LONDON, Oct 23 — A retired decorator from Woking has gone from painting walls to millionaire status after a stash of Pokémon cards forgotten in his attic sold for £1.56 million (RM8.56 million) at auction.

The man, who asked not to be named, had no idea the cards were worth anything until he read in his local newspaper about a single card fetching more than £6,000 (RM32,940), the BBC reported.

“I know people always talk about finding treasure in the attic, but in my case that is literally true,” he was quoted as saying.

He bought the cards in the late 1990s, when his son was swapping them at school, thinking they looked nice and might make a good investment, though the boy never got to touch them.

Some of the complete sets came from a seller in Malaysia on eBay.

One set that cost him £300 (RM1,647) at the time fetched £75,000 (RM411,750) at Wednesday’s auction.

Filed sealed into bespoke Pokémon binders, the cards sat in the attic for 15 years after his son lost interest.

UK auction house Ewbank’s said staff were floored when he brought in 42 sets.

“When we saw what he had – all in mint condition – we couldn’t believe it,” Ewbank’s head of trading cards James Spooner was quoted as saying.

The top lot, a Legendary Collection Complete Master Set with a near-mint Charizard card, was pitched at £15,000 to £20,000 (RM82,350 to RM109,800) but sold for £100,000 (RM549,000).

Ewbank’s said it was the UK’s most valuable trading card auction ever and possibly a European record, beating the previous best of £872,000 (RM4.79 million) set in London on October 9.

Auctioneer Andrew Ewbank, who ran the sale himself and announced afterwards that he was heading for a lie down, told the BBC: “It was a hell of a ride.”