Oh definitely. Especially when I made the first Chinese part. At that time there were quite a few Pikachu releases simultaneously, costing hundreds upon hundreds of USD combined (Vivid Voltage set). Collecting Pikachu in all languages, or collecting Pikachu in general I should say, in today’s market is a pain… At times I have less fun in the actual collecting, but when I make these ‘Pikachu around the World’ parts (and especially when I made that first part), I am very grateful and happy with what I’ve achieved thus far and how far my collection has come. And also how ‘close’ I actually am in ‘completing’ it (in terms of quantity).
Having said that, I’m going to stop collecting Pikachu cards in all languages this year. I simply can’t afford it anymore. I’ve already dropped some of my collection goals, and completed some others, but even by just focusing on Pikachu cards and English FA Supporters it’s hard to keep up financially. It already was in the past 2-3 years, but it’s almost impossible now. I recently bought a Thai Pikachu for 400 USD and a Chinese Pikachu for 550 USD for example. And those kind of expenses were fine in previous years, since it was only every once in a long while, and there were also loads of Pikachu cards that were still a few bucks a piece. Nowadays however, almost every single new Pikachu card released regardless of its language is 50+ USD, and there are multiple 100+ USD Pikachu cards I buy for the collection every week. Sure, some drop in value a bit over time, but still… Take the holo English McDonald’s Pikachu for example. Millions of this card have been printed and given for free with Happy Meals, yet it’s still selling for 30-50 USD each… I’m still waiting for it to drop to at least below 15 USD before even considering buying one. It just completely takes away the fun of collecting.
I initially wanted to try and continue until October 25th this year so I can try to complete the first 25 years of the Pokémon TCG, but I’m probably going to stop four days from now on February 27th. I’m actually kinda happy it’s the 25th anniversary this year, since if I would want to stop this collection, this is the best moment to do so without feeling too bad about it in my mind. And by stopping, I mean stopping with all languages, not collecting Pikachu in general. I will still try to find the missing 17 cards of course, and I will still continue to collect all English Pikachu cards, as well as one of each Japanese exclusive artwork. But I won’t be going after all languages anymore for anything released after February 27th (minus a few exceptions, like the Indonesian V/Vmax cards or any Base Set artwork variations). I wish I could continue this collection in the foreseeable future, especially since collecting all languages and learning about them was the most enjoyable aspect of collecting Pikachu cards tbh, but I simply can’t anymore.
Oh, and one last note. And since I don’t want to go into the negative part too much, since it’s important to stay positive, so I’m only going to say this once: some people say this current market is good for the hobby, and they’re indeed correct. However, “the hobby” and “the collectors within the hobby” are two completely different things. This current market is good for “the hobby”, because of its exposure and money involved, and because of that Pokémon as a whole will continue to grow and exist for decades to come. This market is bad for “the collectors within the hobby” however, since it’s too focused on money, money, money. Only scalpers, investors, and people that are good at selling are happy with the current state, but actual Pokémon collectors are only being priced out, and have less and less fun because of how expensive everything has become. And I’m not just saying that because I’m priced out of my own collection goals. I’m saying that because almost EVERYONE I know is priced out of their collection goals. That’s just my 2c, though. Everyone is free to think whatever they want about this market, I honestly don’t really care too much anymore.
Anyway: the next ‘Pikachu around the World’ part will be German. I’ve already made all pictures for that part since it was sunny the day before yesterday, but I’m probably not going to post it soon yet (although I might). Reason being, is because the next part after that will be Indonesian, and we don’t even know the release date of the upcoming set yet (which will contain the Pikachu V/Vmax cards), let alone when I’ll have those in my possession. And I do want to have those here before making the Indonesian part.
How do you store you collection? Binders, displaycase, boxes, file cabinet, or full pikachu/seviper/moltres/mimkyu/fa supporter shrine? Is it easily accessible to dig through? Labeled and ordered by set and language?
Binders, binders, and some more binders. 1.5 binders for my Pikachu collection. The other halve for my Seviper, FA Supporter, and Moltres collections. I also have a Jumbo binder for my Pikachu collection. A top-loader binder for all my rare and sealed cards. And a graded binder for all my graded cards: some Pikachu, some Moltres, some FA Supporters, and some random cards (mostly from Secret Santa and a giveaway). Here some old pictures from mid-2018 to give you an idea, although I currently have some more binders now.
