Usually when this issue pops up, i would ideally like to buy another copy for the new project, but its not a priority. So “The Ghost Slot” works until then.
I’ve personally bought two copies, although overlap barely happens in my collections. The only times it did happen was.
EDIT: Looked it up and fixed some of my earlier statements. I forgot about a few.
1. With the English and Japanese-exclusive Red’s Pikachu FA cards. I collect both Pikachu in all languages, and FA Supporter/CHR cards in English and non-English-exclusives, so these belong in both collections. Can’t check rn, but iirc there were four different FA cards for which this applied. EDIT: Eight apparently:
2. Likewise with the English Double Crisis Team Aqua’s Kyogre EX, which is also in that same FA Supporter/CHR collection, as well as in my Seviper collection as cameo.
3. Some Pikachu are in both my ‘First card released in each language’ and Pikachu sub-collections. This applies to the Japanese CoroCoro Comic Pikachu, released five days before the No Rarity Base Set; the T.Chinese/Korean Pikachu World Collection 2000 cards, which were released before their 1st edition Base Set releases (a.f.a.i.k.); and the Indonesian 001/SM-P Pikachu, released a few months before the first Indonesian set First Impact.
And I think those were it. Forgot number 3 above.
(In the past when I was still collecting Mimikyu, there was were also two Pikachu with Mimikyu cameos that I had two copies of, as well as one FA CHR. Thanks for the reminder, gonna put those in my duplicated stack, since I stopped collecting Mimikyu years ago. )
EDIT: For context though: I bought two copies of almost all of these close after release, except for the Kyogre, so they were nowhere near the prices of the current market. The Japanese Red’s Pikachu was like 5 bucks at the time for example. The S. Chinese Captain’s Pikachu was definitely the most expensive, since it was more recent (I paid 2x 100 USD for those). But after that, the Pikachu VMAX was the most expensive when I bought them, which was 2x 65 bucks.
I agree with pikachutcg, for most cheap cards buying 2 copies isn’t a huge deal if it’s required for a project.
However, I imagine the problem usually arises when such card is fairly expensive or maybe it’s a card you aren’t a huge fan of: that’s why I voted for the “Eraser”. I already have the card, it’s just in another binder, so no point in forcing myself to allocate budget to something I already own.
depends…hmm. If its a “fun” binder idea, then for me at least, the goal shouldn’t include things that get expensive. I abandoned a fun binder where I wanted 4 of each favorite IR rarity card from scarlet/violet era sets. So that each set had representation on a whole page of a 4 pocket binder. When IR cards were often $0.50-$5 this was reasonable. I cut my losses and moved on when prices got too much for things. I want my set binders to be complete, so I get as far as I can there first. If I have a binder idea, I am thinking in the first place of a fun and affordable idea.
I wanted to keep a separate binder for my Red Gyarados cards but also wanted a full binder of all Gyarados cards.
What I ended up doing was getting red sleeves with the respective Japanese/English back of Pokemon cards sitting in place of where the Red Gyarados cards would go. Didn’t have it in me to get a few copies again so this was a solution that appeased my mind.
I selected Double Down. This has happened for my 4’11 collection , art/illustration rare collection and some of my artist collections. Collecting modern art/ illustration rares frequently overlaps with some of my artist collections. Komiya, Kato, and Kanda. Kandas most recent art rare has me considering tripling down! Their Seismitoad illustration rare is also a 4’11 mon. So I need 3! I currently have 2 and am risiting a third.
If the card is cheap, I would double down regardless of whether it was in a binder or graded copy. If the card is expensive, I would ignore the duplicate requirement and let one copy sit in for two for a graded set (The Eraser) or double down with a slightly lesser copy for a binder. An incomplete binder page would drive me nuts, but I am okay with having one graded copy sit in for multiple sets/goals if the card is expensive.
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