Somewhere in Woking, Surrey, a retired decorator had a stack of binders gathering dust in his attic. Inside them sat 42 complete Pokémon master sets, tucked away years ago and mostly forgotten. This fall, those binders turned into one of the biggest trading card payoffs Britain has ever seen.

The collection sold at Ewbank’s auction house on October 21 for a combined £1.56 million, which the trade publication Antique Trader puts at just over $2 million. It was the most successful sale in the auction house’s history and the best result ever recorded for a trading card auction in the UK.

He Bought Whole Sets Because “It Would Be Cheaper” Than Chasing Random Packs

The seller has stayed anonymous, but his story is one any parent of the 1990s will recognize. His son collected and traded Pokémon cards back then, and the father later “wondered whether they might be a good investment.”

He started buying online from sellers around the world. His reasoning was simple and thrifty: “I thought that it would be cheaper to buy the full set rather than keep buying sealed packs of random cards,” he said.

That decision turned him into a master set collector. A master set is as complete as a set gets, with the holographic cards, the reverse holos where the shine covers everything except the character art, and every “secret rare,” from special variants to promotions and retailer exclusives.

He was careful, too. He moved the cards into binders right after opening them, and when his son “lost interest in Pokémon,” the binders went up to the attic and stayed there.

“Our Jaws Hit The Floor” When The Binders Came Through The Door

What changed things was a news story. The decorator read about a recent sale at Ewbank’s and started to suspect his attic might be worth far more than he thought, so he brought the binders in.

James Spooner, the auction house’s Head of Trading Cards, said “our jaws hit the floor.” He added: “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.”

Ewbank’s first guess was that the 42 near-mint master sets could reach “as high as around £270,000,” or about $360,000. Then the bidding began, and the final total came in at nearly four times that figure.

Bidders Packed The Saleroom For The First Time Since Before The Pandemic

The owner kept one set for himself and let Ewbank’s sell the other 41. Bids poured in as soon as the sale was announced.

Auction house owner Andrew Ewbank said he was amazed by the enthusiasm. “We had bidders from all over the world and more bidders in the saleroom itself at any time since before the COVID pandemic,” he said.

The top lot was a Legendary Collection Complete Master Set, made up of all 110 cards, all 110 Reverse Holo “Firework” cards and 4 Box Toppers. It sold for £130,000, about $174,000, and every card was in excellent to near-mint condition. Its Charizard, one of the most desirable cards in the set, was near-mint as well.

A Sealed 1999 Booster Box And Burger King Gold Cards Joined The Party

The sale was not only about big sets. A sealed Base Set Booster Box from 1999, holding 36 sealed packs from the very first Pokémon card release, sold for £31,200, about $41,800, even though the underside had some damage.

Fast-food fans may enjoy the next one. A group of all six 23K gold-plated cards that Burger King handed out in 1999 to promote the first Pokémon movie sold for £546, about $700, more than double the high estimate of £250. They came sealed inside toy Pokéballs, with their original boxes.

A 2001 Game Boy promo holo card for Lugia, sealed and graded PSA 10, brought £5,200, about $6,970.

“I Had To Make My Eight-Year-Old Self Happy”

One winning bidder, a buyer from London, spoke to BBC Radio Surrey about his purchase of a Majestic Dawn master set, which came to £18,200, about $24,400. “For what it is, it was quite cheap,” he insists.

He plans to have some of the cards graded, which he expects to lift their value. He also claims that friends of his “who were living paycheck-to paycheck” have become “multi-millionaires” through Pokémon cards.

Collecting runs through his whole life. “I met my wife Pokémon card collecting,” he said. “I’ve travelled as far as the US and Japan in the past to drop off and pick up cards.”

In the end, he summed up the pull of the hobby better than any price list could: “I had to make my eight-year-old self happy.” For some collectors, that is worth any price.

What To Know Before You Haul Your Own Binders Down

You do not need 42 master sets to have something worth a look. The lesson of this sale is about condition and completeness, and both start with how the cards were kept. This decorator put his cards into binders immediately and stored them away, and the auction house called them mint.

If you have cards or toys from the 1990s, here is a sensible way to start. Keep them in their binders or sleeves, and keep them out of damp basements and hot attics, because moisture and heat are hard on cardboard. Do not try to clean or flatten anything, and do not rip open sealed packs, since sealed items are often what collectors prize.

Next, look up recent sold prices rather than asking prices. Auction results and sold listings show what people actually paid, while hopeful asking prices can run wildly high. A reputable auction house will usually give you an honest estimate before you commit to anything.

Finally, remember that results like this are the exception. This collection was complete, carefully stored and in top condition, and it came to market at a moment when buyers were hungry. Most attic finds will be worth far less, but the only way to know is to open the box and take a look.

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