Pokemon Cards With a Story Attached

[crosscards]

Hey! I was looking around and couldn’t find a thread related to this, so hopefully this isn’t a repeat! Anyways, I want to know if anyone has any specific cards in their collections that have a personal story attached to them that makes the card “priceless”.

I’ll start: The Burger King promotional Turtwig from 2008. Before I got this card, I knew what Pokemon was, but I never played nor watched anything from the series let alone have any cards. This one card changed everything… I was 8 years old and about to move states and my family stopped at a Burger King and of course I got one of the toys and it had the Turtwig promotional card as well. After I got this card I started getting lots of ex era and Diamond Pearl packs from local stores like Target/Walmart. Now 14 years later, thanks to that one Turtwig that made me fall in love with the franchise, I’m still here and still have the card that started it all

I’d love to hear your stories!

[Frosty.Puppy]

I love threads like this! What a great story you have with that Turtwig.

These six cards were my first ever Japanese cards and no doubt laid the foundation of my collection.

I remember I first traded my older cousin for the Neo Genesis Sentret and was hooked so went back and traded for more. I believe I would have been around 9 or 10 at the time. He was able to obtain Japanese cards in the UK early on as he went to a boarding school which kids from Asia attended.

[quuador]

For me it’s the Moltres WotC #21 promo. This one below in particular, which I graded (when it was still affordable inb4 ‘junk slab’) for nostalgia sake. It’s the copy I received at cinemas as a kid, and I fell in love with the artwork right away, and has been my favorite since. We received it at the second Pokémon movie, which was also the first time I watched a movie in cinemas in general iirc. Me, my little brother, and my parents went there together, and we all four received this same Moltres when we bought our tickets (so me and my little brother each had two). Before the film started, I traded one for a Zapdos and my little brother traded one of his for an Articuno.

This Moltres will always be my favorite Pokémon TCG artwork. I even started a collection dedicated to this artwork in 2017 or so, with all raw, sealed, and graded variations in each available language. Right now it’s only missing the sealed Swedish version (which is, apart from the final English Pikachu card, at the very top of my wanted list). And I’d also like to find a GRAAD-9+ graded Italian version eventually. You can find the current state of my Moltres WotC #21 promo collection in the link in my signature down below.

Greetz,
Quuador

[Gus]

This card has been in my collection since I opened it in a pack as a kid. My brother’s favourite Pokemon was Mew, and he insisted to everyone that he had been the one to open it. We fought over the card for years, and the card jumped from deck to binder back and forth until it received its final wounds in our washing machine.

We are now both adults, and he no longer collects cards, so he has forfeited any claim to it!

I asked PSA if they would encapsulate it, and they said it was too damaged. CGC, on the other hand, said they would grade it and that I could even put my name on the back for the pedigree to end the argument once and for all.

[pokemick]

Here’s a couple of examples I am very attached to and wouldn’t trade for the world:

This Raichu was pulled from a pack by my younger sister outside a sweet shop on the way to school. My mum let me go in and get us a pack each, I handed them out and was gutted to not get a holo. It was a lesson in bad luck! A few years later I persuaded my sister to let me have it after she was bored with Pokemon. It remains my favorite base set card.

This Delibird is one of a few Japanese singles that I bought as a kid. My friends dad knew of a shop a few hours away and would take us there. We would pick them from the glass cabinet up front and I’d have enough pocket money for one per trip. Japanese cards seemed so much cooler and I thought the Delibird was hilarious good ole’ Komiya!

[muk]

@Gus

CGC, on the other hand, said they would grade it and that I could even put my name on the back for the pedigree to end the argument once and for all.

That is awesome! You should absolutely do that, haha.

This one is probably my most sentimental card. Got it from my best friend at university.

