I want every single cameo and card with Raichu. I have some really silly ones that i’ll post below. Sewaddle clearly has raichu in the background while Salvatore has an Alolan Raichu referencing pin. I count those as part of my set.
I have nearly every card in English to this degree but I am stuck by a limitation of the card needing to have been publically available and not only given via winning or placing at an event.
2024 paradise resort finalist and champions cards and jasmine’s raichu in English for example.
I’d buy them if I saw them available but they aren’t for sale so…
Ideally, I would like to collect cards in multiple languages and every cameo. However, to keep my sanity intact, for now I’ve decided to collect only English, Indonesian, and German Mudkip TCG cards. I’ve excluded the EX variant codes for English and German, the starter deck card for Indonesian, and all holo and promo cards for German. I’ll probably only collect cameo appearances in English, excluding the World Championship Deck cameos. I’ve also excluded cards above a price range that I’m comfortable paying right now. Overall, I need the collection to fit into one binder and/or one deck box, just in case I need to move around (again).
That being said, every species collector has my utmost respect for their dedication to their favorite ones, with whatever scope they choose to collect.
What do you call a “cameo” ? From your message I suppose this is when a pokemon is not the main subject of an artwork ?
For collecting, at first I was only in TCG, and limited myself to french cards only.
Then I figured that other countries had unique artworks, so I added other countries only if they had different artwork.
Then I figured that other countries had unique “version” of a card (types of holo/reverse, specific stamps), so I also added other countries if they had different versions.
Then when searching for these cards, I discovered E4 and I realized that there is a whole new world about Non-TCG products, so I added Non-TCG products if it is card-sized and official (wether pokemon company or partneship) so I can fit them in my binder with the cards (Gladly accepting other non-tcg if they meet my way ofc).
And then my wallet is empty, but it doesnt matter
Looking back on my journey, I cant guarantee that It will stay in its current state, but I feel like this is my max. Searching for all the cards from other countries seems to complicated and overkill for me, I can feel that I would loose the fun from it. Same for non-tcg ; going for all plushies, pins, pogs etc that ever existed seems an impossible task.
Indeed. If the Pokémon is depicted in the artwork, but it’s not the Pokémon itself. The two examples posted by @Kijamon above are for example Raichu cameos. We also have this useful thread to search for all cameos on English cards (using Ctrl+F with the Pokémon name). Unfortunately, we don’t have a similar thread for Japanese exclusive artworks (yet).
For Seviper, there are only four cameos in the entire TCG (a.f.a.i.k.):
Battle Frontier from EX Emerald & EX Power Keepers; Team Magma’s Kyogre EX from Double Crisis; Zangoose from Chilling Reign; and Toxtricity from Phantasmal Flames.
For sure. I initially started similar as you regarding non-TCG: just those that can be put in a binder, mostly just non-TCG cards and stickers. But after my TCG collection was complete across all languages, I expanded it to everything as mentioned earlier. Although both slightly outdated, pictures of my entire Seviper TCG collection can be found here; and pictures of my entire Seviper non-TCG collection here.
Despite my 400+ items in my collection, gen 3 is one of the most underwhelming generations when it comes to non-TCG items. All gen 1 Pokémon, or even popular gen 7 or 8 Pokémon, will likely have a lot more items available than the average gen 3 Pokémon. Thankfully, so there at least is some limit to the amount of Seviper items I can buy for my collection.
Thanks for the links
(The imgur link of your TCG collection seems dead, I have an error “cannot be found” and I fallback on the imgur homepage).
I guess we cant escape the neverending gathering after all
You are right I felt lucky a few times when searching non-tcg for my gen 3, there is so much product between 1996 to 2003 that seems so hard or pricey to get x)
TCG-only, English I collect every card, Japanese I only collect unique artworks or special versions of said card(for instance, the Vending grimer card is a unique artwork, Masterball reverse of 151 is Imo quite special, and the L2 Unlimited cards are rare enough to have).
It’s a fairly vague critera on the japanese side. Basically any card I find interesting or special enough qualifies.
The only limits I really have is that I don’t like having duplicate items and I don’t care to collect the same item in multiple languages. Other than those I will collect any and everything that has Kyogre on it.
