Whatup y’all! Excited to be part of this community!
WARNING: wall of text incoming
You’ve all probably heard variations of this story a million times before - but I’m a 90s kid that spent most of the 6th grade in the back of the classroom grinding to get all of my favorite lineups in Red/Blue up to level 100.
Filling up the Pokedex, playing linked battles on my silver GameBoy Pocket, leveling up all of my favorites…I was hungry for more, so I sought out magazines, comic books, plush, anything that could scratch the Pokemon itch. Enter: Pokemon TCG.
At the time, there was only one store at my local mall that carried the cards. I bought the last few 1st Edition packs with my allowance and my dad had the great foresight to ask the manager if I could also have the empty display box (thanks dad!)
Unfortunately, the cards (even back then) were insanely difficult to track down in my hometown, but even at 10 years old, I had previous experience chasing down drops for new collectibles (via Hot Wheels & Beanie Babies). I was lucky enough to be able to track down a few more 1E packs, and I was off and running for real from Shadowless and go-forward.
PROS of being an almost teenager collecting at that time: I took great care of my cards, and everything went into Ultra Pro sleeves/loaders/pages. I also had a ton of fun and got pretty good playing the actual game at local tourneys (my first deck was a Mewtwo/Scyther/Chansey stall deck!)
CONS of being an almost teenager collecting at that time: I was a huge nerd, and eventually high school (and girls!) distracted me from completing collections. I walked away early on during Neo Genesis, not because I didn’t love it, but because between school and the incessant desire to try and be more sociable took most of my time.
When “the boom” happened during COVID, I was living overseas and was both astounded and sad that the (already steadily rising) cost of cards would mean that going back to complete my collections would be more expensive.
I began to dig more into how I could jump back into the hobby without breaking the bank (maybe getting after more modern sets?), and two things happened:
1: I felt the insatiable urge to truly complete the sets from my childhood, in the condition that I want
2: I started to fall in love with artwork from different sets, across all eras, and discovered that price doesn’t necessarily have to restrict me from collecting something that’s fun and that I love
So this is why I’m back: not only for nostalgia, definitely not for financial gain, but because it’s FUN! I’m staying away from anything that isn’t FUN for me personally, focusing on my favorites to start, and slowly looking to understand the metas of the current game, so I can put together a deck and start playing again.
Currently I’m focusing my unfinished 1E Gym Heroes / Gym Challenge sets, and modern promos (I love promo cards! not just the rare ones, but the ones with artwork that speaks to me)
Sorry for the long intro (I’m sure you all think I’m a windbagged twat) but I really am excited to be part of the best PTCG community out there.
See yall out there in the comment sections!
P.S. BLASTOISE RULEZ
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