Hi All, I’m new to eFour but this topic intrigued me and I wanted to see what other folks in the community have to say.
My question is this: How does your childhood collection compare to what you’ve amassed as an adult? Were there any cards you chased as a kid but never had until now? Is the opposite true - you’ve got less now than you had before?
Example of my own - while I’ve built a MUCH larger collection this year than I ever had as a kid, I’m most proud of my Jungle & Fossil holos. As a kid, I only ever had 4: Vaporeon, Venomoth, Lapras and Magneton. They were all water damaged, warped, or scratched to oblivion. I always wanted Snorlax, Pinsir, and Dragonite…getting those minty holos in the mail this year made 8-year old me very very happy (and jealous).
I think for me since I have been collecting for as long as I can remember there isn’t really a difference mentally between my now collection and collection a kid. To me its just my collection that’s gotten bigger not really two separate things. Though there were cards that I always wanted as a kid, but never got until recently such as Flareon ex from EX Delta Species and Banette ex from EX Legend Maker which also made kid me and current me super happy!
Congrats on those holos it must have been a great feeling!
I think I’m the same as most people on here, my collection has grown significantly from my childhood. Having a job with disposable income will do that to you. I really should have recorded the entirety of my collection from my childhood when I started collecting again but I didn’t really think about the future and just how much I’d end up collecting. I’d say the main thing from my childhood I wanted were gold stars, specifically the charizard gold star which I’ve managed to get. And got my childhood collection of 1 gold star up to 5 which I still feel is unfortunately very low but I’ve focused on wotc sets for the foreseeable future.
Literally almost every aspect of collecting as a child is different than my collecting as an adult now.
As a kid, if it wasn’t holo it wasn’t cool. Hahahaha.
The only things that haven’t changed for me is my genuine interest in pokemon itself and my three favorite pokemon being alakazam, diglett, and bellsprout.
Nice choices! Delta Species Flareon has some awesome art. Makes sense with there being no gaps from childhood into adulthood. I’m in the maybe not so uncommon scenario where my childhood collection no longer exists! My kid brother traded it away without my permission while I was away at college. Lots of Base/J/F/Base 2 stuff in there, including a mint Base 2 Charizard…Angry at the time, but he got some sweet B/W era cards out of it and he was a happy-go-lucky 9 year old, so I’ve gotten over it.
So true about the “Holo-or-GTFO” mentality! That 2nd grader who walked in after summer vacation holding a 1st Ed. Base Blastoise was the envy of the class. Funny how things change, now I’ve taken a much greater interest in individual artwork, my favorite pokemon, cool flavor text, etc. Combine that with how pricey good-condition holos are in today’s market and you’ve gotta broaden your horizons if you don’t want to go broke!
My childhood collection is very small but I still have it! My complete Jungle set and my 1st edition prerelease aerodacytl are highlights for me in my collection and will always have a special place for me because nothing will beat them on memories and nostalgia plus some of the jungle cards are signed by arita now
My adult collection is far bigger and again I love the cards, I never owned a Charizard card as a kid but had charmander as my starter on pokemon red. Now I have over 100 graded zards which I love but only 12 year old me could dream about. I always remember that one kid at school who brought their base set zard and everyone crowded around!
Considering what I could collect as a child was solely reliant on what me and my friends pulled from packs, the first thing I did was buy the cards I was never able to get (i.e. finishing my ex collection from R&S through Deoxys). From there I have just bought things that I thought are cool or things that I wish I had done as a child (collect sealed product).
My collection’s a LOT bigger now than it was as a kid, that’s forsure! As a kid I didn’t collect any JP stuff. Now I’m all about that. It’s the main focus of my acquisitions.
My childhood collection consists of $0.05 commons and $0.10 uncommons from a shady card store in Chinatown. 40% of them ended up being fake when I took them out again earlier this year. I could never afford a booster pack with my allowance and I still have never opened a WotC booster pack in my life lol. Now as an irresponsible adult, I probably have a 7 figure collection.
My entire collection can basically be divided into three parts from different eras:
Childhood in the hobby (1999-2004) ~ Base Set - EX Hidden Legends.
Adult, Pokemon GO return (2016-2017)
Adult, Pandemic return (2020)
In terms of number of unique cards spanning many sets, my childhood collection is the largest, and possibly the most valuable. However, in terms of number of total cards, I have probably gotten more as an adult, since I have a lot of modern bulk.
As a kid, I didn’t try to complete sets. I simply collected random cards I liked (who didn’t?) and those that could be used for deck building.
I organized everything into sets a few years back and focused on filling in the gaps for many of them which means my childhood collecting served as the foundation for most everything that came later. Perhaps this also reveals that my regular set card collection hasn’t increased in volume by that much. In any case, I feel fortunate to still have my cards, and I think they keep me interested in the hobby.
Beyond that, my knowledge has greatly expanded and has informed my preferences (for Japanese promo cards and various oddities) in recent years.
I was around 5 years old when I first started collecting pokemon, so I was a bit young to have much of a method. I remember loving holofoil cards and mew cards. One of the last things I remember collecting before I “grew out” (aka stopped because I was worried I would get bullied for continuing to collect) were the Neo Files, which I also loved. My mom helped me collect cards and was trying to get cards I liked/cards she think would do well in the future. At the time, 3 ringed binders were the thing and so we sleeved them in penny sleeves and put the cards in binders.
Now that I am an adult, mom is no longer involved. She did once ask if my collection managed to be worth anything and I was able to tell her that my base set Charizard card scored a 9 with PSA (explained that bit too) and that it was actually worth decent money now. As an adult, I collect graded cards/cards I would like to grade and my interests are a combination of what I wished I had as kid and what I really enjoy now as an adult. Of course, my collection is larger, more diverse and far more expensive than child me could have accomplished. I like to think that if I had known about the Japanese exclusive promos as a kid that I now own and plan to collect, that young me would have been very on board with that program.
I collected Lvl x cards when I was a kid. I ended up collecting one of every lvl x card when I got back into the hobby. Unfortunately, I sold them for college and have to start over again lol
My childhood collection still makes up quite a bit of my collection as a whole, although more and more of it in graded form. The purchases I’ve made throughout the years have mostly been small but increasingly costlier. xD
Collecting as a child was all of the EX/ Lv. X that I can assemble.
The highest HP pokemon was crowned king.
Unfortunately my mom gave my childhood collection away…
Now, its just collecting what I like. The Pokemon that I want to collect.
