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: