The Pokémon world has been stunned by an $8.4 Million USD sale for card barely 10 years old.
The auction ran on Fanatics Collect for a PSA 10 2015 Art Academy Fujishima Pikachu. A card with a pop of 57 in PSA 10 condition.
A card that sold for around $20,000 a year ago...
Not surprisingly, this massive sale is already getting attention. Men’s Journal covered it, reporting that:
Decade-Old Pikachu Pokémon Card Sells for More Than Most Superyachts
This is a cascade of attention that will no doubt drive even more demand for this card, not to mention the other Art Academy cards.
And we don't even know if this has been paid for.
This is typical of the record sale hype cycle: When a card achieves a record winning bid at auction, the word spreads about the sale the moment the auction closes, even though not all record auction bids end up being paid.
In this case, we have a card that sold on the same platform for $17,400 in Jul of 2025, suddenly selling for $8,400,000 just over 1 year later. If there was ever an auction win that might go unpaid, this is it.
Historical sales of the PSA 10 2015 Art Academy Fujishima Pikachu on Fanatics Collect, showing a massive jump from last year’s $17,400 sale to today’s $8,400,000 auction win.
It wasn't that long ago that the only multi-million dollar sale in the history of Pokémon was when Logan Paul bought the 1 of 1 PSA 10 Illustrator Pikachu for $5.4 million. Seeing a pop 57 card like this sell for $8.4 million a couple years later isn't adding up.
I have no idea who the winning bidder was or their ability to pay (it's possible this card will be paid for) it's important to remember that, until it is paid, this is just an auction win.
Let's let the dust settle before we jump to conclusion.
As usual,
Thank you so much for reading the TCG Buyers Club newsletter. My name's Grey, I buy cardboard, and I'm on a mission to make collecting and investing in Pokémon simple.
Cheers 🍻