Very impressive collection!
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@mikem - dooooo it. 
And thanks @lebleu and @deltazero. Hard to believe I’m less than 10 cards away from completing it (until the next print of Gyarados of course haha).
Thanks man! And yeah, I had a very similar feeling as well after looking it over. Those Unlimited Rage Against the Broken Heaven cards are eluding me HARD. Got two currently in Japan that are stuck in transport due to the virus.
Regarding the sideline cards, the Bandai and Topsun cards are some of my favorites in my non-TCG collection. I’m thankful that I got all 3 of the Topsun variants before prices began to rise but they still pop up often enough. I think they’re worth having since they’re pretty iconic of old-school Pokemon flat collections. If you’re considering Bandai & Topsun, I recommend looking into Meiji as well, there’s the Meiji Pokemon #31 Movie card and the Meiji Chocolate card which are pretty popular as well.
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Little tidbits!
First off, thanks to @quuador for hooking me up with this Korean TCG insert that showcases Gyarados! Was really happy to pop it into the collection. Even though my collection is only concerned with English/Japanese prints, I will GLADLY make an exception if it’s an exclusive. 
Speaking of other languages. I’m potentially interested in adding onto my collection by collecting Unlimited Base Gyarados in every language as it’s the most iconic Gyarados card for me. In considering this, I came across this Italian Base Gyarados for dirt cheap:
Korean and Chinese will probably be the hardest pickups for the set, but we’ll see. Not too worried about condition as you can see.
And last but not least, thanks to some fellow Gyarados collectors on Instagram, I found out there was a Burning Shadows Cosmo Holo Gyarados. After doing some digging, found out it was featured only in TeamUp blister packs. Thanks to both @burnedos and @zubat93 who linked me to a seller:
Mark that as another variant fully completed!
Now if only I could get my hands on the rest of the Japanese Unlimited BREAKpoint (Rage Against the Broken Heavens) cards and my collection would be “complete”!
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Amazing collection @azulryu,
Gyarados has had some really great looking artwork over the years, It’s really cool to see it all together in one place.
Best of luck!
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Thanks so much, @pikachutcg! It’ll probably be some time before I make another update given that I’m hoping to get the final 6 in one go.
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Fuck Azul.
I forgot how you got that shining. Watching your vid and hearing you explain it and I’m like oh yeah fuck I remember him telling us that like 8 years ago!
Almost too wholesome…
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Haha @snap, it does feel like so long ago! Maybe I should do another video update at some point. I kind of missed going over these things one-on-one but felt like there wasn’t much of an audience as compared to when I just posted pictures. Thanks for giving me a reason to watch my old vids again! I think I need to be more thankful now that I realize how much my collection absolutely BLOSSOMED when I signed up years ago all thanks to people like you and the folks we have on here. I miss some of our old members though, truth be told.
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They were good days for sure.
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Yo, when I heard the word “wicked” I was just like, “ oh! We’re from the same land haha!” I’m a northeasterner as well. Although, I don’t actually say wicked. But my family does.
Also, just had to comment about old school newbury comics. 1st edition Neo packs were there between 2005-2008ish. For 3$ per pack. I wasn’t in the market then so I didn’t think to keep em sealed, but it’s awesome to hear about another person’s experience. We pulled a 1st ed revelation Suicune foil. Best pull ever. I pulled a gold star gyarados… but didn’t know what gold stars were then… I just thought it was a normal reverse Holo…so I sold it a LONG time ago for like $20… it is such a dynamic pose, currently it’s at the top of my gyarados list. Dark gyarados is close second due to nostalgia mostly. After a baseball game my sister pulled that card and it was AWESOME!
Were you able to buy Japanese packs there At Newbury? Also, I can only imagine your expression after pulling that shining gyarados. It must’ve been a hell of a moment! Inspired an awesome collection. Makes me want to go back and put my original collection cards back in their place. Sadly I’ve torn apart my old stuff and moved it all around. And sold some of it too😔
Last note, I live in Japan. I don’t want to turn this into a promotion, but if you still need and Japanese stuff, I can help you out fairly easily, I hope at least.
I see they needs are almost all UED, I’m guessing that is like @quaador seviper where the UED is way harder to find?
