As a counterpart to @swolepoke’s thread post what you guys think were the best moments and/or releases of 2016. @pokemonsyndicate you are welcomed to post your type of stories here.
As for myself, the best moment was receiving my No Rarity Charizard in the mail. The best release since 1996 was hands down CP6.
Cheers @missingno Im exxtremely happy to hear that was the best moment of ting for you this year! 
makes me warm and fuzzy inside xD
I traded a ungraded 1st ed gold star mew to Shizzlemetimbers and he got a psa 10 and now im going to die.
What i would have done differently? Not traded it.
Thankfully, I got a better copy of the 1st ed gold starnen mew from the lot. If it doesnt get a 10, i will throw extremely large objects of fiery steel at Shizzlemetimbers
oooo ooo I got another one. You will love it.
I sent in 5 psa cards to be graded. 4 of them where mislabled. But hey the 1st ed rayquaza got a 10!!! RIGHT!!! RIGHT!!!
WRONG!!!
Anyway sent em back in to be relabled, but they got regraded FOR FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
But atleast suicune got a 10. HOW I LOVE MY SUICUNE. The bitterness is real.
" Syndicate doesnt always suffice "
But rayquaza was sent in for regrading and…
"syndicate will suffice "
There are other moments of this year that sucked, and there was moments that far outweigh the shitness.
THE BEST MOMENT OF 2016 WAS WHEN I OPENED dem 4 FRIGGEN PACKAGE UPs and it had the complete pcg/adv/dp all in gem mintingtons!!! Unbeatables… wait a second
THERE WAS ACTUALLY A BETTER MOMENT!!!
It was when dis beast arrived, and no raritans were showing up… but venusaur showed up in december 2015
Prepare yourselves for the 2017s subbington subz. They shall scare all that witnessness.
I don’t really have one best moment. The entire year was great. At the end of 2015 (October) I came back into collecting Pokémon cards and started my Pikachu collection. At the start of 2016 I probably had less than 250 Pikachus, but now I have 696 with 14 more incoming.
The entire search for new cards to buy for my collection, discovering new Pikachu cards you didn’t knew existed (even last week), and adding some absolute gems to my collection are all great moments for me. Some memorable moments were finishing my Pikachu Jumbo collection; the arrival of my first Art Academy Pikachu card; the arrival of the last regular Base Pikachu card (Korean unl. ed.); winning some auctions: like the two Mitsuhiro Arita autographed Pikachus, or the 175/XY-P Event Organizer Stamped Pikachu that I won today. All in all a great year for my collection.
But, the best part of this year was being part of this awesome community! Chatting with all of you; seeing new posts; enjoying pictures of all your collections; hear your stories; the Secret Santa event. Everything and everyone here on the E4 forum is what made 2016 an awesome year. Here’s to many more to follow! 
Greetings,
Kevin
My best moment was discovering this amazing community honestly. I felt a little weird being 28 and just starting to collect Pokemon cards but once I found this forum everything changed. I’m now more confident in talking about my hobby with friends and family.
The other moment would have to be opening booster boxes of evolutions with my buddy. Damn that was some good nostalgia.
Best moment of 2016 for me was probably taking a long shot on a Green Winged Charizard box, which turned out to be legit and have Shadowless Packs inside!
As a kid of the 90s, who wasn’t aloud to get more than a pack or two at the store, it was extremely heart warming and nostalgic to get my own box, open all the packs, and pull all the original cards and holos!
That box must’ve been the best Shadowless Base Set box ever opened in history!
When i purchased my first pack of cards in over a year and pulled full art mewtwo 
being back in the scene is amazing
Joining eFour … Definitely got me excited about collecting again.
Finishing my Neo Genesis in 1st Ed.- Thanks @shizzlemetimbers
Acquiring my 2014 Pikachu Victory Ring Trophy- Thanks @smpratte
Opening this CP5 pack while studying and getting Xerneas lol (still missing Yveltal 37/36) lol
2016 was really good year for my collection. Some things that truly stand out.
