Solemn Star's Collection

If you want to help me, check out my Buy/Trade thread

Its no fun to go on an adventure alone…

Collecting Interests/Niches/Goals

:red_circle: abandoned goal
:purple_circle: : Inactive/ passively/ intermittently collecting
:yellow_circle: “I’m workin’ on it”
:large_blue_circle: I want to do this, but haven’t started
:green_circle: Complete!


:green_circle: Legend Maker ‘Uzumaster’ set Master set with all swirls
:green_circle: every EB games stamp promo(yes, all of them)
:green_circle: living dex up to ultrasun/ultramoon when pokemon still had a national pokedex.
:green_circle: every mainline pokemon video game in english and in japanese for gameboy CIB


:yellow_circle: Card Sleeves (It never ends)

Summary

I have a thirst to document all the card sleeve basic colors I can in different versions. A main goal that I’m close to is every Dragonshield color. All I need is “Baby Blue”. Likewise I’ve tried to locate the circa 2002-2003 special sleeves from Ultra Pro. Mainly I want one of each color in the “Metalized” series. But there is also “Satin” and some other holo pattern sleeves. I have other sleeves that I have imported from Japan. In the hunt for the perfect gold color sleeves to put gold cards in, I found one from Japan. For now accept my haphazard photos of the boxes of sleeves. If you want to see me go over my sleeves I’ll leave you with some videos too.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M17u867XZzo

TCG gold card sleeves compared
Every TCG sleeve in every color I have - compared

:yellow_circle: FireRed/LeafGreen master set with all possible swirls
:yellow_circle: ex Team Rocket Returns Master set with all possible swirls
:yellow_circle: e-Series and “ex” set era card binders

Summary

ex Unseen Forces Binder


Dragon Shield Matte Blue
Dragon Shield Matte Sky Blue
Dragon Shield Matte Midnight Blue
Dragon Shield Matte Umber
Dragon Shield Matte Copper


ex Emerald Binder


Dragon Shield Matte Apple Green
Dragon Shield Matte Green
Dragon Shield Matte Olive


ex Delta Species Binder


Dragon Shield Matte Silver
Dragon Shield Matte Midnight Blue

:yellow_circle: Promo sets Binderses

Summary


I tried to determine the best way to do promos. I really like promos because they express a history of the TCG from a pure gameplay aspect, to collecting across every set in the era. I combined base set through black and white in one binder because they will simply fit, and means fewer binders; less wasted space. This will include weird outliers like ancient mew, “best of” promos and southern islands. Pop series will be their own binder when I get to it.

:yellow_circle: Legend Maker master set in Traditional Chinese

Summary

crossed out cards are ones I’ve collected. Uncrossed out cards I still need.

Aerodactyl
Aggron
Cradily
Delcatty
Gengar
Golem
Kabutops
Lapras
Machamp
Mew
Muk
Shiftry
Victreebel
Wailord
Absol
Girafarig
Gorebyss
Huntail
Lanturn
Lunatone
Magmar
Magneton
Omastar
Pinsir
Solrock
Spinda
Torkoal
Wobbuffet
Anorith
Cascoon
Dunsparce
Electrode
Furret
Graveler
Haunter
Kabuto
Kekleon
Lairon
Machoke
Misdreavus
Nuzleaf
Roselia
Sealeo
Tangela
Tentacruel
Vibrava
Weepinbell

Aron
Bellsprout
Chinchou
Clamperl
Gastly
Geodude
Grimer
Growlithe
Lileep
Machop
Magby
Magnemite
Omanyte
Seedot
Sentret
Shuppet
Skitty
Spheal
Tentacool
Trapinch
Voltorb
Wailmer
Wurmple
Wynaut
Cursed Stone
Fieldworker
Full Flame
Giant Stump
POWER TREE
Strange Cave
Claw Fossil
Mysterious Fossil
Root Fossil
Rainbow Energy
React Energy
Arcanine ex
Armaldo ex
Banette ex
Dustox ex
Flygon ex
Flygon ex
Mew ex
Walrein ex
Regice Star
Regirock Star
Registeel Star

:yellow_circle: 2024 Trick or Trade Halloween holos with swirls on the pumpkin Pikachu logo

Summary

I was made aware that the holo pattern is visible in the pumpkin pikachu logo. So the hunt began. Its a limited scope, affordable and fun goal. I love Halloween, so it seemed like the perfect goal for me.

