Are you a Pokémon collector with a few million dollars to spare? Luckily for you, Logan Paul just put his Pokémon Illustrator card up for auction. Only 40 of these cards were ever produced and given tothe  winners of a contest from 1998. Of these 40, Paul's is the only card to receive a grading of 10 from PSA, meaning it is in mint condition. 

The card was purchased by the influencer turned wrestler in 2021 for a meager $5 MILLION, making it the highest valued Pokémon card ever sold. Now he's looking to beat his own record. There has been an uptick in discussion about the Illustrator after Paul walked out at Wrestlemania 38 with the card draped around his neck in a bedazzled diamond case. It was also featured in a recent episode of 'King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch," where Goldin Auctions founder Ken Goldin stopped at nothing to get Paul to sell the card to his auction house. Eventually, Paul caved after he was offered a cash advance and a portion of the profits from an all Pokémon auction lot the card would be featured in. 

@loganpaul

Did I make a good deal?! @Ken Goldin has been chasing me for years trying to convince me to sell this Grail and he finally did it. This was a very hard decision and I’m not sure we’ll ever see this card for sale again but I’m 60% sure I made the right choice to sell. Plus Ken gave me a great offer: A $2.5M cash advance against the winning bid AND a small piece of the entire auction.  And now, on February 15th, the greatest Pokémon and TCG auction of our generation will take place on @Goldin (Goldin.co), anchored by my 1/1 PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator — the rarest and most valuable Pokémon card in existence. It comes with the custom $75k Pokeball chain AND I’ll hand-deliver to the buyer (auction begins Jan 12 but buyers can register to bid now) Credit: @Netflix ♬ original sound - Logan Paul

In recent years, the collectible market has begun to surge, especially Pokémon, for its continued popularity and nostalgia from first-gen fans who are older now and have cash to burn. Certain older cards, and even new ones being produced today, can be resold for thousands, or in this case, millions. Pokémon card collectors aren't thrilled about Paul's involvement in the hobby, though. Paul has been known to participate in card pulling, where creators open up packs of cards live on stream, in hopes of pulling a rare card with a high value in front of a live audience. Many criticize him for capitalizing on the hobby's monetary incentives rather than a genuine love for the source material. Paul was hardly the first to jump on this trend, but his massive influence has only inspired others to do the same. When you're opening card packs hoping to just find the expensive ones, it almost becomes a form of legalized gambling. Diehard Pokémon fans feel this trend has attracted the wrong people to the hobby.

As Pokémon cards rise in value, many resellers have begun hoarding new releases in hopes of cashing in. There are more and more recorded physical altercations at stores of resellers and collectors clamoring for the latest releases.

@pokemontomars This drop just hit store shelves and a massive thunderstorm hit. #pokemoncards #pokemon #pokemontcg #pokemonpulls ♬ original sound - PokemonToMars

As of now, the Illustrator is currently one day into it's 40 day auction and is sitting at a bid of $2.5 million. Whoever wins the auction will receive the card along with the bedazzled case (worth another $75,000 according to Paul), and a personal delivery of it from Logan Paul himself. Let's just hope whoever wins the auction is a diehard Pokémon fan with a respect for the source material.