Retired decorator’s Pokémon cards sell for £1.56 million

A retired decorator from Woking sold 41 Pokémon card sets for £1.56 million at auction on October 21, far exceeding the collection’s estimate of up to £270,000. He kept the 42nd set. The collection had been stored in the seller’s attic for 15 years. Ewbanks, the auction house that handled the sale, said the total made it the most successful auction in its more than 30 years of business. The sale took place in Send, Surrey, and attracted bidders from around the world, according to auctioneer Andrew Ewbank. The seller, who has not been publicly identified, said he sought an assessment after reading in a local newspaper that a single Pokémon card had sold for more than £6,000. He had not known the potential value of his own collection, which he had assembled in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His interest began when his young son collected and traded Pokémon cards at school. The father said he liked the cards and wondered whether they might be a good investment. Rather than buying packs at random, he purchased complete sets from a seller in Malaysia through eBay. He said the cards were stored in binders after his son lost interest. The highest-priced lot was the Legendary...