Paying 50cents for a vending machine which gives you a pokemon sticker card. Best part was that it ended up dispensing 2 cards since they were so sticky. I got a kakuna and an ivysaur #win
After which on to gameboy colour 
My first memory was taking my little brothers charizard he pulled to school then immediately getting swarmed by older kids and naively traded it for 3-4 Base holos. Think it was a poliwrath gyarados and hitmonchan from memory
I was at my cousins house and on the television was the first episode with Ash getting pikachu and fighting the spearows. It totally mesmerized me and all I wanted to do was watch more. The cards only started a bit later when every single kid in school started to collect them in second grade. I loved it then and I love it now.
Think it was waking up for school and started watching the anime/cartoon on cheese tv or toasted tv? About a week later become the best son ever doing all my chores to earn pocket money for that sweet cardboard
My first memory was playing the Red/Blue games when I was in about 5th grade thanks to my friend Curt. I think of Curt whenever I play or do anything Pokemon related now as he passed away in a car accident when he was 18.
The Pokemon TV soundtrack was the first CD I ever bought.
What’s crazy about life is that you never know where it will take you years in the future. After growing up with Pokemon, I ended up becoming friends with Eric Stuart, the voice actor of Brock/James. Pokemon has always seemed to be fit “somewhere” in my life for the last 20 years.
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4th grade on the playground. One kid brought his GB in and everyone was huddle around. Everyone was taking turns trying to get into the daycare by Cerulean. We were young and terrible at controlling the game and for some reason it was decided this challenge required the bike. Everyone kept stopping just a little too late so we’d hop down the ledge and have to bike back up to the start again. I remember thinking how cool it was to have a handheld game with an entire world to explore with houses to go in. Up to that point, my gaming experience had just been Super Mario Bros on the NES.
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My first memory of Pokemon goes back to playing Pokemon colosseum and Pokemon XD! I really enjoyed playing those two games and eventually got hooked to Pokemon and ended up playing every game on the gameboy and ds.
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Ohhh man, lets go back to 5yr old me.
The Base Set Charizard was all any kid wanted at that time. I remember begging my parents to get me a copy from our local card shop. At the time though, $20 was a bit pricey for a piece of mint cardboard 
But, after months, I finally broke them, under the condition, I scored a goal at my first soccer game of the season.
I think the fact that I’m on this site, typing this post, 20 years later tells you how the rest of that story went 
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My first memory was in elementary school in computer class this kid had a bunch of my classmates surrounding him cause he had a huge binder set of pokemon cards. I think his family was from Japan and he was telling everyone that it was the biggest craze out there right now. Alot of classmates took to the cards immediately and wanted them. I remained uninterested as I just saw cards with random monsters on them. It wasn’t until the actual pokemon gameboy games release that I actually got hooked. For me, it was all about background and incentive for interest in a hobby. Video games have always been a big incentive; give me a good plot and story and I’m hooked
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The first thing I can remember is getting base set packs from toys r us. I cant remember if i knew of pokemon before going to toys r us or if that visit that day after going in the store was when i learned about pokemon. Maybe my mom asked an employee and filled her and us in, I don’t knowww. They had a massive bin about 4 feet cubed full of loose booster packs, I remember it was a metal mesh bin. I can picture it so clearly still, sitting in the middle of the isle on the white tile floor! My mom let my brother and I each get three packs. I remember thinking that what was on the pack art was the card you’d get so I got all three charizard. I’m pretty sure they weren’t 1st edition but they very well could have been shadowless. I have no idea now what cards I got in those packs, but I do remember not getting any holos. My brother got a charizard in the first pack he opened and i was so mad and jealous. I begged my mom to turn around and go back to get me another pack so i could get a holographic. She didnt haha. I wish i could remember my first holo pull…
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Maybe not the first absolute memory, but the first that I can firmly place and still can remember like it was yesterday.
I was always and still am a saver to this date. Taking my birthday money, plus some saved up cash and some TRU gift cards left over from Christmas I went to toysrus and bought a lime green game boy color and Pokemon Yellow in April 1999 (4th grade for me). I remember the total was just over $100 which was by far the most money I had ever spent at once at that time and for a long time afterwards. Well worth it though as it was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. I went on to play it the whole day and all night. Loved it. Can’t tell you how many hours I’ve put into it and how many times I’ve replayed and beaten it. My most recent replay was in the mid 2000’s and I took it all the way to get all 150 in the dex. I still pop in the cartridge every year or so to make sure the battery hasn’t died. It hadn’t as of my last check.
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Reading Pokémon manga with a flashlight in my bed at 10.
I am the youngest of 3 boys. My dad bought myself and my brothers one base set booster pack from the Warner Brothers Store at Somerset Mall in Michigan, and my older brother pulled his second charizard. I was the lone brother without a charizard in my collection and my dad made him trade it to me. I gave him a haunter in return and it did not evolve into a gengar. 20 years later i am collecting again and I returned the favor. Although I did not have a mint pack fresh charizard, I traded him one for a haunter to make up for it
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My first pokemon memory was probably attending my best friends soccer games just so I could play pokemon red on his game Boy while he was on the field. That was probably around 2000-2002 and I would have been about 6-7.
As for cards I can recall every Saturday for a whole summer going to garage sales and picking up pokemon cards. I was never allowed to pick up too many cards because my parents were the ones paying the nickles and dimes.
One memory that haunts me forever is searching through a massive basket of cards with a sign that read 1 card 10¢ or the whole basket for 5$. My parents only let me pick two cards from the pile (one I can remember was a ghastly with the graffiti behind him) I think I cried and whined for the rest of that day (and internally the rest of my life).
I never actually opened up my own packs, apart from one expedition pack I believe I got for my birthday, when I was young.
But you’d better believe I still have that crumpled up half peeled reverse feraligator smack in the middle of my collection to this day.
Side note: I’ve been playing pokemon games and living the pokemon dream for about 15 years now and the first time I ever pulled a holo was from a flashfire pack 
in 2013
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It was probably me opening EX Emerald packs i got from a cheesy kiosk and getting a Holo Blaziken.
Tiny me liked that card so much i still got it in its played condition.
Ex-era really had a cool aesthetic and that’s what got the ball rolling for me. Add Pokemon Emerald and a bunch of years later… here we are with a collection i’m happy to own.
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I remember evacuating for a hurricane in 1999 to Augusta, GA. My grandfather collected model trains so we went to a hobby shop and I saw the packs when he was checking out. He bought me 2 base packs and I got a Venusaur. From then on I was hooked.
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