Malaysian Woman Sells Pokémon Cards to Fund Mission to Gaza

By Danial Martinus • 15 Dec 2025 in News

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For many collectors, Pokémon cards are more than just pieces of cardboard. They’re sentimental keepsakes of childhood, objects of comfort to tide through stressful days, and for some, a very serious investment.

For Sabah-born Ayesha Assila Watuna, however, those colourful cards have become a means to something far more urgent.

Pokémon cards for Gaza

Ayesha has chosen to part with her Pokémon card collection, comprising over 3,000 cards in total, to fund her participation in the upcoming Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian mission scheduled to head to Gaza early next year.

Naturally, the decision wasn’t made lightly. Her expansive collection includes rare limited-edition and hard-to-find cards, some of which hold deep sentimental value.

But after witnessing other Malaysians, particularly women, making personal sacrifices for the people of Palestine, Ayesha reconsidered what truly mattered. At 30, the homemaker and mother of three felt compelled to act in her own way, even if it meant letting go of something she loved.

“I want to show that I’m able to contribute something meaningful to society, and that makes everything worthwhile. Not only that, I’ll also be able to tell my children a meaningful story when they grow up… that I once sold my Pokémon cards so I could set foot in Palestine to help those in need,” she told Bernama.

Ayesha began selling the cards in late October of this year, listing them online and setting up a weekend night market stall in Taman Melawati. The response has been pretty encouraging, to say the least.

To date, she’s raised more than RM15,000, with cards selling for anything from RM2 to several thousand ringgit apiece.

“I am determined to channel 100% of the proceeds to the Global Sumud Flotilla fund. I don’t mind selling every card I own, even the ones I’m reluctant to part with,” she said.

Among the harder-to-sell items is a Japan-exclusive Pokémon card that was gifted from a friend. Definitely not something easy to part with.

You’d think that Ayesha has been collecting these cards over a long period of time, but you’d be wrong. She only started collecting them in June this year, initially as a way to pass time. She never actually imagined that the cards could carry such value.

She spent roughly RM2,000 a month on building her collection, quickly learning how prices fluctuate based on demand and rarity. Like many collectors, she relied on a popular app to track market values.

“It’s quite similar to gold, the longer you hold onto a card, the higher the value can climb. Collectors usually sell their cards based on the market price shown in the Shiny app, where we just scan the card and the price appears,” she explains.

“Some card bundles I bought for only RM400 earlier are now worth double, and may continue to increase in value. As long as the original plastic seal is intact, the price can rise higher.”

Though card collecting has become a therapeutic escape for her, with Charizard among her favourite characters and illustrator Tomokazu Komiya topping her list, Ayesha is determined to let go of her precious collection for Gaza’s sake.

She’s choosing to trade nostalgia for real, concrete action for a cause that matters.