The £1.56 Million Pokémon Collection That Spent 15 Years in an Attic

Hero image: AI-generated illustrative scene, not a photograph of the collection sold at Ewbank’s.

A retired decorator from Woking put his Pokémon collection away for around 15 years. On 21 October 2026, bidders competed for those cards at Ewbank’s in Surrey. The reported sale total reached £1.56 million.

The most expensive lot was a complete Legendary Collection master set, which reached £100,000 at the hammer. The owner had 42 sets and kept one. Buyers were competing for an unusually extensive collection. Ewbank’s sale report

How a school playground hobby became 42 sets

The collection began after the man’s son started collecting and swapping Pokémon cards in the late 1990s. The father developed his own interest, buying complete sets on eBay from a supplier based in Malaysia. He reasoned that buying the cards together would be cheaper than opening packs and hoping to finish each set.

He kept his collection separate from his son’s cards. After his son lost interest, the binders went into the attic. Years later, a newspaper story about a valuable Pokémon card prompted him to seek a valuation. Ewbank’s account of how the collection was assembled

That history gives the discovery a different character from a lucky booster opening. The surprise was what an existing collection had become worth while its owner was no longer following the market.

What sold for £100,000?

The standout Legendary Collection lot contained the 110-card set, its 110 reverse holo counterparts and four box toppers. Ewbank’s described its Charizard as near mint. The estimate was £15,000–£20,000; the hammer price reached £100,000.

The Skyridge set, which the owner recalled buying for around £300, reached £75,000 at the hammer. Both figures were for sets. Treating either as the price of an individual Charizard would give collectors a very misleading comparison. Ewbank’s breakdown of the leading lots

A master set needs a contents list. Reverse holos, promotional additions and oversized cards can change what a buyer receives. The label alone cannot tell you whether two collections are comparable.

What the £1.56 million headline includes

The Farnham Herald reported a £1.2 million hammer total for the sale. The widely reported £1.56 million total includes buyer charges. Farnham Herald’s report

Ewbank’s lists a buyer’s premium of 25 percent plus VAT, making 30 percent including VAT. Adding that to £1.2 million produces £1.56 million. On the same basis, a £100,000 hammer bid becomes £130,000 before any other applicable costs. Ewbank’s buying terms

Three numbers answer three different questions: the hammer price is the winning bid; the total with premium is what the buyer pays before other applicable costs; the seller’s proceeds depend on their selling agreement and charges. The headline total should not be read as the amount deposited into the owner’s bank account.

Why one extraordinary sale is hard to use as a price guide

Our reading of this result is that completeness matters alongside the individual cards. For a buyer who wants a finished binder, purchasing the collection also avoids the work of finding missing variants and matching condition across hundreds of cards. This sale does not tell us how much buyers paid for that convenience separately.

Condition also deserves a closer look than a headline allows. In the same auction, Ewbank’s described its EX Delta Species master set as ranging from excellent to near mint. Its published result was £65,000 including buyer fees. Even within an exceptional auction, a collection still needs to be assessed card by card. EX Delta Species lot and condition report

The same care applies when reading broader price trends. Our earlier 90-day Cardmarket analysis explains how a handful of expensive cards can dominate a set total. An exceptional auction result presents a similar problem: it tells you what particular buyers paid for particular lots on one day. Applying that result to another binder takes much more information.

What to check in your own collection

If this story has sent you looking for old cards, make an inventory before choosing a headline price as your reference.

• Identify the printing. Record the set, card number, language, edition and foil variant. A shared Pokémon name or illustration is only a starting point.

• Record condition honestly. Photograph the front and back, including corners, edges and visible surface damage. Keep that assessment separate from the condition of another copy offered for sale.

• Check what is complete. List missing cards and variants. A numbered set and a master set may contain different cards.

• Keep price types separate. An asking price, a completed sale, a hammer result and a total including fees describe different things.

You can use CollectHolo’s card search to start identifying the cards and checking their listings. For a potentially valuable vintage collection, a specialist assessment can help resolve the details that a general price lookup leaves open.

Start with the printing, the condition and the contents. The price comes after.

Sources and scope

This article draws on Ewbank’s published accounts and auction catalogue, with the hammer total reported by the Farnham Herald. We have not inspected the cards or independently valued the collection.