I first came in touch with it in 2017 when I helped my buddy to up the price for him to buy it, so he could use some ebay coupon or something that was only eligible for purchases above €25 or so (kinda like shilling, but with different intentions ). Yes, back then you had to shill an auction to make sure a NM Shining Mew goes above €25, haha.
This very friend was also the initial reason I started my “adult” pokemon collection at all. We used to talk about our childhood collections and booster box openings by maxmoefoe etc all the time.
However, he soon lost interest in collecting while I got sucked deeper into it. Sadly I was a super passive collector during most of 2019 (huuuuge missed oportunities, but what can you do) - but towards the end of 2019 my friend notified me that he was liquidating his collection and he’d give me this beautiful Mew, which he knew I always envied him for, for €40. That was a fair price back then, for the both of us.

This actually re-ignited my passion for collectiing and soon later I purchased my first PSA slabs. Luckily I still had a few good months before the 2020 hype hit the Japanese side, so I could at least snag a few heavy hitters just in time. In hindsight, I really don’t know where my collection would be without he giving me this card (or without him sparking my collecting interest in the first place!). Probably I would’ve missed out on way more or even sold the little stuff I had due to frustration of being priced out of every goal.
It goes without saying that this card will never be sold. Just waiting for PSA to open lower tiers so I can get it safely encased

[smpratte]

As most people know, I love Southern Island. That love began In 1999, when Southern Island was Japanese exclusive. I remember seeing them for the first time at the Saturday toysrus meet up. Everything about them was love at first site: New never seen before pokemon, New reverse holo style, and how they featured different Pokémon in the background was a big deal!

Ledyba was the first card I owned. I ended up trading for all 3 cards to complete the line. Back then, my best idea for storing cards was in soft sleeves in cargo shorts. One day while running outside, I accidentally creased the top corner. This is that exact card:

[trainerjack]

@smpratte

As most people know, I love Southern Island. That love began In 1999, when Southern Island was Japanese exclusive. I remember seeing them for the first time at the Saturday toysrus meet up. Everything about them was love at first site: New never seen before pokemon, New reverse holo style, and how they featured different Pokémon in the background was a big deal!

Ledyba was the first card I owned. I ended up trading for all 3 cards to complete the line. Back then, my best idea for storing cards was in soft sleeves in cargo shorts. One day while running outside, I accidentally creased the top corner. This is that exact card:

A classic patreon story

[harechandranjr]

Awesome topic. I’m sure there are lots with marvellous stories about the cards they would hold on forever. Here is mine

Pokemon Tcg was popular when I was in my elementary school. We used to battle and trade with friends during class break ( with cards not in the sleeves ofcourse )

I always wished to have a Lugia card ( fall in love with Lugia after the movie ). So I spoke to a friend who has it, and he really wanted my Nidoking. I know I know, but back then it was all about the Pokemon you like, nothing else mattered

The thing was, my Nidoking was in played condition and his Lugia was not so bad. So to make it a ‘ fair ‘ trade, he actually bent the card a little and pinched it with his nail to make a crease on the holo so it would be ‘ equally bad ‘ Ofcourse I didn’t care, I mean that was THE Lugia I wanted so I took it!

We stopped playing after elementary school and years have passed, I’ve lost most of my cards, except for some random cards I kept in a little wooden box I made. Didn’t even know where I kept it.

When I got back to collecting a few years back, I went back to my old home and tried to see if I would be lucky to see them. It turns out my mum actually kept that little box for me ( aww… mothers )
Of all the random cards in it… yeap like energies, base set trainers etc… I was surprised to actually find THE Lugia in it. It never left
( back then when we played, we didn’t even bothered to see if it was 1ED or not… how crazy )

Ps * the nail crease still so fresh

[stagecoach]

My father was finishing a college program while I was enthralled in Pokémania, and occasionally he would bring me to the public library while he studied. It was a big library with several floors and function rooms and was the largest building I had ever been allowed to explore freely at that age. I was not much of a reader, but it was still very stimulating to be in a quiet and safe space stuffed to the brim with books and computers that I got to walk around by myself for hours. I only got to do this a few times but the memory really sticks with me.

On one of my adventures I wandered into a youth-oriented room with a media center section with big tables. People could use these tables to read or play tabletop games, although I only ever saw people using them one time. That one time involved two older boys playing Pokémon.

