Amwolf's Collection Thread

Post Updates:

March 20, 2021: Legendary Treasures RC Set Completed
April 22, 2021: Random Additions
September 19, 2021: Japanese Neo Discovery Master Set Completed
September 21, 2021: Cynthia and Random Stuff
November 5th, 2021: Collection Update, Slabs, and Video Games
May 1st, 2023: Construction and Destruction


Sets In Progress/Completed:

  • Japanese Neo Discovery Master Set - COMPLETED (set images)

  • Legendary Treasures Radiant Collection Set - COMPLETED (set images)

  • Arceus Movie Complete Set - 5 cards left (set images)

  • Legendary Heartbeat Complete Set - 8 cards left (set images)

  • English BREAK Complete Set - 9 cards left (set images)

  • Generations Radiant Collection Set- 14 cards left (set images)

  • Japanese and English Cynthia Master Set (set images)

  • Platinum: Arceus Complete Set - 53 cards left (images unavailable)

Planned Sets:

  • All Japanese Neo Sets in a Master set
  • Spanish HeartGold & SoulSilver Complete Set
  • All POP Series sets

Binders (Still Under Construction) :

Binder 1: Cynthia and Stuff
Binder 2: Idk What to Call This
Binder 3: It’s a Binder
Binder 4: Celebrations Crack
Binder 5: Miscellaneous 1

Now you can look through my binders and see all the random stuff I own and the stuff I haven’t made dedicated posts for! As well as judge how dirty my pages are :sob:

Summary

It’s autumn in the year 2009.

In the little jacket room of a 2nd grade class, two young kids were quietly huddled over their backpacks in a corner, unaware someone had joined them in the small room. They quietly murmured, their words flying out fast as if they were almost certainly arguing over something.

Suddenly, one of them whip their head around, becoming frightened as they became aware of a new person in the room.

In their hands, something glimmered under the low light.


That was my first introduction to Pokémon, not the anime or the games. Some kids bringing their cards to school (Pokémon cards were banned, something about gambling and theft. More likely something else because this was an elementary school in Oklahoma). Unaware, I had walked into the middle of a card trade. I remember distinctly, that in one of the kids hands was an Arceus LV.X jumping out at my 7 year old eyes, the holofoil pattern capturing my eyes and my heart. The other kid had a Machamp LV.X. The absolute shininess of the cards taking me away.


I think this is a very one sided trade but imagine how my tiny, little,
7 year old brain blew up when I saw these for the first time.

The kids knew what they were doing was against the rules, and although I live by the fact that “snitches get stitches,” I didn’t even know what Pokémon was and that having the cards were against the rules. Those two kids bribed me to stay quiet, and they did this by giving me a Machamp LV.X (the kid had an extra one, it was a bit more damaged) and that was the moment something just clicked in my small brain.

In the time since, I became friends with the kid with the Machamp LV.X, eventually, I had bought my first pack. My mom had given me a $5 bill for candy at school, but instead I saved it and when we went to Walmart on the weekend, I had snuck away and bought a pack. It was a Diamond & Pearl: Stormfront pack with Infernape as the pack art. And I saved it through the weekend, excited to go show my friend at school the first pack I had bought. They were just as excited as I was when I procured the pack to show them, and we waited until recess. We could not contain our excitement as recess came, running out to the empty field that kids sometimes used to play soccer.

We tore into the pack, excited, yet…

The pack was a dud.

But I was hooked.


Somehow, after nearly 12 years, I still have the very pack wrapper in my hands.
And it will stay in my hands until I kick the bucket.

For nearly 2 years, I bought packs when I was given money, every weekend my uncle would take my brother and I to a store and let us get anything under $5 and I always chose a Pokémon pack. I gathered a small hoard of cards, losing many in the process as well, like the gift Machamp LV.X, but I still gathered cards up.

Until one day, my shoebox hiding most of my cards had gone missing. Running through the house, I searched and searched, and found it in my brother’s room. He had taken some of my cards and traded with his friends. I went to my mom with the news, and she had become fed up because this was a common occurrence. She took the shoebox away, most of my cards becoming lost, only a couple surviving the first “mass extinction.”

I had stopped collecting then, but not for long, as soon enough, I came back with Black & White: Plasma Storm, but not in the same force as I once had. I rarely bought packs, I was more interested in Club Penguin and Webkinz, and spent money there instead. Once again, my small collection of cards, with the first survivors, would meet it’s second mass extinction. My brother once again took my cards to trade with his friends, and this time my mom had took the nuclear option.

She took the new shoebox and sat by the trashcan with scissors, snipping nearly every card in half as she dropped them into the trashcan. There were few survivors, but those cards were collected and thrown in a small drawer, I had given up. And I gave up for a long time.


