Jopo's Collection Thread

[joponnes]

My brand here has been revolving around slime and that’s what my main collection thread has been all about, but during my years of collecting i’ve managed to gather quite a lot of other collections too so i’m making this thread to slowly add them too here. A grand majority of my cards i bought before covid and at that time my goals where scattered in a lot of different directions and after the covid boom hit i mainly tried to finish the goals i had heavily invested in while selling some others that i abandoned when they turned out being too pricy ones. But i did manage to finish a lot of collections in that phase of my collecting when almost everything was cheap so i have a lot of things to post here. The collections are all over the place but i’m very happy about what i’ve gotten during all the years and flipping through different binders gives me a lot of joy whenever i have time to do it.

I don’t keep all the parts of my collection home any more so as well as showing what i have this will also be an online version of my collection for me. It’s not the same as seeing them in hand (especially since i’m still struggling with lighting when i’m taking my photos) but it’s at least something. Another reason i’m partly making this thread is that if something would happen to me there would be place my family could ask for advice about what is worth selling, i guess that’s a bit grim reason but we aren’t exactly young anymore

I’ll be adding different parts of my collection in posts (probably a very slow project) and adding links to them below. I’ll also add links to my other collection threads to have everything in one place.

Wotc Collection - Completed

-Gen 1

-Gen 2

-Trainers & Energys

-Jumbos & box toppers

Japanese:

-Vending, VS & Web - Completed

Artist binders:

-Tomokazu Komiya - Ongoing

Slime Army - Ongoing

Topps Collection - Completed

Collection of Connected Cards - Ongoing

Collection of Magic Message Cards - Completed

[joponnes]

First thing i’m adding is my completed wotc-collection. It’s the first thing i finished when i started collecting again and a lot of it consists of my childhood collections. It’s shared between multiple binders and since it’s so large collection i’m breaking it between few posts. I have the cards in pokedex order so i’m starting with gen 1 cards. It’s mainly regular unlimited ones but some of them i’ve replaced with 1st ed ones or reverse holos. Legendary collection is one of the last parts i added and that set i wanted fully as reverse holos. Some conditions could be better since a lot of them have come in my childhood from other kids when they stopped collecting and gave their collections for me or through buying lots when i re-entered collecting. I’ve been meaning to upgrade some cards with better condition ones but that’s exactly not my strength, most of the times i rather buy a completely new card instead of upgrading an already existing one since the overall look of the binder anyway is good and it’s more about the entity for me rather than some individual cards.

Bulbasaur - Diglett

Diglett - Krabby

Krabby - Mew

[D3F14NC3]

I love seeing your Wotc cards all together like this. I really like the Legendary Collection reverse holos.

[brendantheclayboy]

I’m gonna respond to the existence of this thread in the only way I know how, in the way you know, and in the way I know you don’t mind.

I’ve always known you must have an insane collection outside of the slimes because you also go way back in collecting, and I had always hoped, for as much as I adore your slime collection, that I’d also get to see what’s behind door number 2.

And I was correct in my assumption about said insanity of the jopo collection, and to think there’s a two parter. I cannot express the length of my joy at this collection, but I can assure you of at least the fact that I consider one of the finest binder series I’ve seen on this forum, one that rivals our dear pulp’s binder collection. It is INCREDIBLE.

The best part of binder collecting is being able to arrange them like this and y’know, you and pulp make me want to experiment like this some day. I always am torn between sorting by artist and by era/format, and then with my gen 1 and 2 binders they are by pokedex order without dupes, so all the variants outside of that are in other binders and eras. This layout is so fun and infectious, it’s cosmic. It looks so damn good.

Love seeing all the LC reverses and E series reverses, the mewtwo best of game is so sick and still something to this day I never got around to getting, so a little envy mixed in there

The only thing I am surprised about is the lack of shadowless but I always have to remind myself it’s originally an american thing so sometimes people aren’t as attached as I am. I actually love base 2 holos and not long ago decided I enjoy them more than base unlimited so I went ahead and got all dems holos since I sold all my unlimited long ago and the void needed to be filled I supposed.