I classify myself as species collector and my species collection as the core of my Pokemon collection. I admire many of the species collectors on the forum and their collections are often my favourite overall, but I definitely play on “easy mode” lol
I think my lower limit (where I am currently at) is every English TCG variant of Togepi line & Jirachi + other language unique artworks.
My upper limit and collecting goals into the future is every English + Japanese TCG variant + other language unique characteristics (e.g certain Chinese reverse holofoils that were not printed in English or Japanese)
In terms of cameos I don’t view them as apart of my species collection, more of a fun side project that happens to include the species I collect, but is by no means a priority for me to acquire.
But yeah, I collect literally anything and everything that is Snorunt related. I haven’t made an E4 thread yet because I want my first to be my collection thread. The only thing limiting me is my budget.
I can access the album just fine, but I am logged in into my account. It seems to indeed give a dead link for other people, since I tried accessing it in an Incognito tab, and indeed got an [404] ‘The requested page could not be found’ error as well..
Since I couldn’t find any way to fix it in the album settings, I’ve opened a issue request on Imgur, so they can hopefully fix it..
Iirc, the album was once (many years ago when I first shared it) reported as 18+ content. Whether it was manually by someone or automatically by the system, I dunno, but that might have something to do with it. I know @joponnes mentioned they got an 18+ warning when accessing it over a year ago:
Maybe accessing the link without an imgur account gives a 404 altogether, instead of suggesting to log in to see the supposedly (incorrect) 18+ content.
Back to the topic, one additional limit I have with all my collections I forgot to mention, both TCG and non-TCG: I don’t care about duplicates. I like different languages, and very minor variations, but exact duplicates not. Kinda related to this earlier QotD: QotD: Do you feel the need for duplicates of your favorite cards? - #7 by Quuador.
Despite I’m building my Species Collections gradually, I have established limits.
I collect only some:
Signatures (I only collect only the ones that I have the opportunity)
Graded cards (I purchase graded only if they are cheaper than raw cards)
I don’t collect:
Serial cards (do not confuse with Serial Codes)
Error cards
Prototype cards
Extremely low POP items
I’m a Species Collector of Omanyte/Omastar/Delibird. Regarding these 3 I still haven’t found a card or item that made me exclude of my goals. However, in case of Dark Magician Girl this has happened to me …
I collect (almost) all Dark Magician Girl cards + cameos. However, I’ve excluded 3 variants for the goal: The YOT2024 cards: 24OT-JASG1 & 24OT-AESG1 and the one from Korean tournament from 2024: 2024-KR001. The reason is because the POP of them are ridiculously low. Only 16 units of the YOT2024 cards exists in the world.
Also, the new rarity “Grandmaster Rare” has been excluded as well. Similar reason.
For the rest of the cards I have considered them as part of my goals despite they’ll take me several years to achieve them. Currently I’m building my collection with stuff I can afford as a university student from Latin America.
Same applies with Omanyte/Omastar/Delibird. In order to build a Species Collection, you have to make purchases with strategy and research of what you’re buying instead of making impulsive purchases.
Crap. Only because of your comment I just realize how rare these upcoming Grandmaster Rare full art cards are gonna be.. I do still want one (just one of any available Grandmaster Rare, so defintely not the DMG or BEWD alts which are likely the most expensive ones ) for my Yu-Gi-Oh rarity collection, but if these low amount of copies remains for each of their releases and only a handful of Grandmaster Rare cards will be released in total, I’m defintely not gonna like it.
“Grandmaster Rare” is a special rarity that consists in cards with Serial number. Only 100 of eachGrandmaster Rare are going to be produced. No matter the card, each is going to be extremely expensive and that’s why I have excluded this rarity from goal.
As more realistic goal, if they announce something regarding Dark Magician Girl or the cards I collect, I’ll include all variants for goal except the Grandmaster Rare …
I’ll just pretend that the Grandmaster Rare is a product of my imagination …
If it makes you feel better, they’ll exist as well in Simplified Chinese (also 100 units per card) … Generally cards are cheaper in S-Chinese than in Japanese.
We also have 
- the Spanish copy is supposedly the harder half deck to get
) for my Yu-Gi-Oh rarity collection, but if these low amount of copies remains for each of their releases and only a handful of Grandmaster Rare cards will be released in total, I’m defintely not gonna like it. 
