A 20-year-old Swiss woman has stunned collectors worldwide after revealing she owns more than 60,000 Pokémon trading cards believed to be worth over RM290 million.
The massive collection, built together with her father since childhood, is now thought to surpass the current Guinness World Record for the world’s largest Pokémon card collection.
The woman, identified as Jolina Gisele, reportedly began collecting the cards at just seven years old after struggling with social anxiety and difficulty making friends.
According to her mother, Jolina was a shy child, prompting her father to start collecting Pokémon cards with her as a way to help her interact with classmates and build confidence.
What started as a father-daughter bonding activity eventually transformed into one of the world’s most valuable card collections.
The current Guinness World Record holder reportedly owns 48,339 Pokémon cards, while Jolina’s collection has already exceeded 60,000 cards, many of them preserved in near-perfect condition.
Professional Pokémon card dealer Thomas Kovacs estimated the entire collection could be worth more than £50 million, equivalent to roughly RM290 million.
Some individual cards are reportedly valued at over RM5.8 million each.
Among the most prized pieces in the collection are two ultra-rare Pikachu Illustrator Card cards, considered among the rarest and most sought-after Pokémon cards in existence.
Earlier this year, one Pikachu Illustrator card was reportedly sold at a US auction house for around US$1.4 million, or approximately RM6.6 million.
Another PSA 10 graded version of the same card was rumoured to have fetched an astonishing US$16.5 million — close to RM78 million.
However, the booming value of Pokémon cards has also attracted growing criminal attention worldwide.
In recent years, several armed robberies and organised thefts targeting rare trading cards have been reported globally, especially after the collectibles market surged during the pandemic.
In April alone, armed robbers in France reportedly stole rare cards worth around RM1.56 million, while multiple speciality card stores in the United States have also been targeted by thieves.
Due to mounting safety concerns, Jolina’s family revealed they have now secretly transferred the entire collection into a professional high-security vault.
Her mother admitted that keeping the cards at home had become “too dangerous”.
Because of the enormous responsibility and security risks involved, the family is now considering selling the entire collection as a single purchase rather than auctioning the cards individually.
Jolina’s father said he hopes the collection will eventually end up with a genuine Pokémon enthusiast or possibly even be displayed publicly in a museum.
Despite the collection’s staggering value, he insisted one item would never be sold — Jolina’s original childhood Pokémon binder.
According to him, the binder symbolises the beginning of their father-daughter journey together and remains priceless to the family.
