Incredibly Rare Pokemon Card Being Put Up for Auction

Logan Paul to Auction Off PSA 10 Illustrator Pikachu Card in 2026

On December 23, Paul appeared on a Fox Business segment to discuss the value of Pokemon cards as an asset class and announced he’ll auction his Illustrator Pikachu in February 2026. Paul originally paid $5.3 million for the Pokemon card back in 2022, setting a record for the most expensive Pokemon card ever sold in a private sale. While Paul told Fox he’s unsure what it will get when it goes for auction, he sang the praises of Pokemon trading cards’ return on investment in general. He claimed Pokemon as an asset “has outperformed the stock market by upwards of 3,000%” in the past 20 years. That figure is possibly a misremembering of a recent Wall Street Journal analysis that found Pokemon cards have earned a 3,821% monthly cumulative return since 2004, compared to the S&P 500’s 483% rise in the same timeframe.

Paul asserts that this card is the only PSA 10 Illustrator Pikachu in the world. If it is truly one-of-a-kind, being the world’s rarest Pokemon card would certainly help it fetch a high price in February, as would the extra publicity from being owned by a celebrity like Paul. Still, whether it will break the $5.3 million mark remains uncertain. Another rare Pokemon TCG card recently went up for auction and ultimately sold for $555,000, which is still a lot of money but very far from $5 million. That card, a pre-release holographic Raichu that wasn’t supposed to be printed, is one of just 11, which is rare, but Paul’s is rarer. Only time will tell if that rarity is enough to bring in millions.

Image via the Pokemon Company

Regardless of what Paul’s Illustrator Pikachu sells for, Pokemon TCG‘s meteoric rise in value is impossible to deny. The collectibles have gotten so popular and sold for so much money that criminals have started using Pokemon cards for money laundering, as officials may not bat an eye about massive paydays coming from selling sought-after cards. Stories of thieves breaking into card shops and stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of Pokemon collectibles crop up regularly, and in more wholesome instances, fans have sometimes earned a hefty amount by pulling and selling rare cards.

Image via The Pokemon Company

Not everyone with a Pokemon collection can expect to earn millions, but even people without Logan Paul kinds of cash have been able to make a pretty penny. One fan sold a Pokemon card to GameStop for over $30,000 after getting it graded, and others were quick to point out that the holographic Gengar was actually worth even more than that. It’s an odd time to be a collector, with some cards having little to no value and others going for eye-watering prices, and some people wanting only to collect cards for nostalgia. It remains to be seen if that nostalgia and optimism in the cards’ value will set a new record when Paul’s Illustrator Pikachu starts taking bids.