In 2013-2015 I was into Yu-Gi-Oh and regularly ordered cards from TrollAndToad after I came up with a new or modified Deck again. In my youth I had the original 151 Pokémon complete, except for two: Nidoking and Venusaur. So when I discovered TnT I also bought the cheapest versions of those two Pokémon to complete my first 151 Pokémon.
About a year after that I had placed all Pikachu cards which were somewhat affordable and in stock on TnT in my cart when I bought some Yu-Gi-Oh cards again, and that’s basically how my Pikachu collection started. I began researching how many Pikachus there were out there on Bulbapedia, and realized there were a lot more than I expected, especially when including other languages. After about halve a year I had around 250 unique Pikachu cards when I discovered Justin’s (@justinator here on the forum) website, whom had 550 Pikachus at the time, and his checklist contained 650 unique cards. This included loads of Pikachu cards I had never even heard of before. My very first post on this forum was actually in his collection thread (on February 21st, 2016).
I was a minor league baseball player so naturally I had to hustle to get by as we were paid ~8k per year. I went down into my parents basement during my first off season and was digging through stuff to eBay. I knew I had a skyridge charizard cause I looked it up in when I was in college and it was around $100 then. This time I looked it up and it was like $500 on TnT buylist. Started digging in more and more and next thing you know I’m not only selling but I’m buying. Then I upgraded my skyridge set to PSA 10s and now I’m a heavy collector.
I got back in with the release of Evolutions in late 2016, I went to a prerelease at my local store and all the nostalgia came rushing back. It was my first time being in a hobby and having my own income so it wasn’t long before I started hunting down all of my childhood chase cards. Researching collectibles brought me to Alpha Investments’ channel on YouTube and then I found smpratte’s channel through the suggested videos. I was hooked; I pulled an all nighter watching his videos on a work night lol.
Recent undergrad grad, I remember Pokemon since Neo-sets (idk, the one with Nockowl as a pack-art) and my mom let me buy it and that was the start of my journey.
6 months ago I started from scratch, and while I started to learn about money, finances, budgeting and all the fun-adulting stuff they don’t teach you in school, I stumbled upon Smpratt’s business/educational videos + Pokemon and I figured, if I can properly budget my money, why not properly budget Pokemon as a hobby.
Also, I used to think Gary was crazy-crazy that he had a ton of Charizards, but since i’ve been back, now, I think hes crazy-cool. I don’t own a PSA 1st Chardaddy, but my dream goal is to have one some day. Pokemon has been close to my heart, and also the community.
Pokémon go !! It was so much fun going to the parks and seeing all of the people. One of the big parks had food vendors set up on the path. I bet there were over 1000 people at that park for over a month after it came out. It was a blast !
I first reconnected in 2009, at age 21, when I bought a bunch of PSA graded cards.
Honestly, I think I stumbled across PSA graded cards for no reason in particular. I think I just randomly searched for Pokemon cards on eBay because I was curious about how valuable they had become since I stopped collecting originally in 2000.
But what actually compelled me to buy cards was definitely that crippling sense of nostalgia and wanting to reconnect with my childhood. In particular, the 1st edition base set cards felt were the stuff of legends to me as a kid (I didn’t own any 1st editions myself but I knew about them) so buying the 1st edition base set cards in mint condition felt like conquering my childhood ambitions.
Was a Pokemon fan forever and especially a Pokemon Go player. But oddly enough, I stumbled upon some vintage pack openings on Youtube one late night at the office when I was waiting for one of the junior staff to send up a deliverable for review. And then I stumbled on Scott’s videos which in turn led me here.
A variety of things. Mainly being stuck in a bed for 9 months and falling in a rabbit hole of GemMint and other Poketuber videos. Finding a gold mine of vintage product from the stores I shopped at as a kid, PokemonGO and Evolutions put me over the edge to never return. It was a perfect storm of good and bad events that led me here. Happy to still be here
I never really fell out of love of Pokemon as Pokemon Silver on gameboy colour is one of my favourite games of all time and I used to dip in and out of the Anime. But it never occurred to me to get back into Pokemon cards until Pokemon go happened and I stumbled upon Evolutions, Smpratte and Maxmoefoe/Leonhart. That’s when I decided to find my old Pokemon binder and try and complete the first four sets I had as a kid. I’m a retro/vintage collector anyway so this has just spiralled into its own seperate beast.
Did the whole playground school yard base set thing when they first came out; I have my original collection of “well-loved” cards.
I “rediscovered” Pokemon twice; the first time was around the DP/Plat/HGSS era. My best friend and I found our cards from when he helped me move and we made decks and played. Then we started looking up the new cards and we started building decks with the new cards and going to league. Stopped when university got really busy.
The more recent time and current “rediscovery” was when I was walking through Walmart with my wife and spotted a Charizard GX Premium box. Thought it looked cool and bought one for fun. This was also when Pokemon GO was huge and this definitely contributed to the awareness of Pokemon products.
Pulled a Umbreon GX and Tapu Lele GX (at the height of its price). I was surprised by that Lele’s price and decided to go to a local league in a new city that I had just moved to. I was trying to trade the Lele for older stuff but it was mostly newer players so I decided to make a quick deck to play… been hooked since the Ultra Prism+ series on. I now have disposable income to buy some of the older stuff that gives me that feeling of nostalgia.
Never found pogs or Bennie babies interesting at all actually. In fact I didn’t know they were a 90’s thing until this thread haha. I would say a stronger trifecta would be Pokémon, Power Rangers and Dragon Ball Z
2009; Diamond and Pearl while on a Trip to Madrid with my Family, there were tons and tons of kids playing the TCG on a store called Metropolis, after that trip i was buying one or 2 boster boxes every once and the to fill my binders.
But the influx point of my collection started around 2 years ago with my first batch of PSA Cards; i wasnt much into PSA and @minorkey got me into it. By that point i was mostly completing binders… i barely knew anything about PSA. Minorkey is probably one of the most helpful guys i met in my life, he helped me with my goals, grading wise and also to focus on my priorities.
After my first Sub and buying some PSA cards i started to focus in certain goals, my first one was Crystals since they were my favorites. Completed a full PSA10 Crystal Holo (english) set and then went for the japanese ones (missing Charizard and Kingdra).
Last January we were talking about how 1st Ed. PSA9 Holos were still ‘‘affordable’’; and decided to start hunting them, in September i completed the full set in PSA9.
My current goals are complete Skyridge and Aquapolis Holos in PSA10 (already got the Crystals)
And slowly build my PSA10 Ex 2003-2007 collection (There are over 110 non-promo cards, and i already own around 60).
I don’t own a PSA 1st Chardaddy, but my dream goal is to have one some day. Pokemon has been close to my heart, and also the community.
