Logan Paul has sold his rarest and best-preserved Pokémon card, which went under the hammer for an impressive $16.5 million USD, or more than 500 million baht.
On 16 Feb 2026 GMT+7, international news agencies reported that Logan Paul, a famous YouTuber and wrestler, sold a particularly rare Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon card for $16.5 million USD, approximately 513 million baht, breaking the world record for the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold.
The YouTuber had purchased the “Pikachu Illustrator” card—one of the rarest and best-preserved promotional cards worldwide—in a $5.3 million USD deal (about 165 million baht) in 2021, setting the highest record at that time.
He has now sold that same card for $16.492 million USD, including buyer’s fees, according to auction house Goldin's report.
The auction winner is investor AJ Scaramucci, son of Anthony Scaramucci, a financier and former White House Communications Director. AJ described this purchase as the first step in his “planetary treasure hunt” collection plan.
During a live YouTube stream amid confetti, Paul called the auction result “absolutely crazy.” Then, Sarah Casson, a Guinness World Records official, appeared to announce that this card is the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction.
Logan Paul said he was shocked when Scaramucci shared his plan to “collect the uncollectible.” Paul personally presented AJ Scaramucci with a diamond-studded necklace holding the card.
“I’m on a mission to buy a T-Rex dinosaur fossil. I’m about to buy the Declaration of Independence, and I won’t stop there,” AJ Scaramucci said. “This is just the beginning.”
The Pikachu Illustrator card was originally awarded during a 1998 contest and is known to have only about 40 copies worldwide.
However, Paul’s card is the only one among these graded a perfect 10 by PSA, a trading card grading organization, meaning it is a “truly flawless card.”
Trading cards linked to Pokémon, a highly popular Japanese animation franchise, have surged in value over recent years. Ken Goldin, head of the auction company, was seen persuading Paul to part with his prized card on the Netflix series King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch, latest season.
“The Pokémon market is very hot. It’s dominating the market, and this is the number one card,” Goldin told Logan Paul.
Goldin offered Paul a $2.5 million USD advance plus a share from the sales of all Pokémon and other trading cards (TCG) in his auctions, with the Pikachu Illustrator card as the highlight.
Paul admitted the money would help fund his “extravagant wedding,” saying on the show, “I’m not a reseller, I’m a collector... but honestly, I need liquidity. I’m good at making money but better at spending it.”
Paul married Danish model Nina Agdal in a lavish ceremony at Lake Como, Italy, in August 2025.
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Source:bbc