Hi friends and fellow collectors!
I was encouraged by @citriina to start my own collection thread on Piplup and to document my journey in acquiring Piplup cards for my collection 
I’m aiming to collect all English variants of Piplup, JPN exclusive Piplup cards, Piplup cameo cards (English only), and the Character Rare Piplup in 11 languages which are: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
My focus is on raw TCG cards. So no slabs, Tosho cards, train/transport cards in this particular collection.
Some background on why I love Piplup and why I decided to start this collection
Like most folks who got into collecting Pokemon cards, I grew up loving Pokemon. My exposure to Pokemon was during Gen 4 with DPPt. I played Diamond on the DS, and Piplup was my starter. I remember drawing Pokemon pictures in school with friends and trading cards together during that time. As a kid though, my favorite Pokemon actually was Milotic (more on this later lol). I had a collection as a kid, but gave away all my cards to my cousin when I entered high school.
Fast forward to 2021 where McDonald’s had collaborated with Pokemon for their Happy Meals - I remember opening the free packs that came with the meals and got a non-holo Piplup to my surprise! By this time, I have a love for penguins in general. Penguins are my favorite animal and I have a whole stuffed animal collection featuring penguins. Going back to the Happy Meals in 2021, I did not have any luck pulling the holo Piplup but was able to pull 2 holo Pikachus which seemed to be the “chase” card for that set. After the collaboration ended, I settled on ordering the holo Piplup via eBay. I also decided to pick up the Milotic card from Supreme Victors that one of my childhood best friends gave me, but I unfortunately gave away to my cousin.
Sometime this year (2024), I came across the full art/character rare featuring Dawn and Piplup from Cosmic Eclipse and knew I had to get it. This was truly the starting point of my collection which led me to research other Piplup cards and language variants on Reddit. I eventually found other Piplup collectors with their collections on Reddit and @citriina 's here on e4.
I do have a Google spreadsheet to keep track of this collection as well as other cards I decided to pick up (e.g. Eeveelutions, other grass/water type Pokemon, and certain trainer cards). It’s not as polished so I won’t be sharing it live for now, but will take screenshots as I come across Piplup cards and update it here!
Current Binder Collection (4x4) by VaultX
As mentioned above, I acquired a couple of cards before I really started diving into finding cards to order from and starting my collection. At the front and first page of my 4x4 binder, I decided to display Milotic RH from Supreme Victors (even though not a Piplup card, but a special card dear to my heart and what kickstarted my OG collection back when I was a kid), Character Rare Piplup from Cosmic Eclipse English variant, Holo Piplup from McDonald’s Collection 2021, and JPN Palkia Half Deck Piplup.
Other cards I already had before this post are: the BK Platinum stamp promo, JPN Holo 1st edition Shiny Collection, and the non-holo version of Piplup from McDonald’s Collection 2021.
That’s all I have for now! I have a couple of orders I’m waiting to receive, but will update y’all when those cards arrive!
Thank you for reading if you made it this far
~Chi
I may post the penguin plush collection at some point in the future! Need to figure out how to get them all in one photo haha 
I didn’t realize how big the plush collection got since penguin plushies aren’t too popular. I have a personal rule where all penguin plushies acquired are either found in person by me or given as a gift. No online ordering for them or it would definitely get out of hand for sure LOL.
Hmmmm… 
And that art on that Triumphant Rapidash is also really nice looking!