I had never actually played the TCG myself, but I was familiar with its basic functions because of the Game Boy TCG game that I liked a lot. Seeing some older kids with the cards all laid out and in active play was novel for me though, so I tried to watch them over a book shelf and hoped they didn’t notice me. I was probably not hidden at all and was leering in plain sight, but they did me the courtesy of ignoring me.

One of the boys was taking the game very seriously but the other boy was not. I got the feeling they’d been playing for some time and the first boy was frustrated and the second boy was just over it. The second boy, always grinning, kept trying to “evolve Abra into Mewtwo.”

“You can’t do that,” the first boy would insist. The second boy, plainly, would again indicate that he was going to evolve his Abra into Mewtwo.

“Abra does not evolve into Mewtwo,” the first boy would fruitlessly argue. The second boy would clarify that his Abra had in fact just evolved in to Mewtwo.

“Just play Mewtwo if you want to play Mewtwo,” the first boy would appeal. The second boy, unshaken, would explain that he was ready to play Mewtwo, as his Abra had just evolved.

I found this utterly and impossibly hysterical. The effortless antagonizing attitude of the second boy against the first boy who insisted he play by the rules was inspiring to me. It would be a decade before the word trolling entered my vocabulary. This library troll was ahead of his time.

After some tense negotiation the second boy rearranged his cards and the game continued. Mewtwo was in play legally. The game progressed for a couple of turns when the second boy, without actual justification, played Scoop Up to return Mewtwo to his hand. He then played Abra and once again placed Mewtwo on top, “evolving his Abra in to Mewtwo.”

The first boy absolutely lost it, but had to keep his voice down in the library. Watching this boy attempt to scold and intimidate the other while trying to remain hushed was an outlandish display. You CANNOT evolve Abra in to Mewtwo. Abra does NOT evolve Abra in to Mewtwo. Play it RIGHT. And the second boy just smiled and smiled and smiled and did not yield. At peak outrage, my father found me and it was time to go home. I’ll never know how it all ended. But I will never forget how such a simple refusal to cooperate produced such a hysterical response between those two boys.

Every time I see Rocket Abra, I think confidently to myself: ah, yes, Rocket Abra. This card evolves in to Mewtwo. And in my heart I even believe it.

[c0ll3ct0r]

Let me set the stage.

It is the earliest autumn days of 1999, I move from the city to my grandmother on the countryside. Me and my mother were kicked out of the tiny apartment she was renting because the sister of the woman that owned it needed a place to stay. My mother stay behind until Christmas living at a friends place because her notice period lasts until Christmas. So here I am, early september, two weeks into the new schoolyear, starting at a new school. At this point I don’t think I’ve seen a single pokemon card.

Knowing some of them already because of holidays I’ve spent there, I quickly establish my position in this sort of new place. Here, Pogs are still the shit, I’m not really into those. Then after a few weeks, one of my friends at the after school program shows me something. He holds a small bundle of cards in his hands, including this:

Then this happens:

In the week between this moment and the moment my visiting mother gifts me two Blastoise art packs, the card is constantly on my mind. The Machamp is so special, it must be the treasure of all Pokemon cards. Even after my second round of packs with holos in them, I still think the Machamp is equally as incredible as the others, if not entirely what I first thought. Then he and I make a trade. And, me being the naive choir boy I was at the time and he being the same piece of shit he always was, he manipulates me into a very bad deal which takes some time to resolve.

In the middle of this, the truth about this cheap McMuffin Machamp is revealed to me. The card has very far to fall in my mind, here I was thinking it was so special and beautiful and then it turns out all you have to do is buy that crappy looking starter deck and you’re guaranteed to get one! Long story short, I lose a Nidoking in the process, but I get the remaining cards back from him and I get to keep the Machamp. But from that moment on, it was merely a placeholder. A shitty trinket, a reminder of betrayed trust, of a lost Nidoking.

Even to this day, I have problems fully appreciating the Base Machamp.

[livindavido]

@stagecoach

Every time I see Rocket Abra, I think confidently to myself: ah, yes, Rocket Abra. This card evolves in to Mewtwo. And in my heart I even believe it.

Petition for someone to make a GIF of Abra evolving into Mewtwo and for it to be added to the header of this forum pleeeeeease!

