Hi Folks,
Each day, a different collector will be posting a personal story to this thread. Please feel free to follow this thread, ask questions, leave comments, etc. I’m also still adding people to the calendar if anyone wishes to join the fun.
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For my story, I decided to make a video . . . I call it “Shadowless”
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AWESOME START to Collector Stories!!!
LOVED that Video - GREAT EDITING Too!
I saw the title of your video and thought you were going to go in a completely different direction - talking about some of your most valuable (monetary-wise) cards or purchases. This was much better though! I really felt your pain as an 11 Year Old having to trade your most prized card for the “coolest” card. And, I was so happy to find-out you were able to re-purchase that card and still have it within your collection today! I wish I had held onto my childhood collection; however, had it not been for me selling those cards, I don’t think I’d have gotten back into the hobby at-all.
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Haha. Nice, dude. I really enjoyed that. Kind of forced me to remember some older Pokémon-memories of mine from back in the day. Well done.
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Thanks for sharing! You should do more vids it was pretty well done
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@pokemoncardproject that was not just well done but also extremely touching. The concept of value beyond monetary measures is completely relatable on all levels, and bringing that tale to life with some great analogies and your tales of childhood were beyond heartwarming. If theres one thing I value in Pokemon, aside from any cards, its the people whom have had these sorts of experiences because with them it brings us all to a deeper, more connected ground of the hobby where we can all share said love and nostalgia united as one.
Thanks so much for the hard work here and cant wait to share my own tale! 
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Just “pretty” well done?!?!?! Coming from the guy who doesn’t even edit his own videos 
Haha JK, JK!!!
I agree with Z&G! You should definitely upload more videos - I wanna see those cards that you have framed on the wall in the background!
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Wow you’re quite talented. You should make more videos or possibly try like hell to get into movies. This is the best YouTube video I think I’ve ever seen! I’m speechless had me engaged the whole time. Great work and great story! That kid you did the trade with really did want to squeeze every last drop out of your poor collection 
going back now I’m sure you would have found a different way to get your first zard. Keep up the good work I’m going to look you up and see other videos today if you have more. I just watched this one off my phone. And why don’t you sign up too Z and G? I watch your videos I didn’t see you sign up tho. We want to know how you got started 
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I’m a high school teacher, but have taught video production a few times and occasionally freelance as a video-editor (mainly sports highlight videos and educational content . . . plus content for my four YouTube channels). It’s actually coming in very handy right now, as I’m teaching from home; I can make videos for students while we are quarantined.
I agree, would love to hear about your background @jcincy101, I watch your videos regularly!
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Great video @butchdawg32 ! I was already subscribed to you I just noticed when I wanted to subscribe, haha.
Nice built-up, and a touching story with a great ending as well. Very nice you were able to buy back your card!
Also funny how you’ve just bought a single card instead of some packs as a kid. I personally was the complete opposite. I received a pack from my parents, but when I went to school I traded away my first Holofoil (Chansey) for three other cards (Pidgeotto, Pidgey, and Vulpix). As a 7 y.o. kid I didn’t cared too much about the Holofoil cards, but only wanted more, haha. Here my Pokémon story (the start at least, the end is more a summary of mention-worthy purchases), which I posted a few times already. I’ve thought about signing up for your story time and tell it again, but I figured I’d let others be in the spotlight, since I already told most of my stories a few times in the past.
Greetz,
Quuador
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That was a really great story @butchdawg32, and it reminds me of my own childhood!
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What is this ED IT you speak of? Is that a doctorate in IT? 
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My favorite line from that “Top 10 Poketubers” video when describing SMPratte:
“Although for someone who is probably a multi millionaire, his video editing effort is that of a teenager with a McDonald’s Fry Cook salary…maybe even worse.”
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Haha that is accurate!
Alright, todays my story day so ill post it below this post here. Hope everyone enjoys it!
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So, to kick this off here id like to preface with saying just bare with me in its length haha. I know long essay-style writings could be a turn off to some, but being this is “story time” here, might as well go all out with my share. Keep in mind for me here, this is an insanely personal account of mine which has some rough aspects to it that tie into the end result, so id appreciate in advance consideration to the sensitivity of it all to me, just because some of this does break a little bit of my comfort zone barrier. That being said, hope everyone can enjoy this!
Topic: Getting back into collecting
No hobby in the world means more to me than Pokemon. This sounds like a cliche statement one would make out of ignorance in trying to explain their overt love for such a thing, but for me this claim actually does ring true. Releasing when I was around 8 years old (roughly), my earliest and happiest childhood memories of Pokemon will always remain some of my most cherished. When the games came out it was all anyone in my school ever talked about. We all the had red or blue, watched the anime, and also began to collect the cards. Regardless of knowing how to actually battle correctly via video game or tcg, we all still shared in such a beautiful time where it felt like the rest of the world didnt matter, because us kids were all completely united in something we all shared a common interest. The stars just aligned perfectly for us kids of that generation and nothing even came remotely close to how intense that was, at least in my own experience. Things felt right, and I couldn't have been happier exploring that new world which was presented to me.
