In the final frantic hours of a 41-day online auction, the bids just wouldn’t stop. The number sat around $6.9 million for a while, then suddenly blasted past $13 million once the extended bidding kicked in. Confetti cannons went off on the livestream, and a Guinness World Records guy stepped up to the mic and officially announced the new all-time high for any trading card ever sold at auction.
The PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card hammered out at $16,492,000 on February 16, 2026, through Goldin Auctions in New Jersey. The actual winning bid was $13.3 million; the 24% buyer’s premium added another $3.192 million on top. Ninety-seven bids in total over those 41 days.
A tweet from X.
This thing is a 1998 Japanese promo card that came out of a CoroCoro Comic illustration contest. Only about 39 copies were ever handed out as prizes. It’s not even a playable card just a beautiful promotional piece with original artwork by Pikachu’s own designer, Atsuko Nishida.
PSA grades cards 1 through 10. A 10 is gem mint flawless, even under a loupe. This is the only known PSA 10 in existence. There are roughly eight PSA 9s floating around.
Logan Paul originally bought it in a private deal in Dubai back in July 2021 for $5.275 million (cash plus a PSA 9 he traded in). That deal itself set a Guinness record at the time for the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold privately. He later dropped another $70k–$80k on a diamond-encrusted necklace and display case, wore the whole thing to WrestleMania 38, and made it a centerpiece of his Netflix show King of Collectibles. He always called it the
“Mona Lisa of collectibles.”
The new owner is A.J. Scaramucci, founder of Solari Capital. He’s adding it to his “Treasure Trove” collection of insane rarities. Paul says he’ll personally fly the card, the necklace, and the custom case to the buyer anywhere in the world.
The collectible card market has been clearing over a billion dollars a year in the U.S. since 2020. Pokémon nostalgia still hits millennials right in the childhood, and ultra-rare graded cards have turned into legit alternative investments. Over 75 billion Pokémon cards have been printed in total, but this one is one of the original 39. From Paul’s $5.275 million purchase in 2021 to tonight’s $16.492 million sale that’s a 213% jump.
Modern auctions like this are half finance, half spectacle now. Paul’s livestream pulled in huge numbers as the bids climbed and he cracked packs on camera. Influencers have turned these sales into shared events nostalgia, hype, and real-time money drama all rolled into one.
