My favorite pokemon is cyndaquil because it was the first pokemon I ever “got”. Back when I was kid, the first pokemon game I tried was Pokemon Heartgold on the DS. I won’t tell you all about the intro sequence of that game, that you probably know, and the feeling of having to choose your first starter, between three exciting looking creatures. So, when it came to adopt Germinion (Chikorita), Kaiminus (Totodile) or Héricendre (Cyndaquil), I choose the latter, based solely on cuteness. Because I was a really young kid, I later renamed it “FEU” (FIRE in english), traded it back and forth with a friend and realised later that you couldn’t change the nickname.
Today, Héricendre, not Cyndaquil, is my favorite pokemon, so that’s why I decided to collect every Héricendre french card. Since it is a really small set, i have set myself two goals: collecting every french cyndaquil (cameo included), by finding each card in french shops/cardshow, and collecting every french cyndaquil card (cameo included) in the best PSA quality so far.
So far, i have determined there are 60 cyndaquil unique cards (cameo included) in french. Here is the list I have: Héricendre (Cyndaquil) French Masterset - Google Sheets
Goal 1 : collecting every cyndaquil I find in shops/cardshows.
I saw plenty of youtube videos about mastersets, and wanted my own goal. But I quickly realised that ordering ever cyndaquil card online was going to take such little time that I would ruin the fun for me. So I decided that finding them in real life would be much more fun.
Right now, I own 25 out of the 60 cards, here are the binder pictures.
I discovered the three last cards after making the initial binder that’s why they are the end even though the cards are sorted by release date.
This page is where I put all the cards theme related that I find cool. From left to right, top to bottom : The first three typhlosion I pulled myself out of 3 astral radiance booster boxes. I bought the japanese typhlosion in a parisian shop. The cyndaquil in the middle is a victory deck from the USA. I don’t know anything about the japanese stamped cyndaquil. The thai typhlosion I got trading a french typhlosion while visiting thailand, and the last one is a cool typhlosion i found while visiting Bordeaux.
Goal 2 : collecting every cyndaquil card in the best PSA quality existing.
This one is to appease 24/24 yearning of Cyndaquil card. For some reason, even in France, no one cares about Héricendre pokemon cards. They are not really graded at PSA or any French grading company. This makes them cheap, even at really low pop.
So to have something to do when I’m not running around Parisian pokemon card shops, harrasing vendors for their héricendre, i scan EBay and other selling site for cyndaquil in the best PSA quality possible. Best quality possible meaning that if the max grade is 9, I will try to get it at that grade.
So far I own 4 graded cyndaquil, only 2 max possible grade:
Héricendre 104 from Expedition (PSA 10, pop 3)
Héricendre 45 from Delta Species (PSA 9 (max), pop 5)
Héricendre 61 from Neo Destiny (PSA 8, pop 2)
Héricendre 59 from Ex: Sandstorm (PCA 8, pop 2)
Bonus secret goal
Each time I find an Héricendre card IRL, I always check for a Mint condition to grade it myself and try to achieve a 10, but it is not what I focus on.
I have done extensive research to find every french héricendre card in the hopes of finding some rarer cards, but I think my favorite pokemon is not that popular. I found some threads on this website of people collecting Japanese and English Cyndaquil, which i might do at some point if I ever finish this first quest.
I cannot fathom how much i love my little collection, it makes me feel like a kid, like a hobby in the hobby.
I will try and update this thread if I do some significant progress, I created an instagram account only dedicated to posting about my new acquisitions on a daily basis: https://www.instagram.com/hericendreenjoyer/
I am not trying to rush it, I just want to enjoy those cards of my favorite pokemon.
(I personally wouldn’t be able to do that, since there are 0 Dutch Seviper cards, haha. 
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