A pair of brothers from Denmark has set a Guinness World Record for assembling the largest collection of Pokémon cards in the world. The duo's impressive collection boasts 32,809 different cards. Jens Ishoy Prehn and Per Ishoy Nielsen told Guinness World Records (GWR) that they began collecting the cards back in 1999 when they first became available in their country.
For them, the initial appeal was in the design of the creatures, very different from the “warlike or robotic” characters that previously dominated the industry. Soon enough, they were immersed in this world and started collecting the cards as brothers to compete with the strong collectors' community in Denmark. The first Pokémon card they bought was a Venusaur from the Base set.
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"The way Pokémon presented the 151 original Pokémon and especially the trading card sets, in which no card was so rare as to it being practically impossible to get, really spoke to this ‘collector's gene'," Mr Jens told GWR.
“Meeting other collectors and seeing how they've decided to collect has kept the hobby interesting, and has helped us delve deeper into the many layers of Pokémon cards that might have otherwise eluded us,” he added.
The brothers said that they have a particular fondness for the Gym sets, with Sabrina's Alakazam from Gym Challenge #16/132 being their favourite card in the collection. However, the card that means most of them is a first edition Vaporeon from the Jungle set, which was gifted to Per by Jens when he graduated high school.
It is also one of the most valuable cards in their collection, priced at $7,500 (Rs 6,10,397). However, due to the emotional value attached to it, the brothers would never consider selling it.
While the brothers hold a record for owning the most unique cards, it isn't the most valuable Pokémon card collection. That record belongs to Gary Haase from the USA whose cards are worth an estimated $10 million (Rs 8,22,736,500)
