I understand what your saying. I guess it just comes down to what the individual themselves believe. On one hand you could of bought a booster box of 1st ed base in 07’, held onto it till now and not even be into pokemon. That in itself would be an impressive collection. On the other hand someone could love the tcg, know all the different card variants, errors, sets, ect, but cant afford to buy cards. If you cant afford to have a collection then are you truly a serious collector? Thats why I think its a mixture of both and also what the person themselves believe.
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If you spent a lot of money on a bike, does it make you a professional cyclist? Or, just a person with a bike worth a lot of money?
You might need money to purchase cards, but it’s not quantity or quality that makes you a serious collector.
If you spent a lot of money on a bike card, does it make you a professional cyclist serious collector? Or, just a person with a bike card worth a lot of money?
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When I said no to buying an entry in an instagram mini-razz for a chance to win an entry into a raffle for a chance to win spot in a legendary collection box break.
But seriously though, probably when I started researching what card to buy next and all the different japanese releases. Before 2017 I’d just buy whatever was at stores and looked cool, I never even ordered cards online before that. Setting actual goals for once was probably the first sign.
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@pokemonpuppy, Thats what I meant in my comment “You could of bought a booster box of 1st ed base in 07’, held onto it until now and not even be into pokemon. That in itself would be an impressive collection.” You can be a person with an expensive pokemon item and not even like pokemon. Thats why I said I believe for someone to be a serious collector there should be a mixture of a quality collection, decent knowledge of what they’re collecting and an actual liking of whatever they’re collecting. A good example would be I love hockey cards, I know a decent amount about collecting them, but my collection is not great at all by most standards (I only collect young guns “rookies”). I’m the first to admit I’m not a serious collector. I still love the cards, I just don’t seriously collect them.
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I was always a serious collector. When I was 12-13 years old I managed to collect every common and uncommon card from all sets released so far (base to neo rev) by trading with the limited of amount of cards I had. I don’t remember any other kids doing that at the time, and they would often comment on why I cared about certain undesirable cards. Obviously, I was not able to get all the rares and holos because I could only afford a few packs here and there. In a way, I still consider that a decent achievement, and it made it a lot easier to finally buy the missing rares and holos years later.
I am still very particular of what I want and don’t want to collect and what my short and long term goals are, and probably spend too much time thinking about Pokemon cards in general. I don’t think the amount of money you spend necessarily has anything to do with how serious you are. The only reason why I am spending more money now, is because I can afford it and some cards I need have gotten really expensive.
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Ah I’m sorry, I misread your posts message! I totally agree with you.
Looking back, I think I realised I was getting more serious as a collector when I stopped buying at random packs and tins. I started to then purchase singular cards I had a drive for. That escalated into the Japanese promo market.
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Yes.
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When i looked at my bank account depleting at a fast rate. But the amount of joy it gave to me and the pure nostalgia feel.
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Thats why I said its what the individual themselves believe.
For me it was when I had spent more on cards than the guy who brought me back into collecting.
And also when I woke up after I had my first actual dream about Pokemon cards and thought I might be a little too deep into it lol
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Some awesome responses to the topic in here 
@raichuforyou ~ once you learn to budget for your preferred hobby, you definitely start to realize that you can usually obtain your goal cards
@teraz ~ lol same
@alecpokemon ~ that’s pretty awesome that you were able to collect all those chase cards early on before the pokemon go craze 
@cerulean ~ I intentionally lost a pickup basketball game last week because I knew an auction was ending around that time. Kept looking at the clock throughout the game. Need one of those sniper bid apps so I never have to go through that situation again lol
@burnedos ~ “do I really want to go outside with my friends tonight? Or do I really want that mint base set venusaur on auction?”
@fireftw87 ~ awesome get. I recently got some base set 1st edition holos, not Charizard though, and I was definitely nervous the hour before they ended on auction haha
@khairis ~ Cool of you to get your porygon some friends 
Will respond to some of the second page comments in a bit 
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When you find yourself consistently interested in Pokémon. Daily searching, reading, watching, buying, selling. It doesn’t matter if you are spending $10 or $10,000 a month; the consistent passion is what it’s all about.
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@neverforget50in07 I think value only plays a small part in becoming a serious collector. I know collectors out there who can name any card from any set and know all the obscure cards in the hobby and where they’re from. Like if you asked them where this energy is from they’d know instantly. 
Yet, they don’t even have half as much as you do spent on Pokemon, and I’d still consider them as serious collectors.
@pokemonpup well put
@smpratte exactly. I regularly find myself looking up old videos of people opening up things like skyridge booster boxes(and not sleeving a single card 
) or showing off their gold star collections from 8+ years ago because it’s so interesting to me how people thought of the cards at different time periods
@madden12ut, Thats why I said its what the person themselves believe. I believe its a mixture of a value and knowledge. I think having a genuine liking of the product or whatever it is they collect is most important. In the end its really just the individuals opinion if they are or not.
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That water energy is a league promo from 2006-2007. 
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Yup! One of my favorite energy cards they’ve ever produced 
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Money wise - I’d say 6 weeks ago when I started pumping money into it and buying the things Ive always wanted
Collecting wise id say right from the start, I’d keep everything neat and tidy, all my boxes to anything I bought ( got given for birthdays and Christmas) and I would keep any empty packs, everything had to be in order and stored properly, I think if your someone that can sit staring at a card for hours and feel good about owning it, then your already a serious collector, I feel sorry for people that never got into collecting…
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When I bought a 1st edition base Charizard 
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Iv’e had the passion and considered myself passionate since around 2011. Been chasing ultra rares ever since! It really became serious when I sold all my complete Unlimited WOTC sets to get Base, Jungle and Fossil 1edition sets. I pick that moment specifically because it was a very serious deal to sell all those! Didn’t want to let them go but I saw the wave of new collectors coming early on.
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When I can’t stop thinking about what cards to buy next and to hurry and collect the money for a card before it sells off eBay or one of many online sites. It’s the worst feeling in the world when a card gets sold that was sitting in your cart. Than you go to find the card again and it’s like Where’s Waldo you can no longer find the card you want. For example the past month or two I have been looking for a 1st edition Shining Charizard. Didn’t have to be PSa graded just not destroyed. Anyways the only ones I could find were a thousand plus and a sad PSa 1 that is still sitting there on eBay waiting for a sucker to pay $600 in desperation 
I seen two pop up during this time period for $600-$700 range and both listings were playing pika boo with me. They were sold to god knows who or took off eBay with in 15 minutes of listings. I finally found one off a buddy here but the hunt was really getting nuts! O by the way sick energy card a few posts up. Everyone is showing off kool energy cards lately like it’s trending haha p.s same thing happened today with my Shining Mewtwo I was checking out in my cart than it was sold during checkout. I thought my phone was glitching but it wouldn’t process because someone else processed it two seconds earlier
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