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@pigeonsyndicate, that’s so cool that we grew up in a similar area and also had Newbury Comic experiences. If my tiny little teenage brain knew how much Neo packs would be in the future, I would have hoarded so many more - sick that you pulled a Gold Star Gyarados. Dark Gyarados is a great card as well. Do you ever visit the area now that you live in Japan (before Covid hit I mean)?
And yes! That was a major part of my experience. Besides Newbury, a couple of vendors and convenience stores also sold Japanese packs from time to time. From the original 5 that started my collection, my Giovanni’s Gyarados and Misty’s Gyarados were both pulled from Japanese packs. 
And the Shining Gyarados still stands out as one of the most vivid memories - It will always be a favorite. Maybe one day you’ll put your old collection together in time!
And that is wicked generous of you! I will definitely take that offer. And yeah, it’s an issue of Unlimited being harder to find. I have 3 cards currently held up in Japan still, so I need 3 more after the fact. I’ll let you know if I find any listings of them!
Do you ever visit the area now that you live in Japan (before Covid hit I mean)?
Sadly no, I’ve only been here for about a year, so I got here then it hit and I haven’t been able to come back yet due to the necessity of quarantining and travel ban lists… It is what it is, but because All my travel plans have been thwarted, I want to come visit more. I feel like I should be able to. I’m a Mainer, and there’s essentially 0 cases in Maine if you’re comparing us to the rest of the US. But oh well, it’s given me expendable cash for Pokémon cards haha!
“a couple of vendors and convenience stores also sold Japanese packs from time to time”
I had always been curious how so many Japanese cards found their way into my collection. This is probably how, I just didn’t know where the treasure troves were haha!
Yeah, whenever you need something, lemme know.
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Hey folks, something a little different. Considering that I’m nearing the end of my main collection, I decided to collect some cards that I’ve loved but have yet to own. These were cards that I either saw in person as a kid or ones that I was introduced here by this community. I’ve decided to call this
The Cards That Make Me Feel Happy Collection (name pending):
Given the recent threads thanks to @pokemontrader that push me to look through every possible art of every card, I found these lovely Doduo cards and had to put them in. I’ve had this Jigglypuff and Charmeleon forever - Can Himeno do no wrong?
The answer is “no” since next up we got some other old cards that I took from my bulk. I’ve always loved the more arrow-headed Kadabra art and these classic renditions of Primeape. Some may recount my favorite Nuzlocke Challenge story centering around a Primeape named Pongo - the very pokemon that inspired me to fall in love with this art all over again.
Next are some Totodiles, two of which came from a long ago trade thanks to @rattlebear . Totodile is my all time favorite starter and I look forward to getting a few more of the precious art:
And then a selection that our own @kurtosisblakeinfini might appreciate - I dislike Hypno as a Pokemon design, but the art is almost always so strange and fascinatingly weird that, for some reason, makes me love the Pokemon. Team Rocket’s Dark Hypno is one of my all time favorite Holo cards, just because of the amazingly beautiful effect the holo plays on the background of the Pokemon. After this picture, I came to discover that the Hypno even has Holo bleed! The Hypno/Clefairy cards are a match made in heaven and also illustrated by my favorite illustrator, Komiya, making this child’s nightmare reach an unprecedented level of creepy awesomeness. Oh. And that Rocket’s Slowpoke is just fucking adorable as all hell.
And lastly. We have Neo Discovery Espeon by Nishida - in all sense of the word, I think this might be the best card art that Pokemon has ever had to offer in terms of pleasant and beautiful cards. One day I’ll get a matching Espeon. The Entei I’ve had ever since I was a kid and thankfully never got rid of it because no one would buy it for $3 at the time I tried to sell it at a yardsale. XD It’s one of my favorite Entei cards and I appreciate how gorgeous the swirl holo covers the card - @greenpotatoes would surely appreciate this. The Eldegloss was from the recent Pin Box from Champion’s path - the cosmo holo is just gorgeous. And lastly, this Jumpluff that I just got today after sharing our mutual love of the Pokemon and some Nishida art on discord. I found one for cheap and I saw it even was staring at a swirl!
I suppose it wouldn’t be true to my core to share a part of my collection and not mention at least a Gyarados or two, so after my first PWCC experience, I decided to purchase this Chinese Gyarados I had been watching. I will appreciate it as a momento of the event. Oh. I don’t think I mentioned this here before, but I’m trying to start a Museum Binder collection of Base Set Gyarados - involving all the variants of the Pokemon including languages. I only need the Unlimited Korean to get all the languages in Unlimited so that’ll be tough, but I’ll touch more on the idea of the Museum collection in another post.
