These arrived, and I didn’t even realize the Absol has a swirl, the price and condition were just right
And the Growlithes were a adorable bonus that let me qualify for a discount.
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It finally arrived!
The Beat of the Frontier Commemoration Tournament top 3 winners prize. Drifblim FB.
I have been looking for this card to finish the Beat of the Frontier prize trio for a long time, i missed numerous copies last year, one from @cardstockpile since i didn’t have the funds available at the time, one on Mercari, and one auction that appeared on Probstein that somehow evaded all my alerts!
After that i set up even more alerts and kinda stopped checking daily, until recently right at the end of the year it popped up on Z&G. I bid as much as i could and luckily ended up winning it.
It was my first purchase from Z&G as i try to avoid overseas purchases because of import tax, (Winning bid was $471 but total cost for me was $602) but with cards like this it quickly becomes unrealistic hoping to find one in the UK, so thank you @jcincy101 for a smooth and safe delivery.
Since the auction ended on December 28, I technically managed to cross it off my 2025 goals list just in time!
While i was waiting for delivery i also noticed this exact copy has been posted at least once before already in this thread which is cool to see! I love your Dialga collection and share a similar fondness of DPt-P @haytertcg
I’m really happy to complete this goal, here it is with the other 2 prize cards that i brought earlier in the year as well as a Beat of the Frontier sealed booster pack which i received from E4 Secret Santa 2020 from @pigeonsyndicate.
p.s - sorry for all the tags! i just thought it was interesting and cool the story involved so many e4 members!
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Thats pretty neat!
I consigned majority of my graded promo’s with zandg recently and this was indeed mine. Happy to see it’s ended up in your hands, I really enjoyed owning these stamped sets and I’m sure you will too 
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Awesome! Super great card and so lovely that you were able to get it in your collection. This card in particular is so hard to find and makes for a great little tournament prize card. DPt-P is filled with just beautiful cards and this one with the stamp and Holo is one of the best. Congratulations on being able to get it. Thanks for sharing the update.
Cheers!
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My first destructive process of a vintage sealed product. The komiya’s left to progress my collection almost never pop on the market. Bought this mew pack just to get the furret and sentret. They should come out 10 unfortunately the front mew has a holo scratch and edge damage from the plastic sleeve.
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I made some larger purchases to fill some binder slots. I have more on the way, but this is what I’d like to show for now:
‘06-07 League promo energies;
D&P era calendar promos;
EX era holofoils/ultra rares;
More Diamond and Pearl, Suicune and Raikou are the tin “cracked ice” promos;
Finally, some Neo;
I’m cooking up some more collection updates soon, I don’t mean to spam this thread, apologies if it seems that way. I’m just excited and I wanted to show that there’s no shortage of decent (almost) 20+ year old singles available. Thanks for reading.
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Lol, I love that you got this for two of the deck cards and not the mew. This is one of my fav mew cards, it’s so cute, hope you enjoy it as well as the komiyas!
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love those energies. Nothing ever holo’d like they did ever again afaik. There is cool stuff in this pick up. And I like your photo set up too. clean and classy. You really hoenn hoe’d it up in this round up too. A little bit of a lot of eras though. calandar promos are something I want to slowly work on too.
Well done! Some big boi cards in this one.
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Thank you so much!! You’re right, that specific holo pattern hasn’t been used before or since, based on what I remember. That pattern falls under the “Matrix design” family, per my recollection; it only covers this League promo pack and the other 3 EX Era holofoil basic energies even though they all differ in basic design.
Thank you for the compliment on my images, though I need to switch up my lighting situation for sure…
The newest set that I’m trying to finish is Legendary Treasures, I’ll get the odd 3 pack/checklane blister of modern when I have credit card reward points but I’m going to be going the entire year without focusing on anything SwSh-up as far as singles. Unless it’s the one or two species cards I’m missing, that is.
As for the calendar promos, Riolu was the hardest to find in acceptable shape with what I want out of my binders. There’s a good mix of local classified/eBay/LGS pickups represented.
Thanks again!
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Stopped in at media reload to look at their bulk, and happens to find one of the CZ cards i need for my masterset. Im now down to only 4.
Also couldn’t pass up this vulpix that i had never seen before, and realized i know nothing about the JP Web series cards.
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Really amazing update. I am a sucker for some well made energy cards and it is my first time seeing the holo patter you posted. The effect looks amazing. I think Matrix holo pattern is a great name.
The other pickups are great as well. Lovely bunch of cards. Really looking forward to your collection updates. Should be very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
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Sigh, another set I didn’t know I needed. They look amazing together!
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Thank you so much 
“Matrix” was just the nickname, I think each ex-era holo basic energy type really forms its own sub-family, outside of the Ruby & Sapphire basic energy reverses.
Thanks again!!
Posting one of my latest purchases. I picked this up a while ago, but I got busy and completely forgot to share it with you guys. I still have a relatively small collection, but I really wanted this one even though it’s a niche card.
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That’s awesome to have in a 10. Congratulations!!!
I really like the EX Dragon Championship promos. I actually have the Charmeleon as well and will post it when I get it.
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Right on, can’t wait!!
The complete trio is #1 on my goal list for 2026, for my master set.
Ngl when it comes to EX Dragon secrets this is without a doubt my favourite, not too busy artwork and the positioning of Charmander’s tail is just awesome.
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