Rare Pokémon cards almost put in skip valued at £20k

The sealed box could net 200 times its original price

A rare box set of Pokémon cards which were almost thrown in a skip during a clear-out has been valued at £20,000.

The sealed Pokémon Fourth Print Base Set Booster Box, which was only ever released in the UK, were purchased in 1999 at a shop in Chester for about £100 by a man for his granddaughter.

The 81-year-old owner, who has not been named, said it was "crazy" the cards could be "worth so much now".

The box will go up for sale at Derby's Hansons Auctioneers on 17 October.

The auction house said the man was initially unaware that the thousands of cards could be valuable.

His daughter said he had almost thrown them away while clearing out his house to make room for a hospital bed for his terminally-ill wife.

"During the clear-out, the cards were taken out of the cupboard [and] Dad planned to throw them away," she said.

"A few did end up in a skip, but I said, 'Blimey, Dad, some of these might be worth a bit'."

'No pockets in shrouds'

She said some loose cards were thrown away but the family decided to sell the rest, which was when "the extent of the collection was realised".

She said all five of her children had a sealed box of cards, which had been bought by their grandad.

"My daughter got into Pokémon when she was young and started collecting the cards with my dad in the late 1990s," she said.

"She was his first and, at the time, only grandchild.

"It was their thing. They went on trips to Chester together at weekends to get the cards from a hobby shop.

"My dad is a collector and gets obsessed."

Many cards have already gone to private collectors around the UK

She said some had already sold for about £50,000.

"'Gotta catch 'em all' is the Pokémon catchphrase and Dad really had caught 'em all," she said.

She said the money would be "split between family members", adding: "It's made life a bit easier for us all, especially Dad."

She added that the funds would also help her daughter, who was studying to become a paramedic.

"This sealed box set was the 'in-case-of-emergencies' item," she said.

"Again, [there is] no point in struggling when this can help.

"As Dad would say, 'there are no pockets in shrouds'."

David Wilson-Turner, head of the toy department at the auction house, said it was "a really touching story and I hope we can do the family proud at auction".

"What distinguishes [this] from others, and makes it scarce, is that it was only released in the UK," he said.

"The 102 cards inside, contained in 36 sealed booster packs, bear a definitive date stamp stating 1999-2000.

"Other base set cards are stamped 1999."