All of us have interests outside of Pokemon (I hope). However, only some of us actively collect beyond this franchise.
For those who only collect Pokemon, why do you think that is? Are you willing to look into other collectible hobbies? Why haven’t you taken the plunge?
For those who seem to collect everything, why do you think that is? What is your next collecting journey outside of Pokemon? Are there collectible circles that you would never consider joining?
Speaking for myself, I have always collected. Whether it be Coins, Trading Cards, Video Games, Neggs (Shoutout to anyone who played Neopets who remembers Neggs), artwork, or even back when I was 5 years old and just collected rocks and “crystals” from my yard and walks with my family.
For myself, it has always been about treasure. I was enchanted with pirates as a child. My favorite Disney movie was Treasure Planet, followed closely by Pirates of the Caribbean. The scenes on Treasure Planet, Isla De Muerta, or the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin captivated my attention. I dreamed of a big, heavy chest full of things that I found valuable.
There is something uniquely satisfying that scratches my monkey brain about holding something that has value that nothing else can quite come close to. Take that urge, combine it with my love of games and pets, and you have a perfect storm for a Pokemon card collector!
If only I hadn’t given it up as a teen and kept all my old cards. Glass half full, though, I now have the joy of recollecting all those old classics and adding to it with a fresh appreciation for Modern!
I collected anything and everything as a child. Pokemon cards, DBZ disks, stamps, coins, stickers, bottlecaps, matchbox cars, gemstones and so on. I just loved collecting. But it became overwhelming.
Around the time I reached highschool, I made the decision I wanted to cut down my collections. I decided to keep collecting Pokemon cards because I loved Pokemon more than anything as a child and it took up less space than other collections. Also it was easy to keep track of what I owned and which cards I was missing.
The only other collection I kept and still add to passively is my coin collection. That was passed down from my grandparents to my mum and then to me.
I enjoy anything that adds to leisure enjoyment. From childhood passions that continue (cereal toys and various card types), to a muscle car or three in the shed, and gem/opal hunting and vintage bottle collecting. Its a part of me… harmless, keeps me vital and out of the ‘pub’
I’ve ‘tried’ collecting many different things, but Pokemon cards seem to be the easiest in terms of sticking with it. I’ve all but been priced out of retro game collecting at this point, Nendoroids are hard to set up after moving so many different times, books take up a lot of space as do plushies…
Pokemon cards are fairly easy to store. They can be heavy while moving, but not nearly as bad as books. I still have a 20-pound mattress bag full of plushies in my closet awaiting to be set out for display, but I have no room. With Pokemon cards, there is so many different Pokemon, characters, rarities, etc that even if I can’t afford a coveted card, there are plenty others in my price range to keep me happy.
I still love the thrill of collecting things, but it’s hard to do with limited space and budget.
I have several modest collections, but at some point realized it’s not possible or prudent to try to have them all be the same level of commitment. Pokémon takes top billing, but I engaged with a lot of franchises as a kid and young adult.
It also occurs to me to point out that you do NOT need to collect something to be a fan. There are other franchises that I have no collectibles from that I’m still quite fond of
As a kid I collected stones and stamps, Smurfs and spoon-baits and much more I don’t remember right now. Later I started with Deciphers Star Trek TCG and Star Trek merch. It was a feeling as if you were a part of this universe, or belonged to it, into which you could immerse yourself after the end of every TV episode.
Sometimes I collect data: the names of goddesses or a list of the Korean TV shows I have watched to keep track of it.
When MtG did the Doctor Who spin off I couldn’t resist and then it needed only a little push to start with Pokémon.
I am constantly amazed about how cool looking ones new lego sets are and i would definitely want to collect those too, if everything wasn’t so damn expensive these days i would probably be neck deep in them too but i know splitting the effort would just probably give me fomo between both of them. Better be neck deep in only one thing than waist deep in two things but with a lot more dissatisfaction and limiting factors with both of those
Exactly the same for me. 
Started collecting pretty stones from the garden, walks, and vacations from age 5.
This later as a teenager became a mineral, gemstones & fossil collection - which I still have today, although don’t really collect anymore. Half of this collection is in a refurbished metal cabinet with drawers, and the other half spread across my living room - most of which in a glass cabinet.
I’ve also collected post stamps from age 6. I took over my mom’s, uncle’s and grandma’s collections when I was 14 or so. Stopped that collection a few years later, although I still tried to get all (Dutch) Christmas stamps of every year. I think I have all Christmas stamp sets from 1989 to at least 2018/2019 or so. After that I still ripped the post stamps of letters we received, but no idea if I have all of them for all the years after that. 
That collection is mostly collecting dust in my attic now. But it’s still cool to have a collection spanning three generations. 
Me and my little brother (with help from my parents of course, or actually, mostly just my mom) also collected loads of Dutch supermarket collectibles: Flippo’s (aka pogs); Happy Tails (aka a brand of stuffed animals), including their Christmas finger puppet versions; FoxKids/TV cards; Pokémon pogs; Yu-Gi-Oh pogs; 3D animal cards and 3D-glasses; etc. etc.
Apart from the regular Flippo’s, which I threw away during a cleaning once (kinda regret it), I still have all of these little collectables (somewhere).
As for TCGs, I started collecting Pokémon TCG cards at age 7, until roughly age 15 or so. Yu-Gi-Oh from age 11 until maybe 16, and then again from age 21, up until I started collecting Pokémon from age 24. Now, turning 34 two weeks from now, I’ve been collecting Pokémon TCG cards for roughly ten years; as well as non-TCG Seviper stuff for roughly 4-5 years; and one of each Yu-Gi-Oh rarity for about 4-5 years as well.
Apart from Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and those earlier mentioned supermarket cards, I’ve never collected any other card games.