And most of my collections are ordered in the same way as my checklists in my signature below.
How sad to hear that you have to cut down your collecting even though i complitely understand it and fully agree with the things you mentioned about the hobby i’ve had to abandon a lot of things i would have wanted to collect and i still feel miserable about that even though they are far less ambitious than these kinds of collections. But i do hope that you still get to keep collecting enjoyable for yourself, i’ve been in this forum for relatively short time but i can’t imagine anyone else inside this hobby who brings so much to everyone else in various ways, so i feel like you really deserve to get all the joy and enjoyment from this hobby for yourself too
It is indeed unfortunate that most of us have to severely alter our goals due to being priced out. I know for me, this is something not in my control and I cannot do anything about it, so I just have to embrace this change. However if I may add, you have a very phenomenal collection. Something that a lot of us dream of having. And I hope you can still enjoy the aspects that make this hobby special to you.
The second thing, which I am grateful for, is your generosity with the Pokemon TCG knowledge. I find it inspiring, how you go above and beyond to help people which I think is something that can be emulated. Simple things as answering questions or making elaborate lists of every card existing for a particular Pokemon, you are very helpful. I find nowadays, lot of new people getting into the hobby need help knowing what is the card they have with them. This is something that I have also started enjoying and checking if I can help someone answer these questions. I think it increases my hobby knowledge and overall immersion in the hobby itself, even though me collecting cards have slowed down immensely.
@joponnes@mrbubbles Thank you both for the kind words. I’ll definitely keep collecting Pokémon cards and enjoying it; learning and sharing information; and help others where I can. I always knew collecting Pikachu cards would be endless, and I’m already extremely happy with how far I’ve managed to come. When I started back in 2015, I couldn’t have imagined how my collection would have looked like today.
As I mentioned, I’m kinda happy it’s the 25th anniversary, since it’s a good opportunity to refocus my collection goals, without feeling to bad about it. I see it as a good opportunity to collect some other Pokémon related things I wanted to collect in the past, but never had the money nor time for due to my existing collection goals. I’ll definitely won’t start those new collection goals anytime soon, since I first want to save some money again (FYI, my savings account went down in the past year despite having a full-time job and no major other expenses besides my hobbies… ).
In the near future I’ll buy those Indonesian Pikachu V/Vmax cards; all English released cards including that pesky Holo McDonald’s Pikachu; and all Japanese promos with unique artworks that most likely won’t be releasing in other languages; and all English FA Supporter cards of course. Apart from that, it’ll be looking for those remaining 16 Pikachu cards I’m currently missing, as well as that last sealed Moltres variation, and that’s it. I will also try to start focusing on selling some of the bulk of cards I currently have, for both Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh, and probably halve my twisty puzzles collection as well. Those are all my goals for this year.
Speaking of my Moltres collection, the CGC-10 I ordered from @buckna through eBay arrived just yet. Love the signature googly eyes he added, just like he does with all his cards on his Instagram.
I’m happy to add this CGC-10 to my PSA-10 and BGS black label 10 Moltres cards.
Apparently the mail wasn’t done for the day. This Pikachu V promo with misaligned holofoil just arrived from the UK (/rant Stupid Brexit… I had to pay 55 euros import fees to pick it up just yet /endrant). This is my only misaligned holofoil card, so I’m very happy to add it to my collection despite just deciding to stop collecting Pikachu in all languages. This past year I’ve tried to kept the misprinted Pikachu cards to a minimum, considering even a simple crimp on a Pikachu card goes for 100+ USD these days, but when I saw this one I couldn’t resist.
This below isn’t my picture, but it showed the misaligned holofoil better than I could capture personally:
For anyone wondering what they’re looking at: this is one of the filler cards that was used on uncut sheets during the WotC era. There are a few different type of filler cards, but I know these were used for the Neo theme decks among other things.
Filler cards are supposed to be discarded after the cutting process, but sometimes end up in products accidently. In my experience it’s a lot more common to find a filler card for Yu-Gi-Oh (and there are loads of different type of Yu-Gi-Oh filler cards, or more commonly known as test prints) than Pokémon.
