England man's 15-year-old attic stash of Pokémon cards fetches Rs 19 crore at auction

A retired father in England became a millionaire after rediscovering a collection of Pokmon cards that had been sitting untouched in his attic for 15 years.

According to a report by People, the man, a retired decorator from Woking who has chosen to remain anonymous, decided to get his old collection valued after reading about a couple who funded their wedding by selling just three rare Pokmon cards.

He approached Ewbank’s Auctions to assess the stash, and the team was stunned by what they found. The collection contained 42 complete sets, all in mint condition. The father eventually agreed to sell 41 of them, choosing to hold on to one.

“When we saw what he had - all in mint condition - we couldn’t believe it, or the fact that he had no idea what they were worth,” James Spooner, head of trading cards at Ewbank’s Auctions, said in a statement cited by People.

Spooner added that discovering the 42 complete sets left the auction team astonished. The sale eventually brought in £1.56 million, or more than $2 million, from collectors, YouTubers and other bidders.

Andrew Ewbank, a partner at the auction house, said buyers were impressed by the collection's condition and range. It included rare cards and complete sets that had remained untouched for years.

Titled Pokmon: A Decade of Masters (1999-2009), the collection featured the Legendary Collection Complete Master Set. It contained all 110 cards in the set, along with 110 Reverse Holo Firework cards and four Box Toppers.

The father had started buying Pokmon cards in 1999, when they first arrived in England, partly to share an interest with his son, who collected and traded the cards at school.

“When my son was young, in the late 1990s, he started getting cards and swapping them at school,” he recalled. The collector said he liked the look of the cards and wondered whether they could also turn out to be a worthwhile investment.

He eventually found a seller in Malaysia through eBay, from whom he bought several complete sets. The seller later offered him the chance to purchase complete master sets, saying they had two or three available for each edition.

The collector said his first purchase cost him around $400. It was the Sky Ridge Charizard set, which went on to fetch approximately £75,000 (around $100,400) at the recent auction.

He stored the cards in Pokmon binders, keeping the sets in pristine condition over the years. His son had his own collection, but was not allowed to handle these particular cards.

“I know people always talk about finding treasure in the attic, but in my case that is literally true,” he said, adding that he had not realised the value of what he owned until the auction house's team assessed it.- Ends