Hello guys,
I am planning to get a nice binder collection and I wanted some advices on how to do it.
How can I get a full set? I know that I can find full set on ebay but what’s your opinion about it ? Is it too expansive ? Is there better places to buy a full Pokemon set ?
I precise that I am only interested by WOTC cards.
Thanks for your help 
I think it feels more rewarding to build your own sets, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong buying complete sets.
You’ll have to do your own research(condition of holos, value of each card, etc…) to see if it’s worth it.
One thing I don’t recommend is buying singles only. Shipping on 100 individual cards will add up quickly.
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The cheapest way is probably buying set by set
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As others stated, financially it is much more efficiant to just buy the whole set piece by piece. For instance any common and uncommon cards are usually like a dollar by themselves on the internet. I’m not sure if card shops sell them cheaper as singles, they probably do. But anyway most wotc sets are very affordable (to me at least, i hope you have a nice budget as well!) other then the ereader sets, especially the unlimited versions. But beware, in almost every complete set I’ve bought, there’s always a card or 2 that’s not in as good of condition as advertised. The seller might say all cards are LP-NM, but expect a couple cards that are HP that will be replacing. You got my vote for buying full sets! Merry Christmas!
There is an advantage to buying a complete set as long as there isn’t too large of a premium attached to it. Personally, this seems like less fun and less rewarding compared to putting that last card in to finish a set yourself.
It also depends a lot on how much work you want to put into it. If you have the time, you can buy collections, take the cards you need and sell/trade the rest. This is extremely time consuming but can save you a ton of money if you don’t consider the amount of time spent sorting(you have to enjoy it). Anything you keep is typically paid for by sorting and reselling the rest. To me, this is like opening a gigantic booster pack since you can often find hidden treasures and cards you didn’t know existed. Ended up with an unexpected Mew GS and Plasma Storm SR Charizard this way.
If buying individual cards from T&T, wait for sales. Same story with ebay coupons, bucks, etc…
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I think it also depends on your passion. I think some sets are hard to find in a complete set and others are much easier but at the same time, it can also be more fun/challenging to create the set. For example, I just completed the Legendary Collection Reverse set, that was fun, frustrating, and challenging all at the same time. That set is hard to find as a full set but at the same time, it is hard to find NM condition cards of the full set. I bought some cards that were advertised as LP-NM and came in w/ light creases, so I had to return them and buy new ones. My goal was to get at least LP cards because I planned on framing them and didn’t mind the back having a little whitening but creases were a no go. That set ended up costing me over $2000 for sure. Good luck! I do have a a few almost complete sets and some complete sets of some of the new stuff but if you are only after WOTC, you can also look at Japanese cards. In my opinion, the cards look so much better at half the price, depending on your budget or nostalgia. To me, it brings me back and honestly, I actually just prefer Japanese in general. Not only are the cards nicer, but technically they are the originals, not English 
(I do collect English but mainly Japanese promos)
Note: I will just upload the difference in quality later 
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Hey, I have a full WOTC binder collection sans some 1st Ed. Base holos. Unfortunately it has gotten MUCH harder to find genuinely NM/MINT complete sets on eBay than in years past. You may be less picky then me but I like my binder cards to be PSA 8+ worthy. In the past I have bought full sets and then replaced not up to par cards with PSA 8 or 9s and cracked them open. For some hard to find sets like Aquapolis it was easier to buy all PSA holos even though that ended up quite expensive. Same with 1st Ed. Base. For sets like Fossil 1st Ed. it was possible to complete yourself when boxes were $70 each. Now that is just unrealistic and you’re better off buying full sets. It’s still really rewarding even though has taken me nearly a decade to complete. Good luck!
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The slow card by card building is fun, but if you are trying to build multiple sets, i think its easier to buy set by set. But if you by set by set, most people will put a slight premium on the price as they have put the time and effort to complete it. However, sometimes, some come up cheaper! Best of luck on your journey!
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It might be worth it to look into buying complete subsets. As in buying all the commons/uncommons/rares as a set. For the more expensive cards you can just wait for them to pop up cheap. That way you can avoid the premium of buying an entire set. I know for me personally I enjoy hunting down the cards and getting them slowly and cheaply so I wouldn’t go down the route of buying a full set myself.
Of course you have to factor in shipping and the time required to do this. All things considered, buying a full set is probably the easiest/cheapest option.
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It honestly comes down to how you want to do it lol.
For sets I always strike better deals in my local community like offerup.com, vs online/ebay. You usually find first owners of the set.
Buying subsets is a great idea as well. Get all the commons/uncommons out the way and work on spending more of your time hunting the more valuable cards.
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Double post. Edited
My personal experience has been that of buying up old collections and then keeping cards i don’t need and reselling the rest. As someone mentioned, it is time consuming but for me that is what makes the hobby fun. I then buy singles on tcgplayer, t&t, or eBay. I think if you are going for cost effectiveness, this has to be the best way. Through buying collections and then buying the rest as singles I’ve been able to complete multiple complete sets of the same set and make all my money back (over time). My idea has been for the hobby to sustain itself and not fall for emotional buys just because everyone else is posting a shining, rev holo legendary collection, or 1st edition ____. I know I will probably get some backlash, but online singles are usually cheaper than local card shops… if you do it right with shipping costs. tcgplayer requires only ordering $2 worth of cards and then shipping is free. If you put time into controlling your daily eBay searches you can snipe, and t&t sometimes beats both of the other methods (they just require $25 order i believe). This is what has worked for me but I’m aware that everyone does it differently. After two years of collecting I’ve completed WOTC sets: Base Shadowless, Base, 1st Jungle, Jungle, 1st Fossil, Fossil, 1st Rocket, Rocket, Gym Heroes, Gym Challenges, and I’m a few cards away from Neo genesis/black star promos/ jungle no symbol errors/ and I with precise budgeting and reselling doubles/ many completed double sets, I am left in the positive $ and a collection that hasn’t cost me a penny (I should add, i have spent hundreds of hours researching, listening to many of the guys on here who have youtube channels, and just being engaged in the hobby so that I feel comfortable about all my purchases). Although I sell complete sets myself, I think it takes away all the fun of collecting and if you are looking to really get into the hobby, I think that it takes a lot of learning which requires time. If you had all the money in the world and could buy up what was available on the open market, you just wouldn’t know all the subtleties of the hobby. It would be dangerous in my opinion to not know that and that is coming from someone who is still learning constantly. 
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Thank you all for your answers, it was very interesting.
Like you said, it depends of my factors but one of my main factor is my low budget.
I think that I will try to get subset like commons/unco and I will try to find the rares at a good price.
Thank you all, I will update my collection post when I will complete a new set ^^
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Good luck with your collecting goals!
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