What led you to Pokémon?

[pokemonetc]

Hi all!

This isn’t a strictly Pokémon post, but I hope to bring about the discussion around early or renewed collecting interests .

For me, one of the earliest memories I have of my childhood is reading: I have always loved fantasy books, and I still do! Though unfortunately, not as much as much as I used to. As cliché as it may be, one of the prominent books I’ve read, and to this day, is a series I will reread happily; it is The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien.

I believe my love for fantasy books led me initially to fantasy-based games . I can recall observing friends play Dungeons & Dragons and RuneQuest; I can’t remember ever playing these, but they were always a topic of conversation, and I know my friends or knew those who played frequently. At around the same age, I was also often discussing card games with friends; Magic: The Gathering (MTG) was the first card game I purchased any card, which sparked a sustained interest in collectable cards . My love for the cards was, and still is, for their art in miniature!

MTG was my favourite for the least amount of time, but I will never forget that these cards introduced my card game fascination. I quickly got involved with the buying of cards to complete sets, which my friends and I did alike. After a while, my all-or-nothing love of fantasy shifted to anime. I think my younger brother is part of the reason behind this; he would watch anime on the television after we’d finished school. It was Pokémon primarily, but on occasion, Yu-Gi-Oh would be on too, or perhaps a now unknown to me show, and I would watch as well. I first bought the Yu-Gi-Oh anime and read them and then slowly shifted to the cards, but I was never too interested in them. As Yu-Gi-Oh card art became more CGI-style, I lost interest. I did, at one time, have some figures, but I cannot remember much about them. By now, I had many set cards from numerous expansions from both MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh with a handful of Pokémon cards, but not for long ! But without these previous interests, I wouldn’t be so interested in all things Pokémon!

I started to properly collect Pokémon by set in the mid-EX era; I can remember using weekly pocket money to buy two or three packs of cards from a local card store. Delta Species was the first set I purchased new, but I also bought older packs and individual cards at the store. Today, I wish I had an idea of where my cards are! I stopped collecting at the beginning of Black and White; at the time, I felt too old for card games.

Fast forward to today, I now have restarted my old collections, MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokémon, and still by set. Only now, there are a few modern cards here and there; these are primarily promotional cards when I like the art. I am also adding older cards in foreign languages, as this was not something I could do when I was younger. I love discovering exclusive art, for example, MTG cards in Simplified Chinese or censored Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh cards for their international release, and exclusive sets in Japanese for Pokémon like Vending Series and VS, to name two sets where the art is beyond compare - that said, Southern Islands is always going to be my favourite set!! I also loved the console games when I was younger, and I now have on my phone Delta to utilise ROMs to play these still! I have also found out recently about stickers, stamps, and non-TCG Pokémon cards, which furthers my interest in Pokémon! I may try and find good-condition console games I used to play, too (Legend of Zelda & Super Mario were my favourites) or, eventually, my own Dungeons & Dragons set. Maybe figures, maybe plushies.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I am excited!

[ReganRampage]

I was really young and pokemon blue had just come out, i remember seeing some older kids playing it. I had never really seen videogames in person before only heard about them and i was mesmerized. What i saw was some weird creature thing shooting stars at another creature thing and then they threw a ball at it and captured it. I now know it was a clefable using swift and he was catching a pokemon. I guess i couldnt stop talking about it and my grandmother got me my first gameboy. A big ol brick with a power attachement that allowed me to plug into the wall and not use batteries. She also got me red version, and the rest is history dude. Dove into the shows and immersed myself in the games to escape what was going on. They were my friends you know? Felt like i was really going on adventures and i love all the character designs just so much. Here i am at 31 and i guess it never went away

[azulryu]

Fantastic topic idea!

We had two staircases jutting out behind the 5th grade building. It’s where Recess happened - bleachers facing to the left and swing sets. Jungle gyms and a baseball field to the right. A giant patch of grass connecting them in between until a giant tree-into-pavement where Basketball was happening.

The staircases were angled in a way where they make a loose triangle with a small patch of grass. Thinking about it now, it was my favorite school playground growing up. It was quite idyllic…

Well far off to the WAY left tucked away in a little half-ditch around the corner of the playground was a sandy ass hill where kids weren’t allowed to be. But there we were. I saw a bunch of kids and some of my friends all gathered in a circle with hunched shoulders as kids kept looking left and right watching out for any would-be adults. They were showing each other cards, all matte finish, some were even trading. And then there. In the middle of that hunched circle. Were two kids who pulled out a bunch of holos. Raichu, Chansey, a handful of Clefairy, and more. And then I realized one of them was my buddy, Chris.

