Hi e4!
I’m a Pokemon fan from Sydney, and I’d like to share my collection as I’ve recently hit my goal 
I’m a 2000s child, and my journey began in Pokemon Pearl. We played through an R4 card, which were new at the time.
Since then, I’ve played every mainline game (multiple times) up until SwSh. I love all of them, but Gen 4 will always be special to me.
The first cards I purchased were from Haymarket in 2010. The cards were from Supreme Victors, including Electivire, Staraptor, and Blaziken Lv.x. They were fake, but I still kept the tin.
I began buying cards again towards the end of 2024. I stopped collecting modern sets pretty fast, because I felt the set releases were too rapid, with large amounts of cards and lackluster pull rates. Instead, I chose to focus on the cards that I always wanted, but could never buy as a child. I love Gen 4 for having some of my favorite Pokémon designs of all time, and I feel happy with my collecting decisions.
Obtaining all of these in Australia was a tedious task. I’ve been to various different shows and shops in the past year, and it was a big effort to track down certain cards. The Lv.x’s from Rising Rivals and Majestic Dawn were by far the hardest to find due to rarity (and people holding onto them). This did add some enjoyment though, as hunting them down at shows and meeting lots of new people was a fun experience.
One of the tougher decisions to make was choosing to buy a lot of these cards while they were climbing, as opposed to waiting until the boom cycle is over. I chose to just rip the band-aid off, and I don’t regret it at all; lots of these cards have tripled or quadrupled since buying them. I’ve also been making an effort to fund this collection through buying and selling various other cards, which helps.
It’s been a lot of fun dabbling in Pokemon as an adult. There is something special about holding a binder with all the cards you couldn’t have when you were younger.
Cheers,
Eric