Survivors of both mass extinctions, you can see how much they’ve been through

I can’t really tell you when I came back for good, it could have been Generations when I saw an ETB and impulse bought it, it could have been when I went to an Evolutions prerelease with a friend and got the zard (I no longer have the zard, sold it to pay for college), or it could have been when I introduced said friend to Pokémon. In the end, I came back, and I’ve stayed. And I’m happy to say my collection will probably never go through another mass extinction. I’ve lost contact with the friend who introduced me to Pokémon, but I am so happy that I randomly walked into a room and I met such an awesome person who got me into this hobby.


I’m not a zard fan, but even I can say this was an amazing card to own and
I regret selling it, but I’m happy that I can pretend to dislike zard so much when in fact
I am forever grateful that it helped cover part of my tuition and there will never be another zard like this one for me.

My collection goals are pretty simple now, to just collect cards or sets that I think are interesting. I’ve recently gotten into the vintage sets (let’s not count gen 4 as vintage please, or I’ll be vintage ;-; ) and it’s all thanks to a Japanese Neo Discovery pack I impulse bought at $70 and opened before it shot up to $140.

I’m going to use this thread to show any major additions to my sets (or if I complete them), new additions to my collection, or anything I want to share overall. I can’t get anything super cool because I am paying for school, but something I’ve learned in the last year is that I don’t need a collection I can flex for people (or me, even) to enjoy it, it just needs to be what I want or like, because it is my collection.


A sealed Grass & Fire Arceus LV.X deck with an open (and mostly complete)
Lightning & Psychic Arceus LV.X deck, both 1st Edition. The Yanma being from my
Japanese Neo Discovery pack, and the first vintage holo I ever owned and graded.

23 Likes

What a great background story even though i really felt the lack of justice with you suffering from both your brothers and mothers actions! Hope to see additions to your collection :blush:

I forgot to add a reply showing my completed Legendary Treasures Radiant Collection. I have the pictures below!

The Mew EX is badly damaged, but I pulled this card a long time ago from a random booster (maybe 2014/2015) and it’s been through a lot. I might replace some of the damaged/heavily played cards in the future, but at the moment I’m just enjoying the set. I acquired most of the cards through trading, and some of the really cheap cards I got by just flat out buying them from people. This was one of my favorite sets for a long time, the art and foil on the cards blew me away the first time I saw them, and I’ve been working on getting a set for years. I completed this set in November/December of 2020, and I officially started the set back in late 2016. Only 4 years of on and off trading and buying got me the set, and honestly, I had a lot of fun in the process.

haha yeah, many cards I have lost were due to my brother’s actions and my mother’s reactions. Eventually, they had let my collection go, my brother finding the cards boring and my mom thinking they’re valueless and a money pit. My mom has changed her tune after hearing about the Pokémon craze and has backed off, letting me finally enjoy my collection. My brother occasionally gets me a pack of cards when he sees me when I come home from college, sort of as a way to pay back for all those times he’s traded cards from my collection.

7 Likes

I love the feeling of collection redemption in the intro. Sucks to hear you had a such rough go at it in the beginning with your family but glad you’re into a unique collection now. Congrats on the recent additions!

The collection is looking great, it’s a shame what happened to the beginning but as time goes, once you get more earning power they can be bought back, who knows, maybe the hype will die down and prices will go down as well, right now they’re crazy, I never would’ve thought I’d see an English Black Star promo for more than $500 but here we are.

Have you thought about collecting the Unnumbered promos?

bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Unnumbered_Promotional_cards_(TCG)

Yeah things did start a little rough did they? lol But it’s gotten much better now and has grown into something I enjoy. I really enjoyed looking through your collection thread, by the way! I enjoyed the reading and it amazes me how many different cards and items there are for Pokémon in general. And thank you, hopefully I’ll get some more good additions soon :blush:

I recently got a grant that helped halve my bill for the semester and also got hired for a job that pays pretty well (enough to for me to have some discretionary income after paying a part of my tuition bill). I hope to go after some of the cards I lost, or at least get some sealed product of key things I remember opening. I never thought a Black Star promo could ever be so expensive period. It amazes me how expensive some of these English promos have become, but that’s how it’s become. Hopefully over time things do settle, I’d like to be able to pick up NM copies of cards some time in the future lol

With the unnumbered promos, I have thought about it, and it’s something I would love to go after one day. Perhaps when I finish my JPN Neo Discovery set (which will be very soon hopefully, recently bought a big chunk of what I was missing) and some of the other sets that are almost finished.

1 Like

Small update, received a new Cynthia card in the mail, although she never came to my mailbox. I live in a dorm hall, and for the last 2 weeks the seller and I have been messaging each other because I had never received it. It was quite a frightening situation because it also stopped updating in a city a few hours from me where my parents lived. I had my parents go to the post offices and see if, by chance, it was there, no luck. Going to the only post office here and my university’s mail center, it was no where to be found.

