This thread is just for sharing funny/stupid/regretful/awesome/etc. stories about collecting Pokémon-related stuff. Could be something you neglected on buying, which ended up being very rare later on. Could be a trade you’ve made that you’ve regretted for a long time. Could be something you’ve got for a steal of a price from someone else, who didn’t knew what it was worth. Everyone probably has some (or more than some) stories to share. Doesn’t have to be from a long time ago, could also be something you’ve did last week.
So I’ll start. The biggest mistake I’ve made was when I only had 11 cards from my first booster pack. I was almost 8 years old when Pokémon started. I remember zapping through the cartoon channels and stopped at something that caught my attention, a white-red ball being thrown at a worm (episode 3). I was hooked right away, and I’m not sure when, but my parents gave me and my little brother each our first booster pack (unlimited edition English Base) soon after. In it was a holo Chansey. Although holo cards are of course always cool, as a kid I didn’t really care about it all that much and just wanted more cards. Since everyone at school was bringing their cards and trading, I did as well. Some older kid (probably 9 or 10 years old ) offered me a Pidgey, Pidgeotto AND Vulpix for the Chansey. Since I wanted more cards, I traded 1 for 3 right away.
Two days later on the news they were talking about the Pokémon TCG hype. They said some collectors were willing to pay 100 Gulden (old Dutch currency) for some cards, and they showed Charizard and Chansey, rofl… (Thinking back I have no idea if they meant first edition Shadowless perhaps, but I don’t think the news reporter knew the difference either.) I still haven’t regret trading it though, but when you see the card was worth 100 Gulden and I got it for three cards that were commonly available, it did cross my mind a lot of times, and thus I still remember it to this day. After that I’ve also always been more careful and thoughtful when trading, to some extent (hey, I was just a kid ). I haven’t made a lot of trades as a child, but most after that were positive for me, except for maybe one or two (like trading my mint from the booster Legendary Collection Reverse Holo Moltres for a lightly played Japanese Neo Genesis Holo Steelix… sigh…)
So, what are some of your stories you want to share? Doesn’t have to be about the TCG, any Pokémon collectibles will do.
My greatest triumph is purchasing a 1st Edition PSA 10 Charizard for $700 in 2009 and seeing that card’s value grow exponentially over the next several years.
My greatest mistake was allowing my very first base set Charizard card to be stolen from me in Spring 1999. I brought it to school and the class troublemaker, Jesse, stole it from my backpack. Another kid named Dino even said he saw Jesse take it, and that he put the card “behind his Geodude.” So I looked behind Jesse’s Geodude, but nothing was there. Jesse got away. Later, Dino clarified that Jesse had put it “behind his Japanese Geodude.” To this day, I think at least part of Dino wanted Jesse to get away with the card, and I blame him almost as much as Jesse. I was so upset that my mom even called Jesse’s mom asking Jesse to give the card back… but Jesse never confessed. My parents were awesome enough to buy me another Charizard a couple of months later… but I’ll never get my *first* Charizard back - the one I had pulled from a pack myself.
Later on, in the summer of 1999, I had my copy of Pokemon Blue stolen from me at summer camp - again out of my backpack! Now you may say, hyruleguardian, why on earth hadn’t you learned your lesson from last time! Well, I was an 11-year-old kid, and everyone at summer camp was playing Pokemon, obviously I had to be in on that. But at the same time, I wanted to play dodgeball and softball and all the other fun activities offered at summer camp… I couldn’t always keep track of my game boy! So it was plucked right out of my lime green Game Boy. Incidentally, the Game Boy itself was spared. After that incident, I purchased a copy of Pokemon Red. To this day I have yet to replace my copy of Pokemon Blue.
worst mistake for me was to buy a bulk lot from ebay with only a few pictures, the listing was for 2000+ cards mostly commons and uncommons so wasnt so expensive. it did state there where a few fake cards in the sale but i didn’t mind thinking it would only be about 10-20 cards.
my parcel arrived and i opened it only to find out over 1900+ cards where fake and the whole lot was worthless. i did try to contact ebay about if but because the listing did state it had fake cards they where on the sellers side.
I ended up selling them for pence per card to someone who wanted fakes cheap so made some of my money back but no where near what i paid.
