A rare Pokémon Trading Card Game promo featuring Pikachu in a raincoat has reportedly sold for $8.4 million, making it the second-highest price ever recorded for a Pokémon card. The result is remarkable—and difficult to reconcile with recent sales of apparently comparable copies.
The card, commonly known as “Raincoat Pikachu”, was created in 2015 through a competition connected to the Nintendo 3DS game Pokémon Art Academy. Entrants designed card artwork inside the game, while winners privately received 100 printed copies featuring their work.
Because the cards were never offered through a conventional public release, they are among the rarest Pokémon cards produced. The winning design by Y. Fujishima shows Pikachu wearing a red raincoat with a matching tail cover and holding an orange umbrella.
Why the $8.4 Million Price Is So Difficult to Explain
The sale is especially surprising because this is not the oldest or most scarce Pokémon card in the market. The record remains held by a PSA 10 Illustrator Pikachu from 1997, which Logan Paul sold for $16.5 million in February. That card is believed to have an initial print run of approximately 39 to 41 copies, with only one known PSA 10 example.
By comparison, PSA’s certification records list 57 Raincoat Pikachu cards in Gem Mint PSA 10 condition. The card is unquestionably rare, but its larger population makes the new price look difficult to justify beside the Illustrator Pikachu record.
Recent market results make the jump even more dramatic. Price Charting records two PSA 10 sales in 2025, at $16,100 and $26,100. Prices rose during 2026, but the previous high was $156,250 in June, followed by another sale at $79,999.99 the following month.
The $8.4 million card was sold through Fanatics Collect after an auction that attracted 64 bids. Fanatics launched the marketplace in 2024 after its parent company acquired PWCC Marketplace in 2023. A community report has claimed that the transaction was legitimate and paid, although the extraordinary result remains unexplained.
There is also an unverified report that a Chinese auction site called Pokecolor sold the same card for slightly less than $10,000 the week before. The listing could not be independently located. The card was, however, confirmed to have sold for $156,250 through Heritage Auctions in June.
What Collectors Should Take From It
The reported increase from $156,250 to $8.4 million in roughly three months represents a rise of about 5,340 per cent. There is no reported meaningful difference between the winning card and other PSA 10 Raincoat Pikachu copies sold recently, so the sale should be treated as an extraordinary outlier rather than a dependable new market value.
For collectors and arcade fans watching the wider growth of retro gaming culture, the episode is another reminder that headline auction prices do not always provide a reliable guide to an item’s underlying value. Our Arcade Blog covers more developments across gaming and collecting, while the Arcade Machine Buying Guide offers practical advice for choosing a cabinet. Those building a dedicated games room can also explore compact bartop arcades.
Fanatics has been contacted for comment about the sale and whether it has concerns about the result. Any explanation from the marketplace could help clarify how a card that recently sold for five or six figures reached an $8.4 million final price.
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