Ongo's pokey art and precious metals

[ongoGablogian]

Hello,

This is my collection thread and pokemon journey.

I intend on posting picturs of my pokemon and narrating the decisions i made and the thoughts i have about my collection.

Just setting up the thread. If you want to comment, feel free. I mostly like the base set pokemon, particularly psychic, lightening, fighting and fire energy. I think collecting different languages is cool. I also enjoy ripping packs open despite my awareness of the loss in value. I may get in to cracking slabs, but still on the fence.

After 25 years, Ongo is back collecting Pokémon cards. This time, with a newfound taste that is ever evolving as he discovers new sets..

Ongo Gablogian – Sunny in Philadelphia

..and so he told the gallery owner, quite bluntly, where his interests stand.

[ongoGablogian]

Ongo has been quietly investing in a small time account as he searched for a summer job. Needing to suddenly liquidate to pay for unseen expenses, he decided to withdraw a bit more as well since he had been saving for months with little pleasure aside from the rush of playing the market. Sparked by the news of a classless thief on TV, he remembered his own love for Pokemon, and decided the check out the scene.

As Ongo searched for memories in his visual database, he recalled a friendly negotiation with an elementary school friend, Nick:

Nick had some nice cards, and kept them organized. He was looking to add to his collection. In turn, I shower him mine, and then I saw what would be leverage in a trade - his face lighting up as he marveled over my Magneton and Machamp.

Knowing Nick’s love for these two, I rifled through his binder and found something that I thought even better.. a Blastoise. Though this Blastoise, tucked away in a sheet, was clearly heavily played. Quite frankly, the card looked like shit. The foil portion had marks all over it, as if Nick was clawing at it in fear to remove it from the battlefield. I knew Nick’s personality, and thought I may be the more appropriate pokemon trainer for this rare and powerful pokemon.

Not being too concerned with the aesthetic misery of the card, I agreed to trade my Magnetron and Machamp for his Blastoise.

Did Ongo go home a winner? It’s up for debate. But what he knew, is that this Blastoise, bent vertically and inward from his classmates anxious death-grip, was definitely the more powerful pokemon on paper.

As Ongo came to from his memories, he made up his mind: he will search eBay for a base set pack (unlimited for budget reasons) to see what feelings it will spark. Also, his favorite base set card, Alakazam, must be purchased as well. Looking for a deal, he purchased one in the language of a quarter of his heritage - German. Simsala was it’s home name, named after a mystical world in a classic German tale. And so the fantasy became a reality.

[ongoGablogian]

Stemming from the same intrigue, Ongo had his eyes on a Japanese Gyarados (something about dragons in the East interested him), as well as a base set fossil pack (already purchased the non-fossil, got to catch them all, right?).

Just a couple days prior to the purchase of these two, Ongo was curious if the Pokémon community was popping off as hard as the market. In search of a forum, as a forum dweller himself since the 90’s, he found EliteFourum, which to him seemed to have a really nice and simple format with a creative userbase - he was very happy to see this.

His first post was to gauge perceived nostalgic value vs. actual value of the base set cards. For him, he knew there was both, but was unsure just how these newly purchased packs and cards would make him feel once in his hands. It was interesting to know how deeply these values could be analyzed and furthered his interest in his purchases. “Is it worth the loss of actual value to experience nostalgic value? I’ve been saving money and investing for months now - is it all going to be worth it?” - knowing that Pokémon was a sort of investment for lots of collectors, but also aware of the potential losses, he hedged his purchases with a kilogram of silver and 10 grams of gold to ensure that at least *something* he spent his hard earned money on would increase in value. The Garfield president has been making questionable moves, and in turn precious metals have been a safe-haven. “Maybe getting out of the market at this time wasn’t so bad after all”, he thought to himself.

He took the pictures in his “unsub” (unknown subject) shirt. for laughs.

[ongoGablogian]

After ripping the unlimited base set pack, Ongo noticed that finding Pokemon cards on his own through buying packs was very satisfying. He enjoyed how the condition was always very nice, and how his soon to be purchased binder would feel more satisfying full of his own pulls.

This being known, Ongo ventured out of his abode to find a physical pokemon store where he could rip some more modern packs, to further examine how this made him feel.

Luckily, Ongo found a shop that was very nice. The guy working there seemed very cool, and he had many unopened boxes of cards, sleeves, and a display of graded cards.

This is what he pre-order while waiting for the store to open:

And this is what he saw looking through the display glass which was too pretty a card to leave at the store:

..now that Ongo has more first-hand experience with the modern day pokemon scene, next post we will evaluate his experience in whole and see where that took him last week.

We will talk about his pulls, his organization, and most important his feelings.

[ongoGablogian]

“Wow, what an experience seeing a base set holo once more” - Ongo thought as he held his Simsala and ギャラドス.

Ongo had to order a Leveinard and Spanish Charizard next. He just had to.

Well, those are great cards and very nostalgic. But the PSA 4s, they need not a case. They clearly have been played, and therefore likely want to return to the battlefield. So, Ongo cracked them out of their plastic jails:

Now alongside the base set, Ongo developed a love for ripping packs, too. He ripped and ripped, marveling at the gold star artwork. Sometimes he’d even smell the cards - ah, how fresh, he’d think.

Well that is everything I have, and now that I am satisfied with my collection, I will go back to saving instead of spending, with the hopes that later in life I can further add to my language diversity base set, and perhaps some more ripping and cracking.

Next post will show the final organization of Ongos pokey-binder.