Best trade was for a complete southern islands English set everything with it including the postcards for only £10 from a local retro game shop. well worth the bye.
I guess my greatest triumph could be given to still having my first base set Charizard that I pulled.
The card guy down at my local markets had some new old stock one weekend in 2005 and was selling base set packs for $7 AUD each, I bought 3 and pulled a Charizard and Blastoise, I had never pulled either during the 1999 Pokemon hype, so it felt great to have a chance to do it. I regretfully sold the Blastoise a few years ago but can still say I own my childhood Charizard
I think my biggest triumph/funny story would be how I turned an ungraded Next Destinies FA Mewtwo from TrollAndToad into my PSA 10 English M Rayquaza EX Full Art. Here’s how:
I graded the Mewtwo and it got a 9 off at PSA
I then traded, 1 for 1, the PSA 9 Mewtwo FA for a PSA 9 Mewtwo Gold Star (this was back when that FA was $55 ungraded)
I sent the PSA 9 Mewtwo in for PSA’s review service and they upped it to a 10.
I then traded the now-PSA 10 Mewtwo star to @dragontype for my Mega Ray, a card I had wanted since it came out but thought I would never have.
My biggest regret would probably be selling my childhood collection. I collected back when I was around 9-10 and the the EX series was out and just changing over to Diamond and Pearl. I didn’t have anything crazy but I had a bunch of ex cards and even a (very played condition) Latias gold star. I sold it maybe a year later or so and while there wasn’t anything super great in there I think it would be really cool to have it back.
biggest regret selling my shadowless 1st edition psa 10 set 17-102 inlcuding blastoise and zapdos 3 months ago for £4800 and now really regret it as the pound has dropped and to buy it back is now like an extra £3000
My greatest collecting triumph would be the Rayquaza Gold Star that I sent to be graded myself. It went through 2 grading company’s’ (Card Grading Australia and PSA) and achieved both their highest Grades.
My greatest regret was selling my Complete EX Deoxys set with complete reverse holo set. Such a great set, but when you need money, you need money!
Also regret spending hundreds upon hundreds of dollars on Ex Deoxys booster packs in the hopes of pulling the 3 Gold Stars. However only getting bitter bitter failure raining down on me like a father’s disappointment! Every single Harriyama EX and Manectric EX a tear drop in an ocean of sadness. STAHP!! JUST STAAHHPPP!!!, Harriyama and Manectric, I dont want you, I dont want your demo bro. So naive!
Greatest collecting triumph? Buying 2 Championships Arena, a Ken Sugmori signed card, a worlds staff card and more for 330 euro. I graded both Championship Arena, they got a 9 and a 10! A 9 is currently on ebay for $2000, I still have that one. A 10? No idea what’s it worth. I traded the PSA10 with a good friend here for a complete master expedition base set and more.
(Another notable is finding 6 Rising Rivals boxes on a garage sale for 3 euro a piece!)
Biggest regret? I bought an Ex Team Rocket Returns boosterbox a couple of years ago for like 250 euro, opened it pulled a Torchic goldstar and… traded it
My biggest regret was selling my entire collection in a garage sale about a decade ago. I clearly remember only keeping dark charizard(which I still have). Some of the cards that I remember leaving me that day are; Base Venusaur & Shining Steelix.
My biggest triumph was purchasing a mint Shining Charizard from a kind soul not to long ago for $50.
My Poke regrets are kinda meh, so I’m throwing some Yu-Gi-Oh! ones in too.
Pokemon regret 1 is just trading base set holos away as a kid. I don’t remember any specific situation, but I do remember that Venusaur and Blastoise were 2 cards to come and go from my collection. They were my 2 favourite cards (not counting Charizard). I only ever had 1 or the other, never both. I don’t know why I kept trading them. When I finally got my hands on a Charizard though (thanks dad) I never let it go. I still have it in mint condition.
Pokemon regret 2 is simply buying newer cards over the last year and a half or so (since I started collecting again). I’ve come to realize that I really don’t like them. Literally the only cards I like are full arts, but even some of them are meh. I’m going to stick with older cards and special sets that come out that I think are cool. Old-school reprint sets are always welcome
Yu-Gi-Oh! regret 1 is trading my mother ****ing “Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon” for a freaking “Raviel, Lord of Phantasms” when I was a kid. My friend told me it was a bad deal, but he still let me go through with it, the bastard!
Yu-Gi-Oh! regret 2 is giving a ton of my old-school ultra rares (Time Wizard, Summoned Skull, B. Skull Dragon, etc…) to whom I considered my best friend at the time for his 9th or 10th birthday. I was a stupid kid to consider him my best friend because he was an ass hat. He was a bully. He was basically that kid that everyone’s parents hated and didn’t want us hanging around.
Poke triumph (if you can call it that) is getting a mint 1st edition shining Charizard for free as a kid. I’ve actually told this story on this forum before.
I had a friend whose father collected all kinds of cards. One day he started selling homemade packs to anyone who wanted them in the neighbourhood. As far as I know, I was pretty much the only one to buy them, which is weird because they were a great deal. 30-32 cards per pack (mint) with at least 1 holo from base set, jungle, or fossil (with a good chance of getting 2) for $5. He even put the holo in the front of the pack so you could pick your favourite one. Not all possible holos were available, but the most memorable pack I got had a holo fossil Dragonite. Anyways, he knew I liked his shining Charizard card, but it wasn’t for sale. One day he came outside as I was opening a pack I bought off of him and he gave me the Charizard for free because I was his best customer.
I think the most impressive thing was accidentally get a really rare card? I ordered some cards from UKcardcollector and he would frequently include extras. Anyway, once I think I ordered the Daisuke Fanclub promo from him.
Biggest poke regret was going full conservative when that big lot came up on auction, and onlycollectables got it and it had aalmost entire pcg/adv ex’s and quite a few gold stars all in gem mint condition in it… WELL I DIDNT LET IT GO THIS TIME LMAO.
This triumph is probably rather evil, but… This happened 10 years ago so please understand I was a jealous teen XD
This happened during the time when ex Legend Maker was the newest set that was out. I somehow managed to make a friend of mine interested in Pokemon cards again as I was buying booster packs and trading cards online through a Finnish Pokemon forum. She told me how she lost her whole Pokemon card collection few years ago because her mom threw all her cards away! I was so shocked to hear that… And well, she said she would love to buy some cards again to get that feeling back and said she would hide them somewhere that her mom doesn’t see them.
And so I went to a store together with her and told that ex Legend Maker is the newest set that was out. Knowing that she wanted to buy one of those. Pokemon cards were behind the cashier’s desk so we needed to ask her to give us one booster pack so the cashier chose the pack. My friend bought it and then we went outside where she wanted to open the pack straight away.
So she went and opened the pack. The first pack she opened after spending years not opening anything… She pulled a Registeel Gold Star!! My jaw dropped. I never pulled a gold star myself and until today I still haven’t. She noticed it was a holo and asked from me if that’s a rare card. I said “not really…”. I tried to build up a plan to get that card from her.
A few weeks later when she got some more cards we were trading cards and I asked if she could trade the Registeel for me. She said it’s ok for her to trade as she wasn’t into Registeel that much. I traded the Registeel Gold Star for myself and I gave her something so basic, I don’t remember exactly but I think it was a basic rare holo or something.
I couldn’t believe the fact she actually believed my lie about Registeel’s rarity and didn’t look it up from the internet or anything. She knew I had collected cards since kid and trusted me. Maybe I should feel bad about the fact that I got the card from her this way… But after a few weeks she stopped collecting cards again so it was a short moment of hype that she had.
Anyways, when I got the Registeel Gold Star I traded it to a Charizard ex (Fire Red Leaf Green) which was the card I was most hyped about at the time.
And my biggest regret comes from the fact that I sold that very Charizard ex on eBay about 5 years ago when I needed money. I sold a Charizard Gold Star as well, which I had received from another trade. Well, what’s done is done…
) offered me a Pidgey, Pidgeotto AND Vulpix for the Chansey. Since I wanted more cards, I traded 1 for 3 right away.
). I haven’t made a lot of trades as a child, but most after that were positive for me, except for maybe one or two (like trading my mint from the booster Legendary Collection Reverse Holo Moltres for a lightly played Japanese Neo Genesis Holo Steelix… sigh…)
