New to the forum and this is my first thread. I hope these pictures work… I just started back into the collecting hobby a couple months ago and am having a blast! So I work in a public health dental clinic here in sunny Florida. We just recently had a huge budget cut and it has an impact on our toy collection… Our toys have been completely cut! I’ll explain more. I see a bunch of kids every day. If you don’t know, children sometimes need extra coercing to perform procedures. Something to the effect of, “Oh I know this isn’t comfortable but stay open for just another minute and then we will go to the treasure box and you can get a toy for being so good!” Yes, this is a thing and kids love it!
Here are some stickers we have left.
Here is our beloved TREASURE BOX!
And it’s basically empty! #sadface
So I had this idea that to buy old pokemon cards, like the ones that captivated me into this hobby, and give them away. So I bought two of these pokemon tackle boxes filled with toys and old cards! Probably over paid but I thought it was so cool! Yay!
So I haven’t started giving out the cards yet because I wanted y’alls opinion on how to give them out? Should I allow them to pick a few cards? Or maybe put like 4-6 cards together and put a rubber band around them? Not sure the best way to do this while still making it fun and not overwhelming them to pick specific cards but to pick a little “pack.”
But I thought this was so freaking cool and supporting the growth of the hobby. Let me know what you think and any ideas you might have on how to give out the cards.
Sounds like a great idea for the kids If you want to keep the cards as a surprise and emulate a mini pack you could put 4-5 in a penny sleeve and have the card back showing on each side … then kids could pick out a ‘pack’ of random cards.
I love this idea and the extra compassion toward children! I would agree with Pierce, make mystery packs . . . otherwise, kids will be digging around for hours trying to make a decision. Best wishes!
Matthew, That’s AWESOME!!!
The world would be a better place if everyone was like you! You’re not only helping to promote and grow the hobby for future generations; but you’re willing to spend your own hard-earned money to create these Pokemon “grab-bags” for your younger patients! Heck, I’m 26 and I still hate going to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned! If I knew there were Pokemon Cards involved at the end of my appointment, it would make the visit that much more bearable! LOL
To answer your question… I would echo @pierce I would create some type of pre-constructed “mini-pack” or “grab-bag”. This way everyone is able to get something nice; and you don’t have people spending hours after their appointment looking-through everything they can choose from (that’s what I would do)! Haha
And if you’re ever looking to replenish your give-away inventory, shoot me a PM! I’m always at Flea Markets / Yard-Sales picking-up Pokemon Cards. I only re-sell the WotC-Era Product. Anything from the Nintendo-Era is tossed-aside until I accumulate enough to re-sell as a large group. There’s never anything spectacular, mostly C. / Un. / R. Cards in E.X. / Played Condition, but I would not be opposed to mailing you a bunch of that stuff free-of-charge - being in the U.S. I would even cover postage for you.
Similar to @oldskoolpokemon I would be willing to send along some stuff free of charge to add to the box if you find yourself needing stuff. Definitely feel free to PM me an address and I could get something out over the next couple weeks as I actually have a gap in between semesters of my masters program so the timing is right.
I have acquired totes and totes full of near worthless Pokemon stuff but I just can’t stomach throwing it away. I have finally come to recycling hundreds of empty tins recently as I could only get rid of so many for free and I was becoming overrun. Those are way too expensive to ship out also. I try to donate the bigger things like that to various things like what you’ve gone going on here local to me as shipping would be prohibitive on some of it, but I could certainly put together a small package of stickers, some bulk cards and various other smalls that I can find wouldn’t break the bank to ship.
Great thing you’ve got going on there to spread the joy of Pokemon!
It has been a lot of fun handing out these little pokemon card packs and toys to the children. I wish I could show you their reactions when I bring out the pokemon tackle box and open it, they get so excited! Today I started to get repeat kids who got pokemon cards at previous appointments and before I gave this seven year old a shot he was already asking if he would get pokemon cards again. haha so much fun.
I will try to get more in the future! For now I have homework in the form of making more of these little pokemon card packs.
I would suggest purchasing a lot of mini binders on eBay. Sleeving all the cards and evenly distributing the cards within those binders should help you organize well. Then you can just place all those binders in a nice box and keep them in your office.
As a child, I would have visited the dentist every day if I can get Pokemon cards! This is great and I’m sure many kids would remember this many years to come
If you want to keep the cards as a surprise and emulate a mini pack you could put 4-5 in a penny sleeve and have the card back showing on each side … then kids could pick out a ‘pack’ of random cards.
