Have 4 ongoing goals at this time. Some have taken a backseat due to cost and life but I’ll update here!
Goal One: A Giant Kanto Dedicated binder featuring a Non-Holo, Reverse Holo, Holo and Special Illustration of all 151 original pokemon. Ongoing project. Expected completion date 2064. Currently at 372/604.
Goal Two: SV Cosmos Holo Collection. Genuinely love these cards. There’s about 35-40 that really stand out to me. Trying to get them all in a PSA 9/10 or CGC 10. My favourite Project right now.
Goal 3: Zapdos Binder. Trying to get every Zapdos English Card Variant. Currently at 65/91. Also have some different language cards in there just for fun! A lot of the remaining ones needed have gotten really expensive, so this one’s taken a backseat for now.
Goal 4: Favourite 20 Cards of All time. Goal is to get one ish of these a year. Don’t need them in a PSA 10, just a nice copy graded. Have always been a binder guy until recently. Have some of these Zapdos in a binder but not graded yet. I don’t think the condition is worth grading/messing up a binder for so we’ll go in fresh. These are the cards I’ve felt the most emotional attachment to over the years. I like the idea of saving up for one special little nibbler of a card per year.
1st Edition Base Zapdos
Red/Green Gift Zapdos
Squirtle Deck Blastoise
Bulbasaur Deck Venusaur
CD Promo Charizard
Ancient Mew
Zapdos Phone Card
Burned Tower Legends Promo
Rumble Zapdos (Y)
Shining Gyarados
Base Blastoise
Base Venusaur
Base Charizard
Grand Party
Zapdos Play Promo
Vending Zapdos
Indigo Plateau Legends
Mew Blackstar Promo
Mewtwo Movie Promo
Zapdos Trainer Magazine
Jimmer’s Kanto Binder
Progress
I am currently at 129/151 Non Holos, 87/151 Reverse Holos, 57/151 Holos and 10/151 Full-Alternate-Illustration Rares.
Here are some pictures of some pages so far from my initial Organization. I have about 37 more Reverse Holos in a cart from a Toronto Game Store and the total cost is under $40. I’ll probably make that order this week. It’s been wildly fun to go through and pick out cool, cheap art works.
Got excited and went to a local store and picked out two big binders from SM, XY, BW eras. Gave myself a twenty dollar budget and got these additional 19 cards. Able to fully complete my first page.
Up to 118/151 Non Holos
86/151 Reverse Holos
57/151 Holos. Slowpoke Reverse, Ninetales Reverse and the Poliwrath cards are the standouts for me!
Last week I went through a bunch of reverse holos, and traded in like a hundred of them to a LCS to get some cards for the Kanto Binder! I picked these up with trade-in credit like it’s 2005 baby! Apparentlyyyy we’re currently in “latent labour” so really no better time to write an update! Stand outs for me are the Kabutops and Omastar Reverses from Arceus, the Dratini and Dragonair Holos from DV and god I love that Magmar. Added a couple first editions and a Masterball Reverse Pinsir for good measure. I also love the Dewgong. And the rest of them! 318/604 done
Nice pickups dude! Seems like you’ve already completed over 50% of your goal, congratulations! Post some photos of your binder later, I’m curious to see how it’s going!
Appreciate it! Going to try and pick up a handful of Neo era and e-reader cards next. And the Jolteon actually looks really great with the full cosmos. It’s a modern artwork I really like! Thanks for taking a look!
Went through some of @ddk’s bulk this week and added some cards to the Kanto Binder. This felt very 15 years ago, and it was really fun to sort through a bunch of cards and pick out some artworks I liked! Thanks to @DDK for giving a bunch of bulk to my son, and thanks to my son for letting me take out these cards! Sorting through cards with family and friends is my favourite kind of stonk baby!
Love this Fearow from Battle Styles. I swear Battle Styles has some of the best common and uncommon artwork in the past 5-6 years.
Added this Clefairy and Clefable to the party. Love Clefairy playing with the moon in the background. Mt. Moon is a perfect honeymoon location change my mind! I really like Saya Tsuruta’s art so was happy to add this Clefable in the binder too.
