I do love that E4 is the top search result for a number of obscure TCG related topics.
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My first foray into the forum was actually for my first iteration of my Piplup spreadsheet! I was looking for an easy way to find all of the cameos without having to go and look at every single card in existence up close, and I found this thread: List of All Pokemon TCG Cameos (English) which was extremely helpful in putting together my English spreadsheet.
Later on, as I was researching non-English releases, this forum kept popping up in the search results, and after using a lot of the resources already provided here, I decided to actually make an account. Since then, Iāve had the joy of sharing my collection as well and interacting with all of you lovely people here too, and itās been a wonderful collecting experience jumping back into the hobby.
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Itās great to see how many people were drawn to e4 by my cameos article 
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Absolutely brilliant work o7
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I donāt quite remember how I found this site in the first place, but I think I was trying to look up information about cards and grading because around late 2020, I had decided I wanted to try to flip some Pokemon cards (I was playing the online TCG a lot at that point and figured that might be a fun way to interface with the physical TCG). I was completely new, not having touched any TCG cards since probably Team Rocket in the WotC days, so I probably was trying to look up things and understand the cards better. I remember what motivated me to make my first few posts was that I was thinking about trying out grading and wanted to ask a few questions. Then, after a bit, I went dormant for about a year and a half and reemerged because I actually wanted to start collecting.
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Bit off-topic here but I didnāt want to start a new topic for what could be a terrible, obvious question butā¦
ā¦who is the artist for the Topps cards? Is it just Sugimori again but without the old school watercolours? This was the same art that was in the guidebooks and magazines when we were kids and I always saw it as the ānormalā official art, separate from OG Sugimori. Looked closer to the anime.
I did try researching the question but couldnāt find a definitive answer with how bloated and irrelevant most Google search results are these days.
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I was an active poster on the reddit sub, and then someone suggested I come over to E4ā¦ maybe it was @quuador? I think so. I had posted a link to the original trophy cards on eBay, that some looney (@smpratte ) 
had posted for an insane amount. Who would pay 2 mil for some cardboard?! (This was probly 2018, when I was naive and innocent.) Then I lurked for a little while here, before I started to post. 
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Iāve always assumed itās just Sugimori arts even if itās a lot of times more rarely used ones, but canāt confirm since indeed no artist info is printed on cards and topps doesnāt keep or give basically any info of their old products
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@eeveeteam commented on a post on virbank on the book of faces and said to google eeveelution masterset and that led me here
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@tcgmaine told me about the forum. I lurked on the old site for quite a bit. Always finding it cumbersome to navigate. When the forum moved to the new site I continued my lurking ways until the art contest, then I became obsessed with earning GoOutside still I mostly lurk, tho take in some info, chuckle at some memes, enjoy an article. My new goal ā¦guess one dang card!
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Thatās a shame. I would assume it has to be Sugimori art but just coloured in a different way. The weird thing is that Sugimori art still isnāt coloured that way from Gen 3 onwards when the watercolours were thrown out.
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Pokegym was the home for players, made for rulings as the Team Compendium was the only āofficialā link for players to get those so needed rulings.
However a lot information about collecting can still be found there.
And donāt forget those lame players are the reason NR1, nr2 winner cards exists.
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i believe it was @ragingkraken on Reddit who showed me this 
whole new wooorld of E4 when i needed advice on how to start collecting eeveelutions and in what order etc etc!
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Back in 2015, I had been collecting again for about a year and it was very isolating, there seemed to be no active communities online. I started to crave having people to speak to about a topic I had been obsessed with for the past year. I searched hard before I stumbled upon E4, signing up pretty soon after that.
Iāve visited almost daily now for nearly 10 years!
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Pretty sure I was looking for a list of Eeveelutions in all languages so I wouldnāt have to make the list myself. Ended up here and found out about cards I had no idea existed, and saw a couple of good Eevee and Eeveelution collections so I figured Iād stay here.
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What a cool collection thread! Couldnāt help it, had to have a look and yeah, wasnāt disappointed. All the OGās collections are just from a different world 
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The last month or so my interest in the cards peaked to a more serious level which led the YouTube algo to feed me non stop box breaks which got boring very quickly. As Iām based in China and donāt use any social media I figured it would be hard to pick up cards but was pleased to find a thriving Chinese collector community.
Initially my thought process was mostly focused on $$$ which led me to only care for slabbed cards, searching back and forth between the apps selling and historical price websites. Having a lot of cards priced at premiums over here with I assume less supply of older cards (my main love) it was tiring.
Aware how long pokemon had been around after initially semi collecting base when introād (as a 6-7yo collecting consisted of getting cards from friends and trading them with others for bags of sour worms, including a base set zard) I figured there had to be much more info available and much deeper collecting going on.
Found the site through either tca, gem mint or sm YouTube videos and am so pleased I did. Have shifted focus onto binder collecting and will buy slabs of higher end stuff that I really like. So Iām so grateful to have found a community of people that legitimately collect to collect and share their knowledge.
My daughter is 2 and loves āCocomonā as she calls them. Just the thought of having a hobby we can share as she grows up is the thing that will keep me here for a very long time!
Thanks to everyone who contributes here as in the one week Iāve used the site I feel like my knowledge base has grown tremendously as well as my appreciation for the hobby.
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I got introduced to it by an old YouTube video from Scott where he mentioned how great TapATalk was to improve the usability of the old forum
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I rejoined the hobby when I discovered the Art Academy cards. As I googled for info, I came across the infamous Efour Art Academy thread lol.
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I was writing purely with tongue-in-cheek. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the work of Team Compendium and the place PokeGym served in the history of the Pokemon TCG community. I remember driving all the way to Michigan from the East Coast at one point to buy some cards from PokeSensei. He was so kind and I remember that fondly.
But I also think that many of the communities that spun out from PokeGym served their own important roles. Differentiating the collecting community and its goals from the other metagames relentlessly supported by the Pokemon Company has been of great value to many of us, if only in preserving our sanity.
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