Hello everyone!
Thank you for checking out my collection (and first post)! I prefer to collect VERY slowly, focusing on the few cards that are meaningful to me in some way. As such, I don’t have a large collection, but it is well loved (almost as much as my lab)!
In any event, I’ll include a few captions for reasons why I’ve collected specific cards, but spoiler tag them for those that’d rather simply peruse the card images (which is completely valid).
This is my front page. Suicune gold star is my favorite card in my collection. Despite being much cheaper in the past, it was always an unobtainable grail for me despite always yearning to own it. When I finally acquired this copy from the first card show I ever attended in 2021, I was simply ecstatic.
As for the Hoenn starters, well they are simply the best. Any contradictions to that objective truth will be viewed as wildly fallacious anti-Hoenn propaganda!
This page features my four favorite ex cards. This specific copy of Ninetales ex is one of two cards from my childhood that has survived multiple moves and an extended hiatus from collecting (typical teenage distancing from my ‘childish’ interests). Ninetales was the first ex card I ever pulled from a pack, an event that I had limited opportunities to partake in. Thankfully, I’m fortunate that my mom has always been very supportive of my nerdy interests, and knowing how sentimental the ninetales ex was to me, she absconded it (for safeguarding until I was older) when I gave away most my collection as a teenager.
Arcanine, Suicune, and Milotic are all Pokémon I love, though none of these specific cards have the story attached to them as ninetales does.
I’m a Hoenn hoe, so alongside the starters, owning my favorite ex cards of some of Hoenn’s most iconic legendries was a must!
Two (quick) stories here: Ex delta species released on my 7th birthday, which as a kid I thought was really neat to share a birthday with a Pokémon set. As a present, my mom allowed me to pick out a pack of cards at Walmart. Excitedly, I searched for the brand new set, but to no avail. However, they did have some TRR packs in stock. I pulled the Dark Houndoom holo (not this specific copy), and have cherished the card since.
Milotic from Hidden legends was the first card I remember pulling from my first pack ever, so it is both beloved and nostalgic. So much so, I drew the proceeding (rather poor) illustration of it as a kid for my 3-ring binder cover (which amazingly survived to today)!
More artworks that I simply adore : )
The next section of my binder is what I consider to be the magnum opus of my collection: All of the HGSS legend cards and the CoL SL cards (as well as the honorary ‘Arcanine and Ninetales legend’).
It took me approximately four years to acquire them, and I couldn’t be happier to showcase them in this post!
HGSS as an era is very sentimental to me because it is when I returned to collecting briefly following a hiatus during the DPP era, and before taking a longer hiatus from BW to late SM. Furthermore, (and more influentially with respect to personal sentimentality) I was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and so HGSS was an essential distraction that was invaluable for helping me get through that period of my life.
Last but not least, is my modern section. While there are many pulchritudinous IR cards, I relatively recently sold what I had to focus on my favorite SIRs, as the lower quantity of the latter feels less overwhelming to collect (yet still admire)! This includes the gen 3 SIR pokemon (excluding the SV base Gardevoir, as I prefer to not include multiple copies of mechanically identical cards); Ho-oh for my HGSS fanfare; Zacian for my canid fanfare; and the gold pikachu, since I pulled it and wanted at least one pikachu card in my collection.
Thanks again for taking the time to peruse my collection! I feel privileged to post my humble collection amongst a breadth of stunning curations that are E4. I look forward to updating this post once I complete the next page(s).
Have a wonderful day (and fellow hoenn hoes, you can have a wonderful week ; )
The EX era is really full of beautiful cards, and Milotic’s illustrations have such regality to them. Absolutely enjoy the Milotic illustration you kept from childhood too!
