For me it was a mix of randomly ending up looking at some base set packs on ebay and then discovering this site and seeing Japanese cards properly for the first time. Emerald break came out I got a couple boxes and the rest is history.
Evolutions and pokemon go brought me back and then I took a break from mid 2017 - early 2018 when Pokemon Go and the cards got stale.
Started with just feeling nostalgic and gifting a holo Venusaur and Blastoise to my brothers.
Decided to get back into cards and I collected and completed the Simpsons 1993 Skybox set.
Short while later I saw packs at the store that had the original starters on them (Evolutions) so I picked up some just for fun.
Then I started watching PrimeTimePokemon, PokemonFetish, Gem Mint Pokemon and then SMPratte.
Started regularly buying Pokemon Cards at the store and on eBay. Then buying cards to be graded and graded cards.
Few months later my collection was growing, joined E4, joined Discord, and here I am today.
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I never really left Pokemon itself, as I have never stopped playing the games, but believe it or not, what got me back into the TCG was Beanie Babies, of all things.
Almost three years ago now, I decided to go and collect all of the Beanie Babies that I didn’t have as a kid. Once I completed that, I thought, “Hey, I wonder what Pokemon cards have been up to?”
The rest is history.
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I got into the video games and anime at the age of 4/5 as a result of having older cousins and family friends that were into Pokemon in 1999/2000 too, thus my journey began with Red/ Blue and base set. fast forward to the end of Diamond and Pearl and I’m going to Secondary school at the age of 11, and like many kids, I felt the past was behind me and it was ‘time to grow up’, and naturally become a Halo fan instead.
Time jump to July 2016, Pokemon Go is everywhere, even my normie non-nerdy friends are playing it. Mobile games aren’t my thing so I never got into Pokemon Go, however the feeling of Pokemania returning , and everyone talking about my childhood obsession was a massive nostalgia hit that it got me sucked back into the world of Pokemon, I dragged out my old gameboy games, my old beaten up childhood cards, and subsequently started watching Youtube on the pokemon card market for a solid year.
I must admit I was very very embarrassed to find myself so invested as a 21 year old adult in a children’s franchise, that it was only after a year in August 2017 that I decided to go to a Burning Shadows Pre-release, and subsequently made my first ebay purchase of Mario Pikachu and Cosplay Pikachu ( XY Zard) boxes sealed. And the rest is history. I love the franchise.
I must admit, the Youtube popularity with Pokemon, discovering the E4 community and the discord were sources of encouragement, and the only reasons I allowed myself to get past my own prejudices and allow myself to enjoy this wonderful franchise again as an adult, just as I had done as a child.
(Sorry for the long response, I’ve never thought back on it that much)
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Going back to my local league and seeing all the same faces from 6 years before
Five years ago one of my friends took me to a lgs to buy Yu-Gi-Oh cards so we could duel, almost as a joke. I walked in and saw graded Pokemon cards from my childhood… I’ve only just now started buying Yu-Gi-Oh ungraded. Its been all pokemon.
I got a job and for the first time in my life I had extra disposable income and didn’t know what to do with it. So I simply asked myself what cool stuff could I buy. And I decided to complete the 151 Pokédex with all the original cards, child me would be so proud. It’s been a slippery slope since then haha.
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I was really big into collecting until around the middle of highschool or so. A combo of not much money and a hyper focus on my art and future career kept me out of it for a while, though I would get a pack or two here and there for Christmas or my birthday. I briefly got back into it during the 20th anniversary but I still didn’t have money and quickly fell out of it again.
Now, like someone else mentioned, I have a full time job and some disposable income for the first time. I also graduated college earlier his year and had a lot more free time. At some point not long after graduating I came across a Leonhart video via youtube recommendations and decided sure, I’ll watch that. Well, a few videos later and I was pulling out all my old Pokemon cards (5,300 at the time, it took a few days to go through). I found quite a few decent enough cards, and soon I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to buy a couple that I’d been wanting for a long time. And then I bought a booster box, because I’d always wanted one but could never afford it. And here I am now, still trying to balance my budget for cards, but thoroughly enjoying being back in it 
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Beanie Babies were my first true collection obsession! I recently donated pretty much all of mine (so like 2 giant Rubbermaid tubs full) to a local library to hand out to kids along with books for their summer reading program, but glad to hear someone else loves them as much as I did 
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I was born in 1990, so Beanie Babies were really THE first true craze that really captured my heart (and the hearts of most '90s kids). That lasted until about 1999 when Pokemon took center stage and actually played a significant role in bursting the Beanie Baby bubble. It would have happened eventually regardless, but Pokemon seemed like the death blow for Beanie Babies.
That being said, they still bring back incredible memories for me until this day, and if I were going to make a highlight reel of my life over the first 29 years, Beanie Babies would unquestionably be a part of it.
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I’ve gotten in and out of Pokémon so many times. The most recent was me buying a few sealed items of what I used to have as a kid. Then I kinda got hooked and here I am again!
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I am a 90s baby in the US so I automatically loved Pokémon growing up. My last set was Neo Genesis. Started back up again by inspiration from one of my best friends who had been secretly collecting for a couple years prior. And now it’s all his fault I don’t own a PSA 10 First edition Zard 
If only I would have been inspired sooner my collection would be rivaling Gary himself. Not really.
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Maxmoefoe did it for me too 
Damn that man
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Channels like smpratte and Leonhart brought me back in. I have no idea why they came across my YouTube recommendations, but boy I’m glad they did.
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Not to go off topic but I think anyone who grew up in the 90’s will agree that the trifecta of collections was Beanie Babies, Pokemon, and POGS.
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For me it sounds a bit stupid but it was a long mental journey of many steps, from falling out of love with a series that was changing from what it had originally been, to something new and unfamiliar feeling, until eventually, at the beginning of this year something just clicked in my brain where I realised I was trying to enjoy it by being inflexible and wanting it to be something it wasn’t, once I just loosened up a bit and let myself enjoy each generation and era on it’s own terms I was completely hooked again. Like I said, sounds really dumb but that’s just how it worked for me haha.
Honestly, I think this sums up the process of how we often feel for a lot of games, especially with every new generation. It’s like going through all the stages of death. Denial being a part of that.
We’ll dislike the new designs or hate the new mechanics. Eventually we’ll come to get used to them and realize we’re being too inflexible. After that, certain things will intrigue us and allow us to enjoy everything more. Eventually, we come to accept certain things and find joy in them.
I have no doubt that we’ll hate on the newest generation and game as we already have and then say, 3 months or less down the line, will come to say things like, “Oooh! I really like this previouslydislikedPokemonandorconcept!”
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Pokemon X and Y did it for me. Most of my friends moved on from pokemon between Gen2 and Gen3, but I stuck with it secretly through Gen3. After that, the risk of my friends finding out I was still into Pokemon combined with the fact that I was doing it by myself caused me to trade away most of my cards for video games and quit. In the late 2000’s, I found out about the glitch in Gen1 that let you catch Mew, so I used a rom amd an emulator to try it out. That made the game relevant for me again, but it wasn’t until Gen6 came out that I dove in 100%. I was one of those early fans that held their breath waiting for a Pokemon console game with a true 3d environment, and when Gen6 came out, I thought that was as close as we were ever going to get so I bit. I couldn’t be happier that I did, especially now that we are getting the console game I always dreamed of. My only regret is not getting back into the TCG until 2016 after prices on vintage products had inflated substantially. Regardless, I love being back and will likely continue to collect cards and play games competitively until I die or until the hobby dies, which I hope never happens.
Money