Logan Paul is back in the high-end collectibles spotlight, but this time it is not Pokémon cards — it is manga history.
The internet personality and WWE wrestler said on Wednesday that he has purchased two graded copies of Weekly Shonen Jump issues carrying the debut chapters of two absolute giants: Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball and Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.
According to Paul, the Dragon Ball first-chapter issue is graded 9.2, while the One Piece first-chapter issue is graded 9.0. He also revealed that the Dragon Ball issue cost him US$550,000. For Malaysian readers, that is roughly in the multi-million ringgit territory — basically the price of a very nice house, depending where you’re looking. He did not share how much he paid for the One Piece issue.
Paul described the One Piece copy as the second-highest grade in existence, with a population of three, and pointed to it as the first canon appearance of Monkey D. Luffy. He also highlighted One Piece’s massive sales record, with over 600 million copies sold worldwide.
For anime and manga fans in Malaysia and SEA, this is interesting beyond the usual celebrity flex. We are used to seeing rare Pokémon cards, sneakers, and gaming hardware become investment items, but vintage manga magazines are now clearly entering that same global collector conversation. Weekly Shonen Jump issues were never really treated like luxury items by most readers back in the day — they were weekly magazines, bought, read, shared, stacked, and often thrown away. That makes clean, high-grade copies of debut issues seriously rare.
And when the manga involved are Dragon Ball and One Piece, the cultural weight is gila. Dragon Ball shaped generations of anime fans across Malaysia, from TV broadcasts to bootleg VCD days to modern streaming. One Piece is still a weekly obsession for millions, with Luffy basically becoming one of the most recognisable characters in pop culture. These are not niche collectibles; they are pieces of modern anime history.
Paul is also not new to headline-making collector purchases. In February, he auctioned a rare Pikachu Illustrator card through American auction house Goldin for US$16.492 million. The buyer was A.J. Scaramucci, a venture capitalist and the son of former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.
That sale later attracted online accusations and speculation around the card’s grade and ownership history. Polygon reported that Paul had bought a PSA 9 Pikachu Illustrator card in 2021 and later had a PSA 10 version, though the report also noted that Paul initially purchased a PSA 9 card from collector Matt Allen before later acquiring a PSA 10 copy from a collector in Dubai.
There is also the Liquid Marketplace angle. Paul previously sold “shares” of his PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card through the now-defunct Ontario-based company, which allowed people to buy and sell fractional shares of rare collectibles. He reportedly sold 51% of the card in July 2022 and later regained full ownership in May 2024.
Liquid Marketplace is currently involved in a legal dispute with the Ontario Securities Commission. Polygon reported that regulators allege the platform distributed unregistered securities by selling investment-like tokens without the proper registration or exemption. Paul is not currently named as a respondent in that proceeding.
So yes, this latest manga purchase is a big collector moment — but also another reminder that when nostalgia becomes an asset class, things can get complicated fast. For fans here, the fun part is seeing Dragon Ball and One Piece recognised as museum-tier pop culture. The less fun part? Expect rare manga prices to get even more ridiculous after this.
Source: Anime News Network