A Londoner has turned Pokémon GO into real life as he hides rare Pokémon cards around the capital for people to find.
Dom Mortimer, 28, has been placing valuable cards from the Scarlet & Violet 151 set near to London landmarks and filming their location on TikTok.
He plans to eventually start concealing cards worth hundreds of pounds for his followers to pick up.
The Pokémon super-fan successfully collected the whole Scarlet & Violet set after it was released in March 2023.
However as enthusiasm for the cards skyrocketed among Pokémon fans, Dom decided to start giving the cards away through this unusual method.
Dom told Metro: ‘A year after the cards were released, it exploded. People were going crazy for them.
‘The set is really hard to come by. Pokémon reprinted the cards and they went in seconds.
‘I thought, “why not just start hiding them around London and see what happens?”
‘The dream would be for the videos to get loads of views and then to reinvest the money into more valuable cards for people to find.’
The videographer, who lives in Greenwich, has already dropped off five cards from the 200+ card set around south London.
He most recently chose a gully on London Bridge, and even posted the co-ordinates on TikTok to help collectors track down the card.
His first card, dropped in a nearby park, has gone, but he is not sure whether collectors have found the others.
Pokémon fans from around the world are saying they want to travel to London to pick these cards.
Dom has even been teasing fans with his rare £200 card of the Pokémon Charizard, which he plans to drop off later in the year.
He added: ‘People are commenting to say they are going to travel to London for it.
‘For now I am hiding the more common cards, but when it gets to the cards which people are missing from their sets, there will be a lot more interest.’
The 28-year-old has collected hundreds of Pokémon cards from when he was a child.
The Scarlet and Violet set was released shortly after the corresponding video game came out in November 2022.
The cards feature the 151 original Pokémon, as well as other rare cards, which ‘brought back nostalgia’ from Dom and other childhood fans of the video game.
It has this nostalgia which has fueled demand and raised the value of the cards, Dom said.
Dom won’t reveal too much information about where he will drop the valuable cards next, but the football fan plans to hide a few by famous London stadiums.
He did hint he would colour-match, dropping the red and fiery Charmander Pokémon card by the Arsenal stadium
Pokémon cards can reach sky-high value. Influencer Logan Paul spent over £4,000,000 on a Grade 10 Pikachu card which he wore around his neck for a fight against KSI.
This broke the Guinness World Record for the highest paid Pokémon card in a private sale.
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