: https://youtu.be/jnSb3nM8woc
: https://youtu.be/CN0gUnefxgE
Why I started my collection
As is tradition with the posts of species collectors, I’ll of course have the obligatory origin story here. At first the question, given my username and profile pic, might arise: Why Staraptor? The answer to that question consists of two parts, a nice one and a rather pragmatic one.
Let me start with the former: Ever since I started to get into Pokémon during Gen 4 (you probably already see where this is going), I found Staraptor to be a pretty cool Pokémon, especially Ash’s Staraptor in the anime. This over the time evolved into Staraptor remaining my favorite bird Pokémon and overall becoming my favorite non-Legendary Pokémon and thus one of my two favorites overall, I even briefly considered (fun bit of trivia here) to rebrand my YouTube channel to “Starhetor” one day, but then figured I’d rather keep it at my current name. Anyway, I think Staraptor has a pretty cool design and with it being based on a bird of prey and coincidentally also having our national colors on it, I think it’s a good fit for me as a German collector ^^
Now for the rather pragmatic explanation, let me first tell how I got into species collecting at all. Before 2021, I just collected by opening products I liked, buying singles was something I basically never did. However, as I started to get increasingly active on the various Pokémon TCG subreddits on Reddit, one day I stumbled upon this post by @Quuador and then later also saw the full collection post on Efour. I was amazed by how incredibly detailed all the international releases were documented and when I increasingly started to get interested in the international releases myself by learning about them and opening products over the next 1-2 years, I increasingly felt like having a collection like that of my own would be pretty cool. Given that my two favorite Pokémon are Rayquaza and Staraptor and I knew that Rayquaza would have a decent amount of very expensive cards (like the Gold Star), I decided to start my Staraptor collection in early 2023 and later that year also joined this forum when I saw a species collecting thread.
The collection itself
Now that I have explained how the collection came to be, it’s time to show it off. I’ll go binder page by binder page (coincidentally with it atm consisting of 162 cards, it conveniently fills exactly 18 pages). I’ll include the English card names in parentheses in the headers for better navigation via the TOC, if you’re only interested in specific cards. I’ll at least name all cards and languages and for those with more interesting backstories of how I got them, I’ll go into more detail.
Page 1 [Staraptor (Diamond & Pearl 16)]
On this page we have (from top left to bottom right, which is the order I’ll be using going forward) the first released Staraptor card. As it’s to be expected with the main bird evolution line, Staraptor was already present in the first Gen 4 set.
First we have the original Japanese version from the DP1 (Space-Time Creation) set released in 2006. This set was released as both a first edition and unlimited version, so I have both cards respectively.
Then if you look at the bottom of the next card, you’ll already note something interesting, the Korean version has copyright 2010 on it and a completely unique set number. This is, because the Korean TCG kinda did it’s own thing for Gen 4, only starting to release rather small Gen 4 compilation sets in 2010, which consisted of cards from all over the Diamond & Pearl as well as Platinum era. The first (out of 10) of these, Start of an Adventure (모험의 시작), while in the end turning out to be relatively easy to get, was a close call and could’ve become pretty challenging. That is because when I searched for the Korean name of this card, there was exactly one Korean online store selling it, no other pictures, blog posts or let alone listings for sale. I believe this is the case for many other Korean pre Gen 6 cards too, as these cards from a time before Korean became somewhat popular as a budget friendly alternative internationally can be hard to locate for sale too, so I’m probably not the only one who is glad that cwtcg.cafe24.com exists. Luckily, I was able to just buy the card from that store via a proxy shipping service though.
Next up, we have the version of the card people are probably the most familiar with, the one released in the international Diamond & Pearl set, released in 2007 in most markets. The set was released in a total of seven different languages, of which you can see the German, English and French cards here, including their reverse holo versions.
Page 2 [Staraptor (Diamond & Pearl 16) / Staraptor (Stormfront 27)]
First we continue with the European releases of the first Staraptor card with the Italian version including the reverse holo variation and the Spanish and Portuguese cards without it, since their version of the Diamond & Pearl set did not contain reverse holos.
