At long last, it’s time for me to start a thread for my Ninetales collection journey. My goal is to eventually complete an Ultra Grandmaster set: every variant, every language, including non-TCG. As of this writing the collection sits at 459 cards, which is nowhere near complete. I just transferred the collection to a 4x4 binder, so now’s a great time to give it a home here on E4!
Nearly every card you see here is unique, and the handful of exceptions are noted. Some of the holo patterns aren’t very well visible, sorry about that.
Page 0
Not really a page, just my little collection of Ninetales rectangles that don’t fit into card sleeves!
Page 1
We start at the beginning, with the base set cards. This page is one of the coolest in my opinion as it has three rare cards:
- Japanese Base Set (Expansion Pack), no rarity symbol (top left corner)
- Base Set Unlimited black flame (top right corner)
- Base Set 1999-2000 (2nd row, 2nd from the right)
On the bottom row are Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and German Base Set Unlimited cards. There is also one of the only duplicate cards in the 2nd row, a normal Base Set Unlimited. I accidentally ended up with two of them, and they both are about equal in centering and condition, so I made an exception and kept them both.
Of course, there are many Base Set cards still missing here, most notably the Base Set 1st Edition. I would eventually like to get a 1st Edition and a No Damage Ninetales, but I’ve been holding off on buying the really expensive cards until I feel I can justify it…which given the state of the collection, may be soon. To truly complete the collection, I will also need Korean and Chinese Base Set cards (1st Edition and Unlimited), which I am extremely not looking forward to. 
Throughout the rest of the collection, you will notice many of the most expensive variants missing. I am slowly running out of affordable variants to buy though, so the expensive ones won’t stay missing forever!
Page 2
Legendary Collection and XY Evolutions cards, a natural extension of the Base Set page. The obvious hole is the Legendary Collection reverse holo…one day I will find one cheap enough to justify. 
Also missing is the Evolutions non-holo from the prerelease kit, and of course there are more languages to collect.
Page 3
Brock’s Ninetales is generally quite expensive (especially in English), so I just have the one Japanese Unlimited card for now. But I do have all variations of Blaine’s Ninetales. On the right of that row are the two Japanese versions, only distinguishable by the lack of rarity symbol on the Guren Town Gym card.
Page 4
The E-reader era portion of my collection is still missing a whole lot, as these cards are generally pretty valuable, and hard to find in languages other than English or Japanese. H19/H32 and English 21/165 still elude me, as do both versions of the Pokemon Web 034/048.
Page 5
This page features one of the crown jewels of my collection, the World Champions Pack Unlimited (with matching 1st Edition next to it) at the far right of the second row. This is one of the rarest sets in the world, and out of all Ninetales cards specifically I would wager only the Korean Base Set Unlimited is rarer. The matching WCP 1st Edition (a little less rare than the Unlimited) sits to the left. Notably missing are the Dragon Frontiers and Power Keepers stamped cards, but those aren’t hard to find, just expensive.
Page 6
The Undone Seal Ninetales ex 018/083 in Japanese are the standouts here. Missing are the English equivalent Hidden Legends 96/101, which are some of the most expensive non-Base Set Ninetales cards out there unfortunately.
Page 7
Another stamp card (Emerald 38/106) is missing here, as are the holo and cracked ice holo exclusive of the HGSS 7/123 on the right side of the 3rd row. Still need a Japanese BREAK card as well. I love that some other languages call that card TURBO instead.
Page 8
Not much to say about this page. I still haven’t tracked down the reverse holo EX Battle Boost 013/093 Japanese cards…they seem harder to find than they should be. Not sure how long of a print run that set had.
Page 9
It’s a shame the My First Battle art (bottom right) was only used on that one set. I’d love to find more languages of that card, but as they are not numbered they are more difficult to track down.
Page 10
Note the Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese cards in the bottom left!
Page 11
Another Traditional and Simplified Chinese pair here in the middle row.
Page 12
For this art, can’t decide if I like the Chinese flames reverse holo (top right) or the World Championship card (middle right) more. The WC card has a unique back and a darker grey border than usual.
Page 13
This is one of my favorite Ninetales arts, it’s so elegant! The Start Deck 100 048/414 is the one printing of this art that still eludes me. I do have its stablemate, the 047/414, on page 9.
Page 14
Not much to say here, except that the one Chinese card I have for this art is Traditional Chinese.
Page 15
I’m a fan of the Chinese row (2nd) here, with the Traditional Chinese on the far left and all 3 variations of the Simplified Chinese card.
