This past week, while organizing the condo, I found an old binder I hadn’t looked at in a while. I had started it 4-5 years ago and it was full of Reverse Holos featuring Kanto Pokemon, all from packs I had opened myself. There were 79 cards in that binder and as I looked through it I realized it was the most fun I’d had in the hobby in a while. And in a year with so many folks feeling burnt out , including myself at times, it felt refreshing to just look through some good ole fashioned Reverse Holos of the Pokemon I grew up with. This ended up giving me an idea as I had recently moved some binders around and had an empty 624 card binder. I went through all my bulk and picked out the non holos and holos of Kanto pokemon I had as well. I had some Japanese Art Rares of Kanto Pokemon too and it led to an idea for a binder that really excited me.
The Premise
One Non-Holo, one Reverse Holo, one Regular Holo and one Illustration Rare/Alt Art for every single one of the first 151 Pokemon. Each Pokemon will have 4 Cards representing them in the Binder for a total of 604 cards.
My Rules
Buy from LGS’ as much as possible to support them. And because Canada Post keeps going on strike.
Cards that have a story are prioritized. Substitutions for existing cards are allowed to be made if the story is good! (Ie our kid brings home a random HP oddish he found on the ground and gives it to me as a peace offering in an attempt to get 20 more minutes on the Switch)
Try to fill out the empty binder spots with cards from all eras.
Give love to common and uncommon cards artworks. It’s so easy to fly past them and so I want to appreciate the art I have and showcase as many artists as possible! (I’ll probably still have 3-4 cards from my fav artists though)
Reverse Holos, Regular Holos and Non-Holos are to all be in English. Alt Arts and Illustration Rares may be any language. This is to partly narrow down my selection options to keep this stress free, and to keep IRs, SIRs and Alt Arts a bit cheaper.
Condition doesn’t matter. I have a PSA 0.5 Shadowless Rattata from childhood in there. And frankly, it’s the star of the show.
It has to stay low pressure and fun. I will remind myself not to focus on the cards I don’t have but on the ones I do have.
No time limit. Heck half ish of the 151 don’t even have Alt Arts/Illustration Rares yet. I’ll get them eventually.
Update this post when any significant progress is made. I’m excited to see this binder fill out. Honestly, I’m more excited about this binder than anything I’ve done in the hobby in a long time so I’m just going to trust that gut feeling. (Still love the Zapdos binder though) It will be a fun way to stay active on E4 as life is about to get really busy with the birth of a new Zapdos Trainer just weeks away.
Probably No Gold Stars
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.
