When I finish Neo Destiny, I will have Base through Neo Destiny in 1st Edition. However, while I am proud of this collection, the money tied up in the sets is too much to ignore at this point in my life. My plan is to finish the cards, bask in the satisfaction, then liquidate to recoup 10 years worth of investment and growth.
However, I love my sets. I do not wish to get out of set collecting, I just want to convert my collection to less expensive cards. I feel there are two paths forward for me, English Unlimited or Japanese Unlimited. I’ve been thinking long and hard about this for quite some time and can’t determine what would make me happiest. I wanted to bounce my pros and cons off of some other collectors and get some feedback and see if it helps.
The case for English Unlimited:
-WotC were “my cards” that I have the closest relationship with. They represent not only my own youth but also American Pokémania as it was. They feel like the strongest relics of when Pokémon was on top of the world and WotC’s localization of the product had a unique culture of its own that I don’t think any other language captures.
-Switching from 1st Edition to Unlimited would open me up to more sets I currently don’t collect, like Base Set 2 and Legendary Collection. I also stopped at Neo Destiny because it was the last 1st Edition set, but switching to Unlimited would encourage me to collect the three E sets as well.
-The cards are generally easy to buy due to their saturation in the US, my home country. While some sets are scarce, particularly the E-Series sets, most of the cards are easy to find and easy to buy.
The case against English Unlimited:
-Having collected 1st Editions for so long, there is a psychological barrier in going down to Unlimited. They don’t feel as special or exciting to me because they’re more ubiquitous. While the cards are still the same, there is a part of me that will always think lesser of them compared to my old collection.
-I have come to really dislike some of the localization decisions WotC made. I don’t like non-holo variants of holographic cards. They make some of the sets feel bloated. Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge had their themes messed with by mixing the gym leaders instead of doing the first four gym leaders and the last four gym leaders, plus two cards were removed. Neo Discovery and Neo Revelation had holos removed for some reason, including some cards like Butterfree and Kingdra that I really like. I don’t like some of the art changes, from minor aspect changes like Umbreon to total destruction like Sabrina’s Gengar. Base Set Charizard buried its fire breath in the foil instead of treating it like part of the art. The more I’ve come to know about these changes the more they’ve bothered me. I already collect Japanese examples of the modified or cut cards, which serve as interesting additions to my English sets, but I admit this is something that has turned my attention to Japanese cards in recent months. By the time you get to the E-Series with their bloat and incomprehensible set numeration the wheels are completely off the wagon.
The case for Japanese Unlimited:
-Even as a kid, there was something exotic and exciting about a Japanese card. Few kids had them and seeing them was like a glimpse at something prehistoric. They were an alluring novelty that gives me a little bit of a rush to see even today, which would make them more exciting to collect compared to English cards.
-While there are no reprint sets like Base Set 2 and Legendary Collection, there are other super interesting sets like VS and Web to collect with no English counterparts at all. The prospect of new cards from my chosen time period is exciting as I’ve become very familiar with English cards and there is not much left to really discover. Japanese cards would bring the discovery element back to collecting that I would enjoy a lot.
-Sets have fewer cards but are more refined and cohesively themed. I like that the sets aren’t padded with non-holos. It makes every card feel like it counts as well as producing binder pages with less duplication of art.
The case against Japanese Unlimited:
-The sets are a lot harder to buy, especially complete, and would require a lot more international importing compared to domestic cards, which means less communication with sellers. Since Japanese collectors also played the game a lot more than western consumers the cards are in much more mixed condition, completing sets in my desired condition is harder.
-I don’t speak Japanese and cannot read the cards. This is a lot bigger of a deal to me than it sounds. I understand not every collector cares if they can read their cards, but I have always taken a lot of pleasure in reading my cards as I collect them and being able to refer to them again as part of my compendium of Pokémon knowledge. Switching to Japanese would mean collecting cards I cannot read and it reduces my ability to interact with the cards textually. It becomes a purely visual experience.
-I really don’t like Japanese set numeration — both in terms of the intended sequence and the fact the cards are not numbered. I strongly prefer WotC format which places all the holos up front, which is what I feel is the “face” of the set. It also creates more diverse binder pages with lots of different species and colors. Japanese sets disperse the holos, reduce the page variety, and don’t have the “face” I’m accustomed to as an English-speaking fan.
A few other thoughts:
-I know now it is certainly possible to collect a mix of both. I could collect English Unlimited for what was localized and Japanese for what wasn’t. But something I like about collecting sets is the constancy and cohesion and treating an entire collection as a whole — as a sort of story or timeline. So I would prefer to be fully one or the other.
-I am not interested in which cards may be more valuable on the future. This is not why I collect cards so it wouldn’t motivate me one way or another.
-I know that the ultimate answer to this question is personal and it depends on whatever will make me happiest. I’m not looking to be told what to do. But I haven’t been able to decide and only have the internet at my disposal so talking about it here is really my only outlet. I thought maybe verbalizing it and talking about it would help.
So all that said, what would you tell an indecisive collector like me? I am on the cusp of something new, I’m excited to do it. I am also totally broke, so I am excited to get some money back out of my cards. Collecting is something I want to keep doing indefinitely, but I never “decided” to be a 1st Edition collector previously. It’s just something that naturally occurred. Needing to be deliberate and definitive on what to do next is not a position I’ve not been in before.
