Pikachu Illustrator (1998 CoroCoro promo)

The card collectors call the Pikachu Illustrator is officially named Pokémon Illustrator. It was never sold: the Japanese magazine CoroCoro Comic gave it to the winners of its Pokémon card illustration contests in 1997–98, 39 copies in all. Its artwork is by Atsuko Nishida, credited as Pikachu's original designer. In February 2026 the only copy graded PSA 10 sold at Goldin for $16,492,000 including the buyer's premium, which Guinness World Records lists as the most expensive Pokémon card and the most expensive trading card sold at auction. This file covers what the card is, how the copies were given out, what the graders have counted and every sale we found on the public record. The Pokémon TCG API, the source this site uses for card images, has no record of the card (searched October 30, 2026), so no card image is shown.

What makes the card unique

• “Illustrator” instead of “Trainer”. It is a Trainer card, but the word at the top reads Illustrator; CGC and Bulbapedia both say no other card does this.
• A pen symbol in the bottom right corner, used on no other card (CGC, Heritage).
• A double-star rarity mark, which Bulbapedia counts among only a handful of Japanese promos.
• Art by Atsuko Nishida, with Pikachu and Charmander in the picture. More of her cards are on the Pokémon card artists page.
• Certificate text. In Bulbapedia's translation the card says the holder's illustration is “an excellent entry in the Pokémon Card Game Illust Contest”, followed by a game effect decided by a coin flip.

How the 39 copies were given out

Three contests run through CoroCoro Comic each ended with the card going to the winners. CGC's 2021 account gives the schedule and the 23 + 8 + 8 split; Bulbapedia adds the award categories:

Why 1998? The first contest opened in a 1997 issue, and Bulbapedia files the card under 1997, but its winners were named in January 1998 and the other two contests ran that year. Heritage describes all three as held in 1998, and auction listings for graded copies give the year as 1998, so this file does too.

How many survive is less certain than how many were awarded. CGC wrote in 2021 that the number of surviving copies is “undoubtedly lower” than 39. Bulbapedia says that, as of August 2020, at least 41 were known, after two more appeared on Japanese auction sites; both were offered by Yuichi Konno, one of the four people who created the card game's rules. Neither source explains where the two extra copies came from.

Graded copies

No grader publishes a total that settles the question, and the counts below come from grader statements, auction descriptions and press reports, each with its date. A card can be cracked out and regraded or crossed to another company, so PSA and CGC counts cannot simply be added together (see crossover grading).

To authenticate its first copy, CGC said it used multi-spectral imaging and X-ray fluorescence and compared the card with ordinary cards of the same era and with two trophy cards. For a slabbed copy, check the cert number with the grader. The arithmetic behind “pop” and “pop higher” is explained in how to read a PSA pop report.

Sales on the public record

Sales found in pages read October 30, 2026. Prices are as reported and include the buyer's premium only where the source says so. Every copy listed is graded; no raw (ungraded) sale was found. Private deals are labelled, because their prices were announced by the parties rather than set in an open auction.

1. 2013 — PSA 9, $100,000 (venue not given; year only, placed mid-year)
2. Oct. 23, 2019 — Mint 9, $224,250 incl. premium, Weiss Auctions
3. Feb. 2021 — NM 7, $375,000 (venue not given)
4. 2021 — PSA 10, $5,275,000, private sale to Logan Paul (year only, placed mid-year)
5. Feb. 23, 2022 — PSA 7, $900,000, Goldin
6. Reported Dec. 13, 2023 — PSA 9, $2,000,000, Goldin private sale (placed at the report date)
7. May 17, 2024 — CGC 8, $204,000 incl. premium, Fanatics Collect
8. Feb. 21, 2025 — the same CGC 8, $156,000 incl. premium, Fanatics Collect
9. June 27, 2025 — PSA 8, $360,000 incl. premium, Fanatics Collect
10. Feb. 2026 — PSA 10, $16,492,000 incl. premium, Goldin
11. Mar. 27, 2026 — PSA 9, $1,406,250, Heritage
12. Mar. 2026 — PSA 8.5, $727,120, Goldin

Three patterns stand out. First, the grade decides most of the price: in the same two months of 2026 the PSA 10 brought $16,492,000, a PSA 9 $1,406,250 and a PSA 8.5 $727,120. Second, prices do not only rise: one CGC 8 copy, under the same cert number, sold for $204,000 in May 2024 and $156,000 in February 2025. Third, the record has moved in steps: the 2019 Weiss result was reported as a world auction record, CGC reported $375,000 as the record in 2021, and Goldin's $900,000 for a PSA 7 followed in 2022.

Heritage has also sold a CGC Gem Mint 10 (September 23, 2023), a CGC Mint 9 (December 12, 2025) and a PSA 9 (September 18, 2026), but its lot pages do not show the price publicly, so they are left out of the table. On premiums and how results are reported, see how card auctions work; for how this card compares with Charizard, the Art Academy promos and the trophy Pikachus, see the most expensive Pokémon cards.

The Logan Paul copy

The PSA 10 is the copy linked with Logan Paul. According to Guinness World Records, he bought it in 2021 from Marwan Dubsy in Dubai for $5,275,000, paying with a PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator plus $4 million, then a record for a private Pokémon card sale. He sold it through a month-long online auction at Goldin that ended in February 2026 with a $13.3 million winning bid, $16,492,000 with premium; Guinness names AJ Scaramucci as the buyer.

Where the sources disagree

Quick answers

How much is a Pikachu Illustrator worth?

There is no single price. The public results found run from $156,000 for a CGC 8 in 2025 to $16,492,000 for the PSA 10 in 2026, and a copy's grade and grader explain most of the gap. Compare only results at the same grade and grader, with dates.

How many Pikachu Illustrator cards exist?

39 were awarded in the three contests. Bulbapedia counts at least 41 known copies; PSA said in 2022 that fewer than 40 exist. The card is not the rarest Pokémon card by copies made; see the rarest Pokémon cards for cards with smaller stated counts.

Checklist for a claimed copy

• The top line reads “Illustrator”, not “Trainer”, and a pen symbol sits in the bottom right corner.
• The card is unnumbered and Japanese; it was never printed for packs.
• On a slab, look the cert up on the grader's site and run the holder past the fake-slab red flags.
• Ask for the copy's sales history: some copies have sold more than once, and a cert number makes the same copy traceable.
• Compare asking prices only with dated results at the same grade and grader, and check whether a reported price includes premium.