Retired Woking decorator becomes a millionaire after Pokémon cards he kept from his son in the attic sell for £1.56m

A collection he had acquired for £300 from a Malaysian eBay seller in the late 1990s went under the hammer at Ewbank's on Wednesday, fetching £75,000. The anonymous collector was prompted to seek a valuation only after spotting a report in his local newspaper that a single card had sold for more than £6,000. Specialists had estimated his 42 mint sets at up to £270,000 before the sale; Ewbank's said the final result made it the UK's most valuable trading card sale on record.

The top lot, a Legendary Collection master set with a Charizard, made £100,000 against a £20,000 top estimate.

'He had his own cards, but he never got to touch these, I'm glad to say,' he said of his son.

Auctioneer Andrew Ewbank told bidders he was 'going for a lie down' afterwards.