On Sunday, Logan Paul sold a Pikachu Illustrator card for $16,492,000. It’s the most expensive trading card ever sold. And the hobby should be furious.
Not because a Pokémon card broke the record. Because of everything that happened before the hammer dropped.
Here’s the short version.
In 2022, Logan Paul launched Liquid Marketplace — a platform where fans could buy fractional ownership of his prized possessions, including the Pikachu Illustrator card. Thousands of people bought in. The Ontario Securities Commission later accused Liquid Marketplace of multi-layered fraud.
In May 2024, Logan quietly bought the card back. He says he paid out fractional investors “based on their percentages.” But here’s the math that’s making people angry:
Fractional investors collectively put in $2.5 million. At Sunday’s sale price, that stake would’ve been worth over $12 million.
Instead, they got bought out in 2024 — at a fraction of what the card just sold for.
Now people are calling for a class action lawsuit.
Then there’s the PSA 10 question.
The card Logan sold is graded PSA 10 — the highest possible grade. But collectors have been circulating evidence that this card has a corner chip and centering issues that shouldn’t qualify for a 10.
When Logan originally bought a Pikachu Illustrator in 2021, it was a PSA 9. He later traded that card plus $4 million to acquire the PSA 10 version. Whether that PSA 10 is legitimate is now being openly debated across every corner of the hobby.
PSA has said nothing.
📖 Related: PSA Raised Prices. A Congressman Called It a Monopoly.
And then there’s Ken Goldin.
Ken Goldin ran the auction. He knew the history. He took the sale anyway.
One collector on X put it plainly: “You took quick cash and permanently stained the name of Goldin.”
Another: “Logan Paul opens Liquid Marketplace, sells 51% of the card, takes it back, and those buyers got scammed. Now he’s opening another website called Ripit. And Ken Goldin, you facilitated all of it.”
Goldin has built his platform on being the trustworthy auction house — the adult in the room. Hosting this sale without addressing the Liquid Marketplace fraud accusations raises real questions about whose side he’s on.
The buyer, for what it’s worth, says he’s on a “planetary treasure hunt.”
AJ Scaramucci paid $16.49 million for the card and appeared on stage after the sale to announce he also wants to buy a T. rex fossil and the Declaration of Independence.
Sure.
What this means for the hobby.
A $16.5 million sale should be a watershed moment. The kind of headline that legitimizes cards as an asset class and brings new collectors in.
Instead, the conversation is about fraud allegations, PSA grade legitimacy, and whether Ken Goldin just laundered a scammer’s exit.
The most expensive trading card ever sold wasn’t a ’52 Mantle. It wasn’t a Jordan Logoman. It wasn’t a Wembanyama Superfractor.
It was a card tied to a securities fraud investigation, with a disputed PSA grade, sold through an auctioneer who took the quick money.
The hobby deserves better than this being its biggest moment.
— Grayson Bryce Thompson
