Attic Pokémon cards sell for nearly $2.1 million at Ewbank's

A retired decorator from Woking, Surrey, has sold a Pokémon card collection for nearly $2.1 million at Ewbank's auction house. The seller is anonymous, and the sale is reported rather than confirmed by an official Pokémon source.

All 42 sets went under the hammer on October 21. According to Ewbank's, the sale was the best in its more than 30 years of trading. The house also says it ran the highest-value trading card auction ever staged in the UK, and possibly a European record.

What sold and for how much

Leading the sale was a Legendary Collection Complete Master Set that included a near-mint Charizard card. It sold for approximately $134,000 (about €119,281), against an original estimate of $20,000 to $27,000 (about €17,803 to €24,034).

Another collection that originally cost the seller $400 (about €356) sold for more than $100,000 (about €89,015).

How the collection came about

In the late 1990s, the seller started buying the cards once his son got into the Pokémon Trading Card Game. He kept them in custom binders in his attic for 15 years.

Some of the complete sets were sourced through eBay, among them a few bought from a seller in Malaysia.

He only realized the collection might be valuable after his local newspaper reported that a different Pokémon card had sold for more than $8,000 (about €7,121).

Ewbank's account of the sale

James Spooner, who heads trading cards at Ewbank's, said everything in the collection was in mint condition. By his account, staff were stunned when the seller first turned up with it.

Andrew Ewbank took the rostrum himself and said bidders from around the world took part. In his words, the collection was extensive, untouched, and complete, covering nearly every rarity. He attributed growing demand to nostalgia among fans who now have more spending money.

The record claim

According to Ewbank's, the total beat the earlier UK record, which was set on October 9 at a Stanley Gibbons auction in London that brought in approximately $1.17 million in sales.

Separately, The Pokémon Company International has said a London shop will open by 2029, as covered in Pokémon plans its first permanent store outside Asia.

What it means for collectors

• The record claim comes from the auction house itself, so treat the European-record wording as unverified.
• The top lot sold well above its $20,000 to $27,000 estimate, and the $400 collection passed $100,000.
• A near-mint Charizard card was part of the top lot, while James Spooner characterized the whole collection as mint condition.