I’ve slowly started to receive some packages from Japan, one of them being this Japanese Gyarados that has an off center/off angle Gyarados that has both a swirl and an orbie:
And lastly, my favorite thing I’ve gotten this week. I decided to do a lovely trade with our own @dizzle24 after sharing my pulls on a stream from my ETB. Traded my Gardevoir Vmax card for the Suspicious Food Tin - a card that, upon first seeing it in Japanese, erupted an unstoppable urge to emit, “PSYCHIC BEANS!” from my brain and create an obsession. I have a box of Explosive Walker on its way and hope to stream a box opening of it in hopes of finding the Japanese variant. Anyway, I also got surprised with a couple of classic Gary’s to add to my extras and a signature card from Diz and Dkitty (love the cards they chose!):
More to come folks!
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Some of you might recall the thread where I received 1st Edition Japanese cards advertised as Unlimited. I pointed out there was another lot and was curious whether the lots had been accidentally switched. Well I bit the bullet and purchased the other lot not knowing if I’d receive the Unlimited in the end:
Spoiler
Paying nearly $100 for an Uncommon card seemed absolutely ludicrous to me at first, but finally having it in hands has made it worth it.
Thanks again for the encouragement! 5 more cards to go!
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5 more cards to go!? That’s an easy goal for you to reach.
Best of luck, and keep us updated on discord 
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‘Easy’ is a relative term if your goals include a SNAP Photo Contest card. 
But big congrats Devin! Glad you’ve been able to find this card after all. Japanese unlimited edition cards are such a pain to track down sometimes.
Greetz,
Quuador
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@azulryu That was a great read in your updated Pokémon story of your first post, Devin! Thanks for the tag. You’re a great story-teller by the looks of it, although it always helps to write about something you feel passionate with. 
Good luck trying to get those last few cards and one day completing your goal of owning all English and Japanese Gyarados cards - except perhaps the SNAP; I will most likely have a gap in my Pikachu collection for the same reason for a very long time, but we’ll never know what the future may hold.
PS: You forgot to cross of your unlimited edition Spirit Link from your wants at the bottom of your first post. Didn’t you mention it arrived yesterday?
Greetz,
Quuador
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@quuador , thank you so much! I honestly think of myself as pretty meh when it comes to story-telling as much as I enjoy it - actually trying to get in the works of writing a book so I appreciate the encouragement. 
And thanks man. I still find myself surprised when I’m reminded that my English collection is technically complete (at the moment). As for the Snap card, the hope is obviously always there, but I try to remain practical with my collection now considering prices. I’m still thinking of how to fill the gap:
Taking a note from @pichufan 's fill-in designs, I might look into getting this made into a card from @papafrankgod 's contact:
Let me know if you ever want something done up similar for Snap Pikachu - you’re always so helpful so I’d have no issue creating a design like this for you.
And thanks for the reminder! There’s honestly more that I want to edit with my original post, plus I’m actually expecting a few more gaps to be filled in the coming week or two so expect more cross-offs!
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Thanks for the offer, but no need. I’ll just keep an empty as a reminder to keep chasing no matter how long it might take to acquire all the money. (Although by the time I one day have that sum of money available, its value would have increased tenfold again no doubt. Not to mention that none has popped up for sale ever a.f.a.i.k., and the last private sale I’m aware of was 2004 or so. 
)
Anyway, good luck with acquiring those last few unlimited edition cards.
Greetz,
Quuador
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Like many of you, I got the Pikachu Promo. Not big into Pikachu but 2020 involved the Postal Office so much that I quickly wanted one as a momento. Since this is a Gyarados Channel, though, you know I had to indulge:
The tape also hints at something we all knew about too - wish I could get my hand on some:
Next up, Surprise! Also Pikachu related. I asked myself a lot this past year whether or not I was going to make this purchase. I’ve avoided collecting anything that had only a fake representation of Gyarados (like Team Rocket’s robot gyarados in the non-TCG Bandai cards) since the TCG didn’t have any. When Poncho Pikachu first appeared, I stuck to this rule since I don’t care for the Pokemon. But a question kept popping up in my head - what if in the future, Gyarados started making cameo appearances like in the art and anime? Like a koi flag, a watering can, or an image on the screen?