Fast forward to today when, finally relaxing from work, someone slides an opened envelope under the main door of my dorm unit. It was the card! I’m not sure who decided to return it, nor am I sure if it was stolen or accidentally given to another resident in my dorm hall. It seemed that it could have just been an accident but I still have a lot of questions of why this person didn’t check the name or who sent it, or even return it to the front desk to have it properly returned to me. I won’t think about it any further because instead of keeping it they did, in the end, return it to me. A nice little story to go with the card though!

Besides the excitement, this card brings me one card closer to finishing the master set I’m working on, I’m still doing research on a couple cards, since I can’t exactly find info of them on bulbapedia, but I feel as though I have it figured out now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to show the Cynthia collection as it is so far, but there’s a bit of a ways to go before it can be presentable since it is extremely long with repeated art. Anyways, that’s all for now!

4 Likes

Many things have come in! First off, my Japanese Neo Discovery master set now only needs 5 more cards to be completed, and that’s thanks to these cards coming in:

These cards dropped me down to only needing promo Smeargle, promo Igglybuff, Unown I, Xatu, and Magnemite. Hopefully I come across them soon, but not too soon! I’ve added images of what I have of the set so far in the main post, so please enjoy looking at those.

I also got some additional Cynthia cards! I’m still missing a lot of Cynthia cards though, many of them just reprints in Japanese theme decks. Here are the Cynthia cards I got in. I also included images of my Cynthia set so far in the main post, although most of the images are poor and I will be redoing them.


I also got some extra stuff in, most of them just for me to enjoy and a couple others to be graded/sold in the future. The Deoxys item is a card file, which I am glad to pick up since I can use it for carrying about 160 cards for trading to other places easily. The Team Rocket theme deck was partially complete, it thankfully came with the holo in fantastic condition, same with the Meowth coin, which I did not see in the listing. I plan on framing the jumbos together and putting into my room back with my parents.

Thanks for peeking in on my thread! :blush:

14 Likes

Something big…

My Japanese Neo 2 master set has been finished! Only a little over a year of starting this set, and nearly every card is LP or better. Charizard has a small crease, Umbreon and Espeon have a little too much whitening on the back to be LP, and Poliwrath and Forretress have some dirty backs. I may replace them in the future, especially that zard, but for now, it’s finally been done.

This master set features 57 set cards and 13 promos (Premium File 2 + 4 other smaller promos). Many of these cards were traded or bought from friends, or in the case of 9 of them, pulled from a pack. The last few were purchased from random sellers on Ebay or Japanese Mercari. Please enjoy the images and thank you for peeking into my thread! I should be updating the thread pretty soon since I have a big Cynthia update coming.



10 Likes

Congrats on the set completion! As someone that also went through a long hiatus from the hobby (albeit from a different starting era), it’s interesting to read through your journey and I look forward to seeing your collection grow from here.

1 Like

Congrats Wolfy! Glad you finally got the Neo2 done!

1 Like

First time I’ve seen a complete binder collection of a japanese set. Very cool! Too bad japanese did the modern organization of typing instead of the english version of holos in the front.

1 Like

Back pretty soon with this update, did not expect it to be this quick!

First, in the main post under the binders section, you will find a link under Binder 1 to one of my binders. I’ve decided to do this because many things, like my mini Lapras collection or in progress sets, won’t receive dedicated posts unless they’re complete or receive a major update. I plan to update the albums for each binder once a month, just because I’m constantly moving stuff around or just adding stuff. Hopefully you guys enjoy looking at the first binder so far. :grin:

Second, big Cynthia update.



Some new cards have come in and she has too many damn cards, and most of them are theme deck reprints :angry: The HF and Cosmic FAs aren’t new but at least all the English full arts are together now.
Please do not ask about Japanese Holo Cynthia’s Feelings :sob: She won’t be added for a long time :sob:

Third, Buyee package, which was half Cynthia and half random shit I found LMAO Bad picture I know but deal with it. If you want better pictures of something though just ask because this really is an ass picture

Thanks to both of you!

I personally prefer modern organization (if you look closer you’ll see old Japanese didn’t have set numbers and that they go by type and then rarity, so you can organize them any way you want) just because you can look through the entire set and actually see all the cards. Personally, all the holos in the front just makes me lazy and not look through the set and see common cards with fantastic art. Although I can understand the preference.

Surely I’m not the first person you’ve seen with a binder collection of a Japanese set lol I’ve seen a couple of other people with binder collections of Japanese sets.

5 Likes

@amwolf, I’ve seen the vs or web set complete but thats a japanese only set so I was thinking more of a set that has an english version which is more commonly collected but, I have probably seen another complete japanese set before but it’s been a while and can’t really remember that last one I’ve seen tbh.

Yeah that’s fair, I haven’t really seen a binder set of the vintage sets. I have seen binder sets of modern sets though.

