Looking for suggestions on binder collecting.

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I want to start a new binder collection, and I want to acquire the cards in a “meaningful” way. What do I mean? I could easily purchase a completed set on ebay or individual cards on TCG player, but that makes the cards merely a commodity. There was no challenge, no connection with the cards like I got as a kid. I want more of that connection to create a sense of nostalgia when I look back on the cards.

Something I have been doing is purchasing a single card from a local TCG shop in the different cities I have traveled to. I have a binder of cards just from my travels.

So I was wondering, what are some of the fun ways that you have been acquiring cards?

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Hey dude,

Totally feel you on wanting to seek out a special challenge. I’ve mentioned it in another thread already, but one of the projects I have is a complete 1st Edition base set with the following rules: I cannot purchase any of the cards from major retailers and I have to encounter the cards naturally. It’s been a fun project that I’m 2 years deep in and I’ve had the chance to buy in person, trade, and do some other things I wouldn’t typically do to complete it.

I think ultimately, only you can decide what it is about your normal ways of collecting that has left you with a taste of inauthenticity. If just making it harder does the trick, set some ground rules that keep you from buying like you normally do. If you feel more challenged by higher value cards than you’re used to, maybe force yourself to only buy a card that is typically out of your price range and pay in cash. That chase feeling where you do whatever you can to earn extra money to buy something you love can be super nostalgic if you collected as a kid with limited resources.

Or maybe take some time and go through every set that’s been released. Find your favorite artwork in every set. And put together a binder set with the best artwork, according to you, from every release so far. Sometimes people start to get tired of collecting things because they feel like they’re following rules of collecting that they didn’t set out for themselves. “Invest in THESE to STRIKE RICH,” “The BEST cards in the hobby!,” “What’s HOT HOT HOT right now!” The headlines can be distracting. Throw em out. Set out rules that no one else can inform. Make collecting between you and the cards. And don’t share any of it along the way. Take the whole journey yourself and come back at the end and share what you learned about yourself as a collector once the project is complete and you’ve reflected on it.

I think these are the most common roadblocks. And they have ruined a lot of young, promising collectors in the past. But if you’re smart about it and take the time to feel out what exactly is making you feel like other ways of collecting aren’t meaningful, you’ll set yourself up to pursue a deeper, more satisfying collection in the future.

Collecting isn’t just putting cards in a binder. It’s finding the things that matter to you in life and letting that inform your collection. It’s piecing together things that reflect something about you in a manner that reflects something about you to form a completely unique piece that reflects something about you.

Wishing you the best dude. You’re asking the right questions.

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Posts like this is what sets E4 apart from any other:)

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It’s hard to follow up what Churlocker just said, but opening packs really brings me back to my childhood. And I don’t mean the mass openings you see all over the internet. No, just a few packs here and there so you can really savor the experience.

Also trading on E4 has been proven to me to be the closest thing I could get to trading with local friends, like we used to back in the day. And again, this doesn’t have to be a card worth 5 digits. It can be something as simple as trading some duplicate pins like THIS.

So go for it any way you want it, it’s your journey!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMRYLVTUswU

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Recently I’ve been collecting ‘shared artwork’ cards. I define ‘shared artwork cards’ as cards which feature Pokémon which aren’t the main purpose of the card, for instance this Slowbro from Undaunted features a Chikorita and Cyndaquil:

This collection spreads across 2 binders so far. I’ve identified 582 numbered English cards from 1999 to 2016 (I need to finish researching the latest ones) and have acquired 263 of them. I recently shared a picture on Discord of my first complete double-binder page:

This isn’t quite meaningful in the same sense that you’re looking for I don’t think, but this collection I feel is meaningful because it gets me to really appreciate the artwork on every card I look at. It also gives me a reason to be excited for every new set release, because each new set will almost guarantee at least one new card for me to track down - it gives me an excuse to buy booster packs, which is something I haven’t done in many, many years.

Without paying careful attention, it’s easy to miss the Pokémon lurking in the shadows…

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This is a really interesting thread. As a kid I would reorganize my binders all the time, especially when I acquired some new cards. I sorted my cards based on pokedex, color type, set, rarity or simply based on what cards I thought looked cool together in a 9 card binder page. This is something I miss these days where my binders mostly are sorted in sets, and where it would take ages to reorganize everything just “for fun”.

I agree that it is important to have some sort of personal connection to what you collect instead of just mindlessly buying everything you come across. I have completed some more recent sets just for the sake of it, and 90% of these cards I do not really care for. I have seen people talking about collecting a certain illustrator and I imagine that would look awesome in a binder. Perhaps be selective and do only 9 of your favorite cards (1 page) for each prominent illustrator in the TCG.

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I just completed the Legendary Reverse Holo Raw Collection was probably the most challenging and fun (and emptying my wallet). The ultimate challenge was to find every card in at least NM condition. The set is so damn popular and my nostalgia kicked in late so… it really hurt my pockets at least by like $3k lol or so

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The artist 9 card actually is a great idea! That is a ton to sift through depending on the artist.

