Logan Paul has agreed to put his PSA Grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator up for public auction on Jan. 12, 2026 through Goldin Auctions after buying the card for $5.275 million in July 2021. The sale was arranged as part of Netflix’s documentary project King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch, and estimates for the auction range from $7 million to $12 million.
Bloomberg reported the deal and the terms around it, including that Paul accepted a $2.5 million advance from Ken Goldin plus a cut of the auction proceeds. Paul has previously said the card’s value helped set a private-sales world record when he bought it.
The card and what makes it rare
The Pikachu Illustrator was distributed in 1998 as prizes for winners of a CoroCoro Comic illustration contest in Japan. Only about 39 to 41 copies are believed to exist, and Paul’s is the only one certified PSA 10, the highest grade from Professional Sports Authenticator. That perfect-grade status is a major reason this edition is treated as the single most valuable Pokémon card on the market.
Paul famously wore the card in a custom diamond-adorned necklace at his WrestleMania appearance; the necklace will be included with the winning bidder’s package when the gavel falls.
Fractional ownership and the Liquid Marketplace controversy
The card’s path back to a public sale has been tangled by Paul’s Liquid Marketplace, a platform that once sold fractional shares in the Illustrator. Paul repurchased the card in May 2024 for what he called a “substantial buyout amount” meant to compensate fractional owners, but the platform later faced operational and regulatory problems that left some users unable to access funds or account balances.
Paul addressed the problems on X and on Instagram, writing that he is “actively working with Liquid Marketplace to help ensure these funds can be released in the near future.” You can read his Instagram post here and his X statement here.
🚨Attention Liquid Marketplace Users 🚨
As you may know, the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator was previously listed on Liquid Marketplace, where users could purchase tokens that, according to the company, represented fractional ownership interests in the card.
In May 2024,…— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) December 24, 2025
Auction context and market signals
Collectors and market watchers will be watching Jan. 12 as a discovery event for the high-end vintage TCG market. A PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator sold for about $4 million in September 2025, and industry figures say high-grade vintage cards have seen substantial growth in recent years. Paul has publicly argued that Pokémon collectibles have outperformed traditional stocks over the past two decades.
For more on the recent public sales that set pricing references, see reporting on the PSA 9 sale here. Bloomberg’s story on Paul agreeing to the auction covers the deal details and timing here. Paul plans to hand-deliver the card and the diamond necklace to the auction winner after the sale. The Jan. 12 auction will be the first public sale of a PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator, so bidders and collectors will be watching the final hammer price closely.
Follow updates about the auction and the card on our social channels X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.