Cynthia is wonderful and so is this thread

1 Like

Thank you king and you are just as wonderful too​:pray::pray::pray:

November 5th, 2021: Collection Update, Slabs, and Video Games

It’s been awhile! No worries though, I’ve been adding to my collections. Yes, collections plural.

First, an update on my Pokémon Collection. I am beginning to slow down my purchases and any additions to my collection. Many of you may not know, but I actually pawned some of my binders to a friend. These binders contained basically the core of my collection so I haven’t been working on those parts since late September. I reached a slight financial issue and needed money and a friend offered to buy my binders and hold them until I can pay back, and it was definitely needed. Grateful for that but also saddening as I don’t have everything in my collection with me, such as my prized Neo 2 master set or Cynthia collection, nor do I have all the gifts sent to me by friends over the last couple of years. I will still be updating my thread, just not as often with the main parts of my collection until I buy them back… which will most likely be in the spring of 2022.

Second, slabs. Over the last year and a half I started getting into slabs, and that seems to be what I will be focusing on until I get my main binders back or have a large update. Since showcasing slabs can be a bit difficult, each post I’ll show favorite slabs or any returns. For this post though, I’ll leave 5 of my favorite slabs here.

These aren’t in any particular order, but I’ll give a bit of info on each one!

  • Yanma - First card I graded myself and of a Pokémon I find incredibly cute. It’s something I’m prideful about even though it’s not that cool.
  • Shining Noctowl - First vintage shining I’ve ever owned and first “big” purchase, I also love the art
  • Suicune ex - A gift from a friend
  • Beginning Door - Bought from an E4 member. I absolutely love gen 4 (the generation that was active when I first heard of Pokémon and stuff) and I love Arceus. This art is also one I love and the holo only adds to it!
  • Greninja GX - My aunt visited Mexico some years ago and brought packs back for me, we opened them up together and pulled this Greninja. Recently I sent it to CGC because I wanted to get it graded and have her sign the slab before she passed away. While it did arrive before she passed, she was too weak to sign it, I instead was at least able to show her and she loved it. A jewel of my collection despite it being a card not many people would care for.

If you would like to see more of what I have, I google sheet [here] that has everything in my grading pile and everything I’ve graded (that is in my possession). Feel free to look at it! There’s for sure some things we won’t talk about for awhile.

Lastly, video games. It may not be of any surprise that I also love video games and lowkey collect games. Since I pawned my binders awhile ago, I’ve been picking up games here and there just to pass the time or do something other than watch YouTube or TikTok. I can’t exactly show everything I have, since I have a lot of loose items and some things are just packed away in storage boxes. But I can show what I have set out on a small shelf.


If it wasn’t very clear, I love handheld gaming quite a bit, my first console being a pink DS Lite I got for Christmas one year, and how fitting is it that my newest console (Nintendo Switch) was also a Christmas gift a few years ago? My Special Edition of Metroid Dread is hanging out in my closet, we won’t be seeing that bad boy in this thread :wink: Many of my 3DS cases are empty, due to losing some of my games. I kept many of my games in a travel case for the ease of access and portability, yet this seems to have caused an unfortunate situation where I either lost my games or they were stolen by my brother. I have yet to replace my missing games out of hope I would find them but that is not the case after half a year, and I will be repurchasing the games I lost in the coming months. The games I lost are:

  • Pokémon SoulSilver
  • Pokémon White
  • Pokémon X
  • Pokémon Y
  • Pokémon Omega Ruby
  • Pokémon Ultra Sun
  • Golden Sun Dark Dawn
  • Metroid Prime Federation Force
  • Metroid Samus Returns
  • Super Mario 3D Land
  • Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon

Losing those games really did upset me and my brother does deny taking them (a THEME with my collections isn’t it?) and at this point there is nothing I can do. I’ve already replaced many games he’s taken from me or game cases he’s destroyed. Even consoles he’s damaged/sold. Not mad, just disappointed at this point.

I have some games coming in soon and are on pre-order, not much or anything super interesting but as for the sake of this update…

  • Bayonetta Non-Stop Climax Edition - Contains physical copies of Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2. (This is the only way to get a physical copy of Bayonetta on the switch, it is a Japanese exclusive item.)
  • Metroid Dread Special Edition - Japanese version
  • Pokémon Shining Diamond and Brilliant Pearl Dual Pack
  • Pokémon Legends Arceus - Japanese version
  • Bayonetta 3

Thanks for looking at my thread! I’m not sure if anyone cares too much about video games so I may not include them in updates from now on unless anyone is interested in them. I will for sure include Pokémon games in the future though :blush:

(If you wanna be friends with me on Switch my friend code is SW-3336-3230-4439)

3 Likes

quick little update, literally just purchased a complete in box copy of Golden Sun Dark Dawn…