How Logan Paul Turned a $5.3 Million Pikachu Illustrator Into a $16.5 Million Record
Paul's PSA 10, the only one PSA has graded, sold at Goldin in February after a detour through a fractional platform that left some token holders unable to withdraw their money.
Logan Paul sold his PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator for $16,492,000 at Goldin on Feb. 16, 2026. Guinness World Records lists the sale as the most ever paid for a trading card at auction. The winning bid was $13.3 million before Goldin's buyer's premium. After AJ Scaramucci won it at Goldin's New Jersey headquarters, he was seen with the slab around his neck hanging from a $75,000 diamond necklace.
Why the Pikachu Illustrator is Pokémon's holy grail
Pokémon gave this card to the winners of its illustration contests in Japan in the late 1990s. It has "Illustrator" printed across the top where a normal card names its Pokémon, with Pikachu art by Atsuko Nishida. CNN put the print run at 39 copies.
Paul's is still the only PSA 10 among the 58 Illustrator slabs PSA has graded as of Oct. 26. Pokémon awarded only 39 copies. CGC has graded five Illustrators a 10.
PSA grade | PSA slabs |
|---|---|
PSA 10 | 1 |
PSA 9 | 15 |
PSA 8.5 | 6 |
PSA 8 | 13 |
PSA 7.5 to PSA 4 | 13 |
Authentic, no number grade | 10 |
All PSA slabs | 58 |
How Paul paid $5.275 million for it in 2021
Paul bought the card in July 2021 from Marwan Dubsy in Dubai. He traded his own PSA 9 Illustrator, valued at $1.275 million, plus $4 million in cash. Guinness counted the deal at $5,275,000 as a record for a private Pokémon card sale.
He wore the slab on a diamond necklace at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022. The necklace went to the buyer with the card in February.
Date | Deal | Price |
|---|---|---|
July 2021 | Paul buys it privately from Marwan Dubsy | $5,275,000, a PSA 9 Illustrator plus cash |
2022 | Liquid Marketplace sells shares in it | $5,000,000 valuation |
May 2024 | Paul buys back Liquid Marketplace's interest, per Paul | $250,000 |
Feb. 16, 2026 | Goldin auction | $16,492,000 with premium |
The Liquid Marketplace problem
In 2022 Paul listed the card on Liquid Marketplace, a Toronto platform he co-founded that sold tokens representing slices of high-end collectibles. The listing valued the card at $5 million and left 49% of it with Paul.
In December 2025 Paul told cllct that he bought Liquid Marketplace's interest in the card for $250,000 in May 2024. That money, he was told, had gone out to token holders. "When I put my card up for auction, it was news to me that people on the platform couldn't withdraw their money," he said.
The Ontario Securities Commission filed enforcement proceedings against Liquid Marketplace and three of its executives in June 2024. The commission alleged "multi-layered fraud in the crypto asset sector." The merits hearing before Ontario's Capital Markets Tribunal ran from November 2025 into June 2026. On Sept. 30, 2026, the tribunal ruled that Liquid Marketplace Inc., Liquid Marketplace Corp., Ryan Bahadori and Amin Nikdel acted fraudulently. The decision also found that the tokens were securities sold without registration or a prospectus on an unapproved marketplace. A sanctions hearing for those four is set for Jan. 28 and 29, 2027, after the tribunal cleared chief financial officer Dennis Domazet. Paul isn't named in the decision.
Before the sale, Paul said, he was paying developers to reopen the site so unpaid holders could withdraw. Some holders, he added, had already taken out tens of thousands of dollars.
The grade questions and the new holder
Some collectors argued Paul's copy shouldn't have been the only Illustrator to get a 10. Before the auction, Goldin had PSA move it into a new holder, where it graded a 10 again.
How the Goldin auction got to $16.5 million
Paul consigned the card on an episode of Netflix's "King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch." Goldin advanced him $2.5 million to do it.
By Jan. 23, with 23 days to go, bidding had passed Paul's 2021 price and reached $6.324 million including the premium. CNN reported that it sat at $6.882 million on closing night until extended bidding ran for hours and ended at $16,492,000 after 97 bids.
The PSA 9s kept climbing after Paul's sale. Heritage sold one for $1,406,250 in late March and another with MBA's Gold Diamond designation for $5 million in September.
The other contest Pikachu
Pokémon ran its illustration contest again in 2024, and Kazuki Minami won it with a Pikachu yawning and stretching on a sunny day. Pokémon printed the art as the Scarlet & Violet Black Star Promo Pikachu #214 and started handing it out with purchases in February 2025, at GameStop and Best Buy and through Pokémon Center.
Raw copies of Minami's Pikachu sold for $12 to $21 on TCGplayer over the last month, and PSA had given 3,356 of them a 10 as of Oct. 26. PSA 10s sold on eBay for $223 on Oct. 12 and $188 on Oct. 25.
I love that the same contest's newest winner is a Pikachu any collector can own.