These cards filled some slots for me! I like having one Halloween stamp in the binder as I want to represent as much of the TCG as possible! Really like the shellder and Starmie here as well. Also guess who illustrated the Koffing
My favourite find was this gorgeous Jolteon Reverse Holo from Cosmic Eclipse. The Mewtwo from Brilliant Stars is a great fit for the reverse holo Mewtwo slot as well.
Last but not least we made a little trade for this Spearow I absolutely adore. Love how this page is turning out. Now we just need a sweet Rattata Illustration Rare to come out.
This card Has the honour of being the last card I got before having a baby! Classic Dark Muk. I Went to the card store with our older son a couple weeks ago and we just looked through a random binder for some time. He said I should get this card for the binder and who was I to argue. It’s pretty dinged up and I already had a Muk reverse holo I liked, so we’re going to bend the rules and count this as my Holo for Muk. (I’ll need to bend the rules and use this era’s reverse holos as holos for some pokemon anyway). Anyway, I’m prioritizing stories over value and any time I can go on a card adventure with my fam and create a memory it’s a win!
Purchased my first S Chinese card for the binder. I always loved this card but it never fit a collection goal until now so I was excited to pick it up! It’s a fraction of the price of English and looks great in person. This is the 3rd best Alt Art from the SWSH Era and ya can’t change my mind!
Traded in some EX cards to a LGS that has a lot of game nights so they pay a bit extra on trade in. Got this Neo Genesis Seadra for 50 cents and the Reverse holo from Primal Clash. I wanted to add some cards to the binder from the Neo Era and I always loved this Seadra so it was a great start!
Picked up 4 other cards from the Neo era! Seaking does not have a lot of art that stands out to me but this one hits! This Geodude is iconic in my mind and the Hitmonlee well… It’s my favourite Hitmonlee. I knew it would be my non holo spot in the binder so I was happy to find one in good condition for super cheap! This Parasect also is beautiful. Paras and Parasect have some really underrated arts in my opinion! Love this card.
This uncommon Blaine’s Growlithe is a great fit too! As Professor Oak used to say “No Pain, No Blaine.” Growlithe has about 9 cards I’d be happy with for this spot so I just let it happen organically. Super happy with this fit!
I remember thinking it was so cool that Ponyta’s Hooves were 10x harder than Diamonds as a kid. Honestly…I still think it’s cool. It had to be this Ponyta for the binder. Plus this Flashfire Rapidash from Komayama is stunning! Great additions!
Last but probably least. Diglett from HS Triumphant. Needed a Diglett. Secured a Diglett. I don’t think I had anything from Triumphant yet so that was the main point of this! I do like the art but will probably get a little fancier with the reverse holo for this little fella!
One of my grails basically. Able to find this card in person which is huge for my Mental Health. Caterpie McDonald’s Promo Holo. I believe it is Caterpie’s one holo that’s not technically a reverse. These are the kinds of cards I’m having a blast finding in the wild.
Picked up some cards from Evolutions. Won’t get a ton from this set but I love having this Poliwrath artwork in a Reverse holo. Machoke looks great and needed a non-holo Nidoking so I went for it!
Some other additions. I love the Pidgeotto artwork. Wanted the Koffing with James to match the Arbok with Jesse. Lickitung is absolutely terrifying but wanted to have at least one card from the Detective set. Muk is also terrifying but I love this artwork. @joponnes I hope this non-holo pick is ok? I also just genuinely like the art of the Rattata, Spearow and Meowth. The Spearow replaces the 151 reverse holo that I didn’t feel much for. Up to 354/604 cards now:)
You can never go wrong with jabba the muk, it’s a masterpiece and the best modern artwork that muk has gotten also, did you accidentally drop the spearow photo, i’d like to see what card outperformed the 151 artwork as i like that one too a lot
Added a couple more from a LGS on some more trade in credit. Binder is currently at 366/604 with some Japanese ARs on the way. 7/151 Pokemon are fully Completed.
Golem and Aerodactyl were the last two Pokemon without representation in the binder so I had to get them rolling with these.
Sneaky difficult to find a Non-Holo Gengar I like for less than 600 bucks. Happy with this for now! Got some Base 2 classics. The Persian is my fav Persian artwork and I knew I wanted it in a reverse for the binder so pumped about that. The reverse holo Primeape is a fav of mine too! I hope to upgrade the Arcanine down the road but it works for now. Hitmonchan is a classic as well! Love the Doduo. And always happy to find some cheap Base 2 bulk.