That leads us to the next card with an interesting backstory, one which other multilingual species collectors may have already guessed: The Polish one. Polish is usually the last Pokémon TCG language people learn about and for a good reason: Only two sets were ever released in Polish and both years behind their European counterparts, which makes Polish one of the most interesting languages and definitely the rarest language by total cards printed. Since the two released sets were Diamond & Pearl and Mysterious Treasures, that of course meant that there were two Staraptor cards for me to get as well, as the Polish sets did come with reverse holos. While the other European languages were easy to find on Cardmarket and that in the meantime has also been the case for most regular Polish cards, when I bought these back in 2023, Polish cards outside of maybe the World Collection Pikachu were nowhere to be seen. So my only option was looking at which were the main second hand online marketplaces in Poland and searching for the card there. Similarly to the Korean version, at the time there was exactly on seller on Allegro who sold Polish Diamond & Pearl cards, so I created an account, messaged him to see if he would ship to Germany and he luckily agreed, however that only covered the regular version as he didn’t have the reverse. For that I had to turn to another source: The Polish YouTuber and collector Hikomikos, who I had been in contact before regarding the PokéWiki article about Pokémon in Poland I wrote. After a bit of waiting and not getting a response, luckily it turned out that he did have the Staraptor reverse (which wasn’t too surprising given that he at the time probably had the most extensive collection of Polish cards and sealed products of anyone) and we agreed on a price which was the highest one (shared with one other card) that I paid for any card in this collection, but considering the rarity of Polish reverses it was worth it.
Then we move on to the next card Staraptor received, which is the Staraptor from the Japanese Intense Fight in the Destroyed Sky set, the last of the Diamond & Pearl era, which released in 2008. This set also released in both first editon and unlimited, so I have both versions of the card. The card was adapted into the international final Diamond & Pearl set Stormfront (which released in 2008 / 2009 depending on the language) as well, of which you can already see the German regular card on this page.
Page 3 [Staraptor (Stormfront 27) / Staraptor FB (Supreme Victors 11)]
Apart from German, the set of course also released in English as well as French and Italian, all also containing reverse holos, while the Spanish set didn’t and thus you can only see one Spanish copy here.
Next up is the Staraptor FB from the Japanese Pt3 aka Beat of the Frontier set, released in 2009. This is the first Staraptor card with some kind of gimmick and one of only three of which the card name isn’t just “Staraptor”. This card in particular shows the Staraptor of Frontier Brain Darach from Pokémon Platinum.
Page 4 [Staraptor FB (Supreme Victors 11) / Staraptor FB LV.X (Supreme Victors 147)]
Beat of the Frontier also received an unlimited print run, so I of course have that Japanese card as well.
Next comes the international adaptation in this set, which is Supreme Victors, also released in 2009. This (apart from one Japanese exclusive coming up) marks the artwork featuring Staraptor released in the least languages, with Supreme Victors only being released in German, English and French, all also featuring reverse holos respectively.
And now behold, the only special card that Staraptor got in the physical TCG to this day and simultaneously imo also the worst looking Staraptor artwork: Staraptor FB LV.X from Beat of the Frontier. This card of course is available in both first edition and unlimited too.
Page 5 [Staraptor FB LV.X (Supreme Victors 147) / Staraptor M (Movie Random Pack 18) / Staraptor (Plasma Freeze 97)]
The Staraptor FB LV. X was also included in Supreme Victors and thus is available in German, English and French too.
Next up is another interesting card, the one Japanese exclusive card that Staraptor has. This is actually Ash’s Staraptor, featured in the Movie Commemoration Random Pack from 2009, which released alongside the Arceus and the Jewel of Life movie in Japan and included 22 Pokémon featured mostly with anime artworks. Since this isn’t a regular expansion, the cards all only exist in their unlimited version.
Now we leave the generation that Staraptor got introduced in and enter the frozen capital of Unova for our next expansion: Thunder Knuckle. This set was released in Japan in 2012 and thus marks the first multi year gap between new Staraptor cards. Like most Japanese sets from the time, it was released with both a first edition and an unlimited print run. What is also noteworthy is that we now finally are seeing Korean again, after only one Staraptor card made it to their exclusive Gen 4 sets. From now on, all further cards will also be available in Korean again, since Korean joined the Japanese set structure with the prior release of Black Collection & White Collection. The Korean versions however only come in unlimited versions, so that’s why we see only one Korean card here.
For the international markets, this card was included in the Plasma Freeze expansion, released in 2013 of which you can see the German cards here.