Ultimately out of anything which stemmed from the Pokemon franchise, the TCG had probably the largest impact on me. I always enjoyed the video games and loved watching the show, but for some reason collecting was something that I felt clicked more than others. My father growing up was of the same collecting nature that I found myself to begin adopting (he dabbled in lots of things from sports cards to the failed beanie babies), so it felt natural to have this now be the most dominant aspect of Pokemon to me. I was fortunate as a kid to be allowed to get as many packs as I did, but I never had a very “good” collection to other kids standards. I got teased a lot about that aspect of things, which would bring me down many of days after school, but then id just watch the show and the inspirational nature of things would boost me right back up to “be the best, like no one ever was” (lame punny quote, but quite truthful). As time went on, my collection grew as well and soon enough I got my first base set Charizard through a pack pull, which is one of my most favored moments in my childhood. My father took me to a greeting card store near my house to buy his weekend newspaper and said he would buy me one single pack. I asked him to ask the lady at the counter for one (I was a very shy kid) and she pulled out one with a Blastoise artwork. However, using kid logic here, I thought I might have a better shot at getting Charizard with one that sported its artwork, so I asked him nicely to have it switched out. He rolled his eyes, had the lady make the switch, and on the way back to his car in the parking lot I pulled that Charizard right out of the pack. It was like a scene from a movie and from that moment on my doubted small collected became the hottest thing on the playground. For once, I felt invincible and my days thereafter with collecting were nothing short of incredible.
Time passed on from that moment and my collecting still continued, but it wasnt until Gen 2 came out to where I began to have a real emotional attachment with Pokemon as a whole. Prior to then, I never felt like I could really call Pokemon my own hobby of sorts because it seemed everyone was into it as I were. Now this isnt a bad thing, but it always felt sort of played out when kids would pick their “favorite” Pokemon and 9/10 people said Charizard. To me, my love for a lot of Gen 1 Pokemon felt inorganic, as I felt I was more crowd following as opposed to really adopting it on my own. Then when Gen 2 hit I found it was my time to shine. Hype died out a bit with everything (at least in my friend/school groups) and many of my friends stopped collecting or began to go into different things to mess with, so thats when I began to truly explore the generation for myself. Starting with playing Pokemon Gold, I began my game off with Cyndaquil and its been my favorite ever since. I never liked scary or brute types of mon’s which Charizard and many gen one filled, but Gen 2 featured some of the most adorable Pokemon to date for me which pushed me to love the whole entire lot of it. When the cards came out, I made sure to have EVERYTHING because it just meant so much to me. Even the anime theme stood out to me more, and still does to this day. Finally I found something I could define as my own, and the happiness continued to flow.
This is where my story now begins to take a bit of a turn. In this time of me collecting/playing Pokemon, my family dynamics began to dwindle down. Without becoming to explicit on matters, my mother and father (whom always had relationship issues prior to this time) became very sour with one another leading to a rough divorce. My father was violent a lot of this time, towards myself and my mother, and my happy collecting and kid days were halted at quite a young age. I still held onto my love of Pokemon, but cards were harder to get being I was so very young (were looking at 10-12 years old now roughly but hard to recall because of ptsd from this era) and I still watched the anime, but it was really difficult to stay happy and bright in these times. I was very depressed, and I developed lots of issues which would later be reproduced in forms of various mental illness matters like high anxiety and ptsd. I was forced to grow up rather quickly and learn things for myself very fast, which led to me ultimately quit nearly everything once Gen 3 was released.
Time passed, my issues of mental health grew worse, and I just felt lost as I hit my teenage years. I didnt know what I wanted to do with my life and didnt know how to handle developmental changes I was growing through, which was even more difficult being that my prior years of upbringing were so rough. My father remained a bitter man and tamed his physical aspects of abuse, but his emotional abuse was always loud and prominent. My mother did her best to raise me in these times, but she was mainly trying to “focus on her life” as she stated in this era, essentially leaving me to have to learn things on my own. It wasnt easy, and this is where my mental health issues drove me to a road of addiction.
(For sake of time and confidentiality purposes ill make this aspect of things brief, but it plays a huge role in where my collecting is today so it needs mentioning.)
From high school until my early-mid 20s I struggled with an addiction of sorts. I mentioned this in a few prior e4 posts so some might know this about me already, but it was something that developed in high school due to the turmoil felt in my upbringing coupled with low self esteem and body issues. The addiction (which I dont like mentioning, but will since I feel many here are family and there should be no shame in it) was to food. I suffered from heavy bulimia and anorexia issues, which almost took my life on more than several occasions. I was sent to many treatment centers across the US over the years for help, but my reluctance to treatment always did me in. The spiral furthered onward, leading to homelessness, a lack of a proper college education, and loss of every personal belonging I once had as a child, and ultimately a loss of my sense of self. A lot is blurry in my memory of these times, but ultimately I just didn't want to feel the pain and emotion that ensued from my life journey, so I kept going with this until around 24-25 years old when I found myself stuck in California with no where to go but a sober living. There I was the only one with such issues, but learned that an “addiction is an addiction, is an addiction”, or in other words, we were alone in the same fighting to regain stability. I met some of the most awesome individuals ever, learned some amazing lessons, and even became the assistant manager before returning to live back in my home state (NY) in order to go back to school and explore more about the person that I always was at heart and continue to be today.
