Two years ago, I created a thread asking what everyone had accomplished halfway through 2024 and what they hoped to achieve before the end of the year.
Going back and rereading it has been fascinating. Seeing what people were buying back then—and what those same items are worth today—really puts into perspective how much the hobby has changed.
Looking at today’s market, what do you think still hasn’t caught up? What do you believe is still undervalued or overlooked, and why?
and to continue the tradition two years later, what have you achieved and what are you trying to wrap up before year end?
I wanted to quickly grab the Gengars to be done with it and not have to worry about their insane price points later on. I grabbed more Eevees this year that I’m really happy with. Chinese exclusives before they skyrocketed, and the Meowth from FRLG is my last for the year. 2nd half of the year is wedding time for me.
I have ordered every currently released all-language Slowpoke, Slowbro, and Slowking card EXCEPT for Thai SCB 087 Galarian Slowbro which I have been unable to find despite insane levels of effort and ripping over 10 random decks
In hand, I now have 1222 all-language Slowpokes, Slowbros, and Slowkings, which is up +227 cards from 995 cards on January 1st
Remaining goals for the rest of 2026:
New Slows are releasing this weekend with Pitch Black. This includes the prerelase Slowbro promo and therefore Staff Slowbro in all languages! I’d like to catch up as much as possible with Pitch Black releases by the end of 2026. And it’s been hinted that we may see a new Slowpoke card in the 30th anniversary set as well
Please let me find Thai SCB 087 Galarian Slowbro and let this pain end (this might become a 2027 goal…)
I’d really love to get my Portuguese cards in hand by the end of the year
Collection-wise: nothing yet. Well, except for the Korean, T. Chinese, Thai, and Indonesian Seviper and Toxtricity with Seviper cameo, since those might be difficult to get if I wait too long and they were cheap anyways.
Oh, and I also received the last missing non-TCG Battle-e card with Seviper cameo, as a free gift from @sceqtile (thanks again! ).
But apart from those few exceptions, I haven’t added anything noteworthy to my collections yet in the first halve of this year.
But, I have finally paid off the house battery I bought earlier this year; I’ve paid off all my taxes for this year; I’ve had my car repaired and approved for another year and paid for that as well; and my PC broke early last week (broken motherboard), so I’ve bought replacement parts (motherboard, CPU, and 2x RAM), put everything back together (first time I ever did that in my life.. PC hardware isn’t my expertise at all) and it’s working like a charm again.
So now that all that is said and done, I’m in the process of saving up money again for emergencies, and after that is on a reasonable level again, I will finally start buying all cards released since September last year for my Pikachu, Seviper, FA Supporter/CHR, and Yu-Gi-Oh rarity collections (~150-250 cards in total). Hopefully they haven’t increased in price too much and there won’t be too many releases later this year, since the plan is to be completely back on track with all sub-collections by the end of this year.
Got the easiest two of my personal big five. Suicune Gold Star and CoroCoro Shining Mew both in PSA 9s. The other 3 of Espeon Gold Star, Rayquaza Gold Star, and Crystal Lugia will be a much longer challenge, and a Japanese Espeon Gold Star remains a dream.
5/10 on getting Eevee and the evolutions from terastal festival in PSA 10s, hopefully I can finish this by the end of the year.
Basically nothing. Bigger goals gave way to cheaper impulse buys as vintage prices soared. I have no interest in finishing my cradily master set, aside from a Lileep from B/W because I don’t want to pay current prices for cradily EX. Oddly not miffed about this in the slightest. More interested in my current Crystal playthrough than in collection goals at this point.
My purchases are fewer than in previous years, but no less meaningful. I’m thankful to still find (what I perceive to be) great deals during this boom. If I say more about what I have been buying, it will probably work against me.
The collection achievement I’m most proud of is that I finished gathering and processing (but not storing) everything I need to complete a excessive thorough chocolate collection. One of the most tedious collections I’ve ever done such that I can’t tell if the ulcer was from eating the chocolate or the stress of needing to unwrap 151+ finicky foils with my high standards for condition. It took thousands of tries , but I’m very happy to have it
Still waiting to load the binder, but here are a few pictures of a promotional piece of the collection sitting under my bed. Big ol thing with a magnetic lid
Started my Eeveelutions spreadsheet! I don’t have a huge collection yet but am in progress of doubling my current # of Eevee/Eeveelution cards =D It’s been so fun learning from others about all the language variants!! I’m so excited for my Chinese (simplified and traditional) cards as well as a lot of Thai ones to arrive later this year!
Is that Kisses collector’s case an official thing for holding all the available chcolates? I didn’t realize (or think) they would make a official box like that!
Yes! I was surprised too, and it saved me the trouble of making a sensible display for the set. There’s extra space under the holes for duplicates in case anyone ever wants some wrappers… haha
Completed my Gym Heroes and Challenge binder sets, something which seemed so far off with the number of big holos I had to check off in NM condition. Cards like Rocket’s Scyther, Rocket’s Mewtwo, Sabrina, Erika’s Venusaur (to name some)… they’ve all been expensive in NM and required saving for and selling other things to offset some of the costs so it’s been a slow grind.
I also came across a few holos (and some commons/uncommons) in worse condition than a I thought while I was transferring all the cards into a new binder and treating them to Dragon Shield sleeves so I had to replace all of those too so that they satisfied my standard, further slowing progress.
Plugging as many gaps in my Neo binder sets will be my focus for the rest of the year.
Well, except for the Korean, T. Chinese, Thai, and Indonesian Seviper and Toxtricity with Seviper cameo, since those might be difficult to get if I wait too long and they were cheap anyways. 
).
, but I’m very happy to have it
