I didn’t really have one. I pulled a base 2 charizard as a kid and that was pretty much the king
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Base set unl Alakazam. Me and my brother used to basically collect together and one day he traded it away. I found someone with one and offered him loads of cards for it and he originally said no but after thinking about it for what felt like months he agreed and we traded for it, I traded such a large volume of cards for it that my brother was so mad but I wasnt bothered. Thinking back now the load of cards I gave up for it were all just non holos from like base-neo so it wasnt even a bad deal on my part it was just the amount of them that bothered my brother.
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Corocoro Shining Mew
Japanese Birthday Pikachu - bought one in 2003/04, which is now slabbed as a PSA 9 and sits with my most treasured cards.
The card I scored all the schoolyard points for though, was a Japanese Neo Genesis Togepi. No idea where I traded it from, but it was just after the set was first released in Japan. Togepi was still a mystery outside of the animé, and noone believed the rumour that I owned an actual card of it, until I’d whisk that bad boy out of my school bag at lunch times.
Those were the days!
That was the first ex I ever pulled!
I vividly remember pulling it. I’d asked for 4 packs of Legend Maker at the counter of my local toyshop one Saturday afternoon, and the till staff grabbed FrLg instead by mistake (all of the different packs were on display in a little window box-thing at the end of the counter). I was too shy to say anything, so took the packs. When I got home, the Zard was in one of them and I FLIPPED. That ones also graded and in my “treasured” collection.
One of my best memories of Pokémon right there!
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YGO G4 god card set. Would always imagine finding one on the street and being all happy but there were none on the street.
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I got into Pokemon right when ex Dragon came out, so it would definitely be the Rayquaza ex from that set.
There was something so enchanting about opening an ex-series pack, fanning out the cards, and seeing the silver shine of an ex.
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My ‘d’ edition error butterfree from jungle. Was always such a mouthful as a kid, and kind of meme-ish to run around saying the full card name lol. I still have it and love it more then anything I have. Not much was known about errors between me and my brother, and our friends, so we thought it was either incredibly rare or fake.
I can’t believe it hasn’t been said yet…Base set Charizard without question. Still love it so much to this day. #nostalgia
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EX Dragon is crazy nostalgic for me. I opened so much of it as a kid. That set was so goddamn stacked lol. Rayquaza ex, Latios/Latias ex, Dragonite ex, Salamence holo, Flygon holo, Absol holo, and the list goes on. All rookies, too, except for Dragonite obviously. I love Ruby/Sandstorm, but Dragon puts those sets to shame. Best set of all time, IMO.
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Blaine’s charizard. Saw the Japanese one first at an Asian market. Just felt it was cooler than the dark and base version
Proud owner of a PSA 10 1st now 
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Wow, that’s very similar to me. I didn’t even know about gold stars back then. I definitely didn’t pull any since I didn’t have the chance to open many packs, but I don’t remember seeing any among my friends either.
The other kids showed the same mentality ex=coolest. I remember some inked their cards by writing “ex” next to the Pokemon name. I’ve recently found a Moltres from Skyridge inked in that way in a collection (rip).
My favorite as a kid was Mewtwo ex 
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I had a few that I was picking from, but I have to say that Feraligatr from Neo Genesis was the one I always looked at the most when flipping through my binder. I stopped collecting after EX Team Rocket Returns because I didn’t really like how the borders looked after Neo Destiny.
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shining mewtwo for pokemon, lob bewd for yugioh
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My holy grails were the cards I pulled, I was not aware of all cards back then and my friends didn´t have that many either
If I had to pick one it´s probably Neo Gen Meganium11 or Base Nidoking.
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I remember the first time I saw Blaine’s Arcanine in my friend’s collection. Probably one of the first times I saw a gym card too, damn I love those sets.
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Never pulled something memorable in the packs I received as a kid, until my mother bought me an Unseen Forces pack after a day of obligatory shopping. I still remember the feeling when I pulled this one haha, 4 attacks and 160HP 
This card was the holy grail at my primary school due to its massive HP (we always thought that the higher the HP, the rarer the card):
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I’ve posted this screenshot before, but honestly nothing else made my heart skip a beat quite like finding that silver edge before going through the cards. I just hope today’s kids are getting that same pulse-racing excitement when they see the glistening edge of a full art / VMAX card.
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For me that’s one thing I’m actually glad about - not having internet access or any easy way of knowing what cards were in the latest set. It made the thrill of opening packs that much more exciting, not knowing what rare treasures you might find and then being ecstatic when something took you by surprise or you discovered a legendary Pokemon you’d not heard of before. Getting one rare card just drove the desire to see what else you might be able to find. Gotta Catch 'Em All was such a simple but amazingly effective marketing strategy.
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Same…there’s no words that describe it.
Pulling this baby was one of the greatest thrills I’ve ever had lol:
Opening exs as an adult (or as a kid) is just…an indescribably amazing experience.
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Lugia ex, but it was the crappy worlds 2005 deck copy. Everyone found it cool it was able to do 200 damage.