22.10.2026 14:20
A retired painter living in Surrey, England, became a millionaire by selling his Pokemon card collection, which had been sitting in the attic for 15 years, at auction for £1.56 million. The most valuable piece of the 42-set collection was the Legendary Collection set, valued at £15,000–20,000 and sold to a buyer for £100,000. The auction house announced that the sale was the most valuable collectible card auction in the UK.
A man in the UK has come into a huge fortune with Pokemon cards he collected for his son and forgot in the attic for years. Realizing the cards’ value thanks to a news story he read in the local newspaper, the man put his collection up for auction.
HE REALIZED IT WHEN HE READ IT IN THE NEWSPAPER
According to BBC News, the retired painter, who lives in the town of Woking in Surrey and did not want his identity disclosed, learned the cards’ value when he read in the local newspaper that a single card had sold for more than 6,000 pounds. The collection, which had been in the attic for 15 years, found a buyer at Ewbank’s auction house on Wednesday for 1.56 million pounds.
“LITERALLY TRUE”
“People always talk about finding treasure in the attic; in my case, that is literally true,” the man said. Explaining that his son began collecting and trading cards at school in the late 1990s, the man said he thought the cards looked nice and could be a good investment. “His son had his own cards, but he was never able to touch these—thank goodness he couldn’t,” he said.
A £300 SET SOLD FOR £75,000
It was learned that the man bought some complete sets from a seller in Malaysia via eBay. A set he bought for 300 pounds at the time sold on its own at auction for 75,000 pounds. The cards, whose packaging had never been opened, were kept in special Pokémon folders. When his son lost interest in Pokémon, the folders were put up in the attic.
“EVERYONE WAS LEFT SPEECHLESS”
James Spooner, head of the auction house’s card department, said that when the man brought in the 42-set collection, everyone was left speechless and the cards were in flawless condition. The most valuable item in the sale was the complete Legendary Collection set, which included a nearly flawless Charizard card. The set, valued at 15,000–20,000 pounds, sold for 100,000 pounds.
COULD BE A EUROPEAN RECORD
The auction house announced that the sale was the most valuable trading card auction in the UK and noted that it could be a European record. The previous highest sale in this field had been 872,000 pounds in London on October 9. Andrew Ewbank, who personally conducted the sale, said bids had come from all over the world.