Logan Paul’s one-of-one PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card — widely considered the “Holy Grail” of Pokémon collecting — has officially sold fora total of$16,492,000 at Goldin Auctions. The auction closed early Monday morning after 41 days of bidding, with the vast majority of bids coming in during an extended bidding period that took place after the auction ended. The final hammer price came to $13.3 million plus a 24% buyer’s premium, making the final price more than triple what Paul paid for it.
Paul purchased the card for $5.275 million in July 2021, which at the time set a Guinness World Record for the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold. He later paid $70,000 for a custom case and necklace to permanently house the card, which he then went on to wear as part of his WrestleMania 38 costume.
Bidding opened Jan. 5 for the card (necklace and case included) after the start date was moved up from Jan. 12 due to “overwhelming global interest,” Goldin said in a press release at the time. “This is the biggest Pokémon and trading card game auction ever held, and the unbelievable amount of interest we’ve already received led us to open early,” said Ken Goldin, founder and CEO of Goldin. Paul himself called it “the most coveted card in the world,” adding that he plans to hand-deliver the card to whoever wins the auction.
Within the first week, bids escalated from $500,000 to $4.3 million. By Jan. 14, the price had plateaued at $5.1 million. On Jan. 19, OnlyFans content creator Emmie Bunni posted to Instagram a photo of her wearing the card while standing with Paul, writing that she’d submitted a private bid of $10.2 million that Paul rejected. Paul posted a video saying the image was AI-generated and argued that the false claim about the $10.2 million bid negatively impacted the auction. Bunni later confirmed the image was a fake but reiterated her interest in the card. It’s unclear at this time if she was among the bidders pushing the auction well past the $10.2 million mark.
Bidding picked up again a month later on Feb. 14. Then, leading up to the auction’s scheduled end at 10 p.m. on Feb. 15, dozens of bids came in before the final was submitted hours later. Goldin has yet to publicly disclose the winner.
Why the Pikachu Illustrator card is worth so much
Originally awarded to winners of a 1998 illustration contest held by CoroCoro Comic in Japan, the Pikachu Illustrator was designed by Atsuko Nishida, the original illustrator of Pikachu. While roughly 39 to 41 copies are believed to have been distributed, Paul’s is the only known example graded PSA 10, which is the best possible condition tier. “Due to the scarcity, grand value, and pedigree of this Pikachu Illustrator, this is one of the most significant public offerings of a Pokémon card in the history of the hobby and a potentially once-in-a-lifetime sale,” Goldin wrote on the auction listing.
“My heart sank when I dropped it,” Paul wrote when announcing the sale. “One of one. The Mona Lisa of collectibles.” He also framed the auction as a celebration of Pokémon’s 30th anniversary and claimed that Pokémon collectibles have outperformed the stock market by 3,000% over time.
When Paul purchased the card in 2024 for $5,275,000 (after trading a PSA 9 copy and cash), it already broke a world record. He went on to show off the card in a December 2025 episode of Netflix’s King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch (season 3, episode 2), leading up to the auction’s start. Now, he’ll hand-deliver a thin piece of 28-year-old cardboard that’s 3.5 by 2.5 inches and walk away with millions of dollars — which is still a lot less than the $40 million he made for fighting Mike Tyson.
