A Pikachu Pokémon card just sold for $8.4 million. That is the second-highest price ever recorded for a Pokémon TCG card, and it is a card that has no business being that expensive. Something feels off, and the numbers keep getting stranger.
The card in question is a “Raincoat Pikachu.” It appeared in 2015 as part of a contest tied to the 3DS release of Pokémon Art Academy, which asked people to create a card illustration using the game. Winners got 100 copies of a printed card featuring their design, but none were ever sold publicly. That makes them some of the rarest Pokémon cards ever made.
Y. Fujishima, the designer behind the super-cute Pikachu in a red raincoat with a fitted tail cover and an orange umbrella, apparently made many of his cards available. PSA, the grading company, lists 57 of them in Gem Mint PSA 10 condition. That is a large population of top-grade copies for a card that was never sold publicly.
Rarity vs. Population
Usually, absurd prices like this belong to the oldest and rarest cards. The record holder is the PSA 10 Illustrator Pikachu from 1997, which Logan Paul sold for $16.5 million in February. That card had an initial print run of somewhere around 39 to 41 copies, and exactly one example has been graded a 10.
The Raincoat Pikachu is a different animal. It is a comparatively recent card, and it has 57 PSA 10 copies known to exist. Those two facts together should rule it out of Illustrator Pikachu territory.
Recent Sales Were Tiny
The jump is also unprecedented in scale. Price Charting recorded two sales of PSA 10 Raincoat Pikachu slabs in 2025 at $16,100 and $26,100. This year, prices started climbing. The previous highest price was $156,250 in June. Another sold for $79,999.99 last month.
Then came the $8.4 million auction. That is a 5,340-percent increase in what someone was willing to pay in just three months. It is hard to explain, and nobody has explained it yet.
The Card’s Design
The card features a Pikachu dressed in a red raincoat with a fitted tail cover and an orange umbrella. The design is super-cute, and it comes from Y. Fujishima, the artist who created the illustration for the contest tied to the 3DS release of Pokémon Art Academy.
Fanatics Collect Bought PWCC
The auction took place on Fanatics Collect, a marketplace and auction house launched by Fanatics in 2024 after it bought PWCC Marketplace the year before. Fanatics owns both Lids and Topps, along with a sports gambling arm. The auction received 64 bids, and it has been claimed that it was a legitimate, paid sale.
Chinese auction site Pokecolor is reported to have sold the same card last week for just under $10,000. The writer has not been able to find that listing himself. The card is confirmed to have sold for $156,250 on Heritage Auctions in June.
The Gap Between Sales
The comparison is messy. The Pokecolor sale at $10,000 is reported, not verified by the writer. That means the gap between the two prices is what stands out.
The Jump In Three Months
The pattern of recent sales is striking. Here is a quick rundown of where the card has traded in the last year:
- Two 2025 sales at $16,100 and $26,100
- June sale at $156,250
- Last month’s sale at $79,999.99
- The $8.4 million auction two days ago
Each step up was larger than the last. The market is not moving smoothly; it is jumping.
The Numbers Keep Getting Stranger
The most obvious question is whether the $8.4 million sale was legitimate. Fanatics has not commented publicly. The company has been reached out to for any concerns or explanation, and the paper will update if the company responds.
The facts are settled: 57 PSA 10 copies, a 5,340-percent jump, and a sale that nobody has explained.
The Bottom Line
The $8.4 million sale is a real number. The card is real. The explanation is not. The card is cute, the story is charming, and the price is baffling.
This is the part worth watching. The Pokémon TCG market has a history of bubbles, and this card just jumped to the second-highest price of all time.
Source material: “A Pikachu Pokémon Card Just Sold For An Inexplicable $8.4 Million, The Second-Highest Price Of All Time,” Kotaku.
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