Citrina's Piplup Line* Collection - 50%+

[citriina]

I’ve been waiting to do a mini update, and the final Prinplup has finally arrived (along with some other English Piplups I still needed)!

This card, the World’s 2008 Prinplup, has been the most grueling unexpected chase thus far of my collection. With only a few English cards left to complete my master set, I realized that this little penguin was impossible to find anywhere that shipped to me (how I wish cardmarket was a thing in the US).

A very kind member here pointed me in the direction of a listing I had missed - likely due to the “pick a card” format - over on the good old eBay, and several weeks and a flight over the ocean later, he’s safely snug in my binder for the rest of eternity (or something like that).

Alongside Prinplup, we also have the Build-a-Bear stamped promo Piplup (which I originally thought was released as holo for some reason, but it wasn’t- oops) and another Blastoise & Piplup GX to add to the collection!

With these three and the stamped prize pack Empoleon V being added to the mix of English releases, I just have three (3!!!) more to go before I can only stare longingly at the Tropical Winds with nothing else in English to chase (thus far!).

The final 3 are a little more expensive (nothing outrageous, but will have to wait until after the holidays), but not that difficult to come across, so I’m excited! Coming this close to completing a major goal of mine has been extremely fun and rewarding!

[citriina]

I wasn’t expecting these to come in so quickly, so this will be officially the last update of 2022!

Ironically neither of these are Piplup TCG cards, but they’re welcome additions to the collection nonetheless.

The Movie Commemoration Random Pack Buneary M is one of two cards in the set that features Dawn’s Pokémon- the other being a Piplup that I already had.

While the Buneary was a lower priority on the list, it’s been one of the promos on my radar for a while, and I’m so glad I finally decided to scoop up a copy! Cards with scenes from the anime have always been so, so cool to me since that’s what originally got me into the hobby (like a majority of Pokémon fans, I’m assuming).

Also coming in today is a Tosho card featuring ANA/All Nippon Airlines, and of course, a Piplup! The text reads “ANA original Pokémon Tosho Card”. While Tosho and transport cards aren’t part of my checklist (as I’ve said before), I do love picking them up when I can!

Here’s to 2023! Hoping everyone has a wonderful year ahead, both in and outside of the hobby.

[bbooth.78]

Hello Citrina!
First and foremost as someone who is trying to get a master set for Piplup, Prinplup, and Empoleon (At least English and Japanese), Your sheets file is a godsend. If only I had found it months ago before I made my own crude version on excel lmao
I didn’t go through every single photo and post you made, so maybe I overlooked them, but are you going to try for the Pikachu promo cards that have Piplup as well? I know of 3, Sapporo’s Pikachu, Michina’s Temple, and Captain Pikachu (a Jumbo Card). There is also a Bulbasaur Promo 30/DPT-P that has Piplup in the background.

One last thing, and this is probably redundant as either one of us would probably be happy to get even a single of the Tropical Wind '07 cards, I do believe there are 7 different English versions: plain (no stamp), Staff, top 32, top 16, Quarter-Finalist, Semi-Finalist, and Finalist.

If there’s anything I wrote that sounds questionable, I’d be more than happy to try to discuss it to help each other out!

[bbooth.78]

Oh I just also realized, you only have one Roseanne’s Research for each of the championship decks, but there are actually 4 different signed copies in '08, 4 different signed copies in '09, and 3 different signed copies in '10.
I hope this helps!

[citriina]

@bbooth.78

First and foremost as someone who is trying to get a master set for Piplup, Prinplup, and Empoleon (At least English and Japanese), Your sheets file is a godsend

Aah I’m glad my sheets file has been a help!!

There are a few new prints I haven’t gotten around to adding (Play! Pokémon Stamp for Roseanne’s Backup, etc), but the list should be more or less conclusive!

Japanese printings are in Japanese to make it easier to search for the cameos, since I can’t remember the exact wording discrepancies for the translations half the time (oops).

@bbooth.78

are you going to try for the Pikachu promo cards that have Piplup as well? I know of 3, Sapporo’s Pikachu, Michina’s Temple, and Captain Pikachu (a Jumbo Card). There is also a Bulbasaur Promo 30/DPT-P that has Piplup in the background

The pikachu promos are in the list, yes! I do have Michina Temple, and I’m on the look out for reasonable copies of the others.

