So I grew up in the 90's when Pokemon was still a new thing. My friends and I were into collecting and trading the cards. At one point i was even in a club that meet up at a card shop every weekend to play,trade and have fun. I built up quite the collection. I had a binder full of mint 1st edition WOTC holos. I had a base set 1st edition Charizard,Venusaur,Blastoise,. 1st edition shinning Charizard and Raichu, and MANY more. I pulled most of these cards myself, from packs my parents bought me.
Over the years i drifted away from Pokemon and went down another path. My Pokemon cards were the least of my concerns for a while HAHA. My cards were put in a box and on a shelf in my closet. I moved several times. Eventually i moved away from home. I left my WOTC holo binder at my parents house, in my closet, next to my coin collection.
Then one day I decided it was time to grow up. I got on the right track in life and needed to find a good hobby to involve myself in. I saw the prices of some of my old Pokemon cards, from when i was a kid on eBay. I was AMAZED at what the prices were, so i decided to start collecting Pokemon cards again and have been for about 2 years now.
I went back home for Christmas one year.... my holo cards were gone...as well as my coin collection.....so im thinking ok maybe someone moved them? I asked my family, they said they took some of my stuff out of my room and put in storage (which is true), they assured me that my cards and coins are in the storage unit. I took a day and looked through the whole storage unit.... I FOUND NOTHING... ultimately this is my fault, for not keeping my cards with me. It has been many years since the cards have been misplaced and i still bothers me to this day! The money I lost is just a small part of my anger, mainly i'm mad i don't have the cards because of the nostalgic value they had to me.
A day has not passed for me, where i have not thought about my lost WOTC HOLO binder... The 1st edition Charizard is the worst part. Im hoping the pain gets better with time.
Thanks for letting me vent and let me know if you can relate.
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I can totally relate to this. In my case, I think it was most likely stolen by a ‘friend’. I’m actually looking for my OG binder which I know is somewhere, but it doesn’t contain anywhere close to the collection I lost.
Nothing of great value like a 1st Ed Charizard, mostly unlimited holos and some vintage MTG stuff but emotional/nostalgic value for sure. 
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poken00b88, sorry for your loss, and I hope you find your OG binder soon!
This hurts.
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You’re not alone, OP. I know the feeling, it had happened to me too.
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Most of the holos out of WOTC were NM, the only way they would be mint is if you hand picked them while shopping to make sure they were free from flaws. Which WOTC was notorious for…
Way to go offtopic.
Even if his holos were to grade 7-8, I’m sure OP would do anything to get them back. Did you start reading the OP and stopped at the part where he said everything was Mint? There’s way more nostalgic value here than an actual dollar amount. I know I’m never parting with my first Charizard I pulled. It’s probably a $20 card. lol
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What state were you in when your parents bought the 1st Ed packs? Where from?
This reminds me of when I was younger. Every time I would get into a new hobby like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Beyblade my mom would think I was over the last one, in this case Pokemon. When I was about 8 she gathered up 4 HUGE garbage bags full to the brim with all of my Pokemon cards and gave them away to her friend’s sons. All sets from Base Set to Aquapolis, I got out of Pokemon cards right before WOTC lost the rights and briefly came back around Sandstorm, missed a few months around that time.
I’ve always been more into the video games, buying all of the new games even if I wasn’t heavily into the franchise at that point in time.
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This is semi similar in that it both involves a binder of wotc holos so here you go:
I placed a small 4 page binder of my charizards from Base, expedition, gym challenger, crystal guardians, power keepers, Diamond Pearl eras, all in a small safe around 2009-2010. Fast forward to last week I checked up on it after forgetting about it for YEARS and somehow the expedition and unlimited base set charizards fell out of the top binder sleeve while in the ducking safe…and went from essentially psa 9-8 tier to psa 7-6 tier. I have no clue how this could’ve happened my only guess is they fell out the binder when moving my safe back in 2015.
Should I bother grading them, now that they will probably be 7’s or 6’s? I mean they are still base set/ expedition holos, they’ll only rise in price. The other zards are still 9-8 tier thank goodness.
(rant over)
i appreciate you poken00b88 thanks
i would grade them
Try again.
What state were you in when your parents bought the 1st Ed packs? Where from?
My parents never bought me any 1st edition base packs that i can remember, but they bought me 1st edition jungle, 1st edition fossil, 1st edition team rocket, and more. My 1st edition Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur were all purchased at my local card shop by my parents. i still remember the day my dad bought them for me at the shop. i also remember trading my 1st edition holo Venusaur for a Japanese Porygon HOLO… the older kid told me i was getting a good deal 
P.S. im a paranoid person and rather not say what state i’m from, politely. Thanks.
Anytime someone says they/or their parents bought 1st Ed Base packs I ask where they lived cause I track distribution. It’s normally a west coast reply.
You are paranoid aren’t you lol.
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You are correct on the west coast part lol. Thanks
This happened to me! Literally the exact same situation. My cards went missing since the 2000s and I only found them around Christmas time when looking for a completely different collection (MTG binders + a NASA inheritance). All is not lost. The collection may eventually show up when least expected. I’ve looked for years and years and was pretty disappointed. I still have a box missing somewhere but even finding a good chunk of the collection was enough to get me interested in pokemon cards again.
Just to show you how nutty it is finding stuff when you least expect it, my mom sent me a photo this week of my magic cards that she found. They were in a coat box… imgur.com/a/hhKz4 Can’t wait for my next trip down to see another part of my childhood.
Remembering little me, shitty cards on top to protect the goodies below. Hope I have some beta/alpha.
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