What led you to Pokémon?

[Quuador]

When I was 7 years old, my little brother and I were zapping around on the cartoon channels of the TV when something caught our eye: a boy throwing a red-white ball at a caterpillar, and then an outro-song. This was the end of the second episode of the first season, and we’ve watched two more episodes after that. From that moment, we were both immediately hooked on the cartoon/anime series.

A short while later (probably 1-2 weeks), our parents gave us each our first Pokémon booster packs: English unlimited edition Base Set. We both pulled a holo: my little brother pulled Alakazam, and I pulled Chansey.
At school, a lot of the other kids had Pokémon cards as well, and when someone offered me a Vulpix, Pidgey, and Pidgeotto for my Chansey, I quickly accepted. As a kid, I preferred more cards over holos, unlike a lot of other kids, so a 3 for 1 trade was a done deal for me. (I’ve always enjoyed collecting as a kid (and still do!), starting with pretty pebbles and post stamps at the age of 5 - which later grew into a mineral and fossil collection - so I thoroughly enjoyed collecting Pokémon cards as well.)
Later that same day on the 8 o’clock news, they also mentioned the Pokémon craze, and stated that some adults were also collecting and certain rare cards could go for even 100 Gulden on the secondhand market, and they showed a picture of Charizard, and… you guessed it: the Chansey I traded away.
Looking back, they probably meant the 1st edition Base Set instead of unlimited, but as a kid I had no idea those differences even existed, and I doubt the news reporter did either. So after that I was more careful with my trades, although I did make some pretty stupid trades later on tbh (e.g. a holo Jungle Snorlax for a WB promo Mewtwo; or a Legendary Collection RH Moltres for an Ancient Mew).
The cards from my second booster pack (Jungle Jolteon holo) and first Theme Deck (Base Set 2 Politoad) I do still have today, of course in heavy played condition from reorganizing my binders all the time, which I did almost every few weeks for many years.

(I stopped collecting Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards pretty late as a teenager; around age 14 or so. And came back collecting Yu-Gi-Oh in my first year in college, and Pokémon a few years later by buying a bunch of Pikachu cards, and well… the rest is history. )

Greetz,
Quuador

[lookaclara]

I didn’t grow up with video games, nor did my parents let me watch the Pokemon show (we watched other anime though like Sailor Moon, but I guess my mom didn’t like the idea of animals “battling”… even though, now that I think of it, I read the Warrior Cats books and Animorphs books, which are arguably way more violent LOL, but that’s neither here nor there). I still love fantasy books and stories in general! I knew Pokemon existed from people on the playground, but none of my friends were really into it (the games or show). However, when I started dating my spouse in 2010 he introduced me to Nintendo games and Pokemon!

My first Pokemon game was XY, which I know most people who’ve been around for longer than me don’t like. I can understand why but I still really enjoyed it! The Pokemon I fell in love with was the first I caught in the wild to add to my team, a Marill whom I named Colbin. He was the first I leveled up to 100!

When I started attending events irl (e.g., Regionals in Toronto and then Worlds) I started picking up some bulk cards with cute, floral-y artwork - mostly from when friends would open packs and then discard all the bulk they didn’t want haha. My collection slowly grew over the course of the years, as expected. I still only have a few graded cards, but my binder collection is exploding haha (I promise I’ll update my collection thread again soon haha).

Anyway, here’s a pic of my first graded card and matching plush.

[Kijamon]

I’m old enough to have gotten in on day 1. Minus days in fact as my brother imported Pokemon Blue from America right after launch and it didn’t come out in the UK for a while afterwards. The cartoon obviously was a big hit too.

He’d read in a magazine it was going to be good so got a copy. This was early internet so I think he even phoned up a number in a magazine to get one and used our parents card to pay for it.

He didn’t let me play it for a while but I eventually stole his save and went on to complete the elite 4. I was lost in Victory Road for ages so all our Pokemon were overlevelled.

I entered the first UK regional style event but chickened out of going on the day which is a minor regret. I’m pretty sure I’d have done well enough as it was being held very, very soon after it came out in the UK and our team was stacked with level 100’s.

Then later I got in to the TCG via our local laser quest place. They did MTG as the owner was very in to it and I assume his rep would have pushed Pokemon hard. I ended up running the gym for a while, I wasn’t the oldest person playing but I was the oldest who didn’t have a kid playing it too so I felt out of sorts. But I really enjoyed the gym leader role, it was fun. I made some friends and although I was 15/16ish and they were all 12ish I didn’t really mind. It just showed that I could be a big brother type for these kids and a lot of them really needed that, they’d only have basic decks so I’d be chucking them a few spares. It was a really nice time in my life.

I went on holiday and left my “Gym” deck with a guy who wanted to borrow it, I didn’t see the harm but he stole it. I tracked him down and he was bang to rights but he’d already pulled the deck apart by then and I only got most of it back.

It just killed my love for it so I stopped going. I had valued the comradery and the community as much as the game and it was a sore one for me.