He went through a few and I thought they were neat. But then I saw him pull out this:

And then I saw the name:

Alakazam

A creature named after the final act of magic - incarnate. And the yellow with the purple just made it pop. The whole card was magic eye candy - a lot of us wanted it and leaned in to get a better look.

Long story short - I wasn’t the only one who never heard of Pokemon and so we all learned about it that day. In the coming weeks I was even able to buy my first base pack. And in it - my first rare. Dragonair. As a dragon-obsessed kid,… I loved it.

I later would bump into Chris again and asked him what he wanted for it. He told me if I found 2 Arcanine’s, he’d trade it to me. And taking it like a personal mission, I hunted two kids down with it. In the end I finally got to hold that little piece of magic and I was hooked. As for Chris? Turns out Chris was an Arcanine collector at an early age - he had well over 20 and said it was his favorite Pokemon.

Alakazam of course would be the anchor to the key trade that resulted in my first Gyarados card. But to pay homage to those memories, I still have the Dragonair I got from my very first pack displayed alongside with the replacement Alakazam I got later as a reminder.

[ragingkraken]

I used to be into yugioh when it came out. Since I didn’t have game consoles until I was gifted a GBA SP, I’d spend most of my time dueling my friend in yugioh. One day he showed me Crystal version and I watched him play through it. Really enjoyed the concept and the designs, but I had no way of playing them, so I stuck to yugioh cards. Eventually, when I got the SP, my brother and I eventually got Ruby and Sapphire, and that was the start of enjoying Pokemon. From there I finally one day looked next to the yugioh card packs at the store instead of hyper fixating on them, and saw the Pokemon cards for sale. And then that’s that. I was hooked on primarily the games and the show. But the cards were a nice thing to get whenever we could afford to buy a couple of packs here and there. Never really played the card game, but was nice looking at the artwork.

Had the obvious falling out of Pokemon around after black/white came out. And didn’t come back until the pandemic when some coworkers and I went to McDonald’s during our lunch break at midnight and just bought as many happy meals as we could to try to get Pikachu as a joke. 2 of them kinda collected, and they ended up getting me back into it.

[Charizard1020]

My first game was pokemon red when I was about 6 years old and that started the Pokémon journey. Loved the anime a ton and the games. Cards too but it was expensive for my mom to buy me packs. Like most I fell off later and went to Yugioh.

Fast forward to 2017 and I started buying older packs of pokemon and Yugioh as well as a few raw singles of both and opening sun and moon sets.

Giving up on it again for about two to three years, Covid happens and I got back to Pokémon for a third time and now I’m enjoying the time I’m putting into it and having some pretty clear goals. Found Efour through @smpratte and @TCAGaming youtube channels and here we are. Everyone here has been really helpful and patient with my questions and lack of experience. Couldn’t have asked for a better experience

[eievui]

I watched the anime when it came out in the US, and the base set release was actually in colored print in my kindergarten year book (I still have this somewhere) My cousin introduced me to the games, and I never looked back.

[ajwalker13]

It was social currency on the playground. Having a Chansey or Charizard meant you were at the top because of the 120 HP. I remember acting as a body guard for someone who offered to give me a card a day. He had a Marill card when it was still Pikablu, so he had sway. After getting the collecting bug from sticker books being a thing in elementary school, Pokémon made for quite the engaging next step.

[thundermoo]

My cousin received a black Game Boy Pocket and Blue Version for his birthday and I was extremely envious It took me about a year to save the money up to buy my own Game Boy, and I know at some point that same cousin got me into card collecting via Topps Series 1 but for me my love of Pokémon started in the moment he opened that box with Blue Version inside.

I casually still consumed Pokemon content on YouTube after falling away from the cards in middle school and games after high school. On one random Saturday in 2016 my buddy Steve and I hung out, by chance he brought over his deck he was working on. I decided in that moment at nearly one in the morning I needed cards of my own again. We drove to Walmart where I purchased two Evolutions packs and the rest is history

[D3F14NC3]

Great memories everyone. I’ve loved reading them.

In Australia, our first introduction to Pokémon was the TV show. It aired on a morning kids show called Cheez TV. Cheez TV was peak 90s TV for kids and we watched it every day before going to school. The hosts were two teenagers and it introduced us Aussies to several other popular shows such as Dragon Ball, Digimon and Yugioh.

