I thought it was about time that I started a collection thread. I keep all of my cards in folders so I apologise for the glare. About 95% of my collection is WOTC cards but I do collect a few odd Japanese promos which I think are unique.
I’ve been collecting since I was a child when the English cards first released but started collecting more seriously in 2011. It will take me a little while to get everything uploaded so I thought I would start with my favourite folder which contains all of my beloved promos.
WOTC Black Star Promos
Mostly complete excluding errors but I would like to get the corrected versions of the three legendary birds with Naoyo Kimura properly credited.
My all time favourite promos and the Dark Charmeleon is my all time favourite artwork. I got that card when I was a kid so I’m very sentimental about it. The Italian Pikachu is a recent purchase and my first non English/Japanese card.
A few Japanese promos that caught my eye. I really like oddities so I think that the Lenticular Sky-Splitting Deoxys and the Trade Please! with holographic back are particularly cool.
Very nice! Closing in on the Black Star set myself but still some expensive ones for me to get. Fortunately I got the Lucky Stadium sealed a while ago (shame I can’t see the card art in my binder but there’s no way I’m opening it) but still need the Pokemon Centre one. Also, was shocked to see how expensive the ‘Z’ Snorlax is these days! A NM copy is around £60 here in the UK.
I also often forget that the Best and Winner cards have 2 different flavours. Haven’t chased them seriously yet but I did grab NM Winner variants of Electabuzz and Base Hitmonchan a while ago.
Lovely pictures though and I look forward to seeing more!
Love it all. Wonderful stuff. Surprisingly people don’t showcase the best of game reverses often, love seeing them. Very underrated as reverses in the early era are few, and they look awesome.
What is your absolute favorite WOTC promo if you had to pick one?
Thank you! I got lucky with most of these and won the combined Black Star, Prerelease and W Stamp sets for around $200 at auction around 2012. That was cheap, even back then.
That’s easy. W Stamped Dark Charmeleon. That’s my favourite promo set and the Dark Charmeleon is my favourite card and artwork of all time. There’s actually a variant of it with a silver stamp that I’m chasing. One day I’d love to get a signed copy but it’s unlikely I ever will.
These are cards that had their artwork amended/censored for their international releases and also I believe for reprints in Japanese on some occasions. Possible Reasons for Censorship:
MISTY’S TEARS (GYM CHALLENGE) - Nudity
MAGMORTAR (DRAGONS EXALTED) - Magmortar’s cannon is pointed directly at the viewer and looks like a gun
ARCADE GAME (NEO GENESIS) - Reference to gambling
JYNX (BASE SET) - Blackface
SABRINA’S JYNX (GYM HEROES) - Blackface
SABRINA’S GAZE (GYM HEROES) - Rude hand gesture
GRIMER (TEAM ROCKET) - Grimer’s eyes are looking up the girls skirt
MOO-MOO MILK (NEO GENESIS) - Strange image showing an udder
CARD-FLIP GAME (NEO GENESIS) - Reference to gambling
SABRINA’S GENGAR (GYM HEROES) - Crosses shown in the graveyard
KOGA’S NINJA TRICK (GYM CHALLENGE) - Features a Swastika
The 2 Neo Gen “gambling” cards are such lazy edits for the TCG…just zoomed in to crop out the arcade itself. Contrast with Moo Moo Milk which actually has a whole new Komiya artwork…
Phenomenal collection. As a promo collector is is so awesome to see the English counterparts of such iconic and well loved cards. Binder Gang is always a win in my book. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Thank you! There’s something about promos that makes me love collecting them. I guess it’s because they feel special. Especially if they’ve had really interesting releases.
Back in the day, Gumtree was king. Now days I just have saved eBay searches and get notifications. Postage is often a killer as you’ll know. I occasionally buy from FB Marketplace but I’ve found it’s only usually good for bulk lots. I’ve never had luck getting single cards from there for a reasonable price. Even for bulk it’s a real hassle. So I buy from there less and less. For fun I sometimes go to collector’s fairs to buy in person. It’s generally about eBay prices and fun in person.
I feel your pain on shipping. I live in the UK and see good deals from the US all the time but the shipping costs to here are horrible. Was looking at some Weiss Schwarz cards last week and an average price of a few singles I was interested in was around £2-3 but the shipping was £14+ lol
From what I understand, US ebay sellers are forced to use GSP and there is no way of combining shipping on those GSP orders either. Probably why the cost is so high.
The next folder is my Base, Jungle and Fossil sets. Many of these are my original cards from childhood. No doubles. Each card is unique. Please ignore the terrible way I have laid these out with no gaps for the different variations. I will be fixing that.
Base Set
Still lots of holes to fill. My goal is to to collect the full list of 1st Edition, Shadowless, Unlimited and 4th print.
About halfway to collecting all 1st Edition, Unlimited and the Missing Set Symbol cards. My favourite card from this set is my misprint Poke Ball where the rarity symbol looks like a crescent moon. I pulled that one from a pack as a kid.
Unlimited is mostly complete but still missing a lot of 1st Editions and 3rd Prints. I would also love to collect the Cosmos Holo cards as well but those are tricky to come by. A man can dream…
where do you typically buy cards from?
