Nostalgia is a humungous factor for me. And my nostalgic eras are e-Series up through early-mid EX.
I have a difficult time feeling passionate enough to collect other cards. I’ve made exceptions, though, for the first appearances for specific Pokemon I love (e.g., 1st Ed Neo Rev Ho-Oh/Suicune/Entei/Raikou holos). And for key cards of my favorite Pokemon (e.g., Theater Vs Alto Mare’s Latias/Latios, gold star Latias/Latios, gold star Mudkip/Torchic/Treecko).
But nostalgia is the driving factor behind most of what I collect. I can appreciate the beauty of cards outside my nostalgic era, but am not particularly interested in collecting them. A lot of the new alt arts look great, but I don’t get the same fuzzy/warm feeling looking at them as I do with:
Nostalgia is a funny thing that I find really hard to tie down. I bought cards I had pulled as a kid, like the Kangaskhan holo from Jungle. Some I’ve held onto, some I’ve sold. Like for many others here nostalgia reintroduced me to Pokemon, but cards I’ve learnt about since returning like Pal City (cards I knew nothing about when they were released) are really what I’m interested in today.
I think I feel nostalgia for the Pokemon and the IP as a whole, more than specific cards. The games and the anime played a bigger role for me than the cards as a kid.
Similar to eames, my nostalgia is tied more to particular events and the games than to the cards themselves.
I have sentimental value for base set Charizard because that’s what everyone on the 3rd grade playground aspired to. Dozens of us were collectively chasing that single card. The rest of the base set outside the starters, not so much, largely because the art’s honestly pretty bad compared to all later sets.
I have sentimental value for certain base/Jungle cards because they comprised my first early deck that I competed with. I don’t care about most of the Jungle set, but I do care about Wigglytuff and Scyther for the above reason.
My collecting goals currently are very focused, and largely because of nostalgia: I’m compiling a full set of the first 151 Pokemon, featuring my favorite artwork I own for each card. This doesn’t mean it’s all vintage cards, nor do I want it to be – the artwork’s improved for most Pokemon since back then, and I’ll chase whichever artwork I like the most. I’ll trade for a modern Starmie over a vintage one because the new Starmie’s so much better. The Wigglytuff slot is taken up by the Jungle one that reminds me of my older days battling, though.
Nostalgia is 95% of what I like to collect. I love fossil/Jungle because those were the first cards I ever got. I have multiple of both English and Japanese because I am horrible with money and love seeing those holos when they come in the mail. Even the commons bring me back to when I would stare at the at as a kid (Butterfree, Lickitung, Cubone, Aerodactyl).
I buy newer cards here n there for the fun of not knowing what the cards are. I never look up what is in a set, as it lets me relive the nerdy aspect of opening boxes and checking out what is new. But it will never compete with my nostalgia addiction.
Love knowing some kiddos will have that down the road with the new cards!
TL;DR
Nostalgia got me started, but it doesn’t keep me going.
At first, nostalgia really was the driving force. I wanted to recapture what I was nostalgic for, and I often did. As time has gone on and I’ve accomplished those goals, I realized it collecting can’t recapture that nostalgia. Or at least it does less and less. Now, I collect for the things I appreciate, and it actually helps me really stay focused on my goals in general, whether they are the few collecting goals, or life goals.
@octaane That’s pretty cool! I didn’t know the Pokemon Center black star promo was actually a real place. And with an actual memory tied to that location, I can see why that particular card would be heavily nostalgic for you. (For those interested, I found a website with an image gallery of the New York Pokemon Center here, and here’s an image of the actual physical space that’s featured on the card!)
@JackL2 I don’t actively collect any cards from Jungle, but I also remember making decks around Scyther and Wigglytuff (do that wave, Wigglytuff!), with the latter being one of my favorite decks to play. I do feel a stronger pull towards Wigglytuff than, say, Clefable because of this, but it’s not enough for me to really desire having that card in my current collection.
@eames Yeah, nostalgia is a somewhat vague concept. It doesn’t have to be tied to specific cards or sets, but can be tied to different generations/games, the general feelings of the time (Pokemon fever!), or your own personal feelings/connections with the IP. Looking at the responses in the thread so far, nostalgia manifests differently for everyone and impacts their collecting goals (if at all) in unique ways.
@zorloth I feel the same way about modern cards, but not really because of any nostalgia for older cards (or maybe it is?). I can acknowledge and appreciate that the current art is great, probably better than it’s ever been, but I don’t feel a strong desire to own any of these cards. I feel this pretty strongly when I flip through my species collection—I don’t quite enjoy the cards from around Black and White and on as much as those before Black and White.
