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YouTube content creator and WWE wrestler Logan Paul has entered the history books by selling an extremely rare Pikachu Illustrator card for a world record $16.5 million at auction.
Widely known as the ‘King of Collectables’, the Pikachu Illustrator Pokemon card is regarded by some as the holy grail because it’s the single most expensive card of its kind and only about 40 copies are believed to exist.
Paul bought it back in 2021 at a private sale for $5.2 million, setting another world record at the time as the most expensive Pokémon card sold.
On this occasion, the card was offered up to the highest bidder via online auction house Goldin and a Guinness World Records Adjudicator was at the event to ensure the sale had made it the most expensive Pokemon card, and additionally the most expensive trading card at auction.
Pikachu Illustrator is extremely popular with collectors due to it being designed by Japan’s Atsuko Nishida, who is credited as the original creator of Pikachu.
The card was awarded to winners of the CoroCoro Comic Illustration contest in Japan in the late 1990’s but was never released in packs.
According to the Guinness World Records, it has been given a top grade of 10 by the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), which rates cards from zero, based on their qualities and characteristics such as perfectly rounded edges, sharp focus and full, original gloss.