Attic Pokémon Collection Auction Hits £1.56 Million Including Fees… Legendary Master Set Fetches £130,000

At the Pokémon card auction 'Pokémon: A Decade of Masters (1999-2009)' held on October 21 (local time) by Surrey-based auction house Ewbank's in the UK, 159 out of 160 listed lots were sold. According to this publication's tally of the lot-by-lot winning bids published on the Ewbank's auction results page, the total is £1,561,237. All winning bids on the results page are listed inclusive of the buyer's premium. American gaming media outlet Kotaku also reported the total as £1.56 million on the 22nd.

15 Years in the Attic, 42 Master Sets

According to an auction preview issued by Ewbank's on September 29, the owner of the collection is a retired decorator living in Woking, Surrey, who wished to remain anonymous. Inspired by his son trading cards at school in the late 1990s, he collected complete sets and stored them in his attic for about 15 years. Checking the attic after seeing a local newspaper article about Ewbank's selling a single card for over £6,000 led to the consignment.

Based on the preview, the collection contained 42 master sets. James Spooner, Head of Trading Cards at Ewbank's, said, "My jaw dropped when I found out there were 42 sets." Prior to the auction, Ewbank's estimated that the collection could fetch up to £250,000, or roughly £270,000 based on the hammer price (excluding fees). The collector stated that he paid about £300 for the Skyridge set, which was his first purchase.

Top Winning Lots

| Lot | Item | Estimate | Winning Bid (Incl. Fees) | |---|---|---|---| | 1078 | Legendary Collection Master Set | £15,000–20,000 | £130,000 | | 1086 | Skyridge Master Set | £20,000–40,000 | £97,500 | | 1126 | EX Holon Phantoms Master Set | £6,500–8,500 | £91,000 | | 1111 | EX Team Rocket Returns Master Set | £8,000–12,000 | £84,500 | | 1114 | EX Deoxys Master Set | £5,000–7,000 | £84,500 | | 1120 | EX Unseen Forces Master Set | £8,000–12,000 | £70,200 | | 1004 | EX Delta Species Master Set | £10,000–15,000 | £65,000 | | 1105 | Pop Series Complete Set | £8,000–12,000 | £59,800 | | 1083 | Expedition Master Set | £12,000–16,000 | £53,300 | | 1005 | Aquapolis Master Set | £10,000–15,000 | £49,400 | | 1129 | EX Dragon Frontiers Master Set | £3,000–5,000 | £49,400 |

Sources: Ewbank's auction results page (checked October 23). Kotaku reported the Aquapolis set at £49,500, but the Ewbank's listing is £49,400.

Compared to the upper estimate, the multipliers were approximately 12x for the EX Deoxys master set, 9.9x for the EX Dragon Frontiers master set, and 6.5x for the Legendary Collection master set. The lower estimate total for the 160 lots was £254,160, and the upper estimate total was £389,230. The single unsold lot was a PSA-authenticated Lugia Meiji Chocolate Promo (estimated at £2,000–3,000).

Reading the Numbers

While the winning bids on the results page include fees, the pre-auction estimate of £270,000 is a figure Ewbank's stated was based on the hammer price. Placing the two figures side by side exaggerates the difference by the amount of the fees. Ewbank's stated in its preview that its cumulative sales for specialized trading card auctions over five years exceeded £1,100,000, and the total winning bids including fees from this single auction surpassed that figure. Because the amounts in the table are winning bids on a set basis rather than individual cards, they are not figures to be directly compared with single card market prices.

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Sources

• Ewbank's · Pokémon: A Decade of Masters (1999-2009) Auction Results (2026-10-21)
• Ewbank's · Retired decorator set to scoop £250,000 from Pokémon collection he kept stored in the roof for 15 years (2026-09-29)
• Kotaku · Dad Sells Forgotten Pokémon Card Collection From The Attic For $2 Million (2026-10-22)