YouTuber Logan Paul has made history by selling an extremely rare Pokémon card for over £12 million during a livestream.
Pokémon cards have been a prized commodity ever since they first launched in 1996, but their value has only increased over the years.
While some of the original cards can sell for hundreds of pounds, the rarest ever is the Pikachu Illustrator card with a PSA (professional sports authenticator) 10 grade, which was previously bought by YouTuber Logan Paul for £3.8 million in 2021.
At the time, this broke the record for the most expensive Pokémon trading card sold at a private auction. Now, five years later, the record has been smashed again, after Paul sold the card during a livestream for a massive $16,492,000 (£12.1 million).
The winning bidder was venture capitalist AJ Scaramucci, the son of financier and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
Speaking during the livestream about why he bought the card, Scaramucci said he is on a ‘planetary treasure hunt’ to buy a bunch of incredibly rare items.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
‘I’m on a quest to buy a T-Rex dinosaur fossil, that’s on my list,’ he said. ‘I’m going to buy the Declaration Of Independence, and I’m not stopping there. This is only the beginning.’
In a post on X after the stream, Paul wrote: ‘Congrats to the buyer for an iconic purchase the entire world will remember. Although bittersweet, I was proud to be a steward of the greatest collectible in the world for the last five years.
‘May the next Pokémon journey be as delightful as the last…’
The Illustrator Pikachu card was awarded in 1998, to winners of the CoroCoro Comic Illustration Contest in Japan, so it was never available in your standard card packs. It’s estimated that there are only 39 copies in the world, and only one with a PSA 10 grade.
Other versions of the card, with a lower PSA grade, have been sold for high sums too. A grade 9 version sold for £2.9 million last year, while others have gone for £44,000 and £400,000 in 2016 and 2023 respectively.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
