World’s Most Expensive Pokémon Card

The super rare “PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator” sold to YouTuber Logan Paul for $5.2 million in July 2021. He was given a Guinness World Record for the most expensive Pokemon trading card sold at a private sale. But what makes it unique? Out of the 41 cards that were produced in 1997, this is the only one that’s been graded a 10 out 10 rating; meaning it’s in pristine condition.

I was lucky enough to be in charge of this card’s release on LiquidMarketplace in July 2022, a platform for trading and tokenizing high-value assets. Since this was by far our biggest drop, we pushed ourselves to have a solid launch campaign. I created dozens of assets for social media and our website, and even brochures and banners for events.

The 3D model of the golden case and the Cuban chain around it was defentely the most challenging part of this project. I had never done a render like this before, but it truned out pretty great! This project more than anything was a jumpstart in my 3D modelling interest, and taught me skills I didn’t have before.

Now if you want to get technical for a moment, the topogogy and modeling technicques here aren’t the best. A lot could be improved, and since then I’ve only gotten more proficient at Blender but it’s still a whole new world to me!

These a few test renders I did for various motion graphic assets: