Bronze Trophy Pikachu sells for $1.77 million, the fifth seven-figure Pokémon sale of 2026
A PSA 10 1998 Kamex Mega Battle trophy card — the only copy graded above PSA 8 — set a public-sale record at Goldin on May 18. The 2026 ledger now reads five sales past $1 million.
A PSA 10 copy of the 1998 Japanese Bronze 3rd-Place Trophy Pikachu — awarded at the Kamex Mega Battle tournament and the only example graded above PSA 8 — sold for $1,769,000 at Goldin on May 18, a public-sale record for the card. It was the fifth Pokémon card to clear $1 million at auction in 2026, a year not yet half over. For context: the hobby's entire recorded history before this year had produced fourteen.
| Ticker | Detail | Last | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| PIKA·ILLUS | Pikachu Illustrator, 1998 promo, PSA 10 · Goldin all-time record for any trading card; 97 bids | 16,492,000 | 2026-02-16 |
| PIKA·KMB | Bronze 3rd-Place Trophy Pikachu, PSA 10 · Goldin only copy graded above PSA 8 | 1,769,000 | 2026-05-18 |
| CHAR·NR96 | Charizard, 1996 JP Base “No Rarity”, PSA 10 first Charizard past $1M; prior documented high $324,000 (2022-04) | 1,700,000 | 2026-03-03 |
| PIKA·ILLUS·9 | Pikachu Illustrator, PSA 9 · Heritage record for the grade | 1,406,250 | 2026-03-27 |
| CHAR·NR96·A | “No Rarity” Charizard, PSA 10, Arita-signed | 1,232,200 | 2026-03-08 |
| PIKA·TRO·G | Gold 1st-Place Trophy Pikachu, PSA 8 · Goldin the near-miss on the ledger | 982,100 | 2026-03-06 |
The headline number of the year remains February's: Logan Paul's PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator brought $16,492,000 at Goldin on February 16 — a Guinness-recognized record for any trading card, sold to venture capitalist A.J. Scaramucci after 97 bids. Paul had acquired the card in 2021 in a deal valuing it near $5.3 million; the February print marks a roughly +211% move over five years (window: 2021 → 2026-02). March then produced a streak Gloomberg can only describe as the vintage market clearing its throat: the first seven-figure Charizard on March 3, an Arita-signed copy five days later, and Heritage's spring TCG event totalling $7.62 million — a house record — carried by the PSA 9 Illustrator, a $1.22 million all-PSA-10 Skyridge master set, and $600,000 for a Ken Sugimori original ink drawing, itself a record for Pokémon original art.
The tape behind the trophies
Trophy-tier prints are landing on a market that is, by the broadest available reads, still expanding. Card Ladder data cited in coverage of the May sale put the overall Pokémon market +176% year-over-year, with the Pikachu sub-market +170% (windows ending 2026-05). eBay's first-quarter earnings call named collectibles the single largest contributor to its GMV growth — $22.2 billion total, +14% y/y — with Pokémon's 30th-anniversary surge called out by name. Whether February's record was the cause or the symptom of that tape is the kind of question Gloomberg prefers to leave to the reader; the record only shows the two arrived together.
Provenance is now a line item
February's Goldin event also produced the cleanest provenance spread — the premium a card's documented history commands over an otherwise-identical copy — on record. A 1st Edition Base Set Charizard in PSA 10, pulled on stream by Logan Paul and slabbed with the break-pedigree label, brought $954,800 — the most ever paid for any Charizard. Ordinary CGC 10 copies of the same card, in the same auction, brought $105,400 and $93,000. Same cardboard, roughly a 9× spread.
The slab itself is also worth watching as a variable. April produced the first half-million-dollar sale in a TAG holder — a TAG 8 Pikachu Illustrator at $488,000, roughly five times that grader's previous record sale — alongside a pop-12 Play! Pokémon Rayquaza VMAX promo in PSA 10 at $628,999 on eBay, against a prior character record near $49,000.
“Five seven-figure prints in five months is a fact about supply as much as demand: cards that trade once a decade are choosing 2026 to trade.”
Prices per Goldin, Heritage, and eBay results as reported by the linked outlets, inclusive of buyer's premium where the venue reports it. Index reads attributed to their publishers; Gloomberg does not audit them.
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