The squirtle line pages are SO fresh. The pidgey line pages are just BANGERANG. The oddish line magnificent. The meowth line, oh the meowth line! The growlithe line is mesmerizing. Machop line so good, so surprisingly varied and colorful. Y’all ready know how I feel about the slow page. But dude. The MAGNEMITE LINE MY LAWWD. Slimes are lookin’ preeeetty pretty too Ugh, the voltorb, the exeggcute, the karp. SO many amazing ones that are pure, pure unbridled eye candy.

If you were forced to pick, is there a favorite line that just pleases you the most? Or even a single page?

Wow, Jopo. Just wow. Me looking at this thread:

Sometimes when it rains it pours. First DJ’s crazy update, now this. What the hell is next?

[Gstiess]

That’s an absolute insane collection, thank you for sharing it! I can’t wait to see the next parts of it.

[Parallax]

It’s a good thing i was already sat down, or else i’d have fallen over. Amazing collection and so well organised. At the risk of heresy, your cards are greater than Grimer and more marvellous than Muk!

[joponnes]

I saw you made a post here already before i went to sleep but knowning you i decided to wait until morning before reading it, took a cup of coffee with me and blocked the kids’ screams from my ears, and it was worth the wait. To be compared with Pulp’s binder collections is a massive compliment that i definitely didn’t expect to read, i don’t really think anyone can top Pulp’s work as far as binder pages go but if i can be even remotely near to that is a big accomplishment. And shadowless indeed is in my opinion too the peak of design but i wanted to keep the looks of my binder at least somewhat uniform so i decided to keep my base set unlimited only, can’t have it all

And there’s no other person in the world that could pick pokemon like pidgey and oddish in a pool like this and praise them like they are some legendary pokemon, never change. About my top picks, naturally my favourites are the slime bois especially since those aquapolis cards happen to fit in the same page, but there’s so many other great ones it’s near impossible to choose them. Some of my favourite pages must be the ones with kabutops and aerodactyl, exeggutor and cubone, voltorb and electrode so basically a lot of the same ones you already mentioned too. I also have to say that wotc era art really complimented pokemon like venonat, diglett and tentacruel. On another day the list might look very different but the ones mentioned anyway are real gems.

Really appreciate another one of your essays, you are one of a kind. I’m also glad that @D3F14NC3 @Gstiess and @Parallax enjoyed my post, it really brings as smile on my face to see that other people like what i’ve managed to collect

[bbobrob]

A crazy collection! And a really interesting way of organizing the binder. It took two sessions, but I managed to look through all the pages, and it’s a really fun way of seeing the variety of art for each pokemon during the WotC era. Vulpix is one that stood out as having a wide variety of styles that all look pretty good to me, and then there’s pokemon like Krabby and Kingler, who only get two different arts throughout all the sets

I look forward to the rest of the collections! (After getting peeks here and there in the completed-binder-pages thread, there certainly are more great binder set ups coming up!)

[stagger12]

Incredible collection and presentation! So much to appreciate, like this Gyarados

[joponnes]

@bbobrob that’s perhaps my main reason why i’ve done it like that as looking the different early arts of each pokemon grouped together is extremely enjoyable for me, it’s much easier to focus on each individual card too that way for me

@stagger12 i think i actually haven’t noticed that swirl as i typically haven’t paid that much attention to them, it’s fun to learn about my own collection this way

[joponnes]

As this particular gyarados was brought up some nice memories of me hunting it were refreshed, i remember it was one of the last skyridge holos i needed and i set up some saved searches for it as i thought it might be a more tricky one to get for a good price, ended up getting this copy for 9€

[mrbubbles]

Thank you for creating this thread my friend. Like others, I have always associated your collector identity as that of the supremest of the Slimes, but between the sleeves collection, connected artworks and this, you just are a monster collector. Truly. This really showcases your collection prowess and having such a great eye for beautiful cards.

These are just amazing binder pages and so very pleasing to look. I am sure it is equally fun to turn the binder pages yourself. My favorite definitely has to be the Zubat cards. I realized looking at your pages how diverse and dynamic the artwork was for frankly a simple Pokemon. My next best was the Exeggutor cards followed by Pikachu. I love that you have the flying and surfing Pikachu which I think are so iconic in terms of being easily recognizable and also having such deep rooted history.

I loved this post of yours and I have definitely taken it slow so that I can bask in it’s full glory. Looking forward to any and all new updates it will have. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Cheers!

