Childhood binders, do you still got yours?

[TrainOfThought]

I’ve toyed with the idea for a thread like this for years at this point… I’ve been in the hobby as adult for the last 7 years and for most people I’ve come across it all started when we were kids or teenagers.

So as the title suggests, do you still have it?
I’ll start off by answering; yes, I do!

in the first photo we see a beautifully bedazzled
ringbinder decorated by yours truly’s child hands
the years haven’t been kind to it as it’s kinda falling apart.

The first page was an absolute pride and joy as I didn’t get many packs as a kid and was therefore forced to trade it all up :3. All card conditions are nicely beat up with love as you can see.

The second page is filled out with water types and some evolution lines all in similarly beat-up fashion.
I still believe dark blastoise is way nicer than base set blastoise. the dark dragonite used to be holo before i traded it down

Page number 3 we spot some more water type evolutions, and on the right we see some grass types peeking through; kid me really loved the nido family and the king and queen were briefly favorites.

I will do one more page as i don’t wanna drag this out too much and am primarily interested in seeing what you guys all come up with….

There are some grass and fire types here, I acquired the holo dark charizard before I managed to get my
child hands on a base set one, but I was content. Some random delta species cards that were kinda acquired outside of the glory days on a few random packs and even a French holo that was acquired out of a boosterpack on a vacation to France.

The thing I find most beautiful about these binders is that every card has some story tied to it, wether of how it was acquired or perhaps what it meant to you or one of your childhood friends; maybe they even told you a story about them, and thus these little pokemon cards are turned into flash memory.

Let’s hear it kids.

[smpratte]

Glad you shared this train! I never knew you had your original binders. I unfortunately mixed mine with cards I collected when I got back into it in the mid 2000s. In hindsight I should have kept them separate. You can’t replicate how special they are.

[caughtatpoint]

I didn’t really have a binder as a kid, I think I kept all my cards in a deck box/random pile. I do however still have some of them. Later on someone gave me their binder, which I barely used. Some memories I have:

• Pulling a Base Charizard in the car park
• Looking at the Neo Discovery Hitmontop and thinking ‘what is this’. (Now I actually like it a lot)
• Going to a family friend’s and him taking my Southern Islands Mew. Luckily I noticed, but when I asked him he was like “oh yeah I was going to ask if you wanted to trade”.
• Being in awe of Light Arcanine.
• My friend coming over, and me thinking his Legendary Collection Jolteon was mine. I was so sure, eventually he gave up. I later found out that I actually had mine all along. Felt pretty bad about that.

[stagecoach]

I do not still have mine, on account of a tragic story involving a fireplace and peer pressure, but perhaps I can reminisce about what mine looked like.

In my earliest days collecting Pokémon, I collected the Pokémon, so the first page of my binder was all my hit holos sorted by type. If there was a card I really liked that I wanted I would rearrange my types to make sure that Pokémon was on the first page. I didn’t have a strong conceptualization of sets. I understood certain Pokémon came from certain themed packs, but often I had to ask friends to confirm (“which pack does Blastoise come from?”). My immediate perception of the card was art-dominated and a lot of the finer details like set symbol, 1st edition stamps, set numbers, etc didn’t really register for me.

Further along the timeline, an older kid mentioned he just needed an Alakazam and then he would have “the entire Base Set”. I didn’t understand what he meant. What is the Base Set? What does it mean to have all of it? This got me interested in set lists and stuff that I can trace my interest as a set collector back to that moment. But the truth is I did not become one at that time. I did not have anywhere close to whole sets. I kept my cards grouped by type until the very end.

At some point, it occurred to me that some cards were special enough to not keep in a binder. I was enamored with Ancient Mew and a Japanese Venusaur I had and I kept those cards in toploaders, which made them more portable and concealable. I would often find new hiding places to keep them - as my most precious possessions - and treated them like an individual showcase. I think this is where my preference for binders with specific exception slabs comes from. Some cards are more special. So some cards don’t go in the binder.

I wish I still had my old cards. But they are gone now, consumed by the hungry fire god. But it is still nice to remember.

[caughtatpoint]

@stagecoach

I didn’t have a strong conceptualization of sets. I understood certain Pokémon came from certain themed packs, but often I had to ask friends to confirm (“which pack does Blastoise come from?”). My immediate perception of the card was art-dominated and a lot of the finer details like set symbol, 1st edition stamps, set numbers, etc didn’t really register for me.

