The Biggest Pokémon Card Sales of All Time (Updated October 2026)

In February 2026 a single Pokémon card sold for $16.49 million — more than most Picassos. These are the biggest verified Pokémon card sales ever recorded, each with the auction house, the date and a source you can check. They also carry a warning every collector should read: a record sale is not a market value.

Updated October 15, 2026. The summer of 2026 rewrote the list: a PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator sold for $5 million, a private “Ivy Pikachu” deal reached $3.3 million, and an English card crossed $1 million for the first time. Then, on 28 September, a Pikachu in a yellow raincoat sold for $8.4 million and jumped straight to number two. The newest records are in the latest record sales below.

#1 — Pikachu Illustrator, $16,492,000

The most expensive trading card ever sold at auction is the only PSA Gem Mint 10 Pikachu Illustrator — a 1998 promo handed to winners of a Japanese illustration contest. It sold on 16 February 2026 through Goldin Auctions for $16,492,000 after 41 days of bidding, consigned by Logan Paul and won by collector AJ Scaramucci (Guinness World Records, CNN). Paul had bought the same card in 2021 for about $5.27M — an ~$11M gain in five years, and the clearest proof that the very top of this market behaves like fine art.

#2 — “Raincoat Pikachu” Art Academy promo (PSA 10), $8,400,000

On 28 September 2026 a PSA 10 copy of the 2015 Japanese XY promo Art Academy Pikachu by Y. Fujishima, the one wearing a yellow raincoat, closed on Fanatics Collect at $8.4 million with the 20% buyer’s premium, after 64 bids (Dexerto, Creative Bloq). It was a prize in a Pokémon Art Academy drawing contest, about 100 copies exist, and none were ever sold in a shop. The jump is the strangest on this page: earlier PSA 10 copies sold for $12,600 in July 2024 and $19,200 in June 2025, and Kotaku openly called the result hard to explain. It was a public auction and reported as paid, so it is on the list, but we would not use it to price any other copy.

#3 — Pikachu Illustrator (PSA 9), $5,000,000

On 18 September 2026 a PSA 9 copy of the same Illustrator sold at Heritage for $5 million — the most ever paid for a PSA 9 Illustrator and, per Heritage at the time, the second-highest price for any Pokémon card at auction (artdaily, Sports Illustrated). The day after, a CGC 9 Illustrator sold at Goldin for $2,806,271. Illustrators now hold most of the top ten on their own.

#4 — “Ivy Pikachu” CoroCoro promo (CGC 8.5), $3,300,000

In August 2026 a 1996 Japanese CoroCoro Comic promo Pikachu — the glossy “marketing variation” known as the Ivy Pikachu — changed hands privately for $3.3 million, the highest price ever for a CGC-graded card (Nostalgix, WFTV). As a private sale it has no public auction record, so treat the exact figure as reported rather than audited.

The Charizard record — Japanese “No Rarity” Base Set, $1,700,000

On 3 March 2026 a PSA 10 No Rarity Base Set Charizard — the 1996 Japanese first print, identified by the absence of a rarity symbol — sold for $1.7 million, an all-time record for any Charizard (Sports Illustrated). It is the Japanese equivalent of the 1st Edition stamp; we explain exactly how to spot it in the No Rarity guide.

Trophy Pikachu “No. 3 Trainer”, $1,769,000

Tournament prize cards sit at the very top of rarity. In May 2026 the single confirmed Trophy Pikachu No. 3 Trainer sold through Goldin for $1,769,000 with the buyer’s premium. It belongs to the legendary No. 1 / No. 2 / No. 3 Trainer trophy series, awarded to the top finishers of Japan’s earliest championships — the whole category is covered in our rarest cards guide.

The rest of the top tier

1st Edition Base Set Charizard (PSA 10) — up to $550,000. The card that is Pokémon to a generation set a $550k record at Heritage, and a one-off “Logan Paul Break”-labelled copy went even higher at $954,800 (TheGamer). In September 2026 Sports Illustrated reported a PSA 10 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard selling on eBay for $1,000,952 (SI) — a single-source report we could not match to a public listing. Only about 124 of 5,325 graded copies earn a PSA 10 — roughly 2% — which is exactly why the gem-mint price is a different universe from a played one. See the live market on the 1st Edition Charizard page.

Rounding out the tier: the 1st Tournament “No. 1 Trainer” Pikachu (PSA 8) at $982,100, the Topsun Charizard “blue back” (PSA 10) at $493,230, and a complete 1st Edition Base Set in PSA 10 that sold as one lot for $911,000 (cllct).

The latest record sales (July–October 2026)

• $8,400,000 — “Raincoat Pikachu” Art Academy promo, PSA 10 · Fanatics Collect · Sept 28, 2026 — now the second most expensive Pokémon card ever sold
• $5,000,000 — Pikachu Illustrator, PSA 9 · Heritage · Sept 18, 2026
• $3,300,000 — “Ivy Pikachu” CoroCoro promo, CGC 8.5 · private sale · Aug 2026
• $2,806,271 — Pikachu Illustrator, CGC 9 · Goldin · Sept 19, 2026
• $2,000,000 — Pikachu Illustrator, BGS 9 · private sale · July 22, 2026
• $1,300,000 — “Incorrect Illustrator” CoroCoro Pikachu, CGC 10 · private sale · Aug 14, 2026
• $1,020,000 — Gold Star Rayquaza (EX Deoxys), CGC Pristine 10 · Fanatics Collect · Aug 28, 2026 — the first English Pokémon card to sell for over $1 million (Dexerto)
• $1,006,500 — Pikachu Illustrator, BGS 8.5 · Goldin · Aug 15, 2026
• $750,000 — 1st Edition Base Set sealed booster box · Heritage · Sept 18, 2026 — a record for sealed Pokémon product
• $575,000 — Legendary Collection Charizard reverse holo, PSA 10 · Heritage · Sept 18, 2026

Most figures are from Sports Illustrated’s weekly sales reports and the auction houses. One headline is left off the list on purpose: a PSA 10 Gold Star Torchic reported at $2.7 million on Alt, up from a previous PSA 10 sale of $25,400, has drawn public skepticism and has not been independently confirmed (TheGamer). The same goes for a PSA 10 1st Edition Charizard said to have sold for $1,385,274 in early October: so far it rests on one social-media post relayed by one outlet, with no auction record we could check. If it is confirmed, it goes on the list.

What about October on our own sales tape? PokéTT records sold listings from eBay, Alt and the big Japanese marketplaces, and publishes a sale only when it fits that card’s own recent history in the same grade. The biggest October 2026 sale that passes that check so far is a PSA 10 Poncho-wearing Pikachu at $25,000, followed by a PSA 10 Mimikyu promo at $22,000. Real money, but nowhere near this list. Each month’s top ten is in our monthly sales report.

What the biggest sales have in common

Three forces show up in every record: tiny supply (a single Illustrator, ~124 gem-mint 1st Ed Charizards, one Trophy Pikachu), demand that never fades (the most iconic Pokémon and the first-of-an-era cards), and certified gem-mint condition (almost every record is a PSA 10). The same three levers price the cards you can actually buy — which is why we show the graded population next to every price, not just the price. To see where the real money sits today, browse the Charizard hub or see the biggest cards by value on the market cap ranking.