Loving everyone’s answers and hearing stories about those early Pokémon years. Keep them coming!
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Opened many boxes when I got back in '20 and still looking for sv49 to this day. Early days.
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I had no idea what cards were available when I was a kid. I remember watching openings on youtube back in 2007-09ish, but it never clicked to me that there we different sets.
I grouped cards into “vintage/old stuff my cousins had” and things I can buy at the store. 90% of the time, I would ask for Lv. X tins that had different promos from the ones I had and consider that a win.
That being said, the TRR theme deck Dragonite, Secret Wonders Charizard and Mew are some of the most iconic cards I opened and still have.
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Neo Lugia. Badass! (But i wasn’t hoping for it…)
I never pulled anything really good until college, partly cuz I was a poor kid and rarely opened packs at all… Wanted a crystal celebi really bad, and I bought my first booster box: Skyridge. Ripped into that sucker and got a crystal golem early on. In the last pack, I pulled a reverse crystal celebi. BOOM! I’ll count it.
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pulled charizard but i didn’t want a charizard
wanted ninetales instead. later in life i wanted to pull a lass from base set because i think she is soso cute but i’ve never pulled that either.
i always get great pulls but never what i want
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I remember pulling Lass. She was the rare that nobody wanted because she wasn’t as useful in gameplay. I look back now and think fondly on that card… how many Lass were tossed because she just didn’t make the deck?
I pulled one when I was a kid as well, funny enough I was at a Pokemon camp at the YMCA. I didn’t even know the card existed and it was definitely a “WTF” moment when I pulled it. Everyone at the camp crowded around me to see it. I held onto it since then and in 2020 I graded it, got a PSA 8. Then cross-graded to CGC as a CGC 8.5. Pretty good condition for being such a young kid 
Shout out to young me.
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As a 7 y.o. kid when Pokémon was released I never even used a PC or internet, so I didn’t even knew what cards would come in a set. So whatever I pulled was always a surprise.
The only card(s) I remember wanting to pull later on, which I haven’t pulled btw, where the 3-star rarity Shining cards from Neo Destiny. My little brother did pull the Shining Steelix, though. 
Then again, he gave his entire collection to me a few years ago, including his Shining Steelix (and Shining Gyarados and Crystal Nidoking, although I had the Shining Magikarp and Crystal Kingdra as a kid). 
PS: My first (English unlimited Base Set) pack contained a Chansey, although I traded it for a Pidgey, Pidgeotto, and Vulpix, since I wanted more cards and didn’t care too much about holos. 
Greetz,
Quuador
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I pulled a base 2 Charizard at one of my birthday parties surrounded by my friends. Pretty sure I screamed harder than a Poketuber. The moment was pretty amazing although I’ll admit that even back then Base 2 didn’t excite me since it’s just reprints with a different stamp. A little later I pulled a shining tyranitar from a pack I bought from a KB toys and didn’t open anything else until I came back to the hobby in 2015. Other than that my life was pretty much filled with non-holo trainer cards.
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Much like a lot of kids opening packs, I didn’t really have any concept of what cards were in what sets. My sister and I were with my mother at the dollar store, and they had the POP packs for $1 each, much cheaper than the packs at other places. My mother was in a good mood, so we bought out the rest of them and split the packs between me and my sister.
I ended up pulling the Piplup from one of them! It’s part of my og Piplup collection from when I was a kid, and I treasure that experience.
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I had a target card for every set all the way through (Zard for Base; Scyther for Jungle; Kabutops for Fossil, etc)…but luck was never on my side.
It wasn’t until Expedition that I actually pulled the card from the set - I still vividly remember buying three packs on release & hit the Charizard holo right off the bat. It was my first Zard pull, and the pack also included a reverse holo Cloyster & the non-holo rare Mew to boot. The other packs had both Tyranitar holo & Cloyster holo in, so that was a good day all round.
The one other occasion (shows how poor my pull luck is over 24 years) where I hit the top goal, was Charizard ex from FrLg: asked for four packs of Legend Maker at the counter of my local toyshop, and the shop assistant pulled out FrLg by mistake. I was already shy enough buying Pokémon cards as a teenager, so didn’t say anything & walked away with the wrong packs, thinking I only really wanted the Zard from that set but obviously wouldn’t pull it…I’d never even pulled an ex at that point!
But fate was clearly in the driving seat that day, since I got home & third pack in - there it was - Charizard ex! I actually had a speechless moment when it registered what I was holding in my hand.
Both of those prized Zards sat in a drawer, until I decided to finally grade them together in 2019. Now they’re best buds with matching grades & sequential certs:
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