I sold everything in my early 20’s for next to nothing, even then it was valued at £1,000 so I should have just fobbed off the buyer but I sent it anyway.

Then 3ish years ago I won a Team Rocket Booster Box sealed in a raffle, sold that as I wasn’t going to sit on it. Decided to use that money to fund more purchases. I came in to some money via another means, same thing.

My wife is in to opening packs and will occasionally buy some but it’s mostly me leading the charge. We decided to try and complete all the Scarlet/Violet sets as it seemed a decent point to jump in.

Now I’m Raichu mad.

[codytcas]

I was in 3rd grade in 1999. I feel like the late 90s/early 2000s Pokemon explosion is really the only thing in my lifetime that evvvveryone was into. Everyone. It was the craziest thing. There were lots of fads that came and went but it seemed like everybody was into Pokemon, at least for a bit.

Man. What I wouldn’t give to go back

[tsuwabuki]

My mom found someone to babysit me when she went back to work. I stayed at her house for a few hours after school, and I’d play with her son who was the same age as me. He was my best friend for the years I went there. He’s who I have to thank for getting me into gaming as a whole, since I was a sheltered only child & had difficulty making friends in elementary school.

Anyways, he showed me how to play the TCG. This was during the mid-late BW era. I liked the game, but after some time I took an interest in the collecting aspect. So when XY Flashfire released (gosh I’m young), my dad took me to the LGS so I could open my very first pack. I got the secret rare Mega Charizard X in it. I had no idea it was that rare until a kid at school traded me an absurd amount of vintage holos for it. Looking back, I wish I kept it for sentimental reasons, but at least it was a fair trade.

Pokemon holds a special place in my heart. I play every new game that releases, I make lots of fanart, and I still go crazy for shiny cardboard.

[inertgeometry]

when i was a kid, it was the cool thing and everyone was doing it (back during the original craze)

my 31st bday was a relatively quiet one, but i decided i wanted to go buy a pack for nostalgia. my ignorant self thought maybe they had some of the original packs in shops lmao, but anyways, i opened a pack of steam siege and that’s all it took for me to start browsing ebay once again for cards from my youth.

unrelated to the original question, but continuing on this series of events for anyone who wants more to read:

ironically, i migrated away from cards from my childhood years, and moved to cards i didn’t get to experience. i started buying some cards in jp bc they were so much cheaper than the english counterparts, which led to growing a distaste for the yellow borders and how the clashed with cards like gen 3 exes (leading to me being a jp/asian language collector despite not being into this sort of thing as a kid. - thankfully now that SV made the switch, i can happily collect english again for many cards)

as the years have gone on with the help of getting into the video games (thanks to being a step dad at the time and buying Shield for the kiddo), i became hooked on the newer gens and now feel more attachment to new pokemon than i do to pokemon i grew up with.

if i had to guess, it is because back then, i was doing it to fit in/be a part of the fad, but these days, i collect what i like which gives me far more attachment/appreciation than i ever had as a kid.

[Kanto_Cowboy]

Religious Nintendo Power reader as a child. They were hyping up the original Red/Blue games for months including the special edition inserts. I had to get Pokemon Blue as soon as it came out (9yo) and played the absolute crap out of it, with card addiction coming shortly after.

Collected through OG Rocket set then moved over to DBZ until I started to care more about cars and girls. Parents dropped a bunch of childhood stuff at my house around thanksgiving of Covid (31yo at time), where I still had the majority of my childhood cards. Realized many were worth some money (2020 stuff) and instantly fell down a hole.

Sold all my vintage English and embraced the obscure Japanese cards I always found mysterious and coveted being an adult with money someday to own. Here I am.

[subcat]

I collected Yu-Gi-Oh until grade 3, when my friends who also collected changed schools. I found myself with new friends who collected Pokémon, and my conformist 8-year-old brain wanted to join in.

I remember going to my small local game store which mostly sold board games, and seeing the 2 Player Starter Sets with the simple blue package design (same as English card backs). There was something so appealing about the simplicity of that package design compared to the busyness of the Yu-Gi-Oh packs I once coveted.

I had seen a few of my friends’ cards and noticed the clear design distinction between what was ‘modern’ at the time (late ex era) and WOTC era stuff. To us, WOTC was always more coveted because of how unique and ‘old’ it looked. Young me realised that this 2 Player Starter Set contained ‘old’ cards (surprising considering this was 2007) and I just had to have it. I remember feeling like I had stumbled upon something special, even back then I realised that it was strange this product was for sale so late.

My parents used to buy us a small handful of gifts for Easter and use that as an excuse to give us only very little chocolate. That year, I received the 2 Player Starter Set. I can still remember how those cards smelled, how the weird marble-esque damage counters felt, how special the ‘1st edition’ Machamp seemed.

[xileets]

This is an illuminating topic. The things that all lead us here are varied, and often very fun.