For me personally in my TCG collection, it does not factor at all. The nostalgia with Pokemon will always be the anime for me. None of the other forms of Pokemon media, whether its the games or the TCG was as popular as the anime, because it was just non-existent or not enough to go around. We had the anime dubbed in our native language, so everyone knew to sing the theme song, discuss the new episodes etc. My biggest adventure was to find some pirated DVD’s which had the first 6 movies and I was blown away that Pokemon also made anime movies besides the episodes as well.
I will say that, I am creating new memories with my collection journey now. I feel strongly connected to the cards that I collect now and I am more conscious of my collecting habits. If for whatever reason, I have to stop collecting, I am sure that these new memories will bring me back into collecting, if I was to restart again. Part of it is the overall growth as a person myself but a huge part of it is the community and some of the interactions within the community. It has been immensely lovely to find people who also have the same passion towards Japanese promos cards as you do and talk / share about it with them.
I think it’s safe to say that a significant number of people are initially drawn in to collect because of nostalgia. I am still heavily influenced by it. My childhood collection is rather small and tbh I don’t really remember much so maybe manufacturing some memory towards cards.
I do think it’s worth highlighting that some of the draw towards the early sets is that they are small and feel cohesive with only a few artists illustrating. Another point worth raising is that although I was slightly too young and at the tale end of the poke mania in the early 2000s is that I was still exposed to these cards due to friends who had slightly older siblings. I don’t know whether these early sets were still on sale in 2002/3 in the UK.
But on topic, although I don’t collect modern sets, the illustration rares are the best looking cards released in the seven years I have been collecting as an adult. This makes modern packs fun to open as an impulse purchase.
Nostalgia certainly affects my collection goals and also brought me back to the hobby, but there is another factor that guide my goals.
I feel pasión for Pokemon, and also have the “collecting gen”. But I also attracted by rare items.
I grew up with gen 1 and 2, that is where most of my nostalgia relies on.
This made me set my goals around:
Collecting complete sets up to NEO Discovery, in 1st edition.
Also going for a selection of TIER A and S English chase cards with an estimation print run of under 30.000 copies.
Nostalgia and passion keeps me going. I’m even also playing the video games when I can, remembering old times and disconnecting from life’s noise.
Btw, new to this forum… and loving what I am seeing! Thanks to all of you who give out so much value!
Those numbers come from a great work from Dan of KetchumCollectibles. He has done an estimate through all the Pokemon TCG hobby, that seems very accurate to me. Involves lots of research and knowledge.
The Excel spreedsheet can be found in the Patreon that he has with Jake of Pokenomics.
I think he started that study many years ago here… I’m sorry but I can’t remember what is his username.
Heavily. As a kid I was stuck at my dad’s workplace for most days during the summer and a few hours after school around the years Pokemon was hitting. A lot of the time i would flip through Nintendo Powers and the Red/Blue strategy guide just enjoying the art.
Now that im older most of the cards that are my “forever” keepers arnt necessarily cards I wanted as a kid, but most are from that early era through e series. I love everything else, but the early stuff gets me in a way nothing else can.
There isn’t a single thing I collect strictly for monetary value. I was big into the TCG itself going back to 99. I spent years playing online with some of the OG Goats in the TCG scene back when we had to use Apprentice and IRC.
Nostalgia is pretty big factor for me at times. Every time I see the old cards, it just immediately takes me back to playing Pokemon Blue in 1999 and the way life was back then. That short period of time is embedded in my mind so well. Another thing is that there’s so many vintage cards that I couldn’t find or afford as a kid (i.e. 1st Ed Base Set), and so now as an adult it’s very fun be able to collect them. The artwork and ‘feel’ appeals to me a lot, and so I feel a pretty strong sense of nostalgia whenever I see old Pokemon cards.
With this said, I also just really enjoy the Pokemon I grew up with (mainly Gen 1-3). I love seeing them featured in newer sets as well. I think Pokemon has done a really great job at meshing the old and new with regards to the new sets. They’ve never forgotten who and what made them so successful over the years.
I think it’s safe to say Pokemon was able to achieve some almost unthinkable things with this, to have adults return to a childhood hobby is a major achievement to me and speaks volumes of the power and influence Pokemon really has on us fans and the nostalgia we all are feeling from our childhood as well.
Nostalgia plays a huge factor for me at least. It’s why I’m collecting the base set shadowless holos. Those are the cards I first saw and couldn’t get them when I was younger. It brings me back to a time of 1999 when I was just a kid playing Pokémon red and yellow
