The Pikachu Illustrator card is one of the rarest Pokemon cards ever made, with experts believing only about 39 were originally printed back in 1998 as prizes for a Japanese illustration contest. Out of those, around 12 to 15 are known to still exist in collector hands today, leaving the rest believed lost or destroyed over the years.[2][4]
This card was never sold in stores. It went only to the top 39 winners of a kids’ drawing contest run by CoroCoro magazine. Each winner got one as a trophy. Time has not been kind to them. Many likely got thrown away by parents who saw them as just kids’ drawings, damaged in moves, or lost in house cleanups. Fires, floods, and everyday wear took out others. Pokemon experts track these through grading companies like PSA, where just a handful have popped up for official checks.[2]
Take Logan Paul’s famous buy. He paid over 5 million dollars for a perfect PSA 10 version in 2022. That card is one of the few top-condition survivors. Another PSA 9 sold for around 4 million recently. These sales show how few good ones remain. Most known copies are lower grade or ungraded, hinting at the hidden losses.[3][4][5]
No one knows the exact number destroyed because no full list of winners exists from 1998. Collectors guess based on auction records and owner reports. Some think up to 25 or more are gone forever. A few might still sit unrecognized in old albums, but the odds are low after 27 years. This scarcity drives prices sky-high, making each surviving Pikachu Illustrator a holy grail for serious collectors.[2][4]
Recent promo Pikachu cards, like the 2024 Illustration Contest version numbered 214, sell for just 15 to 20 dollars raw. They nod to the original but lack its history and rarity. True Pikachu Illustrator chase comes from those believed-gone copies that fuel the legend.[1]