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I challenge anyone in Australia to try and complete any old set by just buying from physical retail stores. You would have half of an unlimited Kabutops and 3 Base Weedles after 25 years.

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The trick to a good binder collection is 1) have a goal and a coherent theme, 2) make sure they are cards you actually enjoy and 3) make it a challenge - include a couple of relatively expensive cards and hunt for deals or make sure the cards you’re collecting can’t just be bought from a single source.
Here are some examples of the binders I’m currently filling:
All possible variants of a single pokemon. Some of the languages are frustratingly difficult to get so be warned.

1992×1121 663 KB

Illustrators signatures. Obviously gonna be a smaller binder with no obvious end goal. Some of these might actually go to PSA.

1120×1992 713 KB

E4 signatures. These are people I met in real life or did transactions with. This example and the one above hopefully show that you can have a binder of cards, but each card represents some greater context. Buy a card everytime you visit a new city. Put together cards that you feel represent important people in your life. Some of the most meaningful binders are going to be worthless to someone else.

1120×1992 541 KB

If you’re like me though and you like really structured sets, you can pick a promo set and try to put it together. Here’s the start of my SM-P set. No idea if I’ll ever finish it. It’s massive and some of the cards are really expensive (masked royal, rainbow zekrom). I really enjoy the cards so I’ll try to put together a mostly-complete set with at least my favourites.
1120×1992 723 KB

Finally, one of my favourite binders is this one where I’m trying to get every card illustrated by Kagemaru Himeno. She’s done over 500 illustrations (thankfully no trophy cards lol). I have the added requirement of getting the first “version” of the artwork released (ie. Japanese 1st ed usually, though there are some cards that were first released in English). I’m slowly updating the English ones below. It’s definitely satisfying to see them laid out chronologically and to watch her style change over time.
1992×1121 677 KB

Hopefully you were inspired by this thread to create your own binder set. It’s fun for sure, I would recommend it to any collector.

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An added challenge; buy lots as a starting point and see what grabs you. I accidentally ended up with tons of first edition fossil cards from grabbing cheap lot auctions and so now completing them is a goal.

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Nice topic @admiral77 , and cool to see the responses of everyone! :blush:

Let me start with a little backstory of my Pokémon collecting. I collected as a 7 y.o. to 12 or 13 y.o. kid, and then stopped collecting Pokémon. Never really had any goals at the time, and I was just happy with any booster pack my parents bought for me during my birthday, Christmas, Sint Nicholas, etc. Or if I could spend my own money to buy a pack here and there.

Fast-forward to about four years ago, I was collecting Yu-Gi-Oh cards quite a bit. I mainly played online or against my little brother irl, but I really liked creating Decks online, play-testing them, and purchasing the cards to play in person with my little brother. After I did that for about 1.5 or 2 years or so, I was looking for a particular card, which was out of stock for months on end on the website I used to buy Yu-Gi-Oh cards from (gametimecc.com if I recall correctly). So, I decided to search for another website, and ended up at the pretty well-known trollandtoad.com. I purchased the Yu-Gi-Oh card I wanted, and when I noticed they were also selling Pokémon cards, I bought the cheapest Hitmonlee, Nidoking, and Venusaur they had. Why these three in particular? They were the only three Pokémon I was missing from the first 151 Pokémon. From that moment I was back, baby! :stuck_out_tongue:

I was still buying Yu-Gi-Oh cards, but I would also include more and more Pokémon cards I came across on trollandtoad.com of which I liked the artwork. Only halve a year later I bought all the Pikachus that were in stock and reasonable priced on trollandtoad.com on impulse. That was basically the start of my Pikachu collection. I looked up how many Pikachus there were, and found the TCG list on Bulbapedia. I also started buying foreign cards on eBay and alike. Eventually I came across Justin’s website, and his thread here on the E4 forum, which was the very reason why I joined this amazing community. Even though I already had 250 unique Pikachu cards at this point, Justin had over 550, and his list consisted of about 650 unique Pikachus, of which loads I had never seen or even heard about. I was very intrigued and continued collecting Pikachus only. I created a checklist, and had a goal to work to.

This is one of the most important things in collecting in general in my opinion: have one or multiple goals, and don’t buy to many things outside that goal.

I now have almost 1200 unique Pikachu TCG cards. I surpassed Justin at the end of 2017 (at which point I had the largest Pikachu TCG collection in the world), and fellow collector Tom surpassed me about halve a year ago (he has about 25 more Pikachus than me now, signed cards and one-of-a-kind errors excluded). I now also collect Mimikyus, Sevipers, Moltres #21 WotC Promo variations (my favorite artwork of all existing TCG cards), English Full Art Supporters, all Pokémon in the National Index including all forms available on TCG cards, and Yu-Gi-Oh rarities (apart from Pikachu, I only need 1 or 2 cards to complete any of these collections). I no longer collect Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards in general, although I of course do still receive some every now and then with other orders, or make one or two exceptions for very nice-looking cards each year (Lab Tube Mewtwo for example).

All in all I still enjoy collecting and sharing/learning knowledge in this community a lot, and I don’t think that will change at all in the near future. :blush:

Greetz,
Quuador

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