-tons of different cool graded cards, thanks to everyone who sold/traded them!
-1st ed. Holon Research Tower and other awesome ADV/PCG boxes
-sending PSA 9 1st ed. Charizard star to review service with @garyis2000 's help and it was bumped to PSA 10
Overall the pinnacle would be this trio right here, hard to believe I couldn’t get additions for main goal in 1,5 years and then all of a sudden 3 out of 4 are in my hands, only missing the Typhlosion 17/111.
2016 has definitely been my best year in collecting so far!
The first exciting thing for me this year was when I decided to send cards to PSA. I had some PSA graded cards before that I had bought, but the feeling is different when you grade your own cards. It was amazing to get my first submission back and I did really well too. If I remember correctly I sent 32 or 33 cards and 3 of them where 9s, and the rest were gem mint! I was super happy with the results and about the fact that I seem to have some eye for what is worth of grading I ended up making 3 submissions this year (actually 4, but the last one is still at PSA).
Other great moment from this year was buying one of my favorite cards of all time: Rayquaza Gold Star! I got an unlimited Japanese one, PSA 9. I’ve wanted this card for so long and I finally got one. You see, I always had limited money for collecting and couldn’t afford many of the things I wanted. Or I could afford and wouldn’t eat anything for a while xD This year was different as I was working almost the whole year so it helped me getting into a new level on my collecting in general.
And as I got the Rayquaza Gold Star, I had to get Latias and Latios Gold Stars too to make the full trio Now they are standing nicely on my shelf. Unfortunately I will have to slow down a little bit with collecting as I’m back on being jobless, but I should start working at the same place on April where I worked this year. Thanks to the situation I made a bit of a shopping spree, I’ll see if I get everything before new year I did put some money to the side too that I could possibly make another PSA submission on January, we will see.
Oh and what made this collection year special too was the fact that I started to be more active in here. It was the best decision ever as now I have so much more understanding about the hobby and I always keep learning things on here. Even if the topic wasn’t about my own collection interests I still like to read through and get more information. This really is the ultimate Pokemon collector’s site It’s so great to see so many different personalities here too I also realized I stopped visiting on a Finnish Pokemon forum since I got active here, but that site was being really quiet in general. I enjoy trading and making deals with you guys as I can always expect getting cards with great quality. Trading on the Finnish forum was complicated as most of the active users there are players or younger people than me and they usually have a different view of “mint” than I do.
And thinking about the releases of this year, CP6 was definitely my favorite. I also liked the Red & Blue Collection Boxes a lot and I think it was a great concept.
Oh well it ended up being quite a long post, sorry!
Best 2016 moment for me was finding a Sealed 1st Edition Korean Base Set Booster box and then finding a 2nd one not long after to open
Best moment for me was the hype Pokemon Go created, we hadn’t seen such world wide hype since the late 90’s
definitely felt like I was back to my childhood when Pokemon was everywhere
Pokemon Go? Hype? No no those 2 things won’t fit in same sentence… 
I’ve played Pokemon go there (59th & 5th? in Manhattan). It’s a great spot.
I graded these 2 beauties earlier this year… hot damn did I just for joy!
Another was going to Pokemon Worlds and meeting my bros @gemmintpokemon @smpratte amd some other cool peeps…
oh also Tommy aka Thorgene! I also held the Pikachu Illustrator in my own hands. Truly epic. I graded and have bought so many crazy amazing
cards this year and am so close to some seriously big collection goals. I hope I can crush 2017 and go to Worlds 2017 too!
Very well said young man. Certainly you are a pleasure and an asset in our family.
Getting the BGS 10 1st Base Charizard was a true highlight.
Also, there is one other thing that was really amazing that happened but sadly I can’t reveal it yet. Hopefully in the next few months I can discuss it. Scott knows about it but nobody else;)
2016 was a great year for my collection as well! I pulled a rather rare card.
I’m not sure if PSA will grade it though.
Did you already deliver your reply ( hopefully written in some sticky note as well )? 
Oh snap. The long pack was used too!