I figured I would start a collection thread just to document some of my collecting achievements in the hobby. Just as a preface, my first pack was EX Sandstorm in 2003, I was 6 at the time. My goals now are to essentially go back and complete master sets for all of the EX Series and potentially Diamond and Pearl, but that’s not a priority right now.
I’m starting this thread because I have finished something that took me over a year and a half to complete. The 2004 World Championship Decks were integral in teaching me the competitive game, and my dad and I studied how they were composed and adopted our own decks to match their ratios of Pokemon, Trainer, and Energy cards. I have recently completed all 4 decks: Blaziken Tech, Magma Spirit, Rocky Beach, and Team Rushdown, all with real cards, not their World Championship counterparts. Oracle from Skyridge was the hardest card to track down and also the most expensive, and I needed 10 to complete all the decks. Here are some pictures of my homage to my start in the Pokemon TCG:
I’m trying to only update my collection thread for significant achievements, but I think this single card is worth a post. Acquired from a lot of premium cards on eBay, all of which were sold to pay for this beauty. Yes, it has the minor bend that most Championship Arenas have, but it’s not a crease like some that I’ve seen. I’m very happy with it, and proud to own 1 of the few copies in existence. One step closer to completing my black star promos!
I’m back with another update! I’ve been slowly accumulating cards, and I’m trying to downsize my collection and focus in on specific goals before I get too distracted but this was too good of an opportunity to resist. Story time!
I saw @therealonewolf offering to proxy to get cards signed by Kouki Saitou at Texas Regionals this past weekend so I hit him up and reserved myself a spot. After browsing through Saitou’s impressive catalogue of work, I was reminded that he illustrated the T-Series Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite, which are some of my favorite artworks in the entire hobby. However, I did not currently own those cards, and the only non-graded copies were in Japan and were a little too expensive based on past sales so I made a WTB post here and waited. After not getting any bites on the forum, I was browsing eBay one fateful Friday night and I come across the T series trio in an auction titled “Pokemon cards japanese set Dratini Dragonair Dragonite”. I made a bid and won, the problem being the signing event was in 2 weeks and I was not sure the cards would make it on time. I messaged the seller and asked for expedited shipping, and ended up paying $20 for shipping, shipping the cards directly to therealonewolf. THEY GOT FROM JAPAN TO TEXAS IN 4 DAYS. 4 DAYS. I don’t know how that is even possible, but I was able to reserve 2 more signature slots to complete the trio.
In the mean time, I had sent a Legend Maker Holo Mew just in case the cards didn’t arrive and was able to get that signed as well, which I will likely sell to help me pay for the purchase. Let’s see some pictures:
I chose to get the cards signed in Japanese and dated to commemorate Saitou’s first visit to the U.S. I also wanted to get each of the available sketches, so I got one on each piece of the trilogy. Here are some up-close shots:
The color palette on these cards is absolutely exquisite, and I’m proud to have them be the first autographed cards I add to my collection!
Thanks again to @therealonewolf for your flexibility and excellent communication in providing such a service. It was much appreciated.
A couple of days ago @brendantheclayboy tagged many of us in The Index of Elite Fourum Collections, check it out if you haven’t already! This made me realize I haven’t updated my own thread in awhile so I figure I would share one of my recent accomplishments. I’m continuing to downsize my collection and collect binder copies of all of my ex series sets, so I wanted to take one last family photo of some of the key cards from ex Deoxys. The Rayquaza Gold Star is my childhood copy and I had to get the Lati@s to match. I got 2 other copies signed at Dallas regionals in 2020, one with each style that Fukuda was offering. Finally is the Stadium Challenge Deoxys, one of my more recent acquisitions. Absolutely thrilled to add one of the rarest english card variants to my collection and very excited to see what the copy ends for at auction tomorrow night.
