The only advice I can offer is buy what makes you happy and what you enjoy 
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Collecting is a process over āhopefullyā a great amount of time, donāt rush it, but also donāt sit around waiting for the BEST-MOST rarest and desired cards you want to become any more affordable over the years for your collection. Iād recommend acquiring the rarity cards YOU WANT sooner than later. Ungraded Raw in as close to MINT condition as possible is what I personally aim for, as well as a some of my favorite cards in PSA 9, I would recon BGS is close 2nd pick for most graded collectors, if not #1. Perks with Raw, is that you can believe its a PSA 10, and you can put it in a binder, and you can view your cardās holo easier than in a slab. Investing and collecting almost go hand in hand as the things we collect ultimately make great investments when new collectors start evolving w/ collecting interests. This hobby for me is two fold, money and collection goals, I have had gold stars, crystals and 1st ed zard base pass through my hands, but it allowed me in that point in time to allocate more funds for other purchases and in turn slowly build a collection along side building monetary gains from it. If starting fresh, try to evaluate small binder collections for sale and see what may be a great deal, keep some sell some or sell all, just as long as youāre in profit w/ the sales/cards you keep. This involves time, however it can easily be worth your time should you allocate it for part reselling/collecting. Networking is crucial later on, but for now ebay (buy-it-now newly listed) and local should be your go to starting points. You can place wanted ads on craigslist, FB (if you carefully word it) and other social medias. Best of luck to you
Hahahahahahaha
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I just realized this thread is a couple months old and I had already replied but going for the largest items first helps, and deciding your collection goals means studying forums, other collections and seeing what types of cards you like and donāt like.
I see collecting as a very long term hobby and not one that needs to be completed this year but rather over time. Takes off the pressure. Make sure you have fun
BWYL----- Buy What You Like
Why do you still have the ānew userā profile pic 
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If you watched some youtube I will say you are an expert now so we can discuss equal to equal
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Agree 100% with others saying to collect/buy what you like/enjoy. Everyone has a card or set that they will inherently love. For me, Iām all about the vintage WOTC stuff from Base Set up to Neo era but donāt really care for much else after that. Iāve only dabbled on a couple of modern cards but have mostly avoided it but may look into it more at some point.
I think that from an investment perspective the English Base Set in high grade will always be valuable/desirable when it comes English cards just because of what it is and how familiar most people are with it. Jungle is also still very cool as well. On the other hand, certain sets/cards that no one cared for eventually become more wanted over time it can just take a while. Itās really a bit speculative in that sense.
I always look at the investment/return aspect as a bonus on most of the cards I buy, but I really just enjoy collecting in general so I donāt go in expecting to ever make money on the cards I buy. I think you will get a lot more out of the hobby when you find the stuff you enjoy collecting most and build on it until completion of your collecting goals.
I am a new collector myself but I totally disagree with ācollect what you like and eventually everything will come aroundā advice if you are only looking for investing.
What you like and investing got nothing to do with each other unless what you like are those popular pokemon like charizard, lugia, etc.
For example, if you like caterpie and weedle and only collects them for the next 5years. Your investment dont really worth anything. So how does collects what you like in this case helps? (Sorry to the caterpie/weedle investor out there)
Collect what you like is mainly for collectors 1st and investment 2nd. Its not meant for investor 1st mindset.
Neither is this forum. 
Anyway, thus far @c0ll3ct0r comment is the best advice opposite of the ābuy what you likeā:
Investing (aka making money by buying/selling long term), costs like everything in life that earns you money: time and effort. There isnāt a simple 1-2-3 method to makes you money investing in PokĆ©mon, otherwise everyone would do it. There are a lot of opportunities to make money in this hobby, especially with how insane the market was since the start of the pandemic, but it takes study and effort to determine which are the best ways to make money. And those that do know how to make money in this hobby defintely wonāt just share it to complete strangers.
So as mentioned in the quote above:
Anyway, not sure why I even made this comment. In the 7.5 years Iāve been collecting PokĆ©mon cards, Iāve only been doing that: collecting, and yes: ābuying what I likeā. And although I have absolutely no interest in selling any of my (non-duplicated) cards anytime soon or at all, some cards Iāve bought for 30 bucks are 2k+ now; some cards I bought for 3k are 30k+ now; some cards Iāve bought for 10 bucks are still 10 bucks now; and one card I bought for 1k dropped to 100 USD a couple month later back in 2018 but is at 1k USD again nowadays. All by just buying what I like and working towards my collection goals, AND spending time on learning, sharing, and searching almost fulltime. Anyway, whether itās collecting, investing, or basically anything worthwhile in life: it takes time and effort. 
Greetz,
Quuador
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Are you sure?
That aside, if you are an investor first and a collector second you should not be asking for advice on a hobby forum.
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With others into collecting PokƩmon not for the PokƩmon if yo kno what I mean.
Whatever you do, at least start from the top > down first in gathering the biggest items. It should be so impactful that you would have to question even beginning into this as well as making it happen. Making the most impactful questions the priority.
āWeāre all gonna make itā - Zyzz, āEverybody want go heaven. Nobody want dead.ā - Screwface from the Steven Seagal movie, Marked For Death, āEverybody wanna be a bodybuilder, but donāt nobody wanna lift no heavy-ass weightā, Ronnie Coleman. See everyone, I can off shoot quote too for reference.