This was 100% me

[G1TLandon]

Unfortunately my cousin and I traded all our Pokémon cards for yugioh when we switched games… sad to think about. My binder was always kept in Pokédex order, which I think was only for Gen 1&2. I don’t see anyone nowadays with a 900 mon Pokédex binder…

[lyleberr]

While I never had a binder to hold them, I at least had some assorted sleeves and was able to put some stuff away in assorted boxes. Recently went through some of them.

Holos and rares that were mostly sleeved

Anything that wasnt a holo, look at that dust layer.

All my childhood decks (Yes, even 20years ago I had them) and open wrappers. Never knew I had opened triangle error packs, oh well.

Assorted toys and figures. Loved these as a kid.

[TrainOfThought]

Nice, you’re not the first one i’ve seen who kept the pack wrappers that is so cool!
You had a real childhood dream collection judging by all those holos
childhood me would’ve been in absolute awe haha.

But no binder!? most of us had no sleeves but you’re on the complete opposite end here.
Child me used to cut up 9 pockets into sleeves using scissors… yes for real we were down that bad.

Thanks for sharing appreciate it.

[lyleberr]

No lies, only about half of those sleeves were from me pulling them out. You arent kidding about how tough it was to have sleeves, I think I had some in odd sized baggies instead of proper sleeves. I had card pages but that was for my comiccards, since those were collectibles and Pokemon was for playing. Funny enough, all of those eventually disappeared but the pokemon cards stayed.

[c0ll3ct0r]

I still have mine, I took the holos out years ago but I think I still have some c/uc cards in there.

Can’t be bothered to dig it up now but it’s a totally butchered copy of this binder:

[livindavido]

I only very recently reorganised mine. As a kid I think I was actually quite good at keeping my cards safe. I remember my first go at a collection was stolen at school, but I pretty soon built it back up again. I only had two binders as a child and they were both the WOTC Snorlax binders, I didn’t play the game back then so would store them in binders so I could look at them. Prior to this I used to just rubber band them together in a stack. (RIP Mewtwo)

If they were going anywhere with me, they were going there with me in the binder as it was not going to leave my possession but I could still show them and trade. Child me was not the smartest though, and because I had so many cards I loved and only two binders, I double stacked (sometimes up to 5 cards) stacked in one pocket slot. I had organised them in Pokédex order and am so lucky none were seriously damaged. When rediscovering my childhood binder I found my base set charizard, in the same binder pocket with my 2 x rocket charizard, Japanese base set charizard and gym charizard. This was replicated for most of all the first 150 Pokémon. None of them in penny sleeves, and almost all stacked minimum two in one pocket of a 9 page binder sleeve. The other binder contained my topps cards which faced a similar fate.

I’ve now fully reorganised, sleeving every card individually and then placing in a binder pocket. There were a few gaps which I since filled, and a few cards I upgraded on for condition, but most made it out and still look fantastic. My duplicates and less desirable cards when I was a child were all stored in the Pokémon topps tins, which I have now reorganised too.

I bought a team rocket binder recently to be able to rehouse my rocket set, and have organised all my other sets into folders, with each card now individually protected and in card list order (which I may change soon, what to go back to my childhood concept of Pokédex order). The duplicates and less desirables are now individually sleeved and stored in WOTC deck boxes, and some are still just chilling in the topps tins.

I’m so happy I actually looked after my cards as a kid and that my parents looked after them when I lost full interest and pivoted to yugioh. I played yugioh so always had those cards sleeved and they still remain in a good condition. Yugioh bulk is another story though.

I keep my childhood collections away from more recent additions and try to almost time capsule them. If it wasn’t for a thief at school, I doubt my Pokémon cards would be in any type of good condition. I only switched to binder from rubber banding because it felt safer.

[Cerulean]

@stagecoach

My immediate perception of the card was art-dominated and a lot of the finer details like set symbol, 1st edition stamps, set numbers, etc didn’t really register for me.

Set numbers in particular were confusing to me as a kid, especially because I had people telling me that they designated rarity.

