RETIRED DECORATOR SELLS POKÉMON CARDS FOR £1.56 MILLION

A retired decorator’s Pokémon card collection sold for £1.56 million at an Ewbank’s auction in Guildford, Surrey, on 21 October, according to the auction house. The seller, who asked to remain anonymous, had kept the cards in his attic for 15 years. He sought a valuation after reading that a single Pokémon card had sold for more than £6,000. Ewbank’s initially estimated that his collection could fetch up to £270,000. YouTubers, collectors and investors were among the bidders.

Ewbank’s titled the collection Pokémon: A Decade of Masters (1999–2009). James Spooner, its head of trading cards, said the owner had 42 sets and kept one, leaving 41 for the auction. The highest-priced lot was a Legendary Collection Complete Master Set containing all 110 cards, 110 Reverse Holo ‘Firework’ cards and four Box Toppers. Ewbank’s valued the lot, which included a near-mint Charizard card, at between £15,000 and £20,000. It sold for a hammer price of £100,000.

Spooner said the seller had not known what the collection was worth. He described it as the most valuable collection Ewbank’s had handled. “The day before the sale we already had £825,000 in commission bids,” Spooner said. Ewbank’s said the auction was its most successful sale in more than 30 years of business.