The most costly Pokemon card in historical past has offered for $16,492,000 — the highest-ever worth of a buying and selling card.
The cardboard is a uncommon Pikachu Illustrator initially given away as a part of a collection of contests by manga journal CoroCoro in 1998 and options artwork by Atsuko Nishida, Pikachu’s unique designer. It was auctioned off Feb. 16 by New Jersey-based Goldin Auctions. Solely 39 of the playing cards have been awarded to winners of the unique contest, with an additional two offered within the early 2020s by a former worker of The Pokemon Firm.
With simply 41 playing cards ever produced (for comparability, greater than 75 billion Pokemon playing cards have been printed in 2025 alone), the Pikachu Illustrator is by far one of many rarest in existence. And in keeping with memorabilia grading home Skilled Sports activities Authenticator (PSA), this most just lately offered model is the lone card graded “GEM MT 10” — PSA’s highest doable situation ranking.
