If you've ever read Wargamer's list of the most expensive rare Pokémon cards of all time, you'll know that sitting in the number one spot is Logan Paul's Pikachu Illustrator card. He bought a PSA grade 10 version of this fountain pen wielding Pikachu in 2022 for a record breaking $5.3 million, paying $4m in cash, plus a PSA 9 version of the same card worth $1.3m. Now Paul is auctioning off his prize Pikachu - but that appears to be proving more difficult than planned, thanks to an embattled NFT marketplace having previously sold off shares in the card.
A bit of background: this ultra-rare Pikachu card is the result of a 1997-8 illustration contest by Japanese manga magazine CoroCoro Comic, which encouraged children to design new artwork for their favorite Pokémon TCG cards. The resulting card, Pikachu Illustrator, was printed and distributed to high scoring contestants in these competitions as a prize - but reportedly only 39 copies were ever made.
In the decades since those contests were held, many of those copies have been either lost or damaged, leaving precious few surviving cards, and even fewer in mint condition. Hence the stupendously high price Logan Paul paid for his perfect PSA 10 copy, which he's since worn proudly on a gold-and-diamond pokéball necklace in countless appearances online, as well as in his 2021 WWE wrestling debut match.
Now, however, he's decided it's time to say goodbye to his beloved card. Season three, episode three of Netflix docuseries King of Collectibles, released on December 23, 2025, shows Paul consigning the card to New Jersey based celebrity auctioneer Ken Goldin, in exchange for an eyewatering $2.5 million advance. He appeared on the Fox Business Network that same day to talk about the upcoming sale, and more recently released the YouTube clip above, bigging up the card's extreme value.
That auction is now live on the Goldin site and, at press time, has already attracted 25 bids, with the price standing at $2.1 million. However, there appears to be something of a non-fungible wrench in the works. On December 24, one day after his Fox TV spot, Paul tweeted that his PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator "was previously listed on Liquid Marketplace, where users could purchase tokens that, according to the company, represented fractional ownership interests in the card".
If Liquid Marketplace sold true fractional ownership of Paul's card to people, Paul would presumably need to buy back full ownership of the card before selling it at auction. In Paul's Christmas Eve tweet, he says he did just that, and repurchased the Pikachu Illustrator from Liquid Marketplace in May 2024, "consistent with the platform's terms".
"I paid a substantial buyout amount to the platform, which was intended to be distributed to fractional owners based on their respective percentages," Paul says in the tweet. "I was informed at the time that the funds had been distributed accordingly."
Logan Paul himself co-founded Liquid Marketplace in April 2022, announcing on Twitter that "by fractionalizing expensive assets, we've essentially made it possible for ANYONE to own ANYTHING."
But his Christmas Eve tweet says that, since 2024, "the company and some of its principals faced regulatory scrutiny - a process in which I have had no involvement or insight, as it does not relate to me", and that he "recently learned that the platform also experienced operational issues, which affected user access to accounts and funds held on the platform".
"As a result, many Liquid Marketplace users have been unable to access their buyout proceeds or wallet balances, with no clear timeline for resolution," the tweet says. Paul adds he is "actively working with Liquid Marketplace to help ensure these funds can be released in the near future".
Liquid Marketplace (LMP) has indeed been under regulatory scrutiny: the Ontario Securities Commission, a division of the Canadian government, is investigating it for "fraud in the crypto asset sector". The OSC filed an application for enforcement proceedings against the firm in June 2024, which does not name Logan Paul, but alleges among other things that "approximately US$2.7 million has been obtained by LMP from the sale of LMP Tokens" and that LMP co-founders Ryan Bahadori and Amin Nikdel had made "false and misleading statements to Token Purchasers including that LMP Tokens represent legal ownership in underlying collectibles". The case is scheduled for a hearing in June 2026.
Wargamer reached out to Liquid Marketplace over the holidays (via social media, as its official website and email addresses still return error messages). We asked them for comment on the card's ownership, how and when fractional owners are being paid back for their shares of the card, and how it's working with Logan Paul on this issue. At press time, we've received no response.
Logan Paul hasn't tweeted about Liquid Marketplace since Christmas Eve, but an article on collectibles industry site cllct, published December 30, quotes him telling the site he'd paid LMP $250,000 to buy out the outstanding interest in the card. Paul reportedly told cllct he was now paying web developers to reactivate LMP's website, identify the users still unpaid from the card buyout, and make it possible for them to claim their money.
The December 30 article also quotes Paul saying he expects this process to take two to three weeks, meaning that all those who bought shares in the card can be reimbursed before the auction closes and the card is sold. Goldin's auction page says bidding will close at 3am ET on Monday, February 16 at the earliest, but if bids are still coming in at that time, the auction will stay open until 30 minutes go by with no new bid.
Assuming all goes well in the auction, we'd be surprised if this bafflingly valuable card doesn't fetch another world record price. The Pokémon TCG scene as a whole is riding such a hype wave at the moment that even regular booster packs from new Pokémon sets are in incredibly short supply and sell for well over their retail price - let alone ultra rare relic singles like Pikachu Illustrator.
$4 million plus is a little rich for our blood, though, so we prefer to hunt out deals below the currently inflated market rates, to help collectors and players alike can scoop sick pulls without remortgaging their house and selling a kidney. To stay up to date with those bargains (and join the coolest tabletop game nerd treehouse on the internet) hop into the free Wargamer Discord community, where we share all our new articles, chat about all our top games every day, run live events, giveaways, and more.