It’s the dream. A retired painter and decorator looked around in his attic and found his forgotten collection of Pokémon cards, then sold them at auction for £1.56 million ($2.09 million).
The man, who asked auction house Ewbank’s (via BBC News) not to publicly identify him, said he only remembered he even had a long-abandoned Pokémon card collection after he read a news story about a single card selling for more than £6,000 ($8024). In response, he went up into the roof to see if he might have anything stored up there that could be worth anything, and stumbled on a fortune. “I know people always talk about finding treasure in the attic,” he told the auction house, “but in my case it’s literally true.”
The guy had gotten into collecting the cards in the late ’90s when his son was swapping the TCG at school. “I thought they looked nice,” he explained, “and wondered whether they might be a good investment.” Turns out, yes. “He had his own cards,” the decorator added of his son, “but he never got to touch these, I’m glad to say.”
He got pretty seriously into the collection, buying many complete sets on eBay, continuing on after his son had lost interest, but then moved on about 15 years ago when the binders were relegated to the loft. On rediscovering them, the man based in Woking in the UK (the town over from where I grew up, you know the one, bit south of London), took the collection to an auction house called Ewbank’s, which reported that “jaws hit the floor” when he showed up.
Ewbank’s described the $2 million total as its most successful sale in 30 years. Within the collection were unheard-of binders like a Legendary Collection master set, a near-mint full binder of every card from the 2002 compilation set, which was predicted to sell for £15,000 to £20,000 but eventually sold for £130,000 ($173,783). There was also a full set of the astoundingly collectible and expensive Skyridge, which he originally bought for only £300. It was estimated to sell for up to £40,000, but instead fetched £97,500 ($130,337). Or how about a master set of Aquapolis?! Due to some cards being mixed condition it was estimated to go for £15,000, but went for £49,500 ($66,171). (Given a single booster pack of Aquapolis currently sells for $2,000, this could have been a lot more in better condition.) And there were so many more.
It pains my soul to think about these master sets just sitting forgotten (there was EX Team Rocket, EX Delta Species, EX Deoxys, and even a complete Pop Series binder!). And what a relief they were remembered, rather than left to rot, or lost in a fire, or thrown out during a clear-out.