The key facts
- A collection of 42 sets of Pokemon cards sold for £1.56 million at the Ewbank's auction house in Surrey
- The owner bought the cards in the late 1990s for his son and kept them in the loft for 15 years, unaware of their value
- Ewbank's calls the sale a record for the UK and possibly for Europe
Pensioner becomes a millionaire thanks to cards from the loft
A pensioner decorator from Woking raised £1.56 million for a collection of Pokemon cards sold at auction at Ewbank's in Surrey on Wednesday. He said he had no idea of the cards' value until he read in a local newspaper about a single card selling for more than £6,000. The man asked not to be named. 'Everyone talks about treasure in the loft, but in my case it is literally true,' he noted.
How the collection was assembled
In the late 1990s, when his son was small, the boy began collecting and swapping cards at school. The father decided the cards could be a good investment and bought complete sets, including from a seller in Malaysia on eBay. One set, which cost £300 at the time, went for £75,000 at the auction. The cards were arranged in special folders, sealed, and lay in the loft for 15 years after the son lost interest in the franchise.
Record-breaking sale
The auction house Ewbank's called the sale the most expensive trading card sale in the history of the UK and suggested it could be a European record. According to the auction house, the previous record was set only on 9 October in London, when a sale at Stanley Gibbons brought in £872,000. James Spooner, head of Ewbank's cards department, said 'jaws dropped to the floor' when the owner brought in 42 sets in 'as new' condition. The sale was the most successful in the auction house's more than 30-year history.
Top lot and reaction
The most expensive lot was the Legendary Collection Complete Master Set with a Charizard card in near-mint condition: estimated at £15,000–20,000, it sold for £100,000. The auction was conducted personally by Andrew Ewbank, who joked after the bidding that he was 'going to lie down'. According to him, bids came in from all over the world, and collectors could not believe how complete and untouched the collection was — 'with all the rarities one could dream of'.
Image source, Ewbank's The auctioneer said there had been an
Image source, Ewbank's The auctioneer said the
