Goldin's Pokémon 30th Anniversary auction does not take live bids until October 15, and its headline card has already passed every Trophy Pikachu ever sold. That comes ten days after an $8.4 million Raincoat Pikachu at Fanatics Collect that nobody in the hobby can fully explain.

Meanwhile, a former Upper Deck redemptions manager admitted to stealing more than $500,000 in cards and left with probation, PSA's backlog fell another 800,000 cards, two Pokémon cards came back from the International Space Station, and Collectibles.com ranked the Disney collectibles worth chasing, from $5 park pins to a $708,000 map.

Pikachu had a better week than most athletes.

What we're covering:

🟡 A Trophy Pikachu passed $2.3 million before its auction opened
🃏 He stole $500,000 in cards from Upper Deck's redemption room and got probation
🏰 Collectibles.com on the 10 Disney collectibles fans are still chasing
📊 PSA's backlog hits 8.2 million as September grading jumps 24%
🚀 Two Pokémon cards reached the International Space Station
🔥 Heatseekers: Top upcoming releases

Let’s get into it.

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Goldin's Pokémon 30th Anniversary auction does not open for live bidding until October 15, and its headline lot already holds a record. Pre-bidding on the 1997 Gold First Place Trophy Pikachu, graded PSA 8 and the only copy in PSA's census, stood at $1,925,000 on Wednesday, or $2,348,500 with the buyer's premium.

The previous high for any Trophy Pikachu was $1,769,000, paid in May for a 1998 Bronze third-place version at Goldin. The card went to the winner of the first official Pokémon TCG tournament, held in Chiba in June 1997, and bidding runs through October 25.

It follows the strangest Pokémon sale of the year. On September 28, a PSA 10 2015 Raincoat Pikachu, an Art Academy contest promo with 100 copies printed and 57 graded Gem Mint, brought $8.4 million on 64 bids at Fanatics Collect. Only Logan Paul's $16.49 million Pikachu Illustrator has ever sold for more.

One of 57 Gem Mint Raincoat copies is now the second most expensive Pokémon card ever sold. The Trophy Pikachu is the only one, and it is still 18 days from the hammer.

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Adrian Fronczak, 30, of Wake Forest, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on October 5 in Durham County Superior Court to felony embezzlement for stealing cards from Upper Deck's redemption facility in Durham. Judge Josephine Kerr Davis gave him 18 months of supervised probation, 100 hours of community service, and $325 in court costs. The maximum was 17 months in prison, and he serves none of it if he keeps the terms and stays away from the building.

He never listed anything on eBay. Investigators found texts with buyers that included photos of the cards, and the money moved through PayPal and other mobile payment apps. The complaint said the haul ran from cards worth a few dollars to autographs and rookies worth tens of thousands, and it never named a single one. The redemption department exists to send collectors the cards they were promised and did not get, so every card he took was one somebody was already waiting on.

Walt Disney and Herb Ryman drew the map that sold investors on Disneyland over a single weekend in 1953, and it sold for $708,000, which is why park memorabilia tops Collectibles.com's new ranking of the 10 Disney collectibles worth chasing in 2026.

The list runs from postcards that cost a few dollars to animation art in six figures, with a price range and a what-to-look-for note on each.

The thread through all ten is authenticity. Disney is one of the most reproduced brands on earth, and Walt's own signature is among the most forged in the hobby.

Read the full guide at Collectibles.com.

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PSA reported 8.2 million cards waiting as of October 6, down from 9 million two weeks earlier, and said progress at that pace puts it on track to reopen more service tiers in the coming months.

The $59.99 Standard tier reopened September 14, and the Value tiers stay closed. The backlog is shrinking because output is climbing, and September's grading numbers show how far ahead of the field PSA is running.

Across every category, GemRate counted 3.52 million cards graded in September, up 9% from August and 62% from a year ago. The same week, Heritage Auctions hired Erik Myers, a 19-year card industry veteran, as its first Vice President of Modern Cards, and Arena Club signed a multi-year deal to become the Philadelphia 76ers' official trading card platform, with cards parachuting into the stands at games this season.

The Pokémon Company International confirmed Tuesday that a Pikachu ex and a Minior card rode to the International Space Station with European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, who launched on SpaceX Crew-12 on February 13 and docked the next day.

The reveal, timed to World Space Week, came with photos of both cards floating in zero gravity with Earth behind them. Earlier publicity stunts had sent Pokémon cards up on balloons to the edge of the stratosphere, so this is the first time the cards have made it to orbit. An Astronaut Pikachu plush that made the same trip is now on sale at Pokémon Center.

The world of collectibles is wide and deep, and there's a constant stream of new releases. Here are some of the big ones that are coming up:

The two biggest numbers this week belong to cards nobody had at the top of a want list a year ago. A Raincoat Pikachu with 57 Gem Mint copies had never sold above $156,250, and one just brought $8.4 million. A Trophy Pikachu passed its own record before Goldin let anyone bid live. Neither came from a new pull or a new player; both came from collectors deciding that a piece of 1997 and a piece of 2015 were worth holding for way longer than most would have.

The quieter stories ran the other way. A 1/1 Superfractor with the wrong school's logo sat on eBay until someone offered $600, and $500,000 in stolen Upper Deck cards earned a sentence of community service. The same market that can price a card at $8 million in one night can overlook a one-of-one for months. What something is worth still depends on who is looking!

See you next week!