Of course many here have jumped in and out of the hobby over the last 20 years but, how many remained active in the hobby since the WOTC years. That means you bought, sold, and/or collected in each of the years since your wotc exploits:)
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Started roughly at 3 and stopped at 5
Started again at 9 and stopped at 16
Came back at 20 and im now 23.
So roughly 12 years total
Ultra Mega Gary EX GL Shiny used flex!
Started when I was 12. Stopped when I was 16/17 before college. Started back up again when I was around 24/25. 31 now.
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I wish I could say so Gary…
1999-2003 then mid 2017 til presant. So 6 and a halfish years under my belt. What rank does that make me haha?
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Not me! Lol.
The first time I ever heard what Pokemon was, it was early 1999 and I saw my friend Spencer showing off some of his Pokemon cards. It was in the computer room of my elementary school, I was in 5th grade. I remember he had a base set Raichu, which has always been one of my favorites ever since.
Soon after I was begging my mom to buy me Pokemon cards. She must have looked into it and figured out that the best thing to do was to buy me the starter decks. She bought me TWO starter decks - Brushfire (the one that features Ninetales) and Gyarados (the one that features Gyarados). I opened them in my mom’s office on a day when she took me into work, I forget why I didn’t have school that day. I didn’t know it at the time, but they were almost certainly both Shadowless decks. When I was a kid I remember thinking that what we now called “Unlimited” looked weird, when I look through the binder of cards I put together as a kid, a majority of the Base Set cards are Shadowless (it might have been a New York thing). Right around the same time, my mom got me a Lime Green Game Boy color and Pokemon Blue and I was totally hooked. Obviously, Bulbasaur was my original choice for starter Pokemon. Among other things that happened this year, the Base Set Charizard I pulled from a pack was stolen by a kid at my school. I was devastated, so my family paid a whopping $50 to buy another Charizard for me from my local comic book shop.
I collected Pokemon cards passionately up through the Team Rocket set in 2000. I have a specific memory of being frustrated with not getting the cards I wanted in packs (and I had a budget for how much my parents would spend on money). In my frustration, I decided to quit collecting Pokemon.
9 years later, in 2009, I was in college and randomly did a search on eBay for Pokemon cards. I was fascinated to learn about the concept of graded Pokemon cards. Around this time, I had some spending money, because I found I had a talent for poker and would make consistent winnings at the casino in Montreal (I went to college at McGill University). My first purchase of graded Pokemon cards came from @garyis2000 himself when I purchased a complete holo set of 1st edition Base in PSA 9 for the price of $999.
7 years later, in 2016, I updated my collection quite a bit. Even though I didn’t play Pokemon Go much myself, so many of my friends got caught up in the craze, and I do recall the hype relating to why I decided to check back in with Pokemon card collecting.
I haven’t purchased much since then but obviously as this post shows I’m still very passionate for my collection. 
TL;DR: I collected Pokemon from early 1999 (when I was 11) when the English cards first exploded in popularity, left in 2000 sometime after Team Rocket release and before Gym Heroes release, returned 9 years later to collect graded Pokemon cards and left again after about a year, returned in 2016 after Pokemon Go and added more to my collection and now I mostly just chill / follow the hobby without buying/selling much.
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I have! I started collecting cards with Base Set and trading with friends like most of the 90’s kids did, and as friends fell away from it I would just absorb their cards. I went to my first league in 2001, finally started going to tournaments in 2005, and got into collecting in 2011.
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I began in 2000 but stopped in 2004. I still went to the same places with leagues but was mainly into Yugioh and a little MTG until mid 2008. I still played with my brother and best friend during the Summer some. I was back in to Pokemon steady once I started college in Aug 2008.
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Been there since 1999 non-stop I was 7 back then and now I’m 27. Time flies. Pokemon has been there with me my whole life basically.
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You the real deal xzini.
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1999 to 2002 then 2010 to present.
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If we include games like game boy, etc… I can say proud present! 
2002 - 2009 = 7
2013 - present = 6
So 13 altogether. The gap is when I “grew” out of Pokemon.
2000-2002, 2007-2009, and back since 2016
In the loop since it’s inception. Collection from 2008 onwards. Had some generations I fell from interest like 4 where the majority of the extended designs were subpar got returned in robust fashion by HGSS (them Legends and reverses) and gen 5’s designs that has been a refeshment. If any concillation after it’s about to meet it’s death date on gen 8.
I didnt start collecting pokemon until my daughter came home with a creased up Old Amber card around XY Furious Fists.
But I did used to work in a store that sold collectable cards around 1995 and collected fantasy art sets. Stopped working there because I graduated high school and moved to the real world and always wondered if I stayed if Pokemon would have found its way into my binders but this was a little before they were released. I remember when MTG was in its infancy but didnt care much for it…ohh well
1999-2003 for the tcg for me, but played the games all the way from 1999 to 2008. Came back to TCG at the very end of 2017.
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I only really collected in 1999 for a year and then started again this time last year (2018). So I’ve had a full year in collecting and have made some good and bad buys. I’m happy to say I know what I want to collect and I’m making good progress so no more needless flipping.
I am a little sad, however that I didn’t start collecting cards a little sooner, I decided to start playing pokemon main series games and particularly an mmo version of the main series games fron 2013 to 2017, while still watching a few pack opening videos and having an interest in the card game. All that time wasted playing an mmo i no longer play could have been spent working and buying cards but at least I’m here and fully involved now
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