Here an example of a Neo Discovery uncut sheet with the same yellow filler card as I have above:
As you can see, the sheets above contain two yellow filler cards each. The uncut sheets above are 12 wide and 10 high, so 120 cards in total. These theme decks consist of 60 cards, but one of them is Holofoil and therefore printed separated, so two times 59 cards are placed on the uncut sheet, and the two filler cards are left, to be discarded after the cutting process.
As for the reason I’ve bought it: I’ve seen these yellow filler cards being shown on the Pokémon Gotta Misprint 'Em All FB group a few times, and a few different people mentioned it’s just a zoomed in Pikachu. After hearing that more than once, I decided I wanted one as a joke for my Pikachu collection, so I recently won this CGC-graded copy during the PWCC auctions.
PS: These kind of blank yellow filler cards weren’t only used during the WotC era, since I’ve recently also seen one from the Platinum/HGSS era based on the lighter spots at the side borders that cards during those eras had:
As mentioned here, some promotional items were released in Japan at Kura Sushi stores/restaurants. To quote @primallugia :
Although I was primarily after the key-chain version of this Pikachu V card, when I came across the clear file and ziplock backs and saw how cheap they were (compared to Pikachu TCG cards these days at least), I decided to buy them as well. Here you can see all three of them, as well as the actual TCG card which I already had at the bottom right as size comparison (not sure yet how I’m going to store the clear file, since it’s too big for my Jumbo binder… ):
But, a card I’m much more exciting about: after @linkdu83 send the owner of this card to me, I was able to buy the final French card for my Pikachu collection, one of the missing 16 Pikachu cards I was looking for. Without linkdu83 I also wouldn’t even knew it existed, and I would probably have thought it was fake if I would so happen to come across one. It’s a French Base Set Jumbo Pikachu, but as you can see, the colors and borders are a bit unorthodox, and it’s even Shadowless!
These cards were exclusively given in Belgium at some tournaments back in 2000. They were most likely participation prizes.
Anyway, I’m pretty happy with the milestone of having ALL French Pikachu cards in my collection now.
EDIT: October 27th, 2021: new information has been discovered about the French Jumbo Pikachu above. Not only was it given at these tournaments, it was originally distributed inside the September 21st, 2000 Télé Pocket volume, a French/Belgium TV guide (pictures below are not mine):
So awesome to see you getting that addition in all its obscurness, this is one of my absolute favourite collections to see becoming more and more complete
Today, we have the fifth language: German. This is again one of the languages I don’t have complete yet unfortunately, missing three WotC era promo Pikachu cards.
German:
Let me start with a picture of all German Pikachu cards again in my collection (minus three I added recently, which are the SWSH061 Pikachu V promo in regular and Jumbo forms and the 25th anniversary Jumbo Base Set Pikachu). Right now I have 160 out of 163 German Pikachu cards in my possession, with three WotC promo Pikachu cards left to find: #24 Birthday, #28 Surfing, and one of three variations of #25 Flying Pikachu (I have the Fliegendes Pikachu and Pikachu World Collection 2000 versions, but am missing the Flug-Pikachu).
This part will be pretty similar as the French part. I will only go over the actual Pikachu releases, instead of the entire history like I did with Dutch and Chinese. I will also not mention set numbers and alike, unless it’s a German-exclusive release, since those can already be read at the earlier English part.
The first set with German Pikachu cards was again the Base Set, in both 1st and unlimited edition. The German Base Set was released in December 1999 (not sure about the exact day, only the months and years are mentioned on both pokewiki.de and bisafans.de for most German set releases).
On April 13th, 2000 the first Pokémon Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (simply known as Pokémon, the Movie in German) came in cinemas in Germany, where the four promos including the #4 Pikachu were available.
After that came the German Jungle set, released in June 2000 (again, I’m not sure about the exact day), also released in both 1st and unlimited edition:
The Flying Pikachu #25 promo was also released in German, but again I’m not sure how, when, or where it was released.
A version with the Pikachu stamp was also included in the Pikachu World Collection of 2000, which we’ve mentioned in all the previous parts, released in Australia on September 13th, 2000.
There is also a German Flying Pikachu WotC promo with the title ‘Flug-Pikachu’ instead of ‘Fliegendes Pikachu’, and different copyright information, which unfortunately is one of three missing Pikachu cards in my collection alongside the ‘Surf-Pikachu’ and birthday Pikachu promos.
