Hello everyone, my name is Elliote. I’m over in the southwest region in the US. I first got involved in Pokémon way back when it was relatively new in the US. I’ll never forget the day when I was a kid in elementary school and my mom bought me a base booster pack from a local 7-11 and managed to pull a Charizard. Fast forward to now, I just recently started getting back into Pokémon, but strictly on the collecting/investing side and been fortunate enough to make some great buys. I’m looking forward to starting this new journey with you all.
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Welcome to the fourum, @syntaxerror!
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Welcome to e4, @syntaxerror! Judging by your user picture, I am thankful that you saw the light and joined the Dragonite family. Everyone on e4 knows that Dragonite > Charizard. 
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Welcome @syntaxerror !
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Hey there everybody! My name is Branko. I live in the US. My Pokemon story starts way back at the beginning, although I was always more into the games than the cards. I made my way back into TCG collecting in 2019 and have kept up with it ever since. I like to collect a lot of vintage Japanese product so I am excited to share my collection with other passionate fans here!
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Welcome @waffleforsaken99 ! I look forward to siing your collection.
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Hi everyone, you can call me Haz, I’m a collector based in NYC and I’ve known about the forum for a while because of Scott’s vidoes, but finally decided to join now because I’ve been finding it (surprisingly) difficult to meet other collectors in the city and I really love the level of expertise and passion that people bring to the hobby here.
I’ve been living in the US for 10 years now, but I actually grew up in Cairo at a time when it was not easy to find either the games or the cards so I always fantasized about being in a place where I could collect more easily. I don’t have and particular niche though rn I am mostly focused on English NEO and modern alt arts right now. Excited to be a part of this space!
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Welcome! I’m also from the northeast. If you’re ever in the Boston area there is a really good shop that sells a lot of vintage singles and sealed stuff.
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Been meaning to visit Boston again soon, actually, would love to check out any special stores when I’m there!
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Welcome @SpindaCenter
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Let me know if you ever head there and I’ll shoot some recs
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Northeast represent.
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Let’s go!!!
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Welcome, @waffleforsaken99! Vintage JP, FTW!
Glad to have ya, @SpindaCenter! NYC is weird like that huh? So many people so close, and yet so far… =)
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I’m actually in the Boston area, I’d love to hear your recs!
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Sent you a message!
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I just wanna say, when I started getting back into Pokémon I reached out to many collectors, joined some of the communities on Reddit, etc. but the more I asked these high end collectors the more E4 was brought to my attention.
When I was really young I was into… computer science, & there was a semi famous message board called EliteHackers (now it may be another name), supposedly many of the famous hackers (some even ended up wanted) were members of this EliteHackers site, & it made me think how crazy is it that there are certain sites that some may not even know about but the elites do.
I kinda feel the same with E4, you ask enough elite Pokémon collectors & they’ll mention E4. Am I the only one who thinks this? This is a compliment by the way lol. But it’s interesting how many elites from different parts of the world seem to stick to one community to make it the elite place. Do I know if there’s a higher elite message board somewhere, maybe in Japan? Don’t know. But E4 is an elite spot, damn near a place for the sweet science of Pokémon in general. So much Pokemon information in this community, to the details & even from some of the insiders.
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My instructors and mentors in most every field I’ve been in have all said something along the lines of
“The greatest people will always be the ones who care the most, and have the most passion.”
and
“The best are not extraordinary people. They’re just ordinary people who’ve done extraordinary things.”
If E4 has enough people who share a genuine love of the hobby MORE than anything else, even if they’re not the most successful or have the biggest collections, I think THIS community will be the one where the elites gather. It’s a healthy mentality that creates and sustains growth, above all things.
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I actually like seeing this feedback! Back in the day I wanted to try and appeal towards newer. Thats why I made things like The Giant Art Thread. But this was all pre 2020. Now a lot of the loud new people (speculators not collectors) have a hot take. Naturally I think that makes E4 more insulated, as we can never cater to bad pulls = resealed, or sudden spike in cards = market manipulation.
Anyway, I think E4 will always attract serious collectors, new or old. The modern market speculators won’t have as much fun. 
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