Hey everyone, I’d like to hear how you all started or started over in your collecting journey and how far you have came. I personally started again at 17 buying random PSA 8 wotc commons uncommons and non Holo promos thinking I had struck gold since they were like $5-$10. I impulse bought everything thinking I had to gather it all at once or I would miss out. It’s crazy to look back on six years later. It took a while for me to understand that set cards aren’t going anywhere over night and approach collecting the right way, but once I learned to collect what I love and not worry about $$$ it was a game changer. I have most 1st Ed wotc and later wotc sets complete in PSA 9/10. I really enjoyed collecting no symbol jungle for a while. I’ve slowed down to only buying a few big cards a month. I mostly collect the last three wotc sets since they were the highlight of my childhood. Seeing that e in the corner is so nostalgic for me. I’ve also just recently been introduced to Korean base. Did anyone else have a crazy irrational outlook on collecting when you first started?
For me it was business first by importing Japanese products, for USA release, prior to 1999. Then things got personal;)
I started with the initial boom back in the late '90s. Built up a pretty big collection of Base Set through Team Rocket. Then I stopped collecting (I don’t really remember why), and eventually, my cards were accidentally thrown out.
Got back into the TCG in early 2017 because of Beanie Babies, of all things. I decided to go back and buy all of the Beanie Babies I didn’t have as a kid. Once I did that, I thought to myself, “I wonder what Pokemon is doing right now?”
The rest is history.
I never actually left Pokemon altogether. I have always played the games, but as far as the TCG, goes, I was out of it for nearly two decades before Beanie Babies brought me back in.
Same here. Team Rocket Returns was the last packs I ever opened as a kid. I gave away my Rocket’s Entei Ex thinking I was too old for it.
Got into collecting as a kid around Fossil/Rocket and it was just pure ecstasy. I stopped towards the end of the ex era when my friends started falling out of it, and when my mom would say “you’re still into this?” every time I would ask for a pack.
My first taste of Graded was when I got a job in 2012 and wanted to buy the cards I could never pull or that I thought looked cool. I discovered graded cards on eBay just browsing and thought it was so cool that this was a thing. I then proceeded to go on a buying spree until it was out of my system and fell out once again.
Then finally in 2014 I was at lunch in the break room when I saw a commercial for the newest set Phantom Forces. It heavily featured my boy Gengar and the card designs looked cool. I swear I must have bought 100+ pack over the next couple of weeks, and have been hooked ever since.
I collected Pokemon cards as a kid from 1999 to 2001, but my parents were tight on money and I didn’t like bothering them, so my collection was rather small (<200 cards) and mostly consisted of gifts. But I always loved the cards I had, and dreamed of getting more one day.
In December 2016, when I was in my final month of college and getting ready to graduate, I randomly came across a video on Youtube that promoted the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (PTCGO). I had no idea that such a game existed. I always wanted to play the TCG since I was a kid, but never got the chance to do so, so I downloaded PTCGO and started playing.
I remember being very confused when I first started the game, because I saw several cards that looked exactly like the Base Set cards I had in my old collection. But at the same time, I knew they weren’t Base Set cards, because they had different HPs and attacks. I later found out that the most recent set that was released was called “Evolutions,” which featured modernized reprints of Base Set cards.
On January 18, 2017, I started working at my first job out of college. On January 25, I received my first paycheck. I immediately went over to a local game store, and purchased my first booster pack since 2001. As I opened the pack and went through the cards, the nostalgia was overpowering. As they say, the rest is history…
I know why. Same as my sons:
Came across my old binder of wotc cards back in 2010 era, wanted to fill the empty spots. 1 thing led to another 
Collected as a kid of course, but as with many people… outgrew it into middle school! One day my prized stack of 20 ish cards were stolen from my backpack, and the fueled my hobby to come back heavier than ever lol. High school came around and with the rise of the internet it was finally cool to be a nerd again. Started playing diamond and pearl on the DS at lunch after some friends and I got bored on xbox one night and pulled out our old gameboys. Memories flooded in and before you know it there was about 10 people between our two tables playing Pokemon each day. Then everyone from the class clown to the top football jock was walking around with a DS playing away. After school ultimate Frisbee started to include Pokemon battles when we were done and that’s all she wrote! Started buying cards again and split a box of Legends awakened with a friend to get into collecting again!
@garyis2000 haha believe it or not that wasn’t the reason. I think it was just because I got bored of the cards. I was only 10 at the time, so I hadn’t become a too-cool-for-school teenager just yet. Lol.
a Lover and Passion for the brand.
all the pokemon were digital, so i wanted something physical.
Pokemon cards are the physical symbol for my love for something intangible
The nostalgia and enjoyment of Pokemon as a whole 
I was into Pokémon growing-up in the 90’s - like most people were during that time. However, the “fad” quickly died-out for me and most of my friends with the release of Team Rocket - those “new” Dark Pokémon killed it for me!
