Pokémon did not just lead the trading card market this week. It took the whole board. The five biggest TCG sales from October 11 to October 17 totaled $3,977,000 according to Card Ladder data published by Sports Illustrated, and every one of the five was a Pokémon sale. The total jumped from $2,960,000 the week before, and the list runs from a contest Pikachu that crossed one million dollars to a complete graded lot that took second place without being a single card at all.
The Raincoat Pikachu leads again
The top sale was a 2015 Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Pikachu illustrated by Y. Fujishima, graded PSA 10, which sold for $1,037,000 at Goldin on October 11. Collectibles News reports the winning bid at $850,000 before the buyer premium, with 64 bids in total. The card shows Pikachu in a red raincoat under an orange umbrella, and it comes from one of the strangest distribution stories in the hobby. It never sat on a store shelf and it never came out of a pack.
A complete lot beat almost every single card
Second place went to a complete lot of 19 Legendary Collection holo cards from 2002, every card graded PSA 10, which sold for $960,000 through Fanatics Weekly on October 11. Sports Illustrated names Charizard, Zapdos and Dark Blastoise among the cards in the lot. One gem mint chase card is hard enough to find. Nineteen from the same early set, all in the top grade, is the kind of assembled rarity that rarely reaches an open auction at all.
Three sales tied at $660,000
Three sales share the next spot at $660,000 each, and all three closed through Fanatics Weekly on October 11. A 2012 Plasma Storm Full Art Lugia EX numbered 134 and graded PSA 10 made the number, and Lugia keeps showing strength across eras after a Crystal Lugia reached $360,000 the week before. A second Art Academy Pikachu, the 2015 design by Meli, also sold for $660,000 in PSA 10. The third is a 2001 Southern Islands Promo Reverse Holo Mew numbered 1 in PSA 10, one week after a Southern Islands Holo Mew sold for $840,000.
Why collectors should read this board with care
Our take is simple. The demand is real, but headline prices at this level need a second look before anyone prices a collection off them. Chase Society, which tracks these auction boards week to week, reported on October 12 that the earlier Fujishima Pikachu sale at $8,400,000 at Fanatics still showed as unpaid 15 days after it closed, and it advises collectors to price a card off its last paid sale and to check that the sale was the same variant. That earlier number is the outlier here. Against it, the Goldin result looks almost grounded. The same card in PSA 10 sold for $156,250 at Heritage in June, so the Goldin price is still more than six times that level in under four months.
What to watch next
Watch what settles. Two Art Academy Pikachu designs combined for close to $1,700,000 this week, and the program is now setting the pace at the very top of the Pokémon market ahead of trophy cards and vintage Charizard. If the Fanatics Weekly numbers from October 11 hold up as paid sales, the floor for early promos and complete high grade lots moves with them. If some do not settle, the paid Goldin number becomes the comp that matters, and it is strong enough on its own.