I remember watching the first episode of this new show called Pokémon and being absolutely hooked. When I got to school that day, everyone was talking about it. I remember one friend coming up to me and saying “Did you see that new show? How good was it!” From that day on, Pokémon was the main game we played each lunch break. We would pretend to be both trainers and Pokémon and have “battles”. Out teachers hated Pokémon because it was all we would talk about and when we had free time, all we would do was draw Pokémon. I was only ever able to draw basic Pokémon like Voltorb.

A few months later, the Pokémon Gameboy games came to Australia and my friends and I all had a copy. I was the only one in our friends group to have Yellow and my other friends had either Blue or Red. We would trade with each other at school occasionally but usually we would wait until after school or on the weekends to go around to each other’s houses as we weren’t actually allowed to bring Gameboys to school. We would also swap stories about how to find certain Pokémon and how to trigger certain glitches.

The third wave of Pokémon excitement came about a year later when the cards first came to Australia. My friends and I were very excited and we often brought cards to school to trade. The very first pack I bought was the “2-Player Starter Set” because none of us understood what booster packs were and I was disappointed that it came with so many doubles. I did like the 1st Edition Machamp it came with though because in Australia, it was the only 1st Edition we got. All the booster packs were unlimited.

Pokémania was now in full swing and our school held a special assembly with all students to tell us that this phase would pass just like the previous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle phase did. They also told us not to waste money on cards because in a couple of years they would be completely worthless.

Some of my friends slowly stopped collecting and gave away their collections over the next couple of years but I always kept mine and I am so glad I did. I always felt that Pokémon was something special compared to all of the other “phases” or “fads” that we went through as children and I think the test of time has proven that it was.

[D3F14NC3]

Those are fantastic memories. I loved reading about them.

[thsigma]

Nothing specific, though i had friends and relatives that were into it and so naturally I was going to be. Thats how a lot of things used to happen. Youd see someone close to you interacting with something and then you get drawn in. Ive had lots of things that kept my interest in Pokemon (as an IP) fairly consistent, though my interest in the cards started back up in 2019.

[youngster_ryan]

It was 1999 and I was in Kindergarten. I was a shy kid growing up and didn’t have a ton of friends. But I did have one friend… Cameron. He was short, blonde, wore glasses, and had a loud laugh (see photo below). We’d eat lunch together and always play tetherball at recess. We’d also spend lots of time at each other’s houses. Cameron always had the latest and greatest toys.

One day I remember we were in his living room playing Diddy Kong Racing on the N64. We finished playing, and we went upstairs to his room. He got out his special edition yellow Gameboy. I didn’t know it at the time but he was playing Pokémon Blue. His older brother had a Red Cartridge and they would trade monsters across a cable! (In my 6 year old mind, I actually thought there were monsters traveling through the rubber cord). It blew my mind. I HAD to have it.

A few weeks later as my interest in Pokémon bordered obsession, Cameron came over to my house. He brought his Gameboy over and we had a good time. We played basketball, ate some top ramen, etc. I don’t remember all the details but I believe Cameron went to the bathroom and left his Gameboy on the couch. When the coast was clear, I got up, grabbed the Gameboy, went into my parents room, and stuffed it beneath some clothes in a basket. I went back out and acted like nothing sinister took place. When Cameron’s mom came over to pick him up, he couldn’t find his Gameboy. I did my best to be shocked and surprised (think Ralphie from Christmas Story), and we all joined in to track down the “lost”Gameboy. After 10 minutes or so, the search was hopeless and Cameron went home. Mission Accomplished! All I had to do was steal it. Finally, I could play Pokémon. A few minutes later my dad, sensing my hidden guilt looked at me, smiled, and asked where I put the Gameboy. I shrugged my shoulders, went to the basket, and retrieved it. Now came the most humiliating experience as a six year old. My mother drives me to Cameron’s house. I get out of the car, Gameboy behind my back, look up at the massive door, and ring the doorbell. Cameron’s mother answers and I said one rushed sentence: “I’m sorry I stole Cameron’s Gameboy.” They accepted my apology and I went back home.

That Christmas, my brother and I both got Pokemon. He got Silver Version, I got Gold. They came in those massive Costco blister packs and it was the best present I’ve ever received (yes, to this day!). No more stealing gameboys, I finally had one all for myself. I even found a picture of the very

I share this story because it illustrates just how powerful Pokémon was for us kids. The ability to train your own monsters and battle them?! It was mind-blowing for me

[bk2021]

Just wondering how Gyarados became your favourite and if Alakazam ever held that title?

