I just watched this video by smpratte and I can happily say it was a enjoyable watch and very interesting. It’s great to see more insight for collectors and for those getting back into the hobby.
I myself got back into the hobby two years ago, after I came across my old collection from base, Jungle etc… I still remember my sister buying booster packs and deck boxes from Woolsworth (this says how long ago that was) and then giving them to me as I was perhaps ten? Who had very little pocket money, so for me personally I think it was the fact now as a adult I wanted to finish my sets.
The second question I thought was one we can all relate too. How do people react when you say you collect Pokemon cards/memorabilia etc? Again as a adult no matter what your age, just enjoy what you do and keep on collecting if that makes you happy.
So I ask, when did you personally get back into collecting and why?
I’ve been on and off collecting since 1999, but my most notable would be;
2010, I bought a Fossil booster box for ~$200 AUD with my 16th birthday money, stayed home from school to open it the day it arrived from Ebay lol. still have all the holos and the empty packs/box
2012, I had finished school and had a decent paying job and started collecting again after a nostalgia hit. stopped later that year but kept all my cards and sealed product.
late 2014 early 2015 I got another nostalgia hit and it just hasn’t run out, I’ve been steady collecting again for just over 2 years and it’s a lot of fun.
I was not interested in pokemon at all until 2008. Saw my friends collecting the cards and I loved the artwork and everything. So I embraced the cards, the show, the video games, everything. But mainly the cards haha. Got into it then and haven’t stopped since.
Started when I was 7 years old in 1999 when it was released in The Netherlands and collected casually until about the age of 15-17. When I was 23 - two years ago, I bought a few loose cards again when I came across TrollAndToad for Yu-Gi-Oh cards. The first two Pokémon cards I bought were Venusaur and Hitmonlee, the only two Pokémon I was missing from the first 151. I also went back watching the anime, and saw every single 800+ episodes and movies (including specials and banned) in halve a year time.
Then one day I just saw all those Pikachus on T&T and decided to buy them. And that’s how my Pikachu collection (<- read: obsession) started. I then bought more Pikachus when they got back in stock, looked at Bulbapedia which exists and started buying them from eBay. Few months later I came across @justinator’s collection, realised I had a very long way to go and I joined this forum, which was at the start of 2016, little over a year ago. And well, here we are and the rest is history.
Started in 1999 when it first hit the UK. I remember i got my first packs from woolworths and usually went there or WHSmith, £2.50 for Base/jungle/fossil packs all day long! Got back into it just before emerald break was released in japan so almost 2 years ago now. Moved from temporary goal to temporary goal then bought a psa card,which turned me to graded cards, haven’t stopped since and don’t plan on doing so until my goals are completed or if my finances suddenly change and don’t allow me to continue.
I started collecting in 1999 when the first wave of the Pokemon phenomenon was going on - I was in elementary school and Pokemon was pretty much everyone’s entire life, so we were all collecting the cards. It was quite early because I remember noticing the change from shadowless to unlimited after my first few packs.
I got burned out during gen 3 - I kept on playing the games and occasionally watching the show, but I didn’t feel like keeping up with all the new sets coming out. I still loved my old collection and held onto my cards while most of my friends were getting rid of theirs - a couple even sold me their collections. Over the years I received a few more cards as gifts and souvenirs, and bought a few packs myself when I visited a Pokemon Center in Japan, but never really got back into the hobby.
On February 27th, 2016, the 20th anniversary of Pokemon, I walked into a GameStop looking for the promotional “20 years of Pokemon” poster they were giving out. In order to get the poster, I had to buy a Pokemon product there. I decided to get a booster pack - I think it was Roaring Skies, and I don’t even remember what I pulled, but something just clicked and I realized it was time for me to get back into collecting. Ironically, I had chosen to buy the booster pack because it was the cheapest piece of Pokemon merchandise they had. I didn’t think that one through very far.
So far it’s been a really rewarding experience - I’ve learned a lot through the community here on this forum, I’ve been to a local league a couple times to learn more about the competitive side of things, and I’ve been buying and more recently selling some cards on ebay to get a feel for the business aspect. I’m loving all the Sun & Moon stuff so far, so I can’t imagine quitting anytime soon. Glad to be back!
I was into Pokemon from the moment it hit the UK. I was very hooked on the TV cartoon series. I also had a few packs bought for me, i traded cards with a few friends and neighbors.
But due to money constraints and stuff, i wasn’t able to get more packs so eventually the tcg side of Pokemon for me was forgotten and i just watch the cartoon instead.
In 2012, i got my first job. it was decent pay so i started collecting. I got into collecting bluray steelbooks as i already had a few lying around and they looked cool at the time. However as time went on it started to become less fun, it didn’t seem like a good investment as i was constantly reminded by a parents and a few others that its a waste of money, sell em or loose out so i sold em all and made my money back.
Then we fast forward to end of 2014 which is when i started collecting Pokemon. The cards i had in 1999 were from the base set so that is what i decided to go with. I searched on ebay and saw so many, i was very excited but then i also saw many cards inside slabs graded by a company called PSA. I was intrigued by this so i done some reading on what they were about, why people grade and collect graded cards and also what the grading standards mean.
Not long after, i made my mind up that this is how i want to collect my pokemon cards, i want them protected and also at the highest grade possible. I knew that it wasn’t going to be cheap, easy and something that could not be accomplished in a short space of time.
So from that day to this, i’m still collecting that set, the 1st Edition English Base Set in PSA 10. It hasn’t been easy, already pumped quite a few thousands £££ into it but will need to put much more to finish and i will do it.
That’s interesting! Got more of a story behind the steelbooks? Did you buy them brand new or secondhand etc. and some would appreciate over time or how did you go about that?
I collected back when the pokemon hype first hit in the USA as a kid in middle school. Did that for a couple years and then grew out of it. I still played the gameboy games throughout and once or twice i actually picked up a few packs over the years just for giggles, so the interest was always there, just went dormant for a while lol. My cards were given to someone I knew who played the game about 6-7 years ago except a one binder page of holos that my mom kept as a trinket.
Didn’t get back into the cards in earnest until I got a glimpse of evolutions and saw that retro holo design. Decided to collect that set for nostalgia and it just took off from there.
As for question two, i hang around like minded people so nobody bats an eye about my collecting the cards as old as i am. Even if someone thinks it’s weird i wouldn’t really care because nobody pays my bills but me so negative people can shove their opinions where the sun don’t shine.
I enjoy watching movies and at the time i was and still am very much into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I started to collect steelbooks of all marvel movies in all languages, some countries had special or limited edition releases so i got those too. They were all brand new and sealed. I was 90% finished, pretty much had all marvel steelbooks released worldwide, like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America etc.
I bought them off other collectors, some steelbooks cost as much as $500 each. No doubt some would have appriciated over time as not many copies of a certain film were released as a steelbook. But then i didn’t know what to collect after that so my interest in steelbooks faded, i didn’t really appriciate and look at them much. Also to do with the fact that one day Disc based media will die out so i thoguht i’d sell em off, i got really lucky as one collector bought the whole collection i one swoop, made a bit of profit and put all the money into pokemon which im glad i did as i enjoyed pokemon when i was young and i still enjoy over the 2 years i’ve been collecting it
