Gangnam secretly amassed Pokemon card collection worth W200m — then got pranked by wife Lee Sang-hwa

Former national speed skating champion Lee Sang-hwa pulled a hidden-camera prank on her husband, singer Gangnam, pretending to sell off his prized Pokemon card collection — a stash later appraised at around 200 million won ($148,000). When Lee told him she had sold the cards for just 2 million won, Gangnam dropped to his knees.

A video capturing the prank was posted Tuesday on the YouTube channel "Dongne Chingu Gangnam-i."

In the clip, Lee told producers she intended to sell the cards, saying Gangnam had kept buying them on every trip to Japan and had broken his promise to stop.

"If he breaks his promise, I'll sell them without mercy," she said, pulling open three drawers stuffed full of his Pokemon cards.

To find out what the collection was actually worth, Lee visited a card shop for a professional appraisal — and the results far exceeded her expectations.

A Luigi Pikachu card was valued at around 12.5 million won, while a 20th-anniversary Pikachu was appraised at around 15 million won. Some high-end cards were cited at up to 20 million won. Sealed boxes ranged from around 200,000 won at the low end to 850,000–1 million won for unopened editions, with the most valuable reaching around 2.3 million won.

After reviewing the entire collection, the shop estimated a bulk purchase price of around 200 million won — leaving Lee visibly stunned.

Lee then hid all the cards while Gangnam was out of the house and staged the scene to look as though she had actually sold them.

When Gangnam came home and noticed the cards were gone, he asked Lee, "Honey, where are the Pokemon cards?" She told him she had sold them. He initially laughed it off, but his expression quickly darkened.

When Lee claimed she had sold everything for just 2 million won, Gangnam frantically searched the house before finally sinking to his knees on the floor.

Lee added that she had sold them to a middle school student through Karrot, a secondhand marketplace app. A panicked Gangnam begged her for the buyer's contact information, saying he would go retrieve them himself.

When Lee asked whether he would buy more cards in the future, Gangnam surrendered. "I won't. I won't even buy any in Japan," he said.

Once the hidden cards were returned to him, Gangnam protested, "This isn't a prank. It's a crime. It's fraud." But when Lee presented him with a Pikachu card as a gift, his mood shifted entirely. "I'm genuinely touched," he said.

Gangnam then promised again that he would not buy any more Pokemon cards this year.

Meanwhile, Gangnam and Lee first met in 2018 on the SBS program "Law of the Jungle in Last Indian Ocean" and began dating before marrying in October 2019.

Gangnam's love of Pokemon cards is well known. He recently appeared on MBC's "Radio Star," where he admitted to collecting cards without his wife's knowledge and showed off a Pikachu card he said was worth more than 10 million won. At the time, he described it as "just a hobby."