Sinischa

Ogrepon Teal Mask

Pikachu

Okidogi-NEED

Mimikyu-NEED

Flutter Mane-NEED

Munkidori-NEED

Fezandipiti-NEED

Gengar

Darkrai

:yellow_circle: Hexa swirls for what I know can get them.
:yellow_circle: both types of holo pattern for the transition in scarlet/violet promos
:yellow_circle: both types of holo pattern for the transition in black/white promos


:purple_circle: all sword/shield blackstar promos with this swirl
arrow_smaller
:purple_circle: really random obscure variants across the ages
:purple_circle: NearMint-Mint condition sun/moon era Alternate Art Full Art tag teams
:purple_circle: quadraswirls for everything that can have it English/Japanese excluding cards with holo borders (“ex” era ex pokemon) with the original cosmos holo pattern.
:purple_circle: all variants from products(not player reward stamp/professor programs etc.) as they release in contemporary sets


:large_blue_circle: full set of no symbol jungle holos
:large_blue_circle: e-reader series master sets
:large_blue_circle: HeartGold/SoulSilver era master sets


:red_circle: 1 of every single english card that you can get from booster packs
consoles

Summary

When I set this ambitious goal, I was quite naive to the cost of cards in general. I got back in at the exact wrong time. Despite things cooling off, its going to be a long road, and I know I’m not alone. Its also such a vague and almost pointless goal to set. It says nothing about your priorities.

:red_circle: pokemon special edition gameboy light console

Summary

Many years ago I was super into trying to buy good nintendo handheld games and learned what some of the hidden gems were. The nintendo gameboy light was just a gameboy pocket with a front light more or less. But the hue of light is this really beautiful sort of tealish green color. it feels like cool freshness. There is a pokemon special edition of the console, but the price, even then, was quite high for anything usuable, let alone in shape to look pretty on display. Repair on them was also not much of a possibility because parts are not easy to come by. I gave up that goal, and felt that in terms of playing, a gameboy advance was probably still suitable, and it is. I can enjoy this from afar in someone else’s collection

:red_circle: Mewtwo Black Star Promo #12 WOTC signed by Christoper Rush

Summary

Christopher Rush is a name to the Magic The Gathering card game what Ken Sugimori is to Pokemon in some sense. Very iconic for so many classic early art. When you see christopher Rush art, you can’t decouple it from the feel of Magic. I had no idea that he drew a pokemon card ever. As a kid I never aquired the card and never met anyone with it. Likewise never saw it in legendary collection because that set sucked, I hated it, I was sick of yet another reprint of old cards. So I never opened much of it. So I never saw it reprinted in that set either. Fast forward to now, and if there were any artist I’d love to have a signed card of, it would be this truly unique card. Sadly, in 2016 Christopher Rush died at just 50 years old. He shaped and built a path for the very concept of a trading card game. And i admire and thank him for his mark on what I enjoyed with so much of my time when I was young. I cannot get a photo with him, or to have him sign my card. I don’t know how I would feel about buying a card he signed for someone else. But knowing there are likely not many at all, I’m okay with letting this goal pass. Fate may offer me a chance, but I’d likely not be able to afford it if I felt it was right. I’m still not sure. But still, I am sad we lost him. I had quit playing magic just a few years before his passing, and in my mind it marked the true end of Magic the Gathering for me.

:red_circle: PSA 10/BGS 9.5+ master set of 1st edition neo destiny cards

Summary

This one is a bit silly. I am not much of a graded card person. I feel like in most cases graded cards are truly a shame. This was an early goal before I really even knew what the deal with them was. I didn’t know much about the shadiness of grading companies. But still, I had wanted to have the absolute nicest copies of the shining cards from neo destiny, my favorite and most cherished childhood set. As a kid I worked very hard opening tons of packs to get them all, and trading to get what I couldn’t pull out of packs. But I did it! So I wanted to get new ones, this time in first edition and as flawless as possible. I realized how difficult and expensive that would be. Charizard alone makes me realize this is simply not feasible for me. I’m sure I’ll just get some scuffed up copies for a set binder eventually.

