The first ultra rare I pulled was a Stakataka GX. (I only got into Pokémon a few years ago) I traded it away. The guy still has it. I’m gonna get it back for nostalgia purposes. My actual first card was a Mcdonald’s Swirlix. I still have it.
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All the memorable moments happened in childhood, generally speaking I had really bad luck with pulls and all chase cards had to be acquired by trading.
Legendary Collection was certainly my nemesis, no holo pulls and most of the reverse holos were junk. Only spark of hope was reverse holo Gyarados, I still have it stored somewhere but the condition isn’t best. This experience is most likely one of the biggest reasons ( besides E-series borders ) why I stopped buying Pokemon back then.
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Appreciate everyone sharing so far. It’s awesome reading how so many of us got introduced to Pokemon as well as the little fun tidbits. @xileets you particularly have an interesting story with that card but hey a Zard’s a Zard. XD And @quuador, I feel like in 50 years you’ll tell the greatest stories to your grandkids about the interesting tidbits of Pokemon - I hadn’t known about the Marill error before!
Ey! You got that Gyarados at least. XD I know you collect sealed stuff typically, but do you ever open Japanese anymore? I’ll buy maybe one pack nowadays from a new English release but will always be down to opening a box of Japanese stuff since the pulls are so personally satisfying.
Getting back on topic, another card that’s memorable to me is Venomoth:
Long story short, I have a weird ability where I can pass out at will. This kid wouldn’t let me play his Pokemon Red game while letting all of the girls in our neighborhood play instead. I had just finished a trade to get a Venomoth card and saw him again doing this, so I threatened to pass out if he didn’t let me play, he called my bluff, so I blacked out. You know, like any rational and typical middle schooler would.
I wake up in the hospital repeatedly asking, “Do I have a Venomoth card?” looking for it, finding it, then “passing out again”. I did this several times and remember each time, until I finally snapped out of it and woke up in a hospital bed drinking gingerale. Apparently I had been awake all that time but my family told me I was asking about the Venomoth card for several hours every 10 or so minutes.
I was dumb but hey, the kid let me play the next day. XD
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My first pull was base set Chansey. It was the best because it had 120HP! Wow!
Around the same time I pulled a no symbol Scyther I always thought was a part of base set. It’s always been one of my favorites. 
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@azulryu
Last box I’ve opened was japanese Shining Legends ( almost 4 years ago, oh man ) but at least it had dream pull Shining Lugia + HR Zoroark.
It’s so hard to compare doing openings now vs. as a child when all the info wasn’t constantly available on internet. I can’t be only one who enjoyed that shroud of mystery back then. 
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That would be the Test Tube Mewtwo/Mewtu I pulled from a Shining Legends ETB in my first month back in the hobby in 2018. 
I heard many stories of people getting really lucky in their first few boosters and being hooked from there - although I went from opening boosters to collecting promos rather quickly 
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Without a doubt Kyurem EX Full Art 96/99 from Next Destinies is my most memorable pull. I was just getting back into cards since my youngest brother was playing a lot with his own friends. We got a few packs from Walmart and I pulled the Kyurem on one of the first packs. Over the next year we would pull two more of those cards, of course playing with all three of them in decks.
Another fun memory is pulling the Rayquaza secret rare from dragons exhalted and not realizing what it was. I found it much later going through stacks of bulk.
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I remember pulling a Nidoran Male holo card from my very first Topps pack I didn’t open any TCG packs as a young kid unfortunately as my parents didn’t buy me any as Topps was cheaper so I don’t have any WOTC memories. But, I remember opening my first Ex series packs. And the first ever ex card pull of mine was a Raichu ex from Ex Emerald so that card also gives me special memories. However, I don’t own either of these original cards anymore 
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Really cant remember what my first pull was but I do remember going to the local newsagents and buying a base set pack off the rack with my pocket money and pulling a base set charizard on the way home, putting it back in the pack for protection and running home like Charlie with a golden ticket
Unfortunately it got mixed up with lots of other zards that I graded and im pretty sure I sold it, a silly decision that i still regret
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My first cards were from the Base Set 2-Player Starter Set. My first booster pack pull, however, was a Shadowless Venusaur. My little sister got a Gyarados. And while we didn’t refer to them as “Shadowless” at the time, the distinction was soon made based on the colors of the cards (especially the Gyarados).
There wasn’t any extreme jubilation like a box break on YouTube—I really didn’t know what to expect since it was my first pack and the game was brand new. I just remember gazing at the cards in awe. The weight was felt but not quite understood.I’m also happy to report eleven-year-old me kept hitting that same box at the comic shop for a few weeks. 
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My first booster was an Expedition Booster pack! My Grandma got it for me, and I feel in love with the cards right away. My first pull was this non-holo Meganium.
Of course, I still have this card!!
After bugging my parents non stop about Pokemon, we made an agreement that I could get more cards, only if I learned how to play the game. We went to Target that evening, and each picked out a theme deck.
Because dragons are super cool, I got the EX Dragon FireFang theme deck!
My parents ended up with an Electric Garden Theme Deck:
We played these cards to death, and had so much fun finding ways to improve our decks with new cards.
