A rare Pikachu Pokemon card has broken the world record for a trading card, selling for over $16 million at a US auction.

NEW JERSEY: A single Pokemon trading card has sold for a world-record US$16.492 million at a public auction.

The sale of the ‘Pokemon Illustrator’ card on Monday makes it the most expensive trading card ever sold publicly.

The card, which depicts Pikachu, holds the highest possible grade of 10 from a hobby card authenticator.

It is one of only 39 such cards ever produced, originally given to winners of a 1998 drawing contest in a Japanese magazine.

American social media influencer Logan Paul, who has millions of fans, consigned the card to New Jersey-based Goldin Auctions.

Paul originally purchased the card in 2021 for US$5.27 million, a private sale that itself earned a Guinness World Record.

The successful bidder collected the card, which hangs from a diamond necklace, at a livestream watch party on Paul’s YouTube channel.

The auction house did not reveal the buyer’s identity when the auction concluded.

Ahead of the online auction that began on Jan 5, auction house founder Ken Goldin said he thought the card’s value had appreciated since 2021.

He added that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the lot reached over US$10 million.

The previous record for a trading card was held by an autographed basketball card featuring Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

That card sold for US$12.93 million at Heritage Auctions in August 2025.

In recent years, prominent social media influencers have driven interest in the hobby by opening packs of cards on camera.

Their goal is often to find rare cards that can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars.

 The Sun Malaysia