1996 Pikachu Card Sells for Record $3.3 Million, and Logan Paul Is Probably Kicking Himself Right Now
When he sold his Illustrator Pikachu card earlier this year, YouTuber Logan Paul made Pokemon history with the highest-selling card on record. Last month, he tried to make history again with a risky Pokemon collectibles stunt. Only that attempt didn’t go so well. Paul attempted to peel a sheet of 1996 Corocoro Pokemon cards, which he hoped to get graded at the coveted PSA 10 tier. Unfortunately, both cards received pretty poor PSA ratings. One of the cards in question was a CoroCoro Comics Pikachu, one of the first Pikachu cards ever printed. Now, another version of that same card just sold for a record-breaking price at auction, and that’s got to be salt in the wound for the influencer.
When they were printed back in 1996, the CoroCoro Comics Pokemon card inserts were among the first Pokemon cards ever printed. They were printed inside the comic and had to be peeled off the sheet. That means very few of them have ever been graded, let alone graded in good condition. That’s why Logan Paul decided to peel an uncut sheet, hoping to obtain the first-ever PSA 10 CoroCoro Pikachu card. Alas, though the card did come away fairly cleanly, it ultimately earned a PSA 5 grade. But now, an earlier version of that same card proved just how valuable these cards really are with a record sale.
Rare 1996 Pikachu Card Sells for $3.3 Million to Pokemon Card Documentarian
Private collectibles brokerage Nostalgix recently revealed that it coordinated the sale of a rare 1996 Marketing Variation Pikachu card from the CoroCoro Comics promo. The card sold for $3.3 million USD to John Nelson, who created the Pokemon TCG documentary Cardbound. Hopefully, the piece of Pokemon history will be in good hands with a collector who has invested so much time into documenting the origins of Pokemon cards. And the card truly is a unique piece of Pokemon history.
The Marketing Variation Pikachu was an early print of the CoroCoro Comic Pikachu that Logan Paul recently tried to peel. This version is slightly different from the one that was eventually printed in the CoroCoro Comic magazines. It was an early prototype and features a few visual differences from the card that was later more widely printed. Specifically, this version of the card has Pikachu slightly off-center, and with a subtle greenish tinge to its yellow fur. Because it was never intended to be widely distributed, only a few copies of the Marketing Variation Pikachu exist. The CoroCoro Comics cards were printed before the first Japanese Base Set, so this early Pikachu prototype is likely among the first Pokemon cards ever made. That makes it exceedingly rare, even compared to the commercially printed CoroCoro Comics sheets.
So, it stands to reason that even if Logan Paul had successfully gotten that PSA 10 rating on his copy, the Marketing Variation Pikachu is likely still worth more. Even so, seeing that $3.3 million sale after recently receiving a PSA 5 rating on such a similar card has got to sting. This puts it just under Logan Paul’s $5.2 million purchase of his Illustrator Pikachu, which he sold earlier this year for $16 million. Since those two sales were for the same card, the CoroCoro Comics Pikachu is now the second most expensive Pokemon card ever sold. At least for now.