I came across this poster about a collector from 1999 named Masaya Kato on Instagram.
To quote maki_japanese_card_shop if you don’t want to click the link;
“Recently, a vintage poster arrived and I felt nostalgic😁
This poster shows cards owned by Masaya Kato who was said to be one of the top Pokemon card collectors in Japan 1999, during the heyday of first Pokemon TCG. Probably was he a junior high school student at that time?
Looking at the list, there are already super rare cards such as the Kangaskhan Family Event Trophy and Mega Battle Telephone Card etc (3-6th photo). I think these collections are amazing, especially in a time when there is no internet environment like now!! (I think I was about the same age as him at the time, but my collection was nowhere near his. And as a collector, I still can’t beat him back then LOL)
In order to collect cards, he said, “(1) Make a lot of friends. (2) Always follow news about cards. (3) Prioritize collecting Pokemon cards over eating!!” (How crazy! I bet he spent all his pocket money on cards.)
He had over 10,000 cards at the time, and there were only five cards he didn’t have. They are No. 1 Trainer, No. 2 Trainer, No. 3 Trainer, Pokémon Illustrator, and Tamamushi Magikarp. (It seems that he entered one of these tournaments but didn’t win.) At the time, he would never have predicted that these cards would now be traded for incredibly high value.
Masaya Kato, I want to know if you still collect Pokemon cards🔥”
I found this to be a really cool historical piece and thought I would share this awesome post. I guess to open up a bit of discussion, have any of you ever seen this poster? Do you think Masaya Kato still has any of this collection? Even for its time this was an incredible feat.