I think this is a wise observation. It almost sounds too obvious to tell someone to buy what they actually enjoy but it really is a great way to start a collecting journey while not getting caught up in extraneous purchases. For better or for worse, sometimes this lesson is learned more strongly after diving in and realizing it’s truth.
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I get it, it’s definitely intimidating and being in the hobby for a while, sometimes you learn to change your goals or find something new :). I have always liked dark Pokemon (love the Team Rocket Set), and the new sets have just been price gouged to oblivion. So I was looking for a dark Pokemon but also something cute as I miss my 2 dogs that I lost within the last year or so. Super cheap to get all his cards, but he is super cute, I got all of Poochyena. My next puppy goal is going to be Houndour. As other’s said, just collect what you like and doesn’t have to be the expensive cards. I remember someone also mentioning, never compare you collection to anyone else’s.
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You could use a site like https://www.pokellector.com/ and go through the sets and find cards you like. Add them to a spreadsheet and slowly start to acquire them.
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I feel your pain, I had a similar experience when I started collecting again a few months back! I decided to start with a binder collection fairly low value cards 4th print base set to be exact! not easy to find which made it feel rewarding when I found certain cards added with the fact they were between £20-£200 (charizard) helped to take the financial pressure off! being patient taking my time I found to be helpful allowing my collecting journey to take a natural course. It also gave me time to reflect over what direction I might want to take my collecting journey next! It is easy to rush and make impulse purchases that later you can regret. Enjoy the process
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To add my two cents there are some great ways to collect without it being too stressful. Even if your favourite species can be pricy when thinking of the top expensive cards is it something you really have to have or could you set a goal of all english bulk cards of your species? That alone would keep you busy for long time. Or you could just add some of your eeveelution favourites here and there and find the completionist goal somewhere else, perhaps in some of your favourite nostalgia sets instead? You could begin with buying something like that as a binder collection and also some slabs to see what you like and enjoy the most, binder cards most of the time don’t break the bank and if you buy some slabs that after all you don’t find enjoyable they are a lot of times quite liquid to re-sell with minimal loss
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I would always recommend going back to basics at first, it’s much more enjoyable. Heck, I’m still doing that to this very day.
I used to load up good ol’ eBay and just scroll and buy stuff randomly that was either different or that took my fancy and that was also affordable.
One specific memory I’m rather fond of was that I came across an Eevee from the vending series I had never seen before, so that went straight in to my basket!
One major difference between then and now was: Did I look up other listings? No. Did I compare sold listings? No. Did I check condition? No. Sure, we didn’t really have the same tools back then but now, if you want to get the most bang for your buck, you can research deep down the rabbit hole. Still, something rather special gets lost in all that nuance.
So the moral of the story is, just buy stuff and don’t stress the little details until you get a feel for it.
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Yes! This guide helped me so much focus on where I wanted to start and why.
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