Page 6 [Staraptor (Plasma Freeze 97)]
After the low point of just three languages with the last international set, Plasma Freeze saw a release in six different languages again: German (as shown before), English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Spanish had started to also include reverse holos by that time, so every language but Portuguese of this card is present twice.
Page 7 [Staraptor (BREAKthrough 127)]
And here finally comes the undoubtedly hardest artwork to complete. This is the Staraptor from Red Flash, released in Japanese in 2015. Now, the first edition version (like all cards I’ve not specifically commented on) was relatively easy to find. The unlimited one however is a whole different beast. By the XY era, the first edition print runs of Japanese sets were enough to satisfy almost all of the demand, so many Japanese XY era sets only received very small unlimited print runs, covering maybe 5-10% of the total supply. Like other species collectors before, I experienced the same thing: Initially you of course know that Japanese at that time still had first edition and unlimited, but since you didn’t have any trouble getting the other unlimited cards before, you don’t think much about it, until you arrive at one of the notorious sets and realize that you can neither find the unlimited card for sale anywhere, nor even find any pictures of it to begin with. For me, I first tried to get this card in April of 2023 and it took me until last week to finally hold it in my hands, so in total a little over 2.5 years. The journey to that point wasn’t easy, even if the purchase in the end was. First, I tried to just regularly post on the r/pkmntcgtrades subreddit, in the beginning without a concrete price tag, then later with increasing ones first offering $50 for the card in EX+ condition and later increasing the offer to $80 as well as offering a finder’s fee, while I similarly also started my WTB thread here. Both lead to encouragement from others, but unfortunately not to me finding the card. In the meantime, I also tried my luck with bulk purchases from Japanese stores stating that they don’t differentiate between first edition and unlimited cards, which lead to me now possesing 30+ copies of the first edition card, but without success.
I also tried my luck with opening the two unlimited Red Flash booster packs I found for sale / was notified about (curiously hoping for them to be light to have a better chance for the uncommon card I was looking for), but didn’t pull the Staraptor. I did pull a Staralili though and during my search for Staraptor also found two unlimited Staravias for sale, so I have the whole evolution line in unlimited now.
Anyway, besides those measures I also:
- Had someone create a WTB listing on Magi (Japanese TCG marketplace) for me
- Created a Trade listing on the Cardova marketplace once I learned about that
- Created a request on Otsukai, both on the original site and after the relaunch
- Asked vendors at two card shows if they had the card in their bulk
- Manually searched the thousands of Japanese bulk cards of a newly opened TCG store in my city
- Hung up a physical wanted poster there for a while offering 50€ for that card
- Went to a card convention with a meme printed out and attached to my shirt including the same offer
None of these things ended up being successful though, so earlier this year, I turned to probably the most insane method yet and offered a XY8 unlimited secret rare Mewtwo for trade that I found while searching for Staraptor. I also posted it to my Instagram story and while some people were interested due to the offer being frankly pretty insane (not in the good way for me lmao), no one had the Staraptor card, so even that lead to nowhere. I later graded the card and sold it for around 300€, so that’s basically how much I was willing to give away in trade value at that point for what I initially thought was just another Japanese bulk card. However then, a little over two weeks ago, my habits finally paid off. I have only talked about the extraordinary measures I had taken so far, but there were of course also ordinary ones at that point baked into my daily routine (it still feels a bit weird to not search for Staraptor on Zenmarket after my daily 5 minutes of Duolingo haha). Every day, for basically since I posted my first WTB thread on Reddit in spring 2023, I searched all new listings under “XY8” on Mercari and Yahoo Auctions and after a while I also started to search around weekly for “ムクホーク XY8” and just “ムクホーク” (Staraptors Japanese name) to catch everything I might have missed that was not specifying the set. The latter is what ultimately lead to success: On Thursday, October 30, I was sitting in university, near the lecture hall, waiting for my class to start and hoped to maybe have a chat with another student who also tended to show up relatively early. She didn’t though in that case, so I figured that I may as well do my weeky ムクホーク-search to kill some time and there it was: A Mercari bulk listing of miscellaneous Staraptor cards priced at 300 Yen.
Now as you can see, only a first edition Staraptor is clearly visible in the main picture, however there was another one where the area of the symbol was covered. I had that a few times with other listings before and the card in the further pictures always turned out to be first edition too, but that time it was not.
