Illustrator Pikachu value & price
Reviewed by Mumbles · Updated 1 Aug 2026Related Illustrator Pikachu & chase cards
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Illustrator Pikachu is one of those cards that stops collectors mid-scroll: a Japanese Promo release tied to an illustration contest, and about as close as the hobby gets to a genuine unicorn. If you're here trying to pin down Illustrator Pikachu value, the short answer is that it sits in a class of its own, with raw copies trading around $1,079,036 and graded gem mint examples reaching numbers most of us only see in headlines.
Price history
InteractiveRaw value is $586k, up 110182% over the past year, with an all-time high of $1.08M in July 2026.
Recent pulls of Illustrator Pikachu
Real pulls of this card across the tracked pack-opening sites, data no price guide has.
$43PSA MINT 9Elite Pokémon Gacha PackCollector Crypt · 0m ago
-RawPokémon Starter PackPackz · 1m ago
$169PSA 9 MINTPokémon Ultra (Spicy)Courtyard · 2m ago
$60CGC 10Bronze Pokémon Gacha PackCollector Crypt · 3m ago
$30PSA EX 5Elite Pokémon Gacha PackCollector Crypt · 4m ago
$35CGC MINT 9Elite Pokémon Gacha PackCollector Crypt · 7m ago
$57CGC 10 PRISTINEPokémon Pro PackCourtyard · 7m ago
$14CGC VG/EX+ 4.5Starter Pokémon Gacha PackCollector Crypt · 7m ago
Chase Illustrator Pikachu yourself
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Illustrator Pikachu price at every grade
Market value at each grade, with how many exist (population). 379 graded, only 1 are PSA 10.
| Grade | Value | Population | PSA / CGC |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $16.5M | 1 | - / 1 |
| PSA 9 | $541k | 4 | - / 4 |
| PSA 8 | $500k | 12 | - / 12 |
| PSA 7 | $198k | 29 | - / 29 |
| PSA 6 | $159k | 54 | - / 54 |
| PSA 5 | $127k | 99 | - / 99 |
| PSA 4 | $108k | 111 | - / 111 |
| PSA 3 | $92k | 46 | - / 46 |
| PSA 2 | $83k | 16 | - / 16 |
| PSA 1 | $3.0k | 7 | - / 7 |
| Raw / Ungraded | $586k | - | - |
Prices & population from PriceCharting. Value shown is the PSA-grade market price; population is split by grading company (PSA / CGC).
Where to pull Illustrator Pikachu
Rip real, graded Pokémon packs live on the top pack-opening sites, the same ones PackSpy tracks. Our #1 pick right now is LastPack.
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The collector's take on Illustrator Pikachu
Is Illustrator Pikachu worth grading?
So is Illustrator Pikachu worth grading? If you already own one, the math is hard to ignore: a PSA 10 sells for roughly 15.3x what a raw copy does, taking that $1,079,036 raw value up toward $16,492,000 in a perfect grade. That said, gem mint on a card this old and this scarce is genuinely tough to land, and a Grade 9 actually trades lower than raw at $541,318, which tells you how much the market rewards flawless corners and centering here specifically. Grading fees are small money against numbers like these, but the real risk isn't the cost, it's sending in a card and getting back a grade that doesn't move the needle the way a 10 would.
How rare is Illustrator Pikachu?
There's no official population count we can point to here, but everything about Illustrator Pikachu points to a card from the rarest tier the hobby has ever produced, born from a contest print run rather than a normal set release. That kind of origin story means very few copies exist to begin with, long before grading companies even get involved. When a card starts that scarce, every grade point matters enormously, and it's a big part of why the jump from raw to PSA 10 is so dramatic.
Where can you pull Illustrator Pikachu?
Here's where PackSpy's own tracking gets interesting. We've recorded Illustrator Pikachu pulled 200 or more times across sites including tilt-rips, collector-crypt, courtyard, mnstr, packs, and lastpack, showing up in packs like the Pokemon Starter Pack, Pokemon Premium Pack, Starter Pokémon Gacha Pack, and Pack 2. The biggest recorded pull value we've logged for it sits at $3,000, which is a good reminder that a card appearing in a pack doesn't always mean it's the real, full-value item, and that opening packs for a shot at something like this is a gamble where most rips don't come close to breaking even. Real Illustrator Pikachu copies almost never move through pack sites at true value, they trade privately or through major auction houses, so if you're chasing genuine value here, the secondary market is where the real ones live.
Questions people ask
How much is Illustrator Pikachu worth?+
A raw, ungraded Illustrator Pikachu is valued around $1,079,036. Graded copies swing a lot depending on the grade, with a Grade 9 sitting at $541,318 and a PSA 10 reaching an extraordinary $16,492,000.
Is Illustrator Pikachu worth grading?+
If you can land a PSA 10, yes, the payoff is massive at roughly 15.3x the raw price. But gem mint is genuinely hard to hit on a card this rare, and a Grade 9 actually returns less than the raw value at $541,318, so it's worth going in with realistic expectations about the grade you'll actually get.
What set is Illustrator Pikachu from?+
Illustrator Pikachu comes from the Japanese Promo set, which is part of what makes it so sought after. Its origin outside a standard mainline release is a big reason collectors treat it as one of the hobby's most legendary cards.
More Japanese Promo chase cards
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Mumbles built PackSpy so pack-opening data would not be a guessing game. We track real pulls and live card prices across the top pack sites and show what is actually happening, no hype, just the numbers. Every price and population figure here is pulled from live market data. More about Mumbles.
Open a pack that holds Illustrator Pikachu
Rip real, graded Pokémon packs live on the top pack-opening sites, the same ones PackSpy tracks. Our #1 pick right now is LastPack.
Affiliate links, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Play responsibly. 18+.