Would I regret not getting the Poncho Pikachu when I could afford it?
The answer is yes:
For now, it’s in the binder but not included in my set-order. It’s a standalone until more Cameo cards feature Gyarados items. Never had a Poncho Pikachu in hand before, and I have to say, it looks so much better in person. Got an incredibly kind deal on it too.
And finally, a major overhaul folks. After nearly 8 months of patience, I finally received the last few packages I ordered from Japan back in March/April! Thanks so much to Japanime and Stephneechan for helping me sort out the delivery issues due to Covid!
Over the years, my method of searching for cards has become somewhat of an exhaustive obsession. This was mostly do to how difficult it has been to find Unlimited Gyarados from Rage of the Broken Heavens cards. Well on top of the Unlimited Gyarados Spirit Link, I found 3 more cards!
First off, we have Unlimited Mega Gyarados EX 019/080. There was a 1st Edition and Unlimited posted separately by the same seller. Learned my lesson last time and bought both so there wouldn’t be any confusion. Interesting choice of packaging though:
Next up Unlimited Gyarados EX 089/080:
And finally, Unlimited Gyarados EX 018/080:
I’ve been super stressed the last couple of weeks and losing sleep from it. So filling these pages yesterday felt incredibly uplifting. It’s so nice to see them looking full:
The jury is still out on Unlimited versions of Gyarados EX 081/080 and Mega Gyarados 082/080 but I have faith they’ll show up soon:
Just when you think it’s the end, though, there’s more. I haven’t updated my Flat’s collection in some time. So let’s share some goodies.
First off, we got some Japanese Newspaper Clippings and a Mega Gyarados Sticker:
And finally, we have a My 251 Campaign Sticker Card and 2 GB Pocket Mini Cards, not sure what the token is from so if anyone has any idea, let me know:
I took the time today to reorganize my Flats Binder. This isn’t all of it, just mostly the legit/non-bootleg cards/stickers/tokens/lenticulars:
I haven’t bothered to really reorganize this in the last 5 years, so it was nice to do so today. It feels good now to sift through the pages - and also to keep the custom/gift/bootleg cards separated from the official stuff:
So there we go. To be honest, Covid’s been tough for me so it was nice to just fuss with my collection for a bit. Spending a few hours to tend to it felt really uplifting.
I shared this in a separate thread but figured I’d post it here now so I have my own direct reference. I decided I needed to re-evaluate my collection seriously and rework some of my rules. I readjusted and settled on these three in concerns to my collection:
- Pokemon purchases from now on are ONLY Gyarados.
- An exception can be made twice a year but will not exceed a total of $200 USD combined.
- Any other non-Gyarados cards/items I want can only be obtained either as gifts or through trades.
I readjusted my rules because I’m growing tired of seeing things slip through my fingers and want to make sure that I’m better prepared for future surprises. My previous set of rules allowed for too much wiggle room and after being repeatedly reminded why I can’t do a serious side collection, I figured these were a good compromise and ones I could remember easily.
I’ve also been figuring out what I want as a unique talking piece for the last few years. In addition, I have been on the hunt for something that would tie my TCG and Non-TCG collections together. In doing so, and after witnessing an example, I’ve decided I want to chase after Non-TCG Gyarados Flats signed by Arita, Sugimori, and Himeno. Why these artists in particular? Well because they are the original artists for the first 5 Gyarados cards to exist in the TCG. They are also the artists that, when I think of Pokemon - their art is what comes to mind first. The ultimate goal would be to frame the 3 signatures with certifications AND my original 5 Gyarados cards all in one.
I will also be on the hunt too for obscure Gyarados flats - pictures, magazine cutouts, etc. Which means a lot more cruising through Japanese websites. So if anyone sees anything, please feel free to drop me a link or message me here/on the discord (and thank you to those who have already!).
Cheers!
- Azul
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@azulryu I have not seen your collection 'til now. And I am overjoyed. One of the finest collections on the forum (And I have drooled quite a bit over several). This is to commemorate the near completion of a comprehensive and stunning Gyarados collection:
(PS. I adore your Gyarados skin binders. Just the coolest thing ever, I say)
(PPS. Shining Gyarados is the best shiny Pokemon card ever made)
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