[livindavido]

I broke my ankle when I was in 2nd grade and was in a plaster cast for 2 months while the bone fixed back into place. While feeling sorry for myself as I couldn’t walk without crutches and because I missed out on a lot of playing outside, my parents bought me a pack of Pokémon cards to make me feel better. It sure did make me feel better because I pulled a holo Dragonite. I was so happy and was amazed by the holo because it was the most colorful holo I had ever seen. Everyone at my school signed my cast because that was the thing to do for some reason, but my dad went one better and drew the dragonite artwork on my cast. When I went to the hospital to have my cast cut off I asked the nurse to save the patch that had dragonite on it. I still have it to this day (albeit very faded now) and I still have the original card too.

[mertz]

When I went back to look at my childhood collection for the first time in 15 years, I wondered how many 1st editions I’d have. Turns out the ONLY 1st edition I had was this Dark Golbat. Don’t remember how I got it - there are no 1st ed commons/uncommons that would have presumably been pulled from the same pack. A non-holo Dark Golbat isn’t really what you want to see from a Team Rocket pack, but I’ll cherish this copy forever.

[purevito]

So these cards here are actually the cards I used to walk around with in my pocket as a child (I’d be very surprised if any of them hit a PSA 10 ), this is my childhood collection, the mew I remember getting free from the cinema, but the most important one is Shining Gyarados this specific one doesn’t belong in this collection but the story behind it, I had this card in my collection and it was most definitely my favourite I just really loved the artwork and I remember trading in a lot of cards for it, but one day my younger brother stole the card out of my folder and traded it in at school for something silly, I remember being really upset and I put away the collection and then around 2014 when digging out and looking through my folder I decided I needed to fill the gap so that was the first card I brought when I started collecting again, I’m hoping to sell my collection but this folder will always stay with me I flick through it now and then and some of the cards I can still remember how I got them, I think even back then I was going after the artwork and not necessarily chasing the rarest.

[citriina]

This Dark Vaporeon is one of my most precious cards!

As kids do, my friends and I would trade cards between us, and I had always wanted this card from one of them. Vaporeon was my favorite Pokémon at the time, and the dark version’s art was the coolest I had ever seen. After weeks of going back and forth haggling over this Vaporeon, my friend finally decided to just give it to me as a present (I accused him of forgetting it was my birthday, but he still insists that he definitely 100% was planning on giving it to me anyway. I do not believe him.)

Since that day, I had diligently kept this card in my backpack, and later my wallets over the years- I never went anywhere without it.

Fast forward to summer of 2017- said friend (who is now my lovely partner) and I were at a convention, and there was a Pokémon quiz panel we decided to wander into while killing time waiting for another panel to start. Come to find out the main host of the panel was Michelle Knotz, VA of Misty, May, Jessie, and a whole other slew of characters from the Pokémon anime. There was an informal meet & greet for the winners after the panel was over, and talking to her was absolutely lovely. I was a little disappointed I didn’t have anything for her to sign, until I remembered this Dark Vaporeon in my wallet- a perfect card for a member of Team Rocket!

This card still lives in my wallet, right behind my ID. Sometimes people ask about it when I take my ID out (“Wait- is that a Pokémon card??”), and I get to retell this whole story again.

[walkyrion]

I don’t feel nostalgia so I don’t have any cool childhood story to share, but I still have a card that’s a bit special.
There is this child in the family, about 10 years old that loves collecting Pokémon and so, one day I asked him what was is favorites. Meloetta and Gardevoir. Good, I just have several copies of that gorgeous Meloetta EX Full Art from the Radiant Collection (Legendary Treasures). For his birthday, I give it to him with a Japanese booster pack (SM3+ Shining Legend) I had lying around.Well, he pulled the secret Mewtube. He’s ecstatic of course, but still insists that I take it back because it’s a big card. I refuse because where would be the fun in opening packs, right?Next time we see each other, he’s brought his whole binder with him and wants me to take a card. It’s not a big card, and well-loved, but I was missing it for my Pokédex binder, so I’m pretty happy with it: