Family saves Pokemon cards worth $36K as dad starts throwing out collection

A family was left stunned after stopping their dad from throwing out Pokemon cards and discovered just how much their collection was actually worth.

An 81-year-old man in the UK is thanking Arceus he didn’t throw out his entire card collection while clearing out a room for his terminally ill wife.

The BBC reports that the man was in the process of throwing out Pokemon cards when his daughter stopped him, believing the cards could be worth a good chunk of change.

While some cards had been tossed, a sealed Fourth Print Base Set Booster Box that was only released in the UK was found — and its value is off the charts.

Family stops elderly dad from tossing $36K worth of Pokemon cards

According to the man’s daughter, he took his grandkid into town during the weekend to buy cards while growing up, and in turn, amassed a large collection.

“My daughter got into Pokemon 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.”

It turns out that all five of their children had a sealed box of cards, which had been purchased back in 1999.

“During the clear-out, the cards were taken out of the cupboard [and] Dad planned to throw them away,” she explained. “A few did end up in a skip, but I said, ‘Blimey, Dad, some of these might be worth a bit.’”

The box will be auctioned off at Derby’s Hansons Auctioneers later in October. But in 2021, the same box sold at auction for a whopping $36,000.

The family says the money made off the box will be split between them and the auction house is hoping it can make them proud when the set is auctioned off.

Yet another reason why you should always check out the real value of items before throwing them away in the trash.