Two brothers in America uncovered a vast, decades-old stash of unopened Pokémon trading cards while helping their 80-year-old grandmother search her home, after she repeatedly insisted she had packs stored away for them. The find is notable because it includes sealed, first-edition packs from the game's earliest sets, some potentially worth tens of thousands of pounds, turning a routine family favour into a remarkable act of accidental hoarding from the 1990s.

The haul included dozens of sealed booster packs and unopened decks from early sets such as Fossil, Jungle and Team Rocket, many still shrink-wrapped with original price tags, alongside a binder of holofoil cards featuring Pikachu, Mew and Mewtwo. Among the most valuable items are three shiny Charizard cards, including a shadowless version that could fetch a five-figure sum, while comparable sealed booster boxes have previously sold for between $15,000 and $30,000 each. The grandmother believes more tins remain hidden in the house, and the grandsons say their priority is preserving the collection and spending time with her rather than cashing in immediately.