I was more than amazed that I had finally found my grail card and probably pulled my debit card out of my wallet faster than ever before to quickly buy the card and then only had to wait until it safely arrived. So that was the story of how I got my Staraptor grail that I promised to tell in this post. It really shows the beauty of niche Japanese unlimited cards: You can offer three digit trade values for a bulk card and it still doesn’t work out, but when you do find the card, you pay less for it than for the shipping of most cards. Anyway, where were we?
Right, the Red Flash expansion also released in Korean, only in unlimited. This Staraptor card was then later included in the international BREAKthrough set, released in 2015 in most markets, of which you can see the German, English and French versions in the picture from earlier, which I will show again below due to the wall of text in between.
Page 8 [Staraptor (BREAKthrough 127) / Staraptor (Crimson Invasion 83)]
The set also released in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese with the latter still being the only language without reverse foil versions.
If you thought I said
the undoubtedly hardest artwork to complete
“only” due to the Japanese unlimited copy, you’d be wrong. Because, besides Polish there is of course another language most species collectors - if applicable - usually struggle with and that is of course Russian. With having both Russian cards and rare unlimited print runs in Japanese, the XY era can often be challenging and this is obviously also true for this card. BREAKthrough (or Турбо Импульс) was actually the last regular set released in Russian, before the language was discontinued and is luckily one of the two most common sets in Russian, but that still doesn’t mean that you can just buy the cards as singles on Cardmarket. In my case however, I got pretty lucky and in contrast to others didn’t have to struggle much with Russian, because coincidentally, a (now former) Nintendo RU employee who I was following on Twitter, happened to open a Russian BREAKthrough booster box and posted about it literally one day after I started my Staraptor collection.
So I wrote her a DM and a few weeks later, I received a letter from Russia containing a cute card which I of course also kept as well as the only two Russian Staraptor cards that were printed.
Leaving the XY era behind, we arrive at the next Staraptor card. This one was released in the Japanese / Korean Awakened Heroes set in 2017. As you can see, by the Sun and Moon era Japanese also dropped the first edition distinction since it had basically lost it’s original meaning in the late XY era anyway, so from now on there will only be one Japanese version per card, just like it was already the case for Korean.
Page 9 [Staraptor (Crimson Invasion 83)]
Now it’s time for three new languages to enter again, but in contrast to Russian ones that will stay. Starting in 2019, Thai, Indonesian and Traditional Chinese were added to the Pokémon TCG starting with unique “catch up sets” compiled of different cards from the Sun and Moon era. This Staraptor artwork was included in the First Impact set, the very first TCG set for Thailand as well as Indonesia and in the Traditional Chinese All Stars Collection (not to be confused with the later Japanese TAG All Stars set), which while not the first set overall was the first Traditional Chinese set in over a decade.
The card of course also saw a TPCi release in the Crimson Invasion set from 2017. As you can already see with the German and English copy, there are not two, but three variations for this card in most TPCi languages, since it was included in the Sun & Moon Trainer Kit: Alolan Sandslash & Alolan Ninetales (TCG) with the little 22 stamp you see. This, so far, remains the only release of Staraptor in this type of supplemental product that has a difference to the regular version, so yes, luckily for me in contrast to other species, Staraptor has been spared from the madness of Asian starter decks.
Page 10 [Staraptor (Crimson Invasion 83)]
This card was of course also released in the usual languages of French, Italian and Spanish as well which all also got reverse versions and printings in the Trainer Kit. However, what you might not expect is (and I initially didn’t either) that the at the time second hardest to find Staraptor card hides in this picture, so it’s story time again. Normally, you would assume that you could just purchase all the trainer kit cards on Cardmarket, which initially was also true for me and I did purchase all of them. The seller of the Spanish one however sent me the wrong card and they had the only listing on the platform. So I of course reached out, which led to the seller kindly refunding me (which I didn’t care much about, the card wasn’t expensive) and agreeing to send the right card later. The latter unfortunately never happended though and so I was kinda stranded with that card. I did try to find it for sale elsewhere, but wasn’t successful (even though looking at Cardmarket now, I probably would’ve found another copy sooner or later). Anyway, I turned to the rather unusal method of searching for openings of the Spanish Trainer Kit on YouTube, where I stumbled upon this one. As you can see in the comment section, I managed to reach out to the uploader and contacted him on Facebook (for which I had to create an account first, since I never used Facebook) and after I believe about two months of slow, but steady communication, a letter from Mexico (yes, my copy came from across the Atlantic, instead of Spain as originally intended with my Cardmarket purchase) reached me, containing the by far hardest to find Spanish Staraptor card that I bought.