A little while ago, I made a poll for this purpose, so I’ll share it here. I don’t plan to ever close it, and it can change over time. =)

E4 poll about how people started and grew in the hobby

I wanted to make a poll to determine where people started in the hobby, as well as how they expanded and grew in their collecting. I’m wondering if we might gleam anything interesting from this, and of course, you can share, though many of us have already, your collecting story below. I tried to make options robust. Please answer each Q, and if anything could change, suggest it. Q 1. When did you begin collecting in TCG? poll Q 2. What did you begin collecting in TCG? poll Q 3. How lo…

Personally, I started with JP gym decks. A friend in a performance gave all us kids PkMn cards, and then I bought the game; fought with another kid over getting ripped-off in a trade; marveled at seeing PkMn Red in Japanese; etc. Always kept my cards, but didn’t do much new collecting after middle school. More recently, senior year of college I got back into collecting and picked up a booster box of skyridge. made my money back and decided I was going to be the very best. Then I discovered Scott’s illustrator and trophy pikas, and my eyes were opened.

[DarthEevee]

My grandmother bought me a game boy color (transparent blue gang rise up) and Pokémon Red and Blue when it came out. That was it, I was hooked. A year later, the toys r us leagues for the tcg became very common in my area. I played pretty much every week to two weeks from elementary school to early middle, stopped briefly, came back into the hobby during the dp era, and played until I left for college. Even after I stopped playing competitively I played all the games and collected cards I thought were cool. I played yugioh and digimon as well, but they never stuck the same way.

The dp-BW era is what I would consider my “competitive” season. I played in leagues and tournaments until xy came out. Collected every gym “badge” available through leagues until they stopped them in BW2 era. Had a group of 6 that went to events together for years. Was a ton of fun.

Went to worlds in 08. Remember staying up with my “team” to play test decks one more time. Got creamed by a hard counter to my deck, but actually playing the side events was way more fun and also turned me on to my first alt language cards, like this cresselia. Still have the ‘08 worlds lucario event mon, the first time it could ever learn blaze kick.

As a “real adult”, I got back into collecting. Particularly, the past couple of years I’ve really leaned into consolidating my collection, selling off things that don’t have sentimental value, and finishing off my Eevee collection. It’s been my favorite Pokémon from day one. Also joined a fun Pokémon streamer’s discord and have been playing online with people from SwSh forward.

[ascendedbidoof]

I don’t recall exactly how I got into Pokemon but I’m pretty sure it started with the anime since it came out when I was about 4. I got my first gameboy for Christmas a couple years after and started playing the games religiously. My mom tells me that Pokemon was a big factor in me learning how to read. She said I had a poster with all 151 Pokemon and that I would run back and forth between my Little Tikes table and the poster writing down names. If I recall correctly, I didn’t know how to read when I started playing Red. I think I made it pretty far through the game despite that

Just like any other kid during that time I was absolutely obsessed with Pokemon. If there was anything that had Pokemon on it, I wanted it. My Dad told me once that when my Grandma asked him what to get me for my birthday he just told her “You can get him a dog turd that says Pokemon on it and he’ll love it”. And you know what, he probably would have been right.

[Charizard1020]

Those badges are such a nostalgia trip. Very cool!

[DarthEevee]

That’s an old picture, but I still have them somewhere!! Not exactly wall art material in my home nowadays but the collection is intact

[Rattlesnake]

5th grade, then 7/11.

[pokemonetc]

Thank you for everyone’s responses to this thus far; it’s so great reading through the memories of others and seeing how alike, though in varying degrees, our childhoods were!

[bbobrob]

Still reading through the thread, but this sounds like Recess-level stuff. By chance, was there a Hustler Kid on your playground?

[joponnes]

It’s always fun to read other people’s childhood stories about their pokemon journeys, except that i hate any kind of drama so i always cringe when they have major thefts or parents burning collections or stuff like that i just recently added my childhood story on another thread but badically i remember watching the first episode of anime when it first time aired in finland but not actually really knowing what to think about it at first sight, but then getting caught up in hype when everyone in school was all pokemon. My parents then bought me my first pack of pokemon cards, a pack of topps series 1 and shortly after that my first tcg cards. Topps is still my favourite pokemon brand because of the first precious pokemon memories in my childhood.

My pokemon collecting ended at the end of gen 2 and e-series cards but before that i received loads of cards from my friends and other people in my village who knew i collected them and whose interest in pokemon ended when the hype started to die. But even though i didn’t buy any new cards my parent made sure that the cards are being stored well and not sold or thrown away, i had zero plans of doing anything like that since the collector in me was so strong but when reading about other people’s parents and their behaviour i couldn’t be happyer about my parents.

Even though i enjoyed some pokemon content and loved the brand after that too it took pokemon go to get me buying more cards. I basically met my wife through pokemon go and since she too had a modest pokemon collection it was an exciting topic to talk about for both of us. Naturally the urge to start collecting again got me, first with some modern packs which was evolutions at that time, but very soon after that i started to fill in the gaps of my childhood wotc and topps collections as well as building again some of my wife’s childhood collections since she regrettably had sold her cards. My wife’s active collecting didn’t go for long after that but i’m still going strong and don’t see an end for it ever happening.