There's a long-running joke about finding really valuable stuff squirreled away at your grandparents' house, but for one Pokemon cards fan, that's actually come true – and the value of what they uncovered is probably around six figures.
In a post on reddit, InkedSketch describes how "Grandma [had] been asking us to come find her Pokemon cards for years." What they didn't expect was just how valuable this collection was. Once it'd all been gathered together, they found dozens of booster packs from the game's launch worth hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars, incredibly rare sealed 'Fossil' box sets, and even a bunch of high-value toys like a pristine, still in-packaging Pokedex.
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This collection may be worth hundreds, but unfortunately for us, modern Pokemon cards aren't exactly cheap by comparison. The best prices I've been able to find for the new Pitch Black set at Amazon are pretty inflated, for example.
"She told us she had some packs from along time ago, and that she had a few 'sharjarzds.'" InkedSketch writes in their post. "We finally decided to look for them at the end of last year. She's in her 80s and has been recently talking about them more, we just thought it was like our own trashed pokemon/yugioh collection that was leftover from when we were super young."
Turns out, not so much. Even a quick glance reveals over 70 sealed 'Fossil' booster packs which are worth hundreds of dollars each on the likes of eBay, three sealed Fossil boxes that clock in at $7K+ individually on some price tracking sites, and 60 original booster packs from the game's launch. I quickly checked PriceCharting and these earn anywhere between a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand depending on their grading.
If that was it, grandma would still be sitting on a goldmine... but we're not finished yet. The haul includes everything from original theme decks and starter sets to individual cards too. I count three holo Charizards, a shiny Gyrados, Raichu, multiple shiny Zapdos, and more. There are even a couple of Mew cards in a binder.
Grandma been asking us to come find her Pokemon cards for years (Update) from r/PokemonTCG
The haul goes far beyond Pokemon cards, too; there are also action figures, the sealed '90s Pokedex toy I mentioned from before, a themed mini skateboard (remember those?), and even a still-in-packaging interactive Poke Ball game that really brought me back to my childhood. It's enough to ilicite an "oh damn" at the very least.
The fan community is suitably stunned. "Literal treasure trove," FisherKelTath00 replies with 2.1K upvotes. "Seriously this is prolly like $250k in product. That’s a ROUGH estimate too," War-Daddie adds.
Some in the comments are even suggesting that this estimate is too modest. "Sincere lowball estimate I think," lucky_719 writes. "The one shadowless Charizard can go for five figures alone if it's in decent shape. The 1st edition fossil booster boxes go for $15-$30k each and the lady has 3."
Either way, it's one hell of a haul that would probably make me evolve into "Nervous Wreck" with a special "breakdown" attack if I found it - this is a literal fortune.
What would you do if you stumbled upon that kinda stash at your grandparents' house? Let me know in the comments below.
For recommendations on what to play next, don't miss the best card games. As for what's happening in the community right now, the war on Pokemon resellers now includes facial recognition checks in some stores in Japan.
- See today's best Pokemon card prices at Amazon
