Thanks for the kind words everybody! 
@jkanly I began keeping an eye out for these cards starting a couple of years ago. I had known a little about them previously, but it wasn’t until learning more about them on this forum that I became really interested in owning them. I bought the TMB on Yahoo Japan, and I bought the Pika on ebay about a year ago. By a stroke of luck, the seller of the Pika trophy contacted me asking if I would like to buy any of the other cards in his collection privately, two of which were the SSB and Illustrator. I couldn’t refuse haha. I wish I could give advice or connections, since I have felt the same frustrations as well, but it was honestly just paying attention to yahoo/ebay auctions and getting lucky.
@elftan I certainly do not own one haha.