Page 16
The Thai card (bottom left) is the jewel on this page! It’s one of only two Thai cards I have. The Traditional Chinese card (top right) is nice too.
Page 17
This is a satisfying page! Another T-Chinese/S-Chinese pair on the 2nd row.
Page 18
One day I’ll be able to track down the French Jumbo version of the 026/192 (bottom two rows). It’s the only Ninetales Jumbo card, and can only be found in a Feunard V collection box. These are around from French sellers, but are listed for $200 or more. Hopefully one day I can track down just the jumbo card on its own.
Page 19
The Obsidian Flames 199/197 full art is my favorite Ninetales card, it is absolutely gorgeous! It was this card that inspired me to go for all languages, especially once I got the Thai card, which I consider one of the crown jewels of my collection. The bottom half of this page is the first half of my Mega Evolution cards, including a Traditional Chinese example.
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The latter half of my Mega Evolution cards, along with the current newest Ninetales card, the Ninja Spinner 009/083. I love this art! Can’t want to get the other languages as they release.
Page 21
Now begins the Alolan Ninetales portion of the collection! There are lots of variations of this art, and I would argue the coolest one here is the Indonesian gym promo (2nd row, left).
Page 22
Two T-Chinese/S-Chinese pairs here!
Page 23
I have a long way to go on the Alolan Ninetales full arts. The rainbow version of this card is quite pricey, as are other languages of the two versions present here. Seen on the 2nd row far right is another Indonesian gym promo.
Page 24
Despite how it may look, nearly every card here (including the multiple English and Japanese examples of each) is a different card. The only exception is two of the three 22/145 cards in the 3rd row. One is a World Championship deck version with a different back, but the other two are the standard version. It doesn’t portray well on the main image, but one of these two has a Vulpix discoloration error, which looks very different than any of the other Vulpixes on these cards.
On the bottom right is a card that I need many more versions of (languages and the rainbow version), all of which are pricey. But eventually…
Page 25
Now we begin the non-TCG portion of the collection. There are many variations of these Topps cards, and the ones represented here are far from all of them. I do have all four printings (differentiated by different-colored logos on the back of the card) represented here. First printing (blue logo) on the top row, second printing (black logo) on the 2nd row, 3rd printing (green logo) and 4th printing (red logo) on the 3rd row.
On the bottom row is my only Topps Chrome card, which you’ll notice finally corrects the spelling of “Ninetales” from the TV Animation Edition cards above. There are three rarer variants in the Chrome series (spectra chrome, sparkle chrome, and tekno chrome), and they are all very expensive.
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Onto my Peruvian cards! There are so many different ones, and I’m always discovering new ones I didn’t know existed. I have multiple pages of these cards and still have many more to get.
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More Peruvian cards. The two gold Pokedex series cards in the 3rd row have different holo patterns.
Page 28
Some more Peruvian cards and stickers.
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My mini and square cards. I love the misspelled “fire” in the top left. There are quite a few more square and lenticular cards I still have to get.
Page 30
Japanese vending machine and other non-TCG cards! I love these. The green Topsun card in the top left is one of the prettiest Ninetales cards in my opinion.
Page 31
A nice mix of non-TCG cards. The top two on the left are Battle e cards. I’m missing the silver Ninetales and Gengar Battle e 009/012 FRLG card, but those go for BIG money. I’m also missing a couple different versions of the Lamincards, and the Canadian and German versions of the Burger King promo cards.
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These are Chinese non-TCG cards. I love how unique and varied the art styles are on these.
Page 33
Poker cards! I have a lot of the ones I know exist, but there are a several notable exceptions I’m still trying to track down:
- Netz Toyota King of Clubs (front is the same as the one with green accents)
- Yellow Deck King of Clubs (front is the same as the one without green accents)
- Pokemon 10th Anniversary 2 of Hearts (I’ve only ever seen one of these)
- Kindergarten Magazine January 1999 Mini Deck 6 of Hearts (pictures Vulpix and Ninetales)
- Battle Trump Cards Mini Deck 7 of Hearts
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Bootleg and fan-made cards, plus two card sleeves in the bottom right. The two cards on the left of the 2nd row are TCG Pocket proxies. I’m a big fan of the stained glass fan cards and the Ancient Mew-styled one.
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And finally, parody set cards. These are also fan made/unlicensed, but part of actual card sets released in packs. The big one I’m still missing is the Wrenny Moo holo Ninetales, which is very expensive. I also have a Pokkedo v5 card on the way.
Whew! If you got this far, thanks for reading all that. I have a long way to go, but I’m really proud of where my collection is now and am having a ton of fun building it.