The only known PSA Gem Mint 10 copy of the Pikachu Illustrator card sold for $16,492,000 on February 16, 2026, through Goldin Auctions. Logan Paul, who had owned the card since debuting it at WrestleMania 38, sold it to venture capitalist A.J. Scaramucci, founder of Solari Capital. The sale set a new Guinness World Record for the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction.
Why this specific card
Pikachu Illustrator was originally a 1998 contest prize distributed in Japan, never sold at retail, with only a small handful of authenticated copies known to exist. The PSA 10 that sold is the sole copy graded at that top condition, which is most of what separates its price from every other copy in circulation.
What a sale like this actually signals
A single seven figure sale doesn't move the price of a common bulk card, but it does something else worth noticing: it keeps Pokémon cards in general news coverage well outside the hobby, which is part of what's kept demand for the entire category elevated through 2026. Sales like this are the top of the market pulling attention down to everything else.
The winning bid was 13.3 million dollars. Goldin's buyer premium brought the recorded sale price to 16.492 million dollars after ninety seven bids. That distinction matters when comparing auction records: a hammer price and a final price are not interchangeable.
Guinness verified the result during the February 16 event. The buyer was A. J. Scaramucci, who received the card in the custom diamond necklace Paul had used to wear it. The necklace was reported at seventy five thousand dollars, but the record belongs to the card transaction, not to a separate appraisal of the jewelry.
The card was created for illustration contests run through CoroCoro Comic in 1998. Its artwork is by Atsuko Nishida, the designer credited with Pikachu's original character. Winners did not pull it from a pack and could not buy it from a shop. That origin is why the word Illustrator appears where a normal card would show an attack name.
Paul acquired the same PSA 10 in 2021 through a private deal valued at 5.275 million dollars. He exchanged a PSA 9 copy plus four million dollars. The 2026 auction therefore did more than set a fresh headline: it moved the only known Gem Mint 10 from a private valuation into a public bidding record with a named buyer.
This result does not provide a price guide for lower grade Illustrator copies. Condition, provenance and the population at the exact grade are doing enormous work. It also says almost nothing about ordinary Pikachu promos. The sensible comparison is another trophy card with a documented award history, not any scarce card featuring the same character.
For sellers, the useful lesson is in the documentation. The record copy carried a continuous public story, a PSA certification, a known previous transaction and an auction house able to expose it to bidders outside the Pokémon hobby. At this level, the object and its paper trail sell together.
Read the Guinness record report →
Frequently asked questions
- What was the winning bid?
The winning bid was 13.3 million dollars. The final 16.492 million dollar record includes the auction buyer premium.
- Why is this copy different?
It is the only known Pikachu Illustrator graded PSA Gem Mint 10 and it has a documented ownership history.
- Does the sale set the value of every Pikachu Illustrator?
No. Grade, provenance and certification make direct comparisons difficult, especially for copies below PSA 10.