Playing the game eventually got me interested in prereleases, tournaments, and Pokemon events. After that, I was completely hooked! Unfortunelty I haven’t played the TCG in a while, but I want to get back into it after COVID calms down. For now, I’ll continue to hoard singles for my binders.
Since my first cards were E-Reader and Early EX E-Reader cards, these have always been my favorite sets. Both EX Dragon and Expedition feel like my “base sets” (Especially EX Dragon) so I’m going to go extra hard completing these master sets.
Thanks for this great thread! : D
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A memorable moment for me was more recent. I bought A pack in PokeRev’s 1st edition Neo Rev break…
Important detail… my middle initial is W and my last is M.
Well he gets to what I thought Was my pack… Cody W. I’m thinking that’s weird that they used my middle initial but whatever. Opens the pack… no holo. Oh well it was a lot of fun. I stopped watching and went in with my day. A week later I receive my pack from him and throw it straight into the safe. Didn’t really care to open and look at it.
Well a month goes by and I decide to break it out and check the cards out… to my surprise there’s a ho-oh holo. I’m thinking WHAT!? So I go Back to the stream and sure enough I had one of the last packs not the one that I thought was mine. It was a very cool and unexpected surprise lol.
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Armaldo ex from EX Legend Maker. For some reason at my school the craze was all about having the highest HP, and at that time I think that Armaldo ex card with 160HP had a higher HP than most other ex cards at the time (That Wailord ex with 200HP was the holy grail). I remember the next day at school a lot of people in my grade and the grade above coming up to me to see the card and wanting to trade. Been hooked on shiny cardboard ever since.
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First card I ever had was a Jungle Pikachu. I don’t remember exactly how I received it, but I remember looking at it a lot. I carried it around with me sometimes when I was 5/6 years old to school and what not and used to have it in the first pocket of my favorite binder for many years after despite it being in rough condition. Today it is the world’s only PSA 1 Unlimited Jungle Pikachu
I had a ton of Pokemon cards growing up but for some reason I can’t recall really opening packs ever. I know I did some; but I spent most of my birthday money/allowance on N64 and GameCube games over Pokemon cards at that point in my life. So my first memorable pull was from a Base Set pack I bought off ebay in 2012 when I was getting back into collecting Pokemon cards more heavily and really wanted to crack some old packs. I opened an art set of loose base packs and pulled a Nidoking holo that lives in my Base Set Binder.
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Great thread idea! Some of my first really memorable pulls were these 2 from Dragon Frontiers while outside my local card shop. My memory tells me that I got both out of the same pack. So I guess it was either in back to back packs or an amazing error pack. Regardless its a moment I hold dear where I felt feelings I continue to try and capture again and again through collecting.
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Not only are they still in my top favorite card lists consistently to this day, I am extremely fond and nostalgic for them because they are my most memorable cards that I first ever saw of Pokemon. The first couple packs I ever remember opening had these, and I cared more about them than the rares I pulled. The first rare must’ve been a Beedrill if I remember correctly. Still love that card too, but these overtook me. I still gleam at the brilliance of the artwork. Same field it seems…
There is nothing more fond for any of us than opening our first packs in '99 for those who were there. The smell of these cards was bliss. Nothing less.
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That’s pretty cool that you played the game with your parents. 
Did you parents ended up collecting Pokémon as well for a while after this initial Deck?
Greetz,
Quuador
@quuador , My parents never collected, but they played the game with me! Every time we went to an event, they would bring a deck to play with. They never played meta decks, and always built their own combos and strategies.
My mom played a deck with Octillery :
It focuses on stacking as many energy cards on top of her deck as possible, and then rolling a pile of dice. My mom really likes random chance style attacks , so this was her favorite deck to play!
My dad played a deck with this Torterra:
With Super Scoop Up, it became easy to evolve Pokemon very quickly with Torterra’s sunshine song ability. This deck snuck its way into the top 16 at Regionals at one point, ha ha!
They definitely still support my collecting hobby today, and are complete enablers. Also, they understand Pokemon cards are art pieces, which is really great! I explained that I wanted to make a large purchase for my collection (Raw Ray Gold Star) and they strategies with me on ways I could get my hands on the card.
I’m really thankful for them, and they’ve made this hobby so much fun!!
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One of my friends bought me two packs and the starter deck as a birthday gift. I didn’t even know the TCG existed, but Bulbasaur was my first Pokémon in Blue and my first card pulled out of a 1st edition pack.
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I grew up with 2 order siblings that really liked pokemon when it first came out, and so they would share with me but never got the crazy stuff for myself but I can remember clearly having the team rocket charmander and persian from jungle, and a hitmonchan from base and a fossil horsea. I dont have my childhood collection anymore, it got lost in the years unfortally. The first 2 cards I got when I grew up were base 2 charizard and dark charizard holo back when I played yugioh and i used them as tokens. I ended up selling all my yugioh cards but I kept my charizards and still have them today! So I hold them close to my heart. I was poor for a long time in my adult life but I would buy vintage packs when I had a chance and I ended up buying 3 shadowless packs and got 2 holos from them, a Gyarados and Charizard, graded charizard and got a 9 and that is my favorite card from my collection bc I pulled that base shadowless charizard myself! How cool!
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