With the doom and gloom briefed and now out of the way, since those times, Pokemon was always something I wanted to return back to collecting but never did because I knew my old collection would be something that would take ages to restore. Now being 28 (ill be 29 this month!), I knew it wouldnt be an easy task since the cards I once loved are quite old. Not only that, but my cards I owned were also ones that had significance behind it as opposed to the card itself. For example, In those turbulent high school days of mine, my best friend gifted me a Base Set 1st edition Charizard just because he didnt want it. That same card now is gone through my travels in addiction, and that friend is now passed away due to losing his battle through his mental health with suicide. These things ultimately kept me from wanting to start back up, until my girlfriend (whom I met one year after stopping my eating disorder) listened to my tales of collecting in the past and bought me a few packs along with a Dark Typhlosion card which she knew was my favorite starters evo. I opened the packs, saw the Typhlosion, began to tear up and cry and thanked her jump starting me back into what I once loved. I researched more about the cards and how I could get more, found out about graded cards which I never knew was a thing, and down the rabbit hole I went for that small gesture began to open up that same old love and deep emotional connections I once had towards Pokemon again. The emotions flew back like wildfire in the best way possible, and that small act of kindness and care leads me to today.
Through all this, Pokemon never stopped being my favorite hobby but my love for it was just numb through my own self torture. Today, though with me actively continuing my sober pathway from my old habits, I now connect stronger with my old childlike loves more than ever. That theme of loving Gen 2 is still so very present, as my goals now are very driven in that direction. I just completed a full psa 9 1st edition holo set of Neo Genesis (best set ever made, in my humblest of opinions haha) and im currently working on Neo Discovery in that same fashion (someone pleeaaassee find me a Scizor 1st edition holo psa 9 haha). My next steps forward in this is also to have doubles of the legendaries and starters (psa 9 1st as well) since I like them so much, and im only missing Lugia in that sense of the word and the starters (minus t17, which I now have two of. PFM knows what im talking about, if youre reading this far haha). Id love to grab that 1st edition zard again someday as well as the base set starters, but being they are so costly and I wanted the Johto/neo ones first, it had to take a backseat. But who knows with time what will stem out of this new era of collecting for me!
All and all, id just like to end this with a big thank you. Thank you to everyone here for being involved in the hobby, no matter how big or small you may see yourself as. If it weren’t for the community being so large and active, I wouldnt have this great place to fall back on and waste my spare time in and share my love of Pokemon once again. Thanks to everyone who helps make Pokecontent, to the Smprattes and Garys of the world, and all those behind the scenes who help keep things healthy and alive. I know these times are crazy ones were experiencing, but I figured I could share this token of a story to help brighten someones day to see that even with a story filled with a lot of dark times such as mine, theres hope and a bright light at the end of things, so long as you take the opportunity to jump out of the dark to experience the beauty of it for yourself.
Stay positive, and thank you for reading
PS: If anyone would like to know more on details of my struggling days, or knows someone who is struggling with such a matter or is struggling themselves, never hesitate to shoot me a message to talk. Im always available and always willing to help or just have a chat about things, so always feel welcome to shoot me a message! Just know youre never alone in whatever life obstacles you may face and ill always make myself available for those in need.
Additionally, i dont have any photos currently from childhood or anything to the degree to add to this, but one day ill throw up a collection thread to share where thats all at.
Thanks again for letting me share,
-Dizzle.
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@joakim heres your tag for the long essay lol
As a kid I wandered the school sewers looking fo coins, that then I use to buy candy, that then I traded for pokemon cards. At first I begged for basic energies, and soon enought I had all the colors. Trade for trade I ended up getting a holo raichu, that I traded for a very large bulk of cards. When I noticed I went from looking coins to owning 3 shining cards, a neo revelations holo ho-oh or even a damaged unlimited charizard. Playing was never my thing (even tho today I play oldschool base-neo format for fun), I was always a collector. The feel to own something no one else has, something rare and unique, is priceless. And here I am, my life savings are just 2 pokemon cards, cool.
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@dizzle24 , Thanks for sharing your story! It’s very powerful emotionally and incredibly well-written. I’m sure it was difficult to share all of this, but I think stories of hardship and adversity make us all stronger and more empathetic. WELL DONE!
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@butchdawg32 Thank you! Yeah sharing such at this (at least via a forum) is a bit different that normal life sharing, which is significantly easier to do but i figured id take the leap as it might be able to help another or even just leave someone with a nice smile and some positive vibes haha. A lot of the deeper events through my life were majorly edited (for length and some privacy) but I had an absolute blast in writing this all! Thanks again!
And im excited to hear everyones contributions in the coming days!
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