Published Oct 31, 2026, 7:38 AM EDT
Patricia is the former editor-in-chief of Kotaku, where she spent a decade writing and editing. Prior to that, she served as the Culture Editor at Polygon, and as a reporter at The Verge. Hernandez specializes in Pokémon TCG, Nintendo, and offbeat internet culture stories.
The YouTube personality is flawed still flawed, though
Image: Logan PaulYouTuber Logan Paul has been accused of a lot of things: ruining the Pokémon trading card hobby, clickbait, greed, thoughtlessness. Maybe some of these condemnations are true. A recent revelation by the blonde provocateur has started to convince me that he may not, in fact, be a larper. Actually, I'm starting to believe the boisterous influencer might legitimately like Pokémon.
No, not in the way everyone loves Pokémon — a now utterly mainstream media franchise. Logan Paul's professed love of Charizard is basic, to be sure, but many millennial men feel the same way. And there's no denying that Logan Paul has used every opportunity to profit off the hype behind the hobby.
Most will point to Paul's recent record-breaking $16.4 million sale of the ultra-rare Illustrator Pikachu card as exhibit A. Yet Paul himself might use the card to argue his love of the hobby is genuine.
In a recent video, Paul described an ongoing internal dilemma that will sound familiar to any seasoned TCG collector.
"I say I'm going to be responsible with it," Paul said while discussing the profits from the card sale. He mused over the possibility of investing in a stock like Tesla, or other ways he could be smart with the money. He admits that he could have thought of his family, or payments for a new house.
"No!" he exclaimed. "I just end buying more fucking Pokémon cards."
"The collecting thing in me, I saw something that I had to have," Logan explained. "Every collector knows this journey. I got obsessed, and I had to have this thing. And I went on this quest for a year, to collect this thing that I had to have."
Logan Paul spends a ton of money on Pokémon TCG
Paul is likely referring in part to an ongoing attempt to source a pristine copy of some early Pokémon cards. The cards, which came packaged in a magazine's sticker sheet, are notoriously difficult to find in perfect condition. In the past, the YouTuber has said he spent nearly $3 million on that pursuit. More recently, Paul made headlines after purchasing some sealed boxes of old Pokémon cards for $400,000. He's also spent a good chunk of change on the One Piece manga. Some of the money, he admits, went into business-related expenses — but most of these were still connected to Pokémon cards in one way or another.
"I told myself I was not gonna spend on collectibles," Paul laughed. "But I did."
Image: Fox Business NetworkArguably, some of Paul's ploys wouldn't have been possible unless he truly knew ball. His scheme to collect the first-ever Pokémon cards was misleading, for example — but he could only come up with a convincing narrative about the value of his cards by knowing some deep-cut collecting lore.
Now, just because Logan Paul loves Pokémon doesn't mean the man is immune to criticism. True fandom doesn't excuse ripping people off, nor does it justify selling fans a terrible product. Logan Paul may genuinely love Pokémon, but he might love making money a bit more. After his snafu with capturing his first shiny Pokémon, though, I wouldn't blame anyone for calling Logan Paul a fair-weather fan.
