A retired decorator has become a millionaire overnight after selling a haul of Pokémon cards he kept in his attic for a staggering £1.56million at auction. 

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, kept the collection in his home for 15 years - with no idea of their astonishing value. 

After reading an article in his local newspaper about one Pokemon card selling for over £6,000, he decided to get his own assessed.

Cards from the Japanese cartoon franchise have reached cult status in recent years, with a spate of robberies across the country targeting shops selling packs. 

Celebrities such as YouTuber Logan Paul have also helped drive the trend, with the American selling an ultra-rare card for $16million (£12million) this year. 

In the latest example of the items drawing in an incredible amount of cash, the retired decorator from Woking in Surrey, took a sample of his attic collection to Ewbank's Auctions in nearby Guildford.

The auctioneers' jaws 'hit the floor' when they laid eyes on the 42 sets of collectibles - 'all in mint condition' - and they estimated initially that the cards could fetch up to £270,000. 

But the collection soared past that guide price at auction on Wednesday, as YouTubers, collectors and investors bid up to £100,000 for a single lot. 

James Spooner, head of trading cards at Ewbank's, said: 'When we saw what he had - all in mint condition - we couldn't believe it, or the fact that he had no idea what they were worth. 

'When we then discovered that he had 42 such sets, our jaws hit the floor. We got to sell 41 of them, and he kept one. 

'This is easily the most valuable collection we have handled so far - we thought it might go as high as £270,000, then the pre-sale bids started coming in and we realised we were on to something much bigger. 

'The day before the sale, we already had £825,000 in commission bids.' 

Titled Pokémon: A Decade of Masters (1999-2009), the single-owner collection proved to be the auction house's most successful sale in over 30 years in business. 

The top lot was the Legendary Collection Complete Master Set, which featured all 110 cards, the 110 Reverse Holo 'Firework' cards and the four Box Toppers. 

With the vital Charizard in near-mint condition, it had been pitched at between £15,000 and £20,000 - but went for a hammer price of £100,000. 

The collector says he bought the cards relatively cheaply in the 1990s - with one set he purchased for £300 selling for £75,000 at auction. 

He said: '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.

'I was lucky enough to find someone in Malaysia who sold complete sets, and I bought a couple of things from them on eBay.

'They then asked me if I would be interested in buying a complete master set of Pokemon cards, as they had about two or three master sets for each issue.

'I thought that it would be cheaper to buy the full set rather than keep buying sealed packs of random cards in hope that when you opened them you could complete a set.

'The first set I bought cost me around £300. It's the Sky Ridge Charizard set.'

The cards, which were all carefully inserted in the bespoke Pokemon binders while still sealed and in mint condition, had been stored in the attic after the owner's son lost interest.

The collector added: 'He had his own cards, but he never got to touch these, I'm glad to say.

'I know people always talk about finding treasure in the attic, but in my case that is literally true. I had no idea what I had until the team at Ewbank's explained it to me.'

At the end of the auction, Andrew Ewbank - who runs the business set up by his late father Chris and conducted the sale from the rostrum himself - thanked bidders and told them he was 'going for a lie down'. 

Later, he said: 'The build-up to this sale has been phenomenal, and on the day it did not disappoint. We had bidders from all over the world and more bidders in the saleroom itself at any time since before the Covid pandemic.

'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.' 

Pokemon cards were first released in Japan in October 1996, based on the franchise's video games, before arriving in North America and Europe in 1999.

The cards were designed to let fans collect their favourite characters while also building decks and battling against one another, helping turn to it into a social collecting and gaming hobby.

The cards have become a serious investment market and must-sell item, with rare Pokémon cards steadily increasing in value and continuing to command eye-watering prices at auctions globally. 

American YouTuber Logan Paul sold his PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator for $16.492million (roughly £12.32million) at auction in February, setting a Guinness World Record for the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction.

Paul, a YouTuber-turned-WWE star, had acquired the card in 2021 for $5.275million (roughly £3.94million), meaning its latest sale price was more than three times that figure. 

Their surging value has also made them a new target of thieves, with a spree of burglaries for the cards 'more valuable than gold' happening at collectible and gaming shops across the country.