- Awarded
- 1998CoroCoro Comic contests
- Copies
- ~4139 awarded, plus 2 more
- Record
- $16.49MPSA 10 · Goldin · Feb 2026
- Artist
- NishidaAtsuko Nishida
Pikachu Illustrator is a Japanese promo card that was never sold. It was the prize in CoroCoro Comic's Pokémon illustration contests of 1997–98, and about 41 copies exist. A PSA 10 sold for $16,492,000 at Goldin on 16 February 2026, the most ever paid for a trading card. PSA 9 copies sold for $1.4M to $5M in 2026.
Last updated . Prices include buyer's premium unless noted.
A card you had to draw to win
You couldn't buy a Pikachu Illustrator. In late 1997, CoroCoro Comic, the monthly children's manga magazine that had introduced Pokémon to Japan, invited readers to design their own Pokémon cards. The prize for the best entries was this card.[5]
The contest ran three times:
- Contest 1. Announced in the November 1997 issue (on sale 15 October 1997), with winners in the January 1998 issue: 3 Grand Prize and 20 Special Award winners, so 23 cards.[5]
- Contest 2, "Mewtwo Strikes Back". Results in the July 1998 issue, 8 cards.[5]
- Contest 3, "Pikachu's Summer Vacation". Results in the August 1998 issue, 8 cards. No Grand Prize was given because the winner couldn't be found.[5]
The art is by Atsuko Nishida, the designer who first drew Pikachu.[1] The card reads ILLUSTRATOR where every other card says TRAINER, carries a fountain-pen symbol, and its text certifies the holder as an official Pokémon Card Illustrator.[10] Grand Prize winners also saw their own designs printed as real cards, so the contest left a trail of kids' artwork in the card game itself.[5]
39 awarded, about 41 in all
The three contests awarded 39 cards (23 + 8 + 8).[5] Two more were sold by Yuichi Konno, one of the card game's creators, which is why most counts say about 41.[6]
The population reports tell a bigger story than that. A collector's tally in August 2025 counted about 80 graded slabs across PSA, CGC, BGS, TAG and SGS: roughly double the number of cards that exist.[7] Copies get cracked out of one holder and resubmitted for a better grade, so the same card can be counted more than once. Treat any population figure for this card as an upper limit, not a census.
Every major sale
The card has broken the trading-card record more than once. Logan Paul bought the PSA 10 copy privately for $5,275,000 in 2021, a record at the time.[6] In February 2026 he sold it at Goldin for $16,492,000, and Guinness World Records recognised it as the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction.[1][11]
| Date | Grade | Price | Venue | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Sep 2026 | CGC 9 | $2,806,271 | Goldin | [2] |
| 18 Sep 2026 | PSA 9 | $5,000,000 | Heritage | $4M hammer. Slab carries an MBA Gold Diamond label. [2] |
| Mar 2026 | PSA 9 | $1,406,250 | Heritage | [3] |
| 16 Feb 2026 | PSA 10 | $16,492,000$13.3M hammer | Goldin | Logan Paul's copy, bought by AJ Scaramucci. Guinness record for any trading card. [1] |
| 12 Sep 2025 | PSA 9 | $4,000,000 | eBay | [4] |
September 2026 was the busiest stretch the card has seen: two copies sold within two days for a combined $7.8 million.[2] We update this ledger whenever a copy changes hands publicly.
How to spot a fake Illustrator
A card worth millions attracts very good fakes. CGC published these tells in 2023:[9]
- Type. The fonts are slightly smaller, and the set symbol slightly larger, than on genuine copies.
- Spacing. The artist credit ("Illus. Atsuko Nishida") is spaced too tightly.
- Colour and holo. Colours are duller and the holo pattern is wrong.
- Under UV light the foil looks dark; under infrared the artwork sits lower in the frame.
Nearly every known copy has already been graded, so treat an ungraded Illustrator offered online with great caution. If a deal looks too good, it is.
What to search for in Japan
If you're watching Japanese auctions and shops yourself, these are the terms sellers use:
Can you actually find one?
Honestly: rarely. Copies change hands privately or through the big auction houses, a few times a year at most. What we can do is watch the Japanese side of the market for you (private collections, dealer networks and auction lots in Japan) and tell you the moment a copy, or a credible lead, appears. If you're serious, tell us your grade and budget below.
