I just wanted to share my journey of completing one of the rarest (Non Japanese) sets, the 12 card Art Academy Set consisting of 6 Dress up Pikachu’s & 6 Favourite Pokemon. As many of you know this story and some of you that even helped me along my journey to complete this set.
Early Days
When I started collecting this set back in 2015/2016 I was lucky to stumble across the new competition winning cards on ebay, From our very own @noodles son and next thing I knew one was in my ebay basket and I had made my largest single card purchase of my life. roughly $150 back then which when compared to other cards was the same cost as an English Umbreon Gold Star.
I thought these cards were cool and unique and what inspired me to look more in depth was that my partner was an avid Pikachu collector. So after a little bit of searching I started to find other winners, first Meli (Pikachu) then Xime (Pikachu), Gosha (Tangrowth) and Gabi (Chespin) in which I started to slowly add to the collection. My second Japanese copy was from Rina (Gourgeist) and I thought I could continue to slowly contact winners and buy copies from them to complete the set, at this point I was aiming for around 1 per month around what I could afford at the time.
Reality
I soon realised that this was going to more difficult task than I thought, After now owning 6 copies and struggling to find anymore winners I started to ask other collectors for help and to share winners information which the majority sadly wanted to gate keep and keep that information private, something which is still difficult to get my head around, but I was lucky to find a collector in Norway who shared my passion and understanding and was one of the very few guys I could talk to back and forth about these amazing cards. Though it didn’t at the time lead to any new contacts we shared information for the next few years.
Fast Forward to 2020
After a year or so of focusing on life choices and grown up stuff I started to get involved in Pokemon once again and re focused my attention back to this set, Little did I know we were past the days of sub $200 copies and they had jumped to $1000-2000 or more each something I didn’t really expect. I made contact with a few old friends and started to look for winners once again, knowing I had little chance after 5 years, I got very lucky and found a old thread which lead to a Instagram name and then found my 7th winner! Scarlett (Kecleon) However this deal took over 12 months to complete, I was unaware that over the last few years that resellers had found these cards easy targets and most winners have been put off selling them.
Connections are worth their weight in Gold
My Friend in Norway during my absence had found another Winner and by a great exchange of information I ended up getting in contact with the 8th Winner Lily-Chan (Pikachu) and I thought I was on a role, this wouldn’t be so difficult again right?, 6 months went by without any new contacts and that’s when I realised that buying directly from winners going forward was going to be unachievable and I succumbed to the idea that I would if I was to have a slim chance of completing this set I would have to buy off the secondary market.
Understanding Availability
If you’ve been following the story so far I now own 6/12 Non Japanese and 2/10 Japanese copies, After realising I had to start using the secondary market I completed a deal for Peegeray (Delphox) in my first 4 figure deal for one of these cards in a PSA 9 and I had now picked up all the copies I could that weren’t listed for at least 5 figures + or was even available on the market. By this time I knew I needed to grade the copies I owned not only to represent their true value but to keep them more safe when traveling. As PSA had stopped grading them due to extra copies, I decided on CGC, their blue labels had gained some traction with higher end cards over the last few months so thought this would be the best place to get them graded.
The Decision
I had took my copies to CGC and got them graded, I was lucky to hit some really nice grades including a Perfect 10 in the copy from @noodles, highest graded copy in the world at the time and I was over the moon. However time went by CGC changed their labels and the Perfects became in my opinion detached and I had a choice to make. A choice which after my next purchase of a BGS 9 copy of ME! (Pikachu) at my highest ever single card purchase of just into the 5 figure range. I knew that unless I won the lottery in the foreseeable future I wasn’t going to complete this set without a sacrifice to the PC. Which came in the the sale of my Perfect 10 Pikachu and the ultimate realisation that I was not able to go for the Japanese set going forward.
The Road to the Finish
By completing the sale of the Perfect 10 Pikachu it allowed me to buy both the Miriel (Kyogre) and the Rhivern (Pikachu), I knew the Kyogre was going to be my most difficult card to attain and when it came available I knew I had to jump at the chance even if it meant that I didn’t buy the Mew which had been my chase for the last couple of years, after missing out on multiples on auction and private deals. I now owned 10/12 of the Non Japanese set and I wanted to be patient in completing the last two as I knew Phanpy (Mew) would eventually pop up in auction but I was worried about Ashley (Pikachu) not coming available for some time. I went to New Jersey Collect a con and got so close to agreeing on the Mew and missing out on that copy it sent me on overdrive to complete the set.
Last two
On the aeroplane to Hawaii with time on my hands and little to no internet I made a decision to reach out and make a deal to work on the last two Art Academy cards I needed. Up until this point I wanted copies that were 9 or better however to complete the set I decided to take lower grades to at least quench my desire of owning a set. We agreed on prices and finalised the deal. and here we are, 9 years of up’s and downs, meeting some amazing people along the way and completing one of the rarest sets in the hobby.
If you have read this far, Thank you! I’m going to pre-apologise for any bad grammar! I wanted to document my journey to show that collecting isn’t about instant accomplishments but the journey and experiences along the way!
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Luckily I bought my house last year, and a car a few weeks back, so I can seriously start saving money to make an attempt maybe next year if one pops up.