One other very big collection of mine was twisty puzzles. Started that collection near the end of 2012 (at age 22, let’s stay consistent in mentioning those 
) after asking for some twisty puzzles for Sint Nicolas (Dutch holiday similar to Christmas), since I didn’t knew anything else to ask. After enjoying those, I started buying A LOT myself, and the collection rapidly grew. Collected those until 2019 (age 29) or so, when I was focusing more and more on Pokémon. I have sold some of my puzzles since then, mostly the ones I didn’t like very much, but I still have over 400 twisty puzzles left - some of which I’d still tried to sell (all those puzzles are still in their moving boxes since I started living on my own though - and the book cabinet they used to be in now holds my Seviper non-TCG collection ).
I’ve also had some digital collections within games, like trying to get all weapons in TF2 (except for the Golden Frying Pan / Wrench for obvious reasons); or the best level 19 twink gear for WoW or level 15 twink gear for FlyFF. 
As to answer your questions.
Maybe it’s also in my genes, since my grandma on my mother’s side also collected a lot. Like the post stamps she gave me, but she still collected Swarovski crystal figures, and mouse figures (my grandparent’s last name roughly translated to Mouse Mountain, so they decided to collect those one day) in her old age.
And two answer two other questions of my own:
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, but I still had a goal to work to and try to complete. Likewise with all my other Pokémon sub-collections (except maybe Seviper non-TCG stuff). Every one of them has an end goal to complete it.Greetz,
Quuador
I started collecting stamps. But it got old, because I didn’t like the display options, etc. Pogs… gameboy games… Finally Trading cards, and while I’m not a direct subject of Dyl’s post "Those who only collect PkMn, I’m trying to stop collecting other things. I’ve realized there’s only 2 collections that bring me joy: TCG and my D20s, because they are oft connected to sentimental moments in my life. Everything else is largely impulsive, and clutter… Even if I really appreciate it.
I’ve always collecting things, and always will.
It’s my attempt to give myself a sense of control in a world that’s hard to control.
My only real contraints on what I collect are that it needs to be relatively small given I’ve moved as much as I have.
When I grow up someday, and settle in one spot, I’d love to start a vintage book collection.
Pokemon:
Like most of us, I started the first year of its North American release. Haven’t ever truly left, but had periods of disinterest in the TCG up until 2015, though I have always been interested in the video games. Got back in the TCG to play in regionals and cube draft. Nowadays I only really buy modern for cube purposes and may pick up a big graded vintage card every couple years. I’m more of a player than collector.
Non-Pokemon:
I have cubes for Magic, VS System (the old UDE version), and Star Wars Miniatures. Again, here I’m more of a player than collector.
Yugioh is and probably always will be my One True Love. Started during 2002 and never left. Made a lot of friends competing in tournaments and truthfully most of my friends today are from that time. We still play older formats and, unsurprisingly, cube. It’s hard to put this game down. As for the collection side of it, I’ve been working towards the original Duel Monsters era in graded 9 or 10.
is taytay just another pokeman or… 
It’s wild how many of us started out collecting stones! I found rocks I liked in the garden, smashed them against a bigger rock and tied the shards back together with rubber bands and called them “rock puzzles” 
I also collected beer bottle caps I found while playing in the park and stored them in an old animal crackers tub. The caps had pretty designs and every once in a while I would lay them out on the carpet and make mosaics
I also used to collect rocks! And coins.
These days I mostly just collect Pokemon cards, because 1) I love them, and 2) they don’t take up a lot of space in my small apartment.
I’ve got my current japanese pokemon collection, and my new digimon collection that I started a few months ago.
I never thought of my books as a collection, but I guess it counts. I have about four full bookcases, and that’s just books I’ve read and kept, or books on my to-read list. There’s quite a few books I’ve read and either sold back to a second hand store, given to people, or were from a library in the first place.
My most “grown up” collection would be my dishes (lol). All of my flatware is vintage Denby, all matching. It’s from a series called Sherwood (which is the shape) in the Colonial blue colour. I literally got ebay just to find these dishes, and only after 6 or 8 months did I think to look up pokemon cards on there - when 151 put them back on my radar.
I have (in sets of 8) small and large bowls, breakfast, lunch, and dinner plates, pasta bowls, cappuccino mugs and saucers, tea cups and saucers, coffee mugs, and one each of a teapot, sugar bowl, pizza plate, casserole dish, and serving dishes of a few sizes. This all took about a year and a half to piece together from listings like “2 dinner plates and 1 teacup”. But, it looks so good together and I use it all, it’s not just sitting there. I’d like to pick up some extras in case anything accidentally breaks over the years.
I only collect Pokemon. I don’t really have the itch to collect anything else at this point which is probably a good thing considering the amount of money and time I spend on Pokemon. Honestly the thought of learning all the nuances of another collectible sounds exhausting too
Time for another guitar pic. This one is special for several reasons, one of them being the ginormous piece of rosewood used for the neckthrough construction. My friend the cameraman is almost a little too visible through the high gloss body finish. The wings are black limba.
I have plenty well atleast Pokemon ones lol
It’s too expensive. I already have abandoned collection goals in Pokemon, hard to then consider others. I collect mainly for the art so any TCG with nice art or themes would look good.
I’ve seen I think xileets MTG Land collection posts which look fantastic and MTG has a lot of nice art as well. Lorcana art is hit and miss, but since I watched every Disney and Pixar movie, a lot of it appeals to me as well. It’s nice having a themed set which Pokemon is unfortunately bad at achieving lol.
I used to collect DVDs/Blu-Rays of movies I liked whilst I was studying in the UK but stopped after I returned home since they are non-existent here and importing just cost too much.
Same with “The Art of” books, which are mainly concept art books of animated movies. Really beautiful but too expensive here.