@bbooth.78

There is also a Bulbasaur Promo 30/DPT-P that has Piplup in the background

I must have missed that one when putting things together- on to the list it goes, thank you!

@bbooth.78

either one of us would probably be happy to get even a single of the Tropical Wind '07 cards

You are so right on that- I do have the tropical winds listed, but they’re not on my to-purchase list any time soon.

@bbooth.78

you only have one Roseanne’s Research for each of the championship decks

Ah you’re totally right- these will be added as well!

If you see anything else that I’ve missed (besides the newest cards- gotta add those but no time recently), feel free to let me know! Best of luck on your collection journey as well!!

[citriina]

Finally got around to updating the spreadsheet again! Added in everything past Lost Origin/Dark Phantasma, plus a few promo cards and variants I originally missed. I can’t find any conclusive information on whether or not Thai and Indonesian have reverse holos for VSTAR Universe (or other sets), so if anyone has seen these, please let me know! Turns out both do have the sparkle reverses like in Japanese in case anyone reading this is also wondering!

I also had the time recently to put all of my newest acquisitions in their proper binder places. I’ve had these sitting in the back of the binder for a while, plus a few other recent pickups. Huge shoutout to @yamahap45 for helping with the Chinese cards! One of these days I’ll take proper scans of the newest pages.

Trying the slideshow function- hopefully that works!

[citriina]

Small miscellaneous update from the past few weeks!

I thought I was nearly done chasing English, but I had apparently forgotten to put each world’s deck Roseanne’s Research into the spreadsheet, and had instead only done one for each year. The 6 in this photo are the ones I was missing from 2008-2009, and the two I’m missing from 2010 are on their way to me. With those out of the way, I’m back down to two cards needed to call English complete enough for me for the time being.

The other Roseanne’s Research (Japanese 1st edition) and the Japanese Super Scoop Up (unlimited) were cheap eBay pickups. I like picking up things piecewise as I see them, especially older cards like these that can be hard to come across for sale. They’re not rare or scarce, but they don’t come up often in good condition because of that.

This Empoleon was also previously missing from my research- this is a non-holo variant from the Battle Arena deck!

And finally, the Japanese Friends in Sinnoh and Friends in Hisui. I posted about the Hisui one over in the recent purchases thread, but I was fortunate to get both for way below market.

I have several larger orders and exciting things coming in soon, so once those are here and organized, I’ll be getting a proper binder update together. (I know I’ve been saying that, but for real this time!)

[vampire]

Amazing collection and excellent choice! Piplup is so neat, love its design!

[citriina]

Thank you so much! I’m having such a good time just researching and finding all of the different variants for it. No two artists draw Piplup in even remotely the same way, so I love seeing all of the variation in design between them.

[djs55555]

Absolutely beautiful collection!! I love this so much! I also just love your spreadsheet!

[citriina]

That means a ton, thank you! The spreadsheet is a bit of my pride and joy, and I’m still finding more obscure cards I’ve missed. Having everything all organized in one place has also been a huge help to the way I sort and catalogue things!

[djs55555]

I totally get that! I have Charizard and Charmander collections that I made spreadsheets for, and I’m always looking for any cards I missed! And the organization is so much fun!!

[citriina]

Some exciting things have come in the mail over the past few days, so let’s go down the list!

First things first, for those unaware, Polish language Pokémon cards were only released for two sets: Diamond & Pearl Base and Mysterious Treasures, and because Pokémon had been releasing English cards in Poland for some time, they weren’t as popular as their English equivalent.

All this is to say that Polish cards are some of the most difficult for species collectors to come across, and I’m extremely excited to report that the Piplup has just arrived to me!

This card has been a chase since broadening my horizons from English and Japanese to all languages. One of my collecting goals for 2023 was to have at least one card for this collection in every language available, while noting that Polish and Russian were going to be the two most difficult to find. It has a bit of whitening on the back and is generally in not super great condition, but it looks just fine in the binder and is the only single I’ve found for sale since I started looking every day for one, so I count that as a win!

As an aside, this was shipped to me in a sandwich bag inside a plain white business envelope. That’s it. Yes, you read that right, a sandwich bag. I’m a little surprised (and very grateful) it’s not damaged more than I knew about prior to purchasing. MercariEN is a wild place.

Other cards from this update include this Korean Shiny Collection Piplup!