Fast-Forward 8 or 9 Years (2009) and I’m now a Sophomore in HS. I’ve completely forgotten about Pokémon and my childhood collection until one day where I’m trying to figure-out how to make enough money to afford a new video game that had just been released and I really wanted - my parents had already told me they weren’t going to buy it for me (so mean of them)! Haha Didn’t have any kind of part-time job back then; so I needed to get creative. Stumbled upon my childhood collection of Pokémon Cards and thought maybe I could sell the cards for some extra money! At the time, my Dad was running a part-time eBay Business selling Collectable Coins - which later turned-into his full-time job with a retail location and everything! Anyway, I asked him to help me research / list my childhood collection as an eBay Auction (which of course he did) and I was immediately HOOKED!
I wasn’t so much hooked into the collecting aspect of Pokémon, but I was 100% Committed / Dedicated to the “business” of Pokémon! I completely forgot about that video game the initial sale was for and “re-invested” that money into more Pokémon Cards to re-sell on eBay. I grew my eBay Business - and was pretty successful - all through HS and half-way through college when it just got to be too much between school and working my actual part-time job on the weekend. So, I called it quits once again and decided that I was officially “done” with Pokémon for good now - sold-off my entire eBay Business and few pieces from my own collection.
Fast-Forward another 2 or 3 Years (2016) and I’m now finished with college and working full-time with a schedule that allows me to work 3-4 Months and then spend 3-4 Months Home on Vacation! That sounds all well and good - and it’s nice just being able to chill-out everyday for the first couple of weeks. However, it gets real boring real quick not having anything to do during the weekdays when everyone else is working. I wanted to find something to keep me occupied during my extended vacations and quickly landed upon another eBay Business - but what to sell… Pokémon Cards of Course!!! Haha
To make a really long post short; I re-started my current eBay Business in Jan. of 2016 and actually got into collecting the cards myself around that same time-period - both of which will now remain apart of me for a very, very, very long time!!!
Fortuitously. Was on YouTube and a Leonhart video was one of the recommended videos. Clicked it and watched Leonhart open packs of Hidden Fates trying to look for the Charizard GX Full Art. I was impressed with the quality and look of the cards since the last cards I came across as a kid was the Jungle set! Then I purchased my first HF tin (the equivalent of USD35 at the time, in Aug) trying to pull the zard myself and the rest is history (FYI I failed miserably after various attempts and just bought the single in the end lol).
My brother and I were into Pokemon cards in the 90s and early 2000s. I distinctly remember looking at my half complete set of the original 151 as a kid and thinking “when I get a job, I’m gonna complete this collection and no one can stop me!”
Sure enough, 15 years later in 2016 I was at Walmart buying furnishings for my first apartment and I noticed the TCG section next to me at the checkout aisle. I bought some stupid Mega Mawile box or something and immediately got hooked. I researched local card shops and discovered the Evolutions prerelease. Needless to say it was an undescribable experience. I met some great friends and rekindled my love for Pokemon cards.
I did end up finishing my 151 binder along with thousands of other cards I didn’t know I needed
I started collecting during the 90s boom-I was…5/6 years old. My older cousin gave me some cards to look at while my family was visiting him and his family in California. I stopped because I was worried about getting more bullied at school after the fad had passed (a big regret of mine!). I collected a bit more when I was in college-I opened up some Legend Maker, Holon Phantoms and Call of Legends. I got some great hits. However, I could not continue buying more cards. I officially got back into collecting when Unbroken Bonds came out this year. Haven’t looked back or stopped since. I hope I can make up for the lost time.
I needed some funds so was selling all my old things got my pokemon cards sold them regretted it so started buying them back but in mint condition instead of played brought quite alot in my first few months then thought i am just buying “rubbish” sold everything and then started my goal of collecting the base set in every language and verity with the holos all being graded psa 9 so searched on ebay came across Gary brought like over a £1000 of stuff off of him massive step up from buying nm to mint base set 2 stuff and then 6/7 years later still on the same goal hit 90% done this year through so slowly getting there so i have said to Gary he was my first on buying my Foreign base set so i will try and do it so his my last purchase as well and then i can finally be done with this goal
For me i started with the figures as a kid probably in 2007. Really got into the cards in like 2010 with a power keepers box. In 2015, I got more serious with some PSA cards (shining steelix, rocket ex birds psa 10). So I guess I’ve been into it for like 12 years. Keep in mind I’m much younger than the rest of y’all (turning 18 in may).
Team Rocket returns birds? That was the last set I ever opened and had as a kid. I had the two dogs and torchic. I’ve gotten most of that set complete since just missing mudkip gold star.
Yea I have moltres and zapdos in psa 10. And most of the other exs in a binder.