[cujucuyo]

I saw it in an Ad, lol.

[Bingbong]

Cheese TV was as good as a show could’ve been for a kid! Reading that brought back memories. Awesome write up!

[Josh]

Likewise love reading all the childhood stories, fascinating (but in retrospect not surprising) just how similar our lives were across the world at the time.

@D3F14NC3

A few months later, the Pokémon Gameboy games came to Australia and my friends and I all had a copy. I was the only one in our friends group to have Yellow and my other friends had either Blue or Red. We would trade with each other at school occasionally but usually we would wait until after school or on the weekends to go around to each other’s houses as we weren’t actually allowed to bring Gameboys to school. We would also swap stories about how to find certain Pokémon and how to trigger certain glitches.

Likewise I was the only one in our group to have Pokemon Yellow, I chose it at Toys R Us, took it to school and immediately regretted it because everyone else had Red & Blue and I felt weird. I know now that you can get the other 3 starters pretty easily in Yellow version, but I swear to God I have absolutely no memory of the other starters being available in that game. That was another big reason I felt so disappointed I didn’t get Red or Blue. In fact a big part of me is still so convinced you can’t get the other starters in Yellow that I wanna download the emulator test it out to be sure.

[neverforget50in07]

It was around 2007 and both my cousins collected Pokémon. I went to their house for a birthday party and they showed me their cards. They gave me a reverse-holo Wurmple card and that kind of started my interest in Pokémon.

When Diamond and Pearl came out, each of my cousins had a DS with pearl and diamond. Around this time, my older cousin gave me their Gameboy advance since he had no need for it now. That’s when I had my parents buy Pokémon blue version and LeafGreen from GameStop.

These games were great, but once I received a DS lite for my birthday along with Pokémon Pearl, I was happy. Everyday I would play it and in the morning on Saturday, I would always watch the Cartoon Network to see the latest episode of Diamond and Pearl and Bakugan.

For a solid 3 or 4 years I was into Pokémon (2007 - 2011). Once I watched the Black & White anime and played Pokémon Black, I was not having much enjoyment as it felt worse than Diamond and Pearl.

I left Pokémon and returned around late 2013 since the Last season of Unova was actually really good. I started collecting the cards again once the XY series released and have continued to collect pretty consistently since.

Even though I had this account since 2018, I started to highlight some parts of my collecting journey within my collection thread since 2020.

neverforget50in07 collection

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I’m very grateful that I never left Pokémon as a teen, or else I don’t know what I would be collecting.

[mthursty]

I was born in the mid 90’s around the Toronto, Canada area. Pokemon was very present throughout my childhood through toys, cards and games.

I grew up without having much money to buy packs but often went to garage sales with my parents picking up cards for 5¢ in the early 2000’s.
Lots of my friends had the video games starting from red and yellow, so I would often watch them play or play their game when they were doing something else lol.
I got pokemon crystal and a gameboy advance for my birthday around 2003. My parents bought both for 5$ from my friend who just got an SP lol.
I stopped collecting cards pretty early on (2004) but stuck with the video games throughout my childhood.
I bought a brand new copy of Emerald about a month after it’s release (best day ever) and my dad got me a used copy of Ruby some time later.
I picked up Diamond, Platinum, White 2, HGSS, Y, Sun, and Omega Ruby while growing up.

My resurgence into card collecting started around 2013 and that story can be found here:

How/why did you find elitefourum?

I started buying packs in first year of university back in 2013, got bored of the TCG and swapped to video games. My friends and I would breed pokemon and battle each other and occasionally I’d play on pokemon showdown. In 2014 I started following TheJWittz on YouTube who made awesome pokemon content. Some videos on pokemon cards as well. One of the summers between university I went home and searched for my old cards I had from growing up. That led to me picking up collections around my city a…

[azulryu]

Alakazam was my first favorite for sure. Still in my top 10 in fact. The short version is that I had a buddy named Cleber who lived in my neighborhood. He showed me his collection one day and had a bunch of holos. One was a Base Set Gyarados and it was the first time I had seen it. I needed it immediately but he didn’t want to trade it. I saw he was missing some cards and an Alakazam. So I offered it and a few others to sweeten the deal. That’s how I got my first Gyarados card. What solidified it as my favorite was opening up a Neo Revelations pack with Shining Gyarados inside which was my first chase card. I had 5 in total and that was the final piece that convinced me to collect Gyarados.

[wisewailmer]

That wurmple would make anyone a Pokemon fan