Page 11 [Staraptor (Crimson Invasion 83) / Staraptor (Darkness Ablaze 147)]
As you can see, now at last we have reached the point where Portuguese as the final TPCi language had also introduced reverse holo versions of their cards and that concludes the Sun & Moon era.
Starting off the next generation for Staraptor was Infinity Zone, released in 2020 in Japanese and Korean.
Thai and Indonesian at that time were still barely in their catch up era and therefore, this Staraptor was included in their final unique set before joining the Japanese set structure (for a while that is), the Shiny VMAX Collection released in 2021.
The same is true for Traditional Chinese with their Infinite Power set, although that one already released in 2020. Pretty cool overall though, that Staraptor was both in the very first and very last catch up set for these three languages.
And then we have yet another new language: Simplified Chinese. While it also started catch up sets in the Sun and Moon era (which was pretty crazy in 2022), the Staraptor was skipped so this is the first S-Chinese one. It was included in their Vivid Portrayals set, released in 2023. As you can see, Simplified Chinese has the unique perk of Asian languages to do reverse foils on a regular basis, meaning this card has two Simplified Chinese versions.
Page 12 [Staraptor (Darkness Ablaze 147)]
The TPCi release of the card happened with Darkness Ablaze in 2020 and you can see all German, English, French and Italian versions here as well as the regular Spanish copy.
Page 13 [Staraptor (Darkness Ablaze 147) / Staraptor (Brilliant Stars 119)]
This page of course starts off with the Spanish reverse of the aforementioned card and it’s two Portuguese counterparts.
Unlike before (and so far also after) Gen 8 gave Staraptor a generous two instead of the usual one card per generation, which was the pattern after it’s debut in Gen 4. The second card was first included in the Star Birth set, now released not only in Japanese and Korean in 2022, but also in Thai, Indonesian and Traditional Chinese since those languages all joined the Japanese set structure.
Simplified Chinese however still has it’s own catch up sets and this Staraptor was included in the Gallant Galaxy set, released in 2024.
Page 14 [Staraptor (Brilliant Stars 119)]
As usual, Simplified Chinese also brought a reverse foil version with it.
The TPCi release of this card happened with Brilliant Stars, released in 2022, of which you can see the German, English, French and Italian cards on this page.
Page 15 [Staraptor (Brilliant Stars 119) / Staraptor (Scarlet & Violet 150)]
Brilliant Stars of course also saw a release in Spanish and Portuguese.
Now we have reached the most recently released card of Staraptor itself. This (very nice) artwork was first released in 2023 with the Scarlet ex expansion which was available in Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian and Traditional Chinese.
Page 16 [Staraptor (Scarlet & Violet 150)]
The Simplified Chinese version of this artwork was released in the Miracle Journey set, which as you can see features not one, but two different reverse holofoils: A Poké Ball and a Master Ball one. These Master Ball foils are easier to pull than Master Balls present in High Class sets of the other Asian languages though afaik. Nevertheless, this makes the latter the only somewhat special card of Staraptor in recent times, as the last card of a rarity higher than the guaranteed one in a pack was the LV. X all the way back in 2009.
The TPCi release of this Staraptor card came with Scarlet & Violet, seen here in German, English and French.
Page 17 [Staraptor (Scarlet & Violet 150) / Tyranitar (Paldea Evolved 222)]
To complete the cards of Staraptor itself, Scarlet & Violet was of course also available in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Then we move to a different section, which I might separate in the future (I already did in my spreadsheet). Since I want to collect all TCG cards with Staraptor on it, that of course includes cameos as well. However so far, Staraptor has seen only one cameo, so I’ll just continue like I did before for the time being. This cameo is in the Tyranitar Illustration Rare where a Staraptor (with presumably additional ones higher up) can be seen flying in the background. This card was first released in the Asian Clay Burst set in 2023, of which the Japanese, Korean and Thai copies can be seen here.