[DarthEevee]

You were holding out on us, you absolute madman

[joponnes]

I’m glad you enjoyed this part of my collection, it’s fun that arranging the sets this way gives people very extraordinary favourites, must be a first time i hear someone claim zubat art the best from these binders!

[joponnes]

Logically i’m continuing with wotc gen 2 cards. There’s a lot less cards but a lot of species that i’m extremely fond of like heracross, raikou and tyranitar, especially since there’s such a big bunch of e-series cards. I have also extremely fond memories of gen 2 cards as a kid, i remember vividly looking at a lot of neo cards in my binder and opening a bunch of aquapolis holos. I dropped out of pokemon cards at the end of gen 2 so that might be why i have the clearest memories of those cards opened, those times also are a big part why i hold e-series cards so dear now, they felt like something special and completely different already then.

One part of gen 2 i want to mention that i was really excited about was getting all the different unown cards. I loved the concept and was so much looking forward to the same experience in pokemon go too, turns out the experience sucked there since they were basically used in global events only and i’m still missing one unown after all these years. There’s also one japanese card in these wotc binders since they didn’t make all unowns in english which is somewhat annoying, there’s also two other non-wotc cards since i included E3 hoppip and pichu in this collection, without those three cards this collection would perfectly fit in complete binder pages which would be cool but it’s a compromise i can live with i hope a set is made with all the johto pokemon in it as it feels like both kanto and hoenn get a lot of love but johto is the weird middle child that deserves a lot more attention

[D3F14NC3]

I liked seeing these in dex order. It made it really easy to compare the different artworks. I looked through a couple of times. Beautiful collection.

[mrbubbles]

Very nice showcase. I also like how you have collected all of the alphabet unown, it really looks very pleasing to see. Thank you for again, gracing us with your wonderful collection.

Cheers!

[joponnes]

I’m continuing with my final regular wotc binder, these are probably the least exciting ones to the public but there are a lot of ones i love deeply like legendary collection reverse holos side by side and many of the e-series trainers. Some trainer cards also give me so much nostalgy like the mysterious fossil that i remember opening a lot and having a full page of it as a kid, at some point i did put even all my multiples next to each others in my binder but it still was the only card in addition to fossil slowpoke that managed to fill the whole binder page i also do have some not that great memories from opening those base set boosters only to find out the rare was a trainer, but i guess i’m not the only one so it’s kinda a fun memory to share with others. Some excellent trainer promos too during wotc era.

I also have incredibly soft spot for beautiful energy cards so i could just stare and admire the original cosmos foil promo energys from different angles from time to time. Also those aquapolis special energys are so gorgeous that they gave me a push to go for the japanese p-promo equivalents

[DarthEevee]

Even among vintage only, I’m always struck by the artwork diversity for the same pokemon

[joponnes]

As i love everything about the first two gens i felt i was missing out of so much great art by only going for english wotc cards, after all the card that ignited my urge for collecting as an adult was vending series snorlax so i had to have at least that. At first i thought i’d only buy that one but when i was already almost doing so i happened to see a vending poliwrath in my related ebay searches and realised there were so many other cards i wanted in addition to the snorlax. It was quite early phase of my collecting so i wasn’t that familiar with japanese exclusive sets but as i went through the vending sets it didn’t take long until i went hard to complete the set.

I was extremely happy with vending and after finishing i could quite peacefully finish the rest of my wotc sets, and it actually took some more years until the inevitable happened and i went for the two remaining japanese exclusive sets from the same era. Vs series was really a no-brainer but i had some inner fights if i should go for web series since it had a good bunch of repeated arts too but i’m extremely glad i did go for it as the three sets make a beautiful binder and especially in web series some of the classic arts get a whole new life with those lovely e-series borders.

I did also go for the additional cards related to the three sets so there’s also some promos here and for example the masaki set. I also remember some horror moments as the seller shipped my masaki gengar completely without sleeve or toploader, just some cardboard for protection but the card wasn’t even fully between the cardboard pieces.

Nevertheless this binder has some of the best art and cards pokemon has ever produced and i couldn’t think of my vintage or really even the wotc collection without these sets. Vs series still also has one of the best cohesions in any set and is overall one of the best sets there is. I also do have some smaller japanese sets and mini collections in addition to these sets but they can wait until another update.

Vending:

VS:

Web: