Is there a canon time point where the modern Pokemon TCG started? Did vintage end when WotC ended? Are Gen4 sets already modern (Platinum, HGSS etc)? I have heard Scott use the terms vintage and modern quite often, so I’d like to know what time periods we are actually talking about.
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My personal opinion is that “modern” starts with Gen 6, when print runs became far more saturated, but that is entirely subjective. Some people might consider anything after WOTC to be modern.
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It is all relative. Modern cards today will eventually be “vintage”. It is a fairly vague term to be honest. But when I hear it used for Pokemon I mainly associate it with the first two generations, e.g. the WotC era. However, that does not make all newer cards “modern”.
Imo vintage starts at 15yrs or older
I’d call vintage the WOTC era. Though you could argue before that (the last century?)
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That’s how I would define it. So many aspects changed when WoTC stopped printing cards.
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I think the textbook answer would be WOTC or 1999-2003.
I consider anything that I remember collecting as a kid as “vintage” so this goes all the way to Gen 3 for me.
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Vintage typically means between 20 and 50 years, so just the first few sets until next year when a few more will count.
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It would be hard for me to call ex vintage so I’d say before that.
And to the smart arse who pm’d me and asked if I consider myself vintage…
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Very good question! Most people draw the line at the end of WOTC. I think gold stars straddle the fence. With time I think the original EX era or early Nintendo era will be considered vintage. It already is to some extent. But in general I think most define it by end of wotc for English, and early new back for Japanese.
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when did the “boomers” end and when did the “zoomers” start ? ? ? ?
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When people talk vintage, I think of WOTC. When people talk about modern, I think of BW and up. So for me ex-sets, DP-sets and HGSS-sets kinda fall in between. Idk what to call them (ironically it’s my favorite era that I don’t know what to call)
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Because Pokémon does not have an eternal format and everything starts from BW (maybe finally they gonna drop BW from expanded in 2020!) nothing is considered vintage or modern. Pokémon isn’t Magic.
But if we gonna keep the Magic terminology for this;
Vintage is everything before Black & White (unplayable in a legal format)
Modern is everything from Black & White till most recent set (all playable in a legal format)
And than we can add Standard to the list, everything legal in the standard format.
Vintage for me is anything before XY. With XY the mass printing became a thing, sets became bigger, print quality got lost (and was found again) and supply was (and still is) still there. Nothing really was rare to a point you couldn’t obtain it.
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I agree with @xzini . I personally consider the WotC era vintage, so Base Set through and including Skyridge. And I consider the XY and SM eras modern, so the XY set and up. The sets in between are neither vintage nor modern to me, and I wouldn’t think about them when I’d hear either of those two terms.
In general most people use vintage for the WotC era, and modern for everything after it. But I personally can’t consider a set like EX Dragon modern when I still played with it as an 11 y.o. kid more than 16 years ago. Nor would I consider something like the HGSS era vintage.
I personally think these terms are too abstract to begin with regardless of the context its used in. Better to just state post-yearX or pre-yearY imho… 
I don’t even know a Dutch translation for the word ‘vintage’ now that I think about it. We do have a translation for ‘antique’/‘ancient’ (which is considered 100+ years old if I remember correctly), but if I try to translate ‘vintage’ to Dutch it translates it to ‘wijnoogst’ (wine harvest) without any alternatives… Translating ‘vintage’ within a whole sentence usually becomes ‘oud’ (old) on the translation websites I’ve just checked.
Greetz,
Quuador
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I’d say that I consider ‘modern’ to mean the previous and current era. That is to say that Sun and Moon and the new Sword and Shield cards are what I’d regard as modern, but BW and recently XY are no longer modern to me… they exist, just like Base Set exists.
Vintage itself isn’t really something which can be applied to a specific timeframe. Vintage itself as a word gives regard to the best of a given thing and personally I wouldn’t say that the first few WotC sets were the best. In terms of card design, artwork and functionality I’d argue that the E-series cards were better than those. Were they the best? *Shrug*
I’d argue that the best artwork was seen in 2006-2007, so is that vintage to me? Again, probably not.
I don’t think I’d use the word vintage to describe anything Pokémon-related, but then again it’s probably not a word I’d use all that often in the first place.
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Vintage would be anything from 1950-1970 so…yeah but nah
I think of it in tiers with a collection of sets being measured in importance, value, and age.
1st edition base being platinum
Base unlimited to skyridge being gold
Ex era to call of legends being silver
Black and white to the most recent sets being bronze
I’d cut vintage off at the end of ex era though, but in a year or two I’d group D&P in there too.
Thought this thread is pretty interesting after everything from 2020-2022. So many people “investing” in modern, and I still think there’s no good definition for what modern is vs. vintage.
I always associated vintage with WOTC era only, but talking to new collectors, it always shell-shocks me when they mention how old ex-era and DP is when they see the cards, as I remember almost every set release from Holon Phantoms on.
Personally, my cutoff point for Modern is Black and White. I see a lot of people say X&Y because of the increase in print run, but Black and White is such an important point for the TCG. They completely consolidated power levels and pretty much reset competitive play and card design philosophy at Black and White (there’s a reason expanded starts at Black and White). It introduced full-arts, and simplified sets, slowly adding new things like EX and secret rare alt-arts. The issue I have with calling X&Y the cutoff is because although print-runs were increased, X&Y was so much a continuation of Black and White, being the only generation not introducing a new special card and continuing with EX instead (Megas expanded on the concept but not changing much).
So any updated thoughts on this debate 3 years later?
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Power Keepers-Diamond & Pearl
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It’s a moving target. As one new era is made, a few eras back becomes vintage.
I would say WOTC - ex era for sure. Diamond & Pearl, HGSS, and Black and White are getting closer with each new generation that comes out.
XY is surely modern yet.
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