A Pokémon card featuring Pikachu in a raincoat has sold for a staggering $8.4 million, making it the second most expensive Pokémon card ever sold! The rare promotional card, originally released following an art competition in 2015, has stunned collectors with a sale price that dwarfs previous records for the same card.
An $8.4 million Pikachu
The card, unofficially known as Raincoat Pikachu, sold on 28 September 2026 for approximately $8.4 million (£6.3 million). Its artwork depicts the iconic Pokémon wearing a raincoat and carrying an umbrella, making it a rather adorable piece of cardboard to become one of the most expensive collectibles in the hobby. The sale puts Raincoat Pikachu behind only Logan Paul's Pikachu Illustrator card, which reportedly sold for $16 million (£12 million) earlier this year. That card remains the biggest Pokémon card sale on record, but this latest transaction has given it some serious competition. It's an extraordinary result, particularly considering that Raincoat Pikachu doesn't have the same decades-long history as some of the other cards at the top of the rankings.
How did Raincoat Pikachu become so rare?
Raincoat Pikachu originated from a 2015 competition connected to Pokémon Art Academy, a drawing game released for the Nintendo 3DS. The competition invited Pokémon fans to submit their own illustrations of Pikachu through Miiverse, Nintendo's former social networking service for the Wii U and 3DS. Six winners were selected, with each winning artist receiving 100 copies of a promotional Pokémon card featuring their artwork.
That means only 600 copies were distributed across the six winning designs, with Raincoat Pikachu representing one of these exclusive illustrations. Its limited distribution has made it a highly desirable collectible, especially for fans interested in unusual promotional cards that were never available through ordinary booster packs. However, the latest sale is particularly surprising when compared with previous transactions involving the same card.
From thousands to millions
According to data from Pokémon card price-tracking website PriceCharting, previous sales of PSA 10-graded copies of Raincoat Pikachu have ranged from approximately $14,000 to $26,000. Those figures are already enough to make most collectors wince, but they look almost insignificant next to the latest $8.4 million sale. The difference is enormous, and the transaction represents a dramatic departure from the card's previous market history. While its rarity and condition undoubtedly contribute to its appeal, the sale price stands far beyond what earlier transactions might have suggested. It also raises questions about what collectors are willing to pay for particularly rare Pokémon cards, especially when a single sale can reshape the record books.
A modern card among vintage legends
Raincoat Pikachu's new ranking is even more remarkable when you consider the history of the cards it has overtaken. Many of the most expensive Pokémon cards ever sold date back to the late 1990s, when the franchise was first becoming a global phenomenon. The Pikachu Illustrator card, for example, was awarded through an illustration competition in 1997. Other valuable collectibles include Trophy Pikachu No. 1 and Trophy Pikachu No. 3, tournament prizes distributed in 1997 and 1998 that have reportedly sold for $3 million and $1.7 million respectively. These cards are prized not only for their scarcity but also for their connection to the early days of Pokémon. They represent a period when the trading card game was establishing itself, making them significant pieces of franchise history.
Raincoat Pikachu, by comparison, is a relative newcomer. Released in 2015, it lacks the same decades of nostalgia attached to those vintage cards, yet its recent sale has propelled it above almost every other Pokémon card on record. That makes the result particularly striking. A modern promotional card featuring Pikachu sheltering from the rain has managed to outperform collectibles that have been coveted by fans for generations.
Is Raincoat Pikachu worth more than a house?
For most Pokémon fans, spending millions on a single card is firmly in fantasy territory. Even serious collectors would struggle to justify a purchase of this scale, especially when previous sales of the same card were measured in thousands rather than millions. Still, the transaction highlights just how extraordinary the market for rare Pokémon collectibles can become. Scarcity, provenance, condition and demand can combine to produce prices that seem almost impossible for an ordinary trading card. Raincoat Pikachu now sits just behind the Pikachu Illustrator in the Pokémon card sales rankings, proving that even a relatively modern promo can reach astonishing heights under the right circumstances. Whether another card will eventually challenge the $16 million record remains to be seen. For now, though, this little Pikachu has made an enormous splash in the collecting world!
