How he became a millionaire overnight? Retired decorator made $2 million from 15-year-old Pokémon cards

A retired UK decorator made over £1.56 million (around $2 million) by selling a collection of vintage Pokémon cards that had been gathering dust in his attic for 15 years. It far exceeded its estimated value of £250,000, according to British media reports.

Here's how he turned the forgotten stash into a life-changing fortune overnight

As per the report in the BBC, the man who became a millionaire just by selling his 15-year-old Pokémon cards hails from Woking, the UK.

He was quoted as saying he had no idea the cards had any value until he read in his local newspaper that a single card fetched more than £6,000 ($ 8,028).

His Pokémon card collection was auctioned off at Ewbank's on Wednesday for £1.56 million (around $2 million), the BBC reported.

The man reportedly said he had bought some complete sets of the cards from someone in Malaysia on eBay. He had 42 sets of cards from 1999 to 2009. He sold 41 of them, keeping one for himself.

One set, which cost him £300 at the time, went for £75,000 at Wednesday's auction.

Pokémon is a Japanese franchise best known for its trading cards, video games and animated television series.

'Treasure in the attic'

The Surrey auction house claimed it was the UK's most valuable trading cards auction event. It was even suggested that this could be a European record.

"I know people always talk about finding treasure in the attic, but in my case that is literally true," the man, who asked not to be identified, told The BBC.

"When my son was young, in the late 1990s, he started getting cards and swapping them at school. I thought they looked nice and wondered whether they might be a good investment," he said.

"He had his own cards, but he never got to touch these, I'm glad to say," the man added.

'Jaws hit the floor'

Ewbank's told The BBC that "jaws hit the floor" when the man presented his 42 sets of cards to them.

"When we saw what he had – all in mint condition – we couldn't believe it," James Spooner, Ewbank's head of trading cards, was quoted as saying.

The auction house added the sale had been their most successful in more than 30 years in business.

The auction house added the sale had been their most successful in more than 30 years in business.

The record sum for the Pokemon collection beat the previous best, set only on October 9 in London, when a sale at Stanley Gibbons declared a sale total of £872,000, according to Ewbank's.

The rare Charizard card

Its top lot was the Legendary Collection Complete Master Set, including a rare Charizard card in near-mint condition. It had been pitched at £15,000-£20,000 but bagged £100,000, The BBC reported.

Another set, Skyridge, which the collector originally purchased for around £300, sold for £97,500, including fees.

"We had bidders from all over the world," Andrew Ewbank, who runs Ewbank's and conducted the sale from the rostrum himself, told the BBC.

"The buzz was incredible, especially because the collectors could not believe how good this collection was – extensive, untouched, complete, and with just about every rarity you could hope for," he added.

Nostalgia

Ewbank added that Pokemon was "booming" at the moment. He said people who were young when the franchise first came out were now in their 30s and 40s and had a "bit of disposable income".

"Nostalgia is a big of part of it," he added. "It's about bringing back those memories of childhood," he said.

Pokémon cards set, a prized possession

Pokémon and other trading-card games are drawing strong collector demand, while sources told CNBC this month that high sports-card prices are pushing some buyers toward non-sports cards.

Social media influencer and wrestler Logan Paul made history in February 2026, when he auctioned and sold a rare Pokémon card for $16.5 million, a world record price for an auctioned trading card, CNBC reported. The winner views it as an investment.

As per the report, AJ Scaramucci — son of investor and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci — won the bidding war for the “Pikachu Illustrator” card, made in 1998 and one of only an estimated few dozen to exist.

“I mean, Picassos are great,” he said in an interview, explaining the Illustrator card’s importance. “But Pokémon means way more than just a Picasso painting to people.”

The record $16.5 million Pokémon card sale drew fresh attention to the collectables market, where grading, scarcity and authentication can determine whether a card is worth dollars or hundreds of thousands.

Trading card markets have exploded in recent years. According to data from Card Ladder, an analytics firm that tracks trading card prices and sales, the monthly sales volume in secondary trading nearly doubled in the last two years, CNBC reported last year.