Next we had the German EX Sandstorm set, released somewhere in 2004. Just like English and French, there are three non-Holo Commons with different codes, as well as the German EX Trainer Kit version (released somewhere in 2004 as well).
The POP Series 2 was released in German as well. I’m not sure when it was released in German, but it should be somewhere near the end of 2005 or somewhere in 2006.
Then the German EX FireRed & LeafGreen set, with the Reverse Holofoil and three different codes for the non-holo again, released somewhere at the end of 2004 or start of 2005.
The POP Series 6 was also released in Germany somewhere near the end of 2007 or start of 2008, and contained a non-Holo Pikachu card.
This Pikachu was also released as Holofoil in some blister packs near the end of 2007 or start of 2008.
Simultaneously, the DP16 holofoil Pikachu was released with the artwork from the same artist, but a different perspective.
This German promo was also released with silver snowflake stamp in the Pokémon Countdown Calendar of October 2008.
And the final POP Series 9 was released in Germany as well somewhere in 2009.
There is also a Germany Pokémon Day copy, given to visitors of the Pokémon Day 2009 events in six German cities between August 29th and October 24th, 2009.
Next we have the HeartGold & SoulSilver era, starting with the German set by the same name, released on May 12th, 2010.
Unlike English and French, the HeartGold & SoulSilver Trainer Kit wasn’t released in German.
There is however a German Pokémon Day version, given at the Pokémon Day between August 18th and October 23rd, 2010 in twenty cities in Germany.
As well as a version with golden Snowflake stamp, from the German exclusive Countdown Calendar of 2010, released near the end of September or October of 2010 (based on the September 21st, 2010 news on bisafans).
On July 8th, 2010 the Japanese Pikachu World Collection 2010 was released, and in November 2010 the English version. Both containing an unique German Pikachu artwork.
Then we had the Black & White era, with a German set by the same name containing a Secret Rare Pikachu, released on May 25th, 2011, exactly a month after its English release.
Next we had Roaring Skies released on May 20th, 2015, about two weeks after its English release.
In addition we had the McDonald’s 2016 version, for which this German copy was exclusively released in Switzerland (not sure when, but somewhere near the end of 2016).
In September 2016 the Pikachu-EX Red & Blue Collection box was released in Germany, containing both a regular sized and Jumbo-sized version of the XY124 full art Pikachu EX promo.
And the last set of the XY era: Evolution, with reprints of earlier Pikachu artworks, released on November 2nd, 2016 in German, on the same day as its English release.
And in addition again the Shatterfoil version from the Pikachu Power Theme Deck.
The SM Trainer Kit: Lycanroc & Alolan Raichu was released in German as well, somewhere in April/May 2017, which contained two non-Holo Pikachu cards.
This artwork was also printed as SM86 Holofoil Promo in German, released inside the Shining Legends Collectors Chest released in November 2017.
Next we had the Sun & Moon era, with the Burning Shadows set of August 4th, 2017 being the first to contain a Pikachu card (again released on the same day as its English release).
Followed by the Shining Legends set of October 6th, 2017.
This artwork also had a Water Web Holofoil, Shatterfoil, and McDonald’s Holofoil in German. The Water Web Holofoil came from the Shining Legends Special Collection - Raichu-GX box, released at the start of 2018.
The Shatterfoil came from the Let’s Play, Pikachu theme deck, released at the start of 2019.
And the McDonald’s card came from the McDonald’s Collection 2019, released on November 7th, 2019 in Germany.
Released simultaneously with the Shining Legends set on October 6th, 2017, we had the Shining Legends Pin Collection - Pikachu, containing the SM76 Pikachu promo.
Next we had the Crimson Invasion set, released on November 3rd 2017.
This again had a McDonald’s Holofoil version, from the McDonald’s Collection 2018. Just like the one from 2016 it was exclusively released in Switzerland, somewhere near the end of 2018.
Near the end of 2017 and start of 2018 you would also get one of six Ash’s Pikachu promos (numbered SM109 through SM114) from certain stores in Germany.
On May 9th, 2019, the Detective Pikachu movie was released in cinemas in Germany. People going to the movie would receive the SM190 Detective Pikachu promo.