I remember people telling me Alakazam, Blastoise and Chansey were all rarer than Charizard because they were 1, 2 and 3, respectively, and Charizard was 4. Nine-year-old me didn’t put two and two together to figure out that they were in alphabetical order. Lol.

Did anyone else hear anything like that at recess? Or was it just me?

[mrbubbles]

It’s not a traditional binder but my mum had got a business card holder which I used to store my collection. Since I had just one, each pocket is just stacked with duplicates of the same Pokemon. I think besides the Funskool cards, even the others are bootleg copies. If I recall correctly Team Rocket was the only set that felt legit while I was collecting, but I dint know any better. I still have all of my cards though. Bootleg and all.

Cheers!

[needszeebs]

i do still have my childhood cards, i moved them into a new binder and sleeved everything because the old binder was destroyed. i kept them all in the same order though. i had no concept whatsoever of sets as a kid and organized my cards in the order that i liked them/ thought were cool. I had legendaries first, then my ex cards, then kinda just went down in order of cards i liked. i also really REALLY enjoyed the idea of cards that had “matching” arts; i didnt understand sets, but i thought if the cards had the same art style, they were the cards that were meant to be together lol.

opted for the pokeball binder bc i was a kid, i put my cards i started collecting when i was 17 ish in an ultra ball binder lol

first page, still remember seeing the lugia as a promo in a box at toys r us, wanted it so bad

claydol was one of the only cards i pulled myself, it was crazy. i was a trading maniac as a kid, i remember trying so hard to get walrein, rayquaza ex and kyogre ex off kids at school. my sister had meganium and typhlosion, i had the feraligatr

dark dragonite is the only 1st edition card i had as a kid. i thought the TRR cards were older then they were when i was younger lol

i thought the delta species cards were so cool. i wanted the salamence so bad and i still remember the day i had off school; i went to toys r us and my dad bought me a pack and i pulled that tyranitar in the car on the way home. i went to school at the end of the day to show my friends (it’s like a 3 minute walk from my house)

i got the power keepers charizard out of a tin from a local flea market. im pretty sure it was my first ever tin, i remember opening it, thinking it was gonna be full of packs or something and being like “why is there so much empty space in here?”

this is one of the first pokemon cards i ever owned. crystal guardians was the first set i ever opened, before i even knew what pokemon was (i started with yugioh lol). there was something so magical about discovering pokemon for the first time. the smell of the cards, the pack artwork, all the different creatures.

i was very happy with the right side. that mudkip line was like completing the dream as a kid lol

i loved this quilava card. the art on pokemon cards was like transporting to a different world; i’d like think about what it would be like to be there, if it’d be cool, windy, if it would start raining.

the gengar card was a massive dub, i thought this card was the SHIT when i pulled it. also, i used to really want this rhydon card because i just thought it was sick. i used to think pokemon were good if they had high hp. i remember my friend telling me hp stood for horse power in like 2nd grade LOL.

thanks for allowing me this massive spam post to be nostalgic about my childhood. hope you enjoyed viewing some of my binder and hearing some of my stories. i know i enjoyed reading through the thread!

[pfm]

this one is pretty iconic

[jonbo]

I was “too obsessed” with cards and Pokemon in general as a kid, so my mom took everything Pokemon related I had and put it in a big garbage bag and threw it away. Pretty traumatic. It didn’t stop me from being into Pokemon even after that, but it did stop me from collecting cards for a long time.

Anyway the joke’s on her because at this point I’m obsessed beyond recovery, so clearly that didn’t work out too well for her.

[needszeebs]

holy shit, that is traumatic. sorry that happened to you. im glad that you’re able to indulge in the fun now! sometimes people dont even wanna try to understand why you like something, they just wanna be judgy and try to make you feel bad. it’s super whack

[Throwingknifekiller]

I’ve still got my childhood binders! Although, I did take out the holos to put them in sleeves/semi-rigids…
Love that I kept opened packs (apparently I opened up a triangle pack as a kid).
Here ya’ go!

-Noah

[aritafan]

Yea that’s what I heard as well! Until an older kid/family friend said it was due to alphabetical order. I thought that justified Blastoise (my starter) being better/rarer than Charizard (my brother’s) but turned out it wasn’t true haha.

[purevito]

I don’t have an image of my old folder but these were the cards I was rolling with