Cullers' Collection Thread

Welcome to my collection thread

I’m going to do this collection thread a little different then what most people do. I want to update this tread with one piece of my collection at a time semi-randomly, instead of letting everything be seen right away. I’ll try and add a new addition at least once a week.

I also want to add some personality to the thread rather then just saying here’s the card look at it. So to do this I’m going to give some opinions on the card based on three categories:

Appeal of Artwork
I’m looking at three things here, the Background, the Character, and the mesh between the two. Background and Character award up to two stars each, while the mesh between the two can grant one star. Stock images will take a hit.
History of the Card
I want to take a look at the story behind the card, being mass produced isn’t as appealing as being a trophy for a tournament.
Cards Rarity
Condition will be taken into consideration, for example I can find a PreRelease Clefable it’s almost, if not, impossible to find a Gem Mint one, and little judgment is taken here just because I don’t have factory produced numbers and I’m not sure how many cards can receive the PSA grade given, but it basically boils down to the following:
5 stars- under 100
4 stars- under 100<5,000
3 stars- not mass produced but over 5,000
2 stars- mass produced but still rare
1 star- mass produced

I’ll try and give a fair evaluation for these categories and I encourage you all to give your assessment as well, feel free to add additional categories if you want to. Move on to the next post for my first addition.

2 Likes

I wanted to start out with a bit of a bang, but also didn’t want to give away the whole show.

Gem Mint Trainer Deck B Blastoise

Appeal of Artwork **
I do enjoy the colors of the background, but the overused Blastoise artwork really brings the appeal of this card down. Add in that they used a white boarder to make the background and Blastoise look like they belong together and I feel it leaves something to be desired.

History of the Card: ****
This card has a nice story behind it. Trainer Deck B’s were once thought only to be rumors till they were eventually sold by the masses. Now that supply has been depleted quite a bit and the decks are becoming harder to come by. It’s a cool story about the cards history, but it’s still not quite a PR Raichu, or Pokemon Illustrator story.

Cards Rarity ****
The cards is undeniably rare, but if you’re hard pressed to find one it’s defiantly doable, add in that most of these cards are still packaged in their decks so quality of the card doesn’t upgrade the ranking too much.

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I like this idea!

Out of curiosity, is your highest rating 5* or 4? Either way, it is a unique approach and helps others collectors appreciate the card.

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All out of 5, I forgot to mention that.

*drools*

The Deck B Blastoise is the only card I’m attempting to get graded as a 10. I have three copies so far. Just gotta send email in and hope for the best.

I knew Gary has a 9 but I didn’t know someone had a grade 10 already.

PSA 10 cards get me so excited. They’re just such epic collection pieces. Especially when it’s a card you already love.

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Too many times I see people undervalue the little cards. It makes me think we’re rare card collectors instead of Pokemon card collectors. That’s why I decided to post this under appraised card.

Gem Mint Jungle 1st Edition Persian

Appeal of Artwork ****
From the red/pink trees in the background, to the blue grass s/he lies on, everything is completely original and imaginative in the background. Add in that your eye to draw directly to Persian, and you have a very cool card. However, I don’t understand why the Persian has such hard lines surrounding it when the rest of the background doesn’t.
History of Card *
It’s June 16, 1999 Pokemon is now ready to reveal a new set of cards to collect and play with. Kids are excited for the new release of the Jungle set. Too bad 64 other cards have this same story.
Cards Rarity *
Pretty standard mass produced card, sure it’s a 1st edition, but it’s also an uncommon.

4 Likes

This thread is amazing! What a great idea. I love this Persian card big time though.

I collected as a kid and then stopped for many years, nostalgia got me back into it. The cards I remembered when I started collecting included this Persion artwork, and the regular Base energies (they are still damn cool) among many others. Thanks for sharing!

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It makes me think of the cards I remember from when I was younger. Ditto and Full Heal were the two artworks I never forgot a detail about. Ditto was the first holo I pulled and I remember having absolutely no clue what that thing on the full heal card was.

Stick it in the OP. :stuck_out_tongue:

@funmonkey54 good call. I want everyone to correct me if you feel I make a mistake, the rarity of card will probably be the most likely to be disputed. I’d much rather have my pride hurt then have false information given out, so please don’t hesitate.

Cullers, how do you feel about the Jungle Seaking? That one is a beaut for artwork.

Also I doubt there will be any disputes about information, just post as you like based on your opinion of perceived rarity.

I agree it has a really great artwork from a in both the character and background but it suffers the same downgrade from the Persian has where it uses sharp boarders on the Seaking or a lack of boarder from the background. I think my inability to look over this aspect comes from an old art teacher who used to stress to me to stop making hard lines (something I hate doing due to my love of animation). Unfortunately a lot of Kagemaru Himeno’s work will suffer this downgrade, even though I’m sure a lot of people myself included enjoy the artwork.

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I don’t see many people post non Trading Card Game cards so I thought I’d show off a card from my favorite non TCG set. Now to just choose which character…

Gem Mint 1997 Bandai Charizard Carddass

Appeal of Artwork ***
I personally find the entire 1997 Bandai set really fun to look at. Every Pokemon is performing a fighting move reminding us that these are monsters trained to do battle. For Charizard in particular just look at him in his flamethrower pose and tell me you don’t love this card, I just wish there was more to background.
History of Card **
Bandai sold this series of cards through vending machine throughout Japan. The cards came with stats about the video games in the back. Not too exciting other then the use of the vending machine before Media Factory decided to do the same.
Cards Rarity **
Another mass produced card, but unlike the TCG cards these aren’t as popular. Add in that the card was pealable so if children played with them they were rendered useless as a collectible and it makes finding this card in Mint condition a little more challenging.

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For Non TCG I’ll be showing off at some point in this thread:
Topsun 1995 - Green, Blue, Error, and Holo
Topsun 1997 - Non holo and Holo
Bandai 1996 - Red and Green
Bandai 1997 Carddass
Bandai 1997-1998 Stickers
Meiji 1997
Maybe Meiji 1998 - I haven’t decided if I want to collect these cards or not.
Meiji 1999
Nissui 1998

The artwork on the Topsun cards is absolutely classic 90’s Pokemon at its best. That alone is a good reason to collect them, maybe I’ll indulge later along the line :wink:

I’m pretty sure that Bandai Charizard is one of the cards you purchased with me as your middleman, right? In any case, glad to see it got such a fantastic rating!

I love this thread you’ve got going on here!

I can think of a lot of Charizard collectors that would absolutely LOVE to have that in their collection. Super cool conversation piece!

So far I’ve only been showing PSA 10 cards, and while I personally try my best to get as close to Gem Mint in some cases I’ve come to accept that it’s pretty much impossible and take the highest grade I can get. Like this card for example:

Near Mint-Mint Black Star Promo 4 Pikachu, Error Version

Appeal of Artwork ***
If you recognize the pose it’s because this is another one of those cards that took a pre made Pikachu and slapped it on the surface. The background is cool though where it almost looks like Pikachu is jumping into the lighting bolt.
History of Card ****
When Wizard of the Coast produced these cards a few sheets got sent into the stamping process upside down, all but one of those sheets got caught. The other sheet got it’s cards sent all around for a few lucky individuals.
Cards Rarity *****
With error cards it’s all about the rarity and this one doesn’t disappoint. With only 30 in existence this one is even rarer then some trophy cards.

3 Likes

Damn, that’s a very nice error card!