Pikachu’s raincoat apparently comes with a very expensive price tag.
A Pikachu card just sold for US$8.4 million, putting it among the highest-priced Pokémon cards ever sold. As first spotted and reported by Kotaku, a PSA 10 copy of the 2015 Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Pikachu illustrated by Y. Fujishima sold through Fanatics Collect on 28 September for US$8.4 million, including buyer's premium. The auction drew 64 bids.
The price alone raises plenty of questions, especially for anyone who does not regularly keep track of six and seven-figure Pokémon cards. This particular Pikachu has quite a history behind it, although that history does not entirely explain how its price ended up here.
What is the Raincoat Pikachu Pokémon card, and why is it so rare?
The card comes from the Pokémon Art Academy Competition, which ran from late 2014 into early 2015 and asked fans to create artwork using Pokémon Art Academy on the Nintendo 3DS. For the Japanese competition, entrants could draw either Pikachu in costume or a favourite Pokémon, with five winners selected for each prompt, according to Heritage Auctions.
Fujishima's winning design shows Pikachu dressed for a storm in a red raincoat and matching hat, carrying a large orange umbrella. The raincoat even continues around the entire lightning-bolt tail, which may be the most committed part of the outfit.
The really important bit for collectors is how the winning artwork became a card. Heritage says each Japanese winner received only 100 copies featuring their own illustration. Nintendo used the same 100-card prize format for the international competition, with its official 2015 announcement stating that the winning cards would not be released through regular Pokémon TCG products.
Then there is the PSA grade. The card sold by Fanatics carries a Gem Mint 10, the highest grade on PSA's scale, and PSA's current database entry for the exact card sold lists 57 Fujishima Art Academy Pikachu cards at that grade, with none graded higher.
That number is worth keeping in mind. The card itself is unquestionably scarce, but this is not the only PSA 10 copy in existence, and several others have changed hands publicly in recent years. Their prices make the US$8.4 million result look even more unusual.
How much have other PSA 10 Raincoat Pikachu cards sold for?
PSA's own sales history shows just how quickly the price of this card has moved.
A PSA 10 Fujishima Pikachu sold through Fanatics Collect for US$17,400 in July 2025, while another sold on eBay for US$26,100 that September. By June 2026, the price had jumped considerably, with Heritage Auctions reporting a US$156,250 sale for a Gem Mint 10 copy.
Another PSA 10 then sold through an eBay fixed-price listing for US$79,999.99 on 4 August, according to PSA's current sales history. Less than two months later, Fanatics recorded US$8.4 million for the card that sold on 28 September.
The difference is enormous. The latest result is more than 50 times Heritage's reported US$156,250 price from June, despite both cards carrying the same PSA 10 grade. That does not mean two separately graded physical cards are completely identical, but it does show just how far this sale sits outside the card's recent public sales history.
There is another number tucked inside that US$8.4 million total. Fanatics Collect says a 20% buyer's premium is added to the winning bid, which means the bid itself was US$7 million before that premium was applied.
PSA currently estimates the card at US$84,541, while Fanatics' own listing displays a guide price of US$271,901. Those figures can change and are not sale prices, but they provide some extra context for just how unusual the auction result is.
What are the most expensive Pokémon card sales in 2026?
The Raincoat Pikachu did not arrive in a quiet year for high-end Pokémon cards either.
In February, Logan Paul's PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator sold through Goldin for US$16.492 million. Guinness World Records verified the sale as the most expensive Pokémon card ever sold at auction, as well as the most expensive trading card of any kind sold at auction.
That Pikachu Illustrator has a very different rarity profile. Guinness says only 39 copies were originally awarded to illustration contest winners, while Paul's card is the only example PSA has graded Gem Mint 10.
More huge Pokémon sales followed in September. A PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator sold through Heritage Auctions for US$5 million on 19 September, which Heritage described at the time as the second-highest amount paid at auction for any Pokémon card. A CGC 9 copy of Pikachu Illustrator also sold for US$2,806,271 through Goldin in an auction that ended the same day.
The Raincoat Pikachu sale surpassed both of those results little more than a week later, while still sitting below the US$16.492 million Pikachu Illustrator record. Unlike that record-holding card, however, Fujishima's Pikachu is one of 57 copies currently graded PSA 10.
At the time of writing, Fanatics itself displays a guide price of US$271,901 for the card, while its auction page records US$8.4 million. Raincoat Pikachu was already rare and expensive, but nothing in its recent public sales history was operating on this scale.