Korean was the only language (as far as I’m aware) to do the shiny gold borders on the SC cards. I had seen photos of this set in Korean, but the gold doesn’t photograph that well and looks so much better in person.

And finally, one of my bigger orders finally came in! These are all Thai and wrap up the majority of bulk cards I’ve been on the hunt for.

I found a kind eBay seller who was willing to hunt these down for me for an extremely fair price, and they were surprisingly quick as well! This now makes Thai over halfway complete, barring any new releases since writing this, at 55.88%.

These new acquisitions mean that it’s finally time to update the binder as well, so updated photos are now in the main post (as well as some fancy new formatting)!

I honestly can’t believe it’s been over a year since getting the new binder in, and already it’s over halfway full. I suspect I’ll be in the market for a 12- or 16-pocket soon, as I’d like to keep everything in one place. Until then, I’ll keep happily filling this one out!

[citriina]

Today’s update is a promo with a Piplup cameo I’ve had my eye on for a few months- the Pokémon Center Bulbasaur 030/DPt-P!

I had seen this one before in helping my sister research Yuka Morii cards for her own collection, but it didn’t register that there is undoubtedly a very blurry Piplup in the background until @bbooth.78 mentioned earlier in this thread (thank you again!). Yuka Morii has been a smaller side collection for me as well (mostly the common/uncommon cards I particularly like), so this one was on my list to pick up prior to the post above anyways. The Piplup cameo being pointed out shot this one up near the top of the priority list, and I was lucky to snag it for below market when an auction ended at a weird time.

I’m still not sure why there’s a Piplup back there instead of a Squirtle, since Charmander and Pikachu are also present, but I’m not going to question it too hard. If anyone knows the answer, I’d love to hear about it though!

[mrbubbles]

The mascot change happened when the very first Pokemon center in Tokyo which opened in 1997 moved to a different location. The original mascots of Poliwhirl, Pikachu and Charmander changed to Piplup, Pikachu and Charmander. My guess would be because the location change happened in 2007, a year after Diamond and Pearl were released. Piplup was probably the more popular of the starter trio.

The Bulbasaur card was probably pictured in the foreground of the Pokemon center Tokyo location. Piplup was then later replaced by Froakie.

Cheers!

[citriina]

I knew about the Pokémon Center mascot changing from Poliwhirl at some point, but I wasn’t aware of the timeline. This is great info, thank you so much!

[citriina]

We’ve got an exciting update ahead of us, so let’s get going!

First and foremost, my spreadsheet ( Piplup Line Collection Tracker - Google Sheets ) got a major update! I reorganized everything to be easier to see at a glance with the way I’ve redone my binder, and everything is now automatically updated when I add cards. Isn’t that neat! Huge shoutout to everyone on here with collection spreadsheets for inspiration to get mine back in order.

With the spreadsheet update, I found a handful of cards that were missing from the original version for one reason or another, so this sheet should be fully up to date with those as well. We went from 944 documented to 1018, so my total percent is now 36.44%. This still meets my goal threshold this year of 33%, so I’m happy!

Secondly, I posted a topic a while back about a giant bulk order from CardTrader, but I never did update here (oops). I was able to check off a huge number of non-English bulk cards, and I’ll be keeping tabs on stock I’m in need of and placing another order from them soon.

I haven’t gotten around to doing new photos of the binder with my new additions, but please enjoy photos of my satisfying little piles I took while placing everything in their respective slots.

Overall, I’m extremely pleased with how my collection had grown this year, and I hope to keep adding to it throughout 2024 as well. Thanks for reading!

[mrbubbles]

I just spent a substantial amount of time adoring the spreadsheet! Its glorious! Very easy to read and understand and I also like the extra columns for multiple releases with the greyed out cells indicating if there is a release in the language or not. Congratulations on hitting the goal for this year and success on the upcoming year. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

[citriina]

That means a ton, thank you! My previous sheet was getting to be a bit difficult to manage with the addition of non English/Japanese cards, and my biggest goal with the revamp was making it more easily readable at a glance. I’m really glad that came across in my new sheet.

I appreciate the well wishes- best of luck with your own goals this upcoming year as well!

[Dyl]

@citriina

Your spreadsheet-making skills are legendary. I have to imagine that many species collectors would pay you to develop similar sheets for them. You should consider offering this service for money because you have an incredible organizational/aesthetic skills that many of us do not!