Two auctions, five days apart, have moved a category of card most collectors had never priced into the top tier of the hobby.
The Raincoat Pikachu
Fanatics Collect's Premier auction closed overnight with the 2015 Japanese XY promo Art Academy Pikachu, illustrated by Y. Fujishima and known as the Raincoat Pikachu, in PSA 10 at $8,400,000 including the 20 percent buyer's premium; the hammer was $7 million, after 64 bids. It is the second most expensive Pokemon card ever sold publicly, behind only the $16.5 million PSA 10 Illustrator from February, and ahead of the $5 million PSA 9 Illustrator from ten days ago. The Art Academy cards were prizes in a 2015 illustration contest, printed in runs of about a hundred per design and given to winners. PSA has graded 57 of the Fujishima Pikachu a 10, which makes this a very different object from the one-of-one Illustrator: a $8.4 million price on a card with 56 other Gem Mint copies is the week's most important fact, and Grade Expectations in this issue is about it.
The week before
| # | Card | Grade | Price | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2015 Japanese XY Promo Art Academy Mudkip (Daisuke Ochiai) | PSA 10 | $3,720,000 | Fanatics Premier | September 25 |
| 2 | 2004 Team Rocket Returns Mudkip Gold Star #107 | PSA 10 | $1,020,000 | Fanatics Weekly | September 20 |
| 3 | 2008 Majestic Dawn Garchomp LV.X #97 | PSA 10 | $900,000 | Fanatics Weekly | September 20 |
| 4 | 2001 Neo Revelation First Edition Ampharos #1 | PSA 10 | $600,000 | Private | September 22 |
| 5 | 2005 EX Deoxys Latias Gold Star #105 | CGC 10 Pristine | $456,000 | Fanatics Premier | September 25 |
Total about $6.7 million, Pokemon in all five spots for the fifth time in seven weeks.
What the five say
Each is a first. The Art Academy Mudkip is the first contest promo from the 2010s in seven figures. The Mudkip Gold Star at $1.02 million is the fourth Gold Star past a million after the Rayquaza, the Torchic and (as of last month) nothing else; it matches the Rayquaza to the dollar. The Garchomp LV.X at $900,000 is more than four times the Palkia LV.X that opened the Diamond & Pearl era's repricing three weeks ago at $204,000. The Ampharos is Neo Revelation's first six-figure card and the fourth Neo-era First Edition holo over $300,000 this month. And the Latias Gold Star in Pristine at $456,000 is the label premium again, on a card whose plain 10s trade far lower.
The pattern
The repricing that began with the Illustrator in February has moved outward in rings: Snap cards, Gold Stars, Neo Genesis, Legendary Collection, the LV.X cards, and now the 2015 Art Academy promos. Each ring is a category that had a small population and a dormant price, and each has re-marked by a multiple inside a few weeks once the first auction tested it. The question for October is which ring is next.
Sources: SI Collectibles, September 28, 2026; GosuGamers on the Fanatics Collect result.
The Lead ran in The Pack Report, September 28, 2026: $8.4 Million for a Raincoat Pikachu, and a $3.7 Million Mudkip. Published by Rip Station.