There was also a special DVDs and Blu-Rays release on October 10th, 2019, which included a stamped version of this same German promo. (This German stamped version could also be found in French and Italian copies of the DVDs and Blu-Rays, which unlike the English and German releases contained one of the four languages at random by error, instead of the cards in their respective languages.)
Followed by the Hidden Fates set on August 23rd, 2019.
With again four non-Holo versions of this same artwork from the Battle Academy set, released in July or August 2020.
Simultaneous with this set, the Pikachu-GX & Eevee-GX Special Collection box was released on November 1st, 2019, containing both a regular and Jumbo-sized SM232 Pikachu GX full art promo, as well as a regular sized SM234 Pikachu promo.
On February 19th, 2021, the Shining Fates Collection - Pikachu V box was released, containing both a regular and Jumbo-sized version of the German SWSH061 Pikachu V promo.
And the latest German Pikachu card that was released is a reprint of our well-known Base Set artwork. This Jumbo Pikachu with holofoil 25th anniversary logo was released with a (small) ‘Pokémon First Partner’ Jumbo binder earlier this month.
And there you have it. All German Pikachu cards that are in my Pikachu collection, of which I’m currently missing just three cards: the #24 Birthday Pikachu promo (which I’ve heard was given at some German tournaments back in the day); the #25 Flug-Pikachu promo; and the #28 Surf-Pikachu promo. These three cards are so rare, the German Pokémon wikis I’ve been using for this German part (pokewiki.de and bisafans.de) don’t even have pictures of the Flying and Surfing Pikachu promos on their Wizards Black Star Promo pages (here the one for pokewiki and here for bisafans). I hope I’m one day able to add them to my collection, but considering I’ve only seen the German Surfing and Flying Pikachu promos twice and the Birthday Pikachu four times in the past 6.5 years, it probably won’t be anytime soon.
Wow! as a German iam impressed about your journey and enjoy that you took the extra effort in posting the cards with a little background story.
Your last sentence kinda shocked me
Had no idea what a struggle some of them in German are O.o
An amazing Italian partially rotated and miscut SWSH061 Pikachu V promo arrived today. (I figured I’d mentioned the SWSH061 promo number, since it isn’t visible anywhere on the card, haha. )
I simply can’t afford it anymore. I’ve already dropped some of my collection goals, and completed some others, but even by just focusing on Pikachu cards and English FA Supporters it’s hard to keep up financially. It already was in the past 2-3 years, but it’s almost impossible now. I recently bought a Thai Pikachu for 400 USD and a Chinese Pikachu for 550 USD for example. And those kind of expenses were fine in previous years, since it was only every once in a long while, and there were also loads of Pikachu cards that were still a few bucks a piece. Nowadays however, almost every single new Pikachu card released regardless of its language is 50+ USD, and there are multiple 100+ USD Pikachu cards I buy for the collection every week. Sure, some drop in value a bit over time, but still… Take the holo English McDonald’s Pikachu for example. Millions of this card have been printed and given for free with Happy Meals, yet it’s still selling for 30-50 USD each… I’m still waiting for it to drop to at least below 15 USD before even considering buying one. It just completely takes away the fun of collecting.
1.5 binders for my Pikachu collection. The other halve for my Seviper, FA Supporter, and Moltres collections. I also have a Jumbo binder for my Pikachu collection. A top-loader binder for all my rare and sealed cards. And a graded binder for all my graded cards: some Pikachu, some Moltres, some FA Supporters, and some random cards (mostly from Secret Santa and a giveaway). 
i’ve had to abandon a lot of things i would have wanted to collect and i still feel miserable about that even though they are far less ambitious than these kinds of collections. But i do hope that you still get to keep collecting enjoyable for yourself, i’ve been in this forum for relatively short time but i can’t imagine anyone else inside this hobby who brings so much to everyone else in various ways, so i feel like you really deserve to get all the joy and enjoyment from this hobby for yourself too
I’ll definitely keep collecting Pokémon cards and enjoying it; learning and sharing information; and help others where I can. I always knew collecting Pikachu cards would be endless, and I’m already extremely happy with how far I’ve managed to come. When I started back in 2015, I couldn’t have imagined how my collection would have looked like today.
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