Logan Paul chases PSA 10 Pikachu card that has not been graded yet
Logan Paul’s new YouTube documentary follows his hunt for the first PSA 10 Pikachu from Pokémon’s earliest card sheets.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Logan Paul is chasing a Logan Paul PSA 10 Pikachu prize that, by the grading records described in his new YouTube documentary, does not yet exist: a perfect-grade Pikachu card from Pokémon’s earliest trading-card run.
The YouTuber and WWE performer released a one-hour mini-documentary on Friday about his effort to land the card. The hunt comes only months after the BBC reported that Paul’s $16 million sale of a Pikachu Illustrator card set a record.
This time, the target is not a famous trophy card already sealed in collector lore. Paul is trying to create the first known perfect example of one of Pokémon’s earliest cards by finding, peeling and grading a Pikachu that can hit PSA’s Gem Mint 10 standard.
What is the Logan Paul PSA 10 Pikachu card?
According to the documentary, the card traces back to 1996, before Pokémon cards were sold in booster packs in the familiar way. The earliest cards were peelable inserts from sheets included in the Japanese comic CoroCoro.
The first of those issues, issue 223, included Pikachu and Jigglypuff cards. The documentary says many copies are already in circulation, but no Pikachu from that release has apparently been graded a perfect 10 by Professional Sports Authenticator, the card-grading company known as PSA.
PSA describes Gem Mint 10 on its grading standards page as a “virtually perfect card.” In collector terms, that tiny difference between near-perfect and perfect can be the whole show, especially when the card has early Pokémon history attached to it.
Paul’s video follows him buying copies of CoroCoro issue 223 and pre-production sheets tied to the release. His goal is to peel a Pikachu cleanly enough, and find one preserved well enough, for PSA to award the top grade.
When will Logan Paul know if the card gets a PSA 10?
PSA says on its website that grading submissions can take from five to 25 business days. Paul’s documentary, however, shows him getting two cards graded much faster after bringing them to a PSA office himself.
The ending sets up the next step: Paul announced a livestream where he plans to peel the Pikachu card he hopes will become the first PSA 10 example. The event is scheduled for July 30 at 9:30 p.m. EST on Paul’s YouTube channel.
What happens after the peel is still unclear from the documentary. Paul could show the card and then send it for grading, or PSA could be involved more quickly if an arrangement is made for grading around the event.
No sale price for a possible PSA 10 Pikachu from CoroCoro issue 223 is given in the documentary. The reason collectors are watching is the combination of Pokémon’s early card history, PSA’s top grade and the reported absence of an existing perfect Pikachu from that first sheet.
This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.