikachu Illustrator as NFTs through Liquid Marketplace, a platform that offered fractional ownership of high-value collectibles. The concept was straightforward in theory: investors could buy tokens representing a share of the card’s value without needing millions of dollars. In practice, critics argued the tokens carried no actual ownership rights to the card itself. Detractors called the scheme “slop tokenization” — tokens that were “juxtaposed” with the underlying property but conferred no legal claim to it. Paul has stated that only 5.4% of a planned 51% stake was actually sold, raising approximately $270,000, and that he subsequently repurchased those tokens.
The Ontario Securities Commission sued Liquid Marketplace in June 2024 over its broader business practices, with a hearing scheduled for June 2026. Paul is not personally named in the OSC action, but the association has dogged him. For collectors and investors, this episode serves as a cautionary tale: fractionalized collectibles remain a regulatory gray area, and the difference between owning a token and owning a piece of the underlying asset is a distinction that matters enormously. The broader lesson here is that hype and innovation do not always align with investor protection. If someone offers you fractional ownership of a collectible — whether through NFTs, blockchain tokens, or any other mechanism — verify exactly what legal rights the token confers. If the answer is unclear, that is your answer.
How Does This Sale Compare to Other Record-Breaking Trading Card Sales?
Before the Pikachu Illustrator auction, the record for the most expensive trading card sold at auction was held by a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 9, which sold for $12.6 million in August 2022. Paul’s card surpassed that mark by nearly $4 million, and it did so in a category — Pokémon — that many traditional sports card collectors still view as an upstart. The fact that a Pokémon card now holds the all-time record across all trading cards is a milestone that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
Other notable benchmarks include the 2021 sale of a PSA 7 Pikachu Illustrator for $900,000 and a PSA 9 copy that reportedly changed hands for around $1.275 million. The gap between those prices and the $16.5 million PSA 10 sale illustrates just how much condition and uniqueness drive value at the top of the market. A PSA 7 is a respectable grade, but it is not even in the same conversation as the world’s only PSA 10.
What Comes Next for the Pokémon Card Market?
The Pikachu Illustrator sale will generate headlines and renewed interest in Pokémon collecting, but the long-term impact on the market depends on factors that extend well beyond a single transaction. Institutional participation — auction houses, grading companies, insurance providers, and authentication services — continues to mature. Goldin, Heritage Auctions, and PWCC now regularly handle six- and seven-figure Pokémon card sales, lending credibility and liquidity to the high end of the market. For everyday collectors, the more relevant question is whether the mid-tier and entry-level segments of the market will stabilize and grow.
Cards in the $500 to $50,000 range are where most serious collectors operate, and those segments have been mixed since the 2021 peak. A record-breaking headline can spark short-term interest, but sustained growth requires new collectors entering the hobby, consistent demand for key cards, and confidence that values are supported by genuine scarcity rather than speculative mania. The Pikachu Illustrator sale is a spectacle. Whether it is also a signal depends on what happens in the months and years that follow.
Conclusion
Logan Paul’s sale of the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator for $16.5 million at Goldin Auctions is a landmark moment for Pokémon collecting and the trading card market as a whole. It validates the card’s status as the undisputed holy grail of Pokémon, confirms that the ultra-high end of the collectibles market remains active despite broader economic uncertainty, and establishes a new all-time record for any trading card sold at auction. Paul’s roughly 3x return over less than five years is a remarkable outcome by any investment standard.
But collectors should approach this news with clear eyes. The Pikachu Illustrator is a unique asset with no true comparable. Its sale does not guarantee that other Pokémon cards will appreciate at similar rates, and the NFT controversy surrounding the card is a reminder that the intersection of collectibles and financial innovation carries real risks. For those in the hobby, the best takeaway is not to chase the next $16 million card — it is to collect what you genuinely value, educate yourself on grading and authenticity, and understand that in a market driven by scarcity and sentiment, patience and knowledge are worth more than hype.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Pikachu Illustrator card?
The Pikachu Illustrator is a promotional Pokémon card created in 1998 and awarded to winners of a CoroCoro Comic illustration contest in Japan. Only 39 copies were ever produced, and none were sold commercially, making it the rarest and most valuable Pokémon card in existence.
How much did Logan Paul originally pay for the card?
Paul paid $5.275 million in July 2021, consisting of a PSA Grade 9 Pikachu Illustrator card valued at approximately $1.275 million plus $4 million in cash. The deal was completed with collector Marwan Dubsy in Dubai.
Who bought the card at auction?
The buyer was A.J. Scaramucci, a venture investor and the son of Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director. He paid $16,492,000, which also included the $75,000 diamond necklace Paul used to wear the card.
Is this the most expensive trading card ever sold?
Yes. Guinness World Records certified the sale as the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction, surpassing the previous record of $12.6 million for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 9 sold in 2022.
What happened with the NFT fractionalization attempt?
Paul previously attempted to sell fractional ownership of the card as NFTs through Liquid Marketplace. He says only 5.4% of a planned 51% stake was sold, raising about $270,000, which he later repurchased. The Ontario Securities Commission sued Liquid Marketplace in June 2024 over its broader practices, though Paul is not personally named in the case.
How many PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator cards exist?
There is only one PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator in the world — the copy Logan Paul sold. No other copy of the card has ever received a perfect Gem Mint 10 grade from PSA.