:red_circle: contemporary master sets as they come out

Summary

Similar to the goal of “every card”, this is kind of a silly goal. But also due to the brick wall that has happened with availability issues from surging sparks set onward, its made this goal die fast. However also due to the introduction of masterball and pokeball special reverse holos into prismatic evolutions, I am uncertain if I can achieve a complete set.

:construction:Thread Under Construction :construction:
:building_construction:

More to come…




Edit log

2024-12-31T23:21:00Z formatting, added legend maker Chinese.
2025-01-02T08:00:00Z added more goals
2025-01-16T04:38:00Z filled out Chinese legend maker details. slight formatting refinement
2025-01-19T08:03:00Z Added stories to all the goals I abandoned.
2025-01-19T19:11:00Z filled out the portion for 2024 trick or trade cards with swirls. Moved “contemporary master sets as they come out” to abandoned goals with explaination. Added “Every color Dragon Shield card sleeves”. Added link at top to my buy/trade thread.
2025-01-21T06:02:00Z Filled in Card Sleeves Section, and changed it from “collecting dragon shield sleeves”.
2025-01-25T01:05:00Z Changed goal title of ex and e-series cards. Added the first entry to it of my unseen forces binder
2025-01-27T00:47:00Z added a new goal :yellow_circle: Promo sets Binderses
2025-02-03T08:00:00Z Added images for ex emerald and ex delta species binders.

18 Likes

I like how you laid your thread out so colorfully and with the emojis XD. Gl on your journey. Thats quite a goal!

3 Likes

recently noted that I added and updated some cards to my chinese legend maker set. This is the only time a full set was made in chinese between base set and the printing that started again in 2019 for traditional chinese, and later Simplified Chinese for Mainland China.

After I completed my Full swirl master set in English I felt like the chinese Legend maker set would be another very unique collection goal. Not wildly popular, I thought it might be worth going for. I had noticed at some point in maybe 2023 some time, that a ton of sealed booster boxes of Chinese legend maker hit ebay. I didn’t think anything of it since I had no idea that it was anything special. I wish I had known then what I know now! Later on I saw packs start hitting the market in a big dump. Obviously these would have been the packs without holographic cards in them, and the holos were all sent to grading, because not long after I began to see chinese legend maker holos pop up in graded encapsulations. Lots of the grades are all over the place, so whoever sent them in didn’t seem to know anything about grading, just sent them all off.
Even now as I essentially have no choice but to buy graded cards, I’ve won a few for essentially the cost of the grading, which is frustrating. I’d have paid you $15 for the holo either way dudes. Come on…Well, whatever! It was fun opening the packs.

Also I’ll just add here since its relevant, i decided to hang onto the pack wrappers, why not. For some time now I’ve been doing this for booster packs. You can use tarot card sleeves, and booster packs, unopened or empty will fit perfectly. This is also the case for promos in those silly cellophane wrappers. Then if you want to go the extra mile, you can get 3x5 inch top loaders which PERFECTLY fit the tarot card soft sleeves. Its like God himself ordained this exact combo of totally unrelated items to come together so wonderfully. Just note that a full and unopened boosterpack will not fit in the top loader. I mean, if they made extra thick ones, we’d be golden, but alas.


Here is me opening it. It started as me recording my package opening since I’ve been scammed lately and I don’t open my mail without recording it to prove I was not sent the correct items. So I cut it to right when I saw I got the booster packs and kept rolling and just opened the packs right away. I was looking forward to this for about a week. It was enjoyable. I only got one repeat of cards I had bought singles for. And I didn’t get a single repeat in any of the packs, which makes me think that a sequential entire booster box might not have overlap? Or I just got lucky. This is uncharted territory!

https://rumble.com/v69vxl1-pokemon-legend-maker-chinese-booster-pack-opening.html

^ me opening booster packs live. Gross long finger nails because I was caught off guard that they came in the mail, sorry. At least they are strong and healthy and devoid of green infecteous amoebas.

