A retired decorator has become a millionaire after selling a collection of Pokémon cards at auction.

The man, from Woking, said he had no idea the cards had any value until he read in his local newspaper about a single card fetching more than £6,000.

His collection, which had been in an attic for 15 years, was auctioned off at Ewbank’s on Wednesday for £1.56m.

The Surrey auction house claimed it was the UK’s most valuable trading cards auction ever and suggested it could be a European record.

“I know people always talk about finding treasure in the attic, but in my case that is literally true,” said the man, who asked not to be identified.

“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.

“He had his own cards, but he never got to touch these, I’m glad to say.”

Pokémon is a Japanese franchise best known for its trading cards, video games and animated television series.

The man said he had bought some complete sets of the cards from someone in Malaysia on eBay.

One set which cost him £300 at the time went for £75,000 at Wednesday’s auction.

The cards, all filed into bespoke Pokémon binders while still sealed, were stored in the attic after his son lost interest in the Japanese gaming and film franchise.

Ewbank’s said “jaws hit the floor” when the man presented his 42 sets of cards to them.

“When we saw what he had – all in mint condition – we couldn’t believe it,” said James Spooner, its head of trading cards.

The auction house added the sale had been their most successful in more than 30 years in business.

Its top lot was the Legendary Collection Complete Master Set, including a Charizard card in near-mint condition. It had been pitched at £15,000-£20,000 but bagged £100,000.

Andrew Ewbank, who runs Ewbank’s and conducted the sale from the rostrum himself, told bidders he was “going for a lie down” afterwards.

“The build-up to this… has been phenomenal, and on the day it did not disappoint,” he added later.

“We had bidders from all over the world.

“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.”

The record sum for the collection beat the previous best, set only on 9 October in London, when a sale at Stanley Gibbons declared a sale total of £872,000, according to Ewbank’s.

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