Page 18 [Tyranitar (Paldea Evolved 222)]
And on this final page, you can of course also see the Indonesian and Traditional Chinese version.
In Simplified Chinese, this card was not released in a catch up set, but rather in a blind box released in 2025, as one of several possible promo cards and thus carries the 027/SV-P card number.
And finally, in the TPCi regions it was included Paldea Evolved, which released in 2023 in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Fun fact: The French card was the other card mentioned earlier matching the Polish reverse in the highest price I paid for a single card of this collection (thanks to the “French tax” many cards seem to have).
Closing remarks
This was one hell of a ride. That goes for both my (now for the time being completed) collection and this post. At the time of writing this section (and I’m not entirely done yet), I have been at this for around six hours, but these were probably the best six hours I had writing a post on here so far, because I’m glad to be finally able to share my species collection.
As soon as a new card featuring Staraptor releases (hopefully in the not too distant future and please give it it’s first full art, thank you), I’ll of course post updates in the reply section and I will update the main post whenever I finish a new binder page. In the meantime, my progress can also be tracked at all times in this spreadsheet I made thanks to the wonderful tutorial of @citriina.
Acknowledgment
Of course I could have never achieved this collection goal alone, so I want to use the final section of this post to thank all the people who made it possible.
First, I of course want to thank the countless sellers on Cardmarket, Ligapokemon, Tokopedia, Shopee Taiwan, Shopee Thailand, ebay and other marketplaces for listing their bulk cards for sale online. Of course they earn money with it but still, without them I arguably wouldn’t have gone anywhere with my collection.
In addition to that I of course also have to especially thank every individual and business that made it possible for me to buy from marketplaces that normally wouldn’t ship to me, so thank you to:
Zenmarket for reliably buying and delivering the Red Flash Unlimited Japanese Staraptor to me (and of course jb＊自己紹介欄を読んでください for listing it for sale on Mercari in the first place!)
Harumio for enabling me to get my hands on the hard to find older Korean cards (although I have to mention that according to what I later read on here, service quality seems to have significantly declined)
Celestial Delinquent Shopping Service for helping me to get all my Traditional Chinese cards, even though the Taiwan shopping service has since been discontinued
An especially big thank you to Imagined Youth Collectibles, who helped me to get almost all of the Simplified Chinese Staraptor cards and often threw them in for free with orders I placed (great source for Chinese products in general btw)
Thaifii for enabling me to get most Thai Staraptor cards
Versand aus Indonesien for while not winning awards for a trustworthy looking website enabling me to get all Indonesian Staraptor cards (and some Indonesian sealed products too)
Tony’s Stark Unboxing for selling me his Spanish Trainer Kit Staraptor
A very big thank you to @rayquazabrazil for helping me to get all the modern Portuguese cards, since they’re only really available in Brazil nowadays.
Kubapanikaaa for shipping to Germany back when they were only on Allegro which didn’t offer international shipping in and of itself.
Hikomikos for selling me his Polish Reverse Staraptor (still the only one I’ve seen to this day)
Annet (@Akilvers) for giving me her Russian Staraptor cards
Then, I’ll of course thank all the other species collectors who got me into this in the first place by sharing their collections (especially of course @Quuador, but also @Citriina with her having some of the same more challenging sets as myself due to also collecting Pokémon introduced in Gen 4 that happened to be featured in Red Flash and BREAKthrough), Quollectibles who also kept an eye out for the Staraptor for me (even though in the end I found it myself) and Citrina again for providing the spreadsheet tutorial which made my collection tracking much more visually appearing.
And a thank you to everyone who provided the resources needed to compile the list of all cards, so all the editors on Bulbapedia involved with the respective card and expansion articles as well as Pokipair for at the time having Simplified Chinese set lists up before Bulbapedia did.
And a preliminary big thank you to everyone I may have forgotten before, since after now around 7 hours of writing this post, I may not be the most focused anymore (don’t hesitate to reach out to me in case I’ve forgotten anyone who reads this, I’ll of course edit you in).
As the final remark, I of course wish any other fellow species collectors (and especially my multilingual Sinnoh counterparts @citriina and @torterrasimp) good luck and that they also reach their goals, as both this thread and other great stories like the one of slowqueen or this person on Reddit show: Never give up!
