A "Pikachu Illustrator" Pokémon card sold for $5 million at Heritage Auctions, making it the second highest-priced Pokémon card to date. It ranks just behind another copy of the same card, which set a record earlier this year with a $16.5 million sale.
The auction focused primarily on non-sports collectible cards, with the "Pikachu Illustrator" being one of the most anticipated lots. Before official bidding began, offers had already exceeded $1 million; after live bidding, the final hammer price reached $5 million. This is currently the highest auction price ever achieved for a PSA 9 graded card.
Pokémon cards have evolved from low-cost collectibles bought and traded among children in the 1990s to items for which adult collectors are now willing to pay millions of dollars. The rarity of the "Pikachu Illustrator" card is tied to its distribution method: it was not sold in stores but awarded as a prize to winners of an illustration contest in CoroCoro Comic magazine, with only 39 copies ever issued.
Among these cards, 15 received a PSA 9 grade, while only one achieved a PSA 10. The latter was purchased by Logan Paul in 2022 for $5.275 million and sold this year for $16.5 million, setting a Guinness World Record as the highest-priced trading card ever sold.
Another PSA 9 graded "Pikachu Illustrator" card sold for $840,000 in 2022. This recent sale at $5 million sets a new auction record for cards of the same type and grade.