I’m putting together some special binders. Some very, very special binders. And in the process of planning these out, I’m having some of them… feeling… things.
So I put it to you.
I’m talking about the one. You know, the one. That card that takes you back to where it all began.
Whether you were little, less little, or hell, even big -
Which single card takes you back the most when you look at it?
For me, it’s this goof, as when I was a wee child, I was obsessed with imagining Pokémon in our real-world settings. From Pidgeys on the concrete pecking at seeds, to Kyogre in the ocean. But something about this art really does it for me in that regard:
So please, tell me about your nostalgia and your stories!
These are probably the most nostalgic to me. Piloswine, mew and chinchou were among the first cards I ever had. My parents used to buy me bulk played lots and I was scavenging cards from older friends.
Piloswine felt so powerful to me, and I loved the joyous art (I traded a dark blastoise for it + jungle Rapidash lol); same for the little chinchou, it was so good having that in my hands,
Then the dark celebi: it was in a theme deck they bought me. I actually was expecting a metagross, since it was on the tin outside. The moment I saw this legendary pokemon I remained mind blown.
Base set UK Print Charizard! the first holo I pulled from a pack in 1999 as a 8 year old boy! The magic I felt was unreal! nothing material has come close outside of my 1st home in which I still live in was brought! even then Im not too sure it hits the mark!
Fossil slowpoke i remember having enough to fill a binder page and that was a mesmerizing sight for a kid me. Opening aquapolis ampharos i have perhaps the most vivid memories since the artwork felt so joyful and i returned to looking at the card so many times. Vending snorlax i can’t say if it’s nostalgy or something else but it was the card that got me back in collecting so it will always have a special place in my heart
I love the Aquapolis arts. There is something about Fossil/Jungle cards that really hits the nostalgia-drum more than Base for me, the arts were so much more varied!
It’s a tough one for me, I remember my first boosters, my first foils, my first trade… but the nostalgia is strongest with THIS one. The classic 90s CG, and the effective design still holds up today, in many ways. Also reminds me of N64 and Pokemon stadium.
I remember a friend wanted my Mewtwo. I gladly traded for his Raichu
I was so happy
But i was so pressured to trade my Raichu the next day. This neighbor kid legit started crying and his buddy came over to my house and i got totally guilted.
I felt so bad giving him away
This is the only card that truely takes me back to that time. When i look at it, the card actually captures the feeling i had. Charizard, its more a memory, but with Raichu i have this warm feeling that my brain has kept all these years
I always have been and always will be an eevee stan, but my first ever Pokémon card was this wartortle on the top left. Creased to hell but dammit it’s my first card all the way back
This Salamence from EX Delta Species. This was the current set at the peak of my Pokemon interest in primary school. I remember my parents bought me the theme deck with Crobat in it, but someone else at school got the other deck with Salamence and I was insanely jealous.
Dual typing was the cool new thing at the time, and Fire/Metal seemed to fit Salamence really well. The pose and the glowing red and blue looked awesome, and as an 8-9 year old any card that could 100 damage was so powerful in my view
As a full time seller I often feel pretty numb to a lot of cards but some art really makes me stop and pause, either its just generally nice to look at or I have some memory attached it truly is the highlight of sorting bulk.
I mainly deal with Japanese cards, but recently got in a smaller bulk lot of WOTC non holos. It was the first time in awhile I felt something sorting through cards. If I had to pin point a certain set I’d probably go with Fossil unlimited. Something about that set trips my nostalgia bug more than anything else.
I still fondly remember being so jealous of my friend who had a nidoking before me! I also vividly reminisce the time I pulled 3 Blaines Arcanine over the course of like, 2 weeks all from the same dollar general when I was like 10.
This was the first holo card I’ve ever pulled. I still remember my parents giving me and my brother $20 to buy packs from KB Toys in the mall. They only had Neo Genesis packs but they were on clearance for $2 each!
We got as many as we could with the $20 and split them. I pulled the lugia on my 2nd pack! and he pulled T17 Typhlosion. It still is one of my favorite memories from my childhood.
I could read all these nostalgia stories for hours. This for me is what sets vintage apart from modern: an era when we had those organic, passionate experiences of discovery that just can’t happen as easily anymore in a modern environment.
I can’t name just 1 single card as my most nostalgic, but there were several stand-outs during my childhood discovery phase:
@Dyl joining in with the base set Ponyta! This was the very first Pokemon card I ever laid eyes on, and my first defining moment in the tcg.
This was the playground I discovered it on:
(Picture online, didn’t sneak into my old school like a weirdo)
While Base set Diglett was the second card I ever saw, it’s the card I think of whenever Base Set is mentioned. It was also the first card given to me by a friend in the playground to get my collection started.
Base unlimited Ninetales was the first card I ever bought for myself. I begged my dad to take me to Toys R Us in Stoke-On-Trent in 1999 to buy some cards so I could start to build a bigger collection like my friends. I had absolutely no idea what to buy when we got there because there was so much product, and I didn’t really know what cards came in what decks or packs. So I settled on a Brushfire Theme Deck. That was the beginning of my addiction, and the beginning of my parents’ concerns over the sheer cost of these pieces of cardboard cardstock.
This is the Toys R Us (since closed, RIP) I bought it in:
The final most stand-out card to me was 1st Edition Base Venusaur. This card caught my eye when it was displayed on the back wall of my local Forbidden Planet:
I had seen a base unlimited version in a magazine before this, however the one in the shop was 1st Edition. The colours just ‘popped’ and looked so much nicer. 1st Edition and Shadowless were not available in the UK, so this was clearly an import, and I never realised the difference until ~10 years later when I started collecting again temporarily. Since then it’s always been my favourite Base holo.
