RICHMOND, Va. -- Grace Klich has achieved the dream many Millennials fantasized about as a child in the 1990s.
Her extensive Pokemon collection fills the largest room in her Richmond home which includes plush toys and promotional items to rare animatronics and two Pokemon themed cars.
Klich invited CBS 6 to check out her unique collection that landed her a spread in the newest edition of the popular oddities book, “Ripley’s Believe it or Not.”
It’s a book she knows well.
“Me and my brother loved the Ripley's book and we would get so excited looking through when the new one came out,” she recalled. “The fact that I’m in it — my childhood self would be like so excited and so proud and it's just like a feeling that I can't even describe.”
Klich started her collection as a freshman in high school. She collects not to own the largest stockpile from the Japanese media franchise, but for quality and special items.
She spent eight years searching thrift stores and online for a rare Pokemon themed popsicle box.
Klich focuses on memorabilia from 1998 to 2005 and she’s made friends along the way.
In addition to her popular Tik Tok and Youtube pages, she started a Vintage Pokemon collectors group on Facebook during the pandemic.
She hopes to open a traveling museum so others can enjoy her collection.
“It's a lore and the most people are invested in the cards in the video games,” Klich stated. “I want to offer something a little bit different in terms of my research and what I collect.”
Klich estimates her collection is worth about $30,000 and that’s not including the cars that have never been sold at auction.
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