What is probably the most valuable Pokémon card collection in the world has appeared in Switzerland. The owner family is giving rise to international speculation. We met her.
May 3, 2026, 1:47 p.mMay 3, 2026, 1:54 p.m
Simon Mathis, Federico Gagliano / ch media
Children have been hunting for them since the 90s: Pokémon. The colorful monsters, which can be tamed and trained, have conquered the world since their video game debut. The slogan “Grab them all” runs through all the formats that have been created since then: cartoons, the “Pokémon Go” app, comics and even trading cards. However, the hunt for the latter has been difficult in recent years: the value of the cards has exploded, and rare specimens are being sold at auction for millions of dollars.
For a month a website therefore amazes – not just for Pokémon fans. A 20-year-old Swiss woman who calls herself Jolina Gisèle unveils a Pokémon card collection that completely goes beyond the scope of previously known collections. Her collection includes over 60,000 cards, many of them extremely rare and in pristine condition. Some are even unique pieces that only exist once in the world. The value of the so-called “Jolina Gisèle Collection” is difficult to estimate. But it is likely to be in the higher double-digit million range.
In a video about the collection, Jolina can be seen as a Bond girl with the model and influencer Kevin Lütolf, while the card collection is staged at the Dolder Grand in Zurich. The website was created to mark this year’s 30th anniversary of Pokémon. Since then, the identity of the owners has caused wild speculation in the collector scene: Who is Jolina Gisèle? Is she a paid actress, a multimillionaire, an AI construct?
Staging as a Bond girl: Who is behind Jolina Gisèle?Image: zvg
Shared hobby for father and daughter
CH Media can now provide the answers to these questions. Through research, we were able to find the previously unknown family who owned the collection and meet them for an interview. The only condition: The German-Swiss family wants to remain anonymous.
Jolina built the collection together with her father. Together with his wife, he answered some of the questions that have been circulating online for weeks. Above all: How do you achieve such an extraordinary collection? The answer: start before the hype. The collection’s origins date back to 2013. At that time, Jolina Gisèle was attending primary school. Because she was very introverted, she had difficulty finding new friends at school. That’s when she discovered something that sparked her passion: Pokémon trading cards. They are the size of Jass cards, but show different Pokémon that you can play against each other.
These Pikachus with gold, silver and bronze trophies went to the winners of a tournament in Japan in 1997.Image: zvg
Her classmates – mostly boys – initially laugh at her collection. But at least: Thanks to the cards, her circle of friends expands. With her new hobby, Jolina finds something for the first time that she can share with her father. Like his daughter, the entrepreneur has a rather reserved nature. He begins to delve into the topic. Especially since Jolina, as a seven-year-old, asked him the naive question: “Dad, can you buy all the Pokémon cards?”
His daughter’s collecting bug infects him. He is looking for contacts with people who have access to rare cards – especially in the country of origin, Japan. This is how a network is created step by step. “At the time, hardly anyone was interested in what I was looking for,” says the father. And adds with a laugh: “I currently have cards that probably don’t interest anyone but myself.”
Passionate collector
However, there is enormous interest in other cards in his collection. Since the pandemic, there has been a real boom in cards. It started around 2020, when YouTuber Logan Paul bought a rare “Charizard” card for $150,000 and then prominently wore it as a necklace around his neck. The niche hobby then became mainstream hype: prices rose, everyone looked for lost treasures of cards in their own basements and attics.
The company Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), which evaluates and authenticates all types of trading cards, was so inundated with inquiries that they paused their operations for three months. Even today you have to wait up to a year to get a review. No problem for the Swiss family of collectors: around 12,000 of their cards have already been valued.
Another centerpiece of the collection: the “University Magikarp” in five versions.Image: zvg
What you need to know is that the financial value of Pokémon cards is primarily determined by the secondary market – i.e. by collectors who buy and resell cards. It’s not just the rarity that matters, but also the condition of the cards. Small scratches, diagonally printed subjects, bent corners: all of this greatly reduces the value of a card. Anyone who collects cards today immediately puts them in a protective cover.
When the trading card game came out in the 1990s, the cards were handled very differently. It was all about playing with them. Scratches and wear and tear were part of it. This is why older “vintage” cards that are in pristine condition are particularly valuable. Rare cards rated 10 by PSA have the most value on the secondary market. To put things into perspective: According to the family, the majority of the cards rated in the “Jolina Gisèle Collection” received this highest possible rating.
Hobby has become more expensive
There are fans who have been critical of the hype for a long time. They talk about a bubble that could soon burst. In some cases, children almost never get tickets anymore because adults snatch them away from them – and resell them at ridiculous prices. Jolina’s father also finds the development worrying. «For me as a collector, such an explosion in prices is bad. This made the hobby more expensive.” That’s why he stopped collecting a few years ago.
The personal conversation makes it clear: the father is anything but a calculating investor, as some people accuse him of online. His passion is palpable, he knows the subject matter and is always enthusiastic about it. “Many of the cards tell a story,” he says. He calls “Super Secret Battle” one of his favorite cards. It dates back to 1999 and was a prize for the winners of local tournaments in Japan. Therefore it was not freely available on the market, which makes it extremely rare.
They are among the Swiss collector’s favorite cards: “Super Secret Battle”.Image: zvg
The family never played in tournaments themselves: “I know how the card game works, but I don’t play,” says Jolina’s father. “My passion is collecting.” His fascination is difficult to put into words: “The cards just look cool. You either fall in love with her or you don’t.”
Despite this passion, the family is now considering selling their collection. “She has become more of a burden now,” says Jolina’s mother. The family does not want to discuss the value of the collection. Looking at past auctions, you can only guess at the value of individual cards. The Swiss collection contains two “Pikachu Illustrator” cards with high ratings.
One such map, graded 9, was auctioned at the end of March by the US auction house Heritage for $1.4 million. The Illustrator card is something of a Pokémon collector’s Holy Grail. There is currently only one “Illustrator” with a PSA rating of 10. It was auctioned off at the beginning of the year – again by Logan Paul – for $16.5 million, as reported by “BBC”, among others. The buyer was venture capitalist AJ Scaramucci, the son of Donald Trump’s former communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
The extremely rare card “Illustrator Pikachu” makes the hearts of collectors beat faster. The Swiss family has two of them.Image: zvg
For security reasons, the family has now relocated the collection. That was complex and expensive. She is now in a safe place – so safe that even our newspaper was unable to visit her. The caution is justified: In France, around April, Pokémon cards worth 300,000 euros were stolen during an armed robbery, as “TF1” reports. Thefts from card shops or warehouses have increased worldwide, particularly in the United States. The new storage location also makes Jolina’s mother feel relieved because there is more space in the house. “The cards took up an entire room.”
Museum would be in the spirit of the family
The family is keen to sell the collection as a whole. “They belong together,” says the father. “We would be very happy if someone could turn it into a museum so that these historical maps can be seen by everyone.” Unfortunately, this is beyond the family’s resources – at least for now. The family has already received some serious offers, but doesn’t want to rush into anything. “However, several interested parties would like to act promptly due to the increasing development in the Pokémon market,” says the father.
And what about the namesake of the “Jolina Gisèle Collection”? She is currently completing her high school diploma. “She’s not that interested in Pokémon anymore,” says her mother. Her parents aren’t sure if she should continue to be in the spotlight because she wants to focus on her final exams.
After a possible sale, Jolina’s folders from her childhood days would be left behind. “We definitely won’t sell them,” emphasizes her father. He himself will probably keep one or two cards as a souvenir. But he has finished collecting – at least for now.