6 Likes

About a month ago I opened a bunch of trick or trade packs with my friend in the hunt for the swirls on the pikapumpkin logo. I got exactly half! For his help, I sleeved up a full set of the 2024 trick or trade cards for him. He isn’t actively collecting, but its fun to open cards together and have some help. We found that the cards perfectly seeded too. We got exactly 7-9 of every single card, holo or non-holo. So essentially each one of those containers will give you 3 or 4 full sets. I wonder if the previous years are similar? I’ll have to buy a ton more of these. Its super affordable still. And I love ripping packs. If I get extras I’ll definately trade or give away any to fellow swirl hunters who might be interested.

3 Likes

last night I went through my unseen forces cards and finally made a set binder for it. I’m not sure if I chose the right colors for the card sleeves. I do think it looks nice though. I gave the unowns a ruins of alph feel by giving it the copper and umber colored sleeves. It always takes longer than you might expect to do this. I double sleeve my holographic cards, but I don’t sleeve non-holos unless they happen to be expensive. I take extra time to pre-stretch out inner sleeves to prevent damage. I’ll just shove 2-3 cards into the inner sleeve first, and that helps. I’m very cautious. It adds loads of extra time, but its worth it.

Real talk though, tossing out this many top loaders makes me realize how much card collecting is microplasticing me. I am my own worst enemy. Curse you, me! Pretty much all of them just weren’t nice enough to save and re use. I don’t reuse anything if its too messed up.

I am working now on getting all my ex era binders finally started. I just have a big box of toploaders with cards i’ve bought for years.

6 Likes

added :yellow_circle: Promo sets Binderses


I’ve just had all these promos clogging up my collection and I love promos and needed to get my ducks in a row! I put it off because I wanted to keep the binder space as compact as possible and consistent as possible. And I think I figured I could squeeze base set through black and white into a 9 pocket binder. This should include any variants.

Now, why did I choose a 12 pocket for scarlet and violet? If you notice, the number of promos has increased each era since black and white where it became consistent as the modern days. sword and shield had 307 promo cards! Including standard(non error) variants, this is really cutting it close! I think we will likely see around 330 promos total by the end. Going by the most tepid increase generation to generation was sun/moon to sword/sheild. Which was a %117.50 change. This would give you exactly 360 cards, maybe 361! Another metric to judge it is a moving target. But right now scarlet and violet is at 186 promos roughly. they keept jumping around in the actual set number and skipping some. But that is the real number as far as I can tell. At this time in the sw/sh block roughly, it was roughly 184. I’m just going by the set numbers. And we are in a special set after set number 8. Which for sw/sh was fusion strike, so I’m counting right up against the last card before the brilliant stars prelease promos. And that matches up. Now, where the difference lies, is that sw/sh also had V-union cards. However we now have many variants. We also now have etb promos, and each one has a pokemon center logo variant. I am simply cautious. If I am wrong, then well…I might downsize, but I felt it would be safer to just go with a bigger binder.

1 Like

more ex era binders!


I like this holo pattern. At first I didn’t see it as much, but I really do think I came to appreciate it. This set is just another fun one in general. Tons of awesome gen 3 heavy hitters with two different arts for the legendaries in it. I fussed over sleeve colors for a while on this. The “ideal” color scheme I started with wasn’t contrasty enough. DS green classic and matte and then apple green. I ended up with apple green, green matte, and olive green! I think they capture the widest range of green while being noticable and fitting the greens of this set logo and pack/boosterbox color scheme.

This was one I dreaded for a while. The color scheme for this set had me worried. But I ended up settling on silver and midnight blue dragonshield sleeves. And you know what? I think sometimes keeping it simple works. The booster box has a deep navy blue I drew inspiration from since the set logo is just plain gray/silver. Ironic considering the colorfulness of delta species cards in this set. I picked up a ton of new cards for this set from someone all at once, so it was time to set this binder up.


I was able to finally binder up one of my favorite things, the weird nordic donald duck magazine cards! First time for any of them. Both Larvitar and the Arita Dratini have the set symbol like a reverse holo, but are non holo! And I added my prerelease metang. They fit perfectly at the end of the page after card 114 azumarill which has a placeholder for now. As you can see I put a placeholder at the end of each page to help me not mess up card spacing.


What I nearly forgot was that I have accumulated 3 sets of these special donald duck magazine cards! reverse holo dratini for comparison. None of them is spectacular condition. The fronts on all are good enough for the binder. So I’ll eventually trade the extras away to collectors that share my passion for these fun obscure variants from the far north of Europe.

5 Likes