I have some stuff to show already, but still have a long road to go to complete my goals. So without further ado, let’s start with the first section of my collection:
**Kimiya Masago PSA 10 Japanese.**Kimiya Masago is one of my absolute favorite illustrators and to me, each of his artworks is among the best in its respective set. Sadly he only did 17 different artworks from Neo Discovery - EX Legend Maker, but on the other hand 17 is a really neat amount of cards to collect for a graded set.
You might have noticed two things here. Firstly, yes, the Tyranitar is of course English, because at the time (early May this year) there wasn’t a Japanese PSA 10 available and I wanted to get myself in a good position for a possible future trade. For ~150 USD, I consider it a great purchase.Secondly, the cards of Split Earth and Mysterious Mountains are the unlimited versions which are quite a bit harder to find than 1st Ed. Crobat is pop 6, Alakazam is pop 12, Gyarados is pop 9.To my great dissapointment, an unlimited Mysterious Mountains Houndoom (pop 7) which I ordered around 3 months ago got most probably lost in the mail.
That’s it for my PSA 10 Masago’s at the moment. I also have some Masago’s in raw condition to get graded eventually, but that is scheduled into the far future.
I’ll keep updating this thread with my other collection sections. To finish it up, here is my very professional ‘studio setup’ without cards and an obligatory Zard flex (low budget). Thanks for reading
Really awesome collection my man. Blastoise and also Neo-Discovery Kabutops are my favorite illustrations from Kimiya Masago. Looking forward to see the complete set and other posts from you.
Thank you! They’re also among my favorites. It’s a real shame he didn’t do more underwater artworks. Arita’s Expedition Feraligatr is great too, but nobody did it quite like Masago!
Thanks dude! Full disclosure, for now I’m happy that the market hasn’t cought onto the UED e-series. I didn’t even have to pay any premium at all for those cards despite being around 4 to 6 times more rare than 1st Ed (judging by subjective availability and objective PSA pop report). Since PSA only grades Japanese and English, these Japanese UED versions are actually the rarest (/lowest pop) holo versions of those cards you can get in a PSA case.
As it so often happens, popularity outweighs rarity. English is much more popular in the first place. And of those collectors that go the Japanese route, I guess many just prefer the 1st Edition stamp anyway. And that’s absolutely fine with me, as long as I can get the rarer cards for the same or less
@jonbo,@lamplamp,@shadowless,@melchior, thank you so much guys! Your kind words are very appreciated and I’m happy that you enjoy those artworks as much as I do
Moving on to the second big section of my collection.
Japanese sealed booster packs (Base - Mysterious Mountains).
I just love the Japanese pack arts. Especially for older sets, I much prefer the Japanese designs over the Western releases.
The details and the depth of the art is just phenomenal.
A Gym 2 pack is already on its way to me. So the only ones I’m missing are
Gym 1 (“Gym Booster 1: Leaders’ Stadium” → Heroes)
Neo 4 (“Darkness, and to Light…” → Destiny)
e2 (“The Town on No Map” → Aquapolis 1)
e4(“Split Earth” → Skyridge 1)
They’re rarely available for reasonable prices in Europe, so that might take another few months. After that, I can absolutely see me continuing this collection with the ex series, HGSS, BW and so on. Even though I have no connection to past-ex sets whatsoever, the pack art is often amazing!
To finish it up for today, here is a headache-inducing misaligned German Seel. It’s a part of my early childhood collection.
Love the collection, @muk! As a kid, I was lucky enough to have a few local card shops hold onto Japanese packs which is why I collect both languages. The Japanese packs are incredibly vibrant as compared to the more simple looking English packs which gave me the impression that they were more “sophisticated” and meant for “older kids” when I was that young. XD
That seal though… I have a Potion card with the same dizzying effect.
@goldcrest ,@seafoamarticuno thanks a lot! The Jungle and Neo 1 boosters are really great. It’s hard to pick a favorite for me. All those pack arts are just so good in conveying their set themes. It’s like they are a preview of the whole set and at the same time a piece of art on their own. Very satisfying to collect!
Thank you for you kind words! I love your collection too, you have chosen a fantastic Pokemon to build your collection on!
Sadly in Germany we hardly even had English packs, let alone Japanese. The first time I even saw Japanese packs was probably in some YT videos in 2017 or so. Also thanks for appreciating the Seel! It’s probably one of the more special cards of my childhood collection, despite bein in ‘well loved’ condition
As to what got me into Japanese stuff… to cut it short, probably a combination of collecting the WOTC Black Star Promo set, reading on e4 and watching @smpratte haha.
When my passion for Pokemon cards was reignited in 2017, I started to watch a lot of box openings from the usual hype channels. Back then I only wanted to get a decent condition English Base-Fossil holo binder set. Then I discovered the WOTC BS promos - and in there was my most loved Pokemon artwork ever that absolutely blew me away: Venusaur #13. I knew I had to get all versions of it, three of which were coincidentally Japanese. So I bought the VHS Intro Pack, the sealed CD promos and the Game Boy promo Venusaur.
It kinda kept on escalating from there… All while watching more and more videos of Scott and reading a LOT on e4 and Bulbapedia. At some point I just realized that most of what I’m interested in is either exclusively Japanese or at least more affordable on the Japanese side, so I chose to go a that Japanese route
Moving on to the third part of my collection. This isn’t really a single cohesive category but rather an cluster of a few miscellaneous subsets I enjoy to collect.
**Various promos (GB, CD, VHS) and some birds.**Starting off with the Game Boy (GB) promos. I just love every artwork in this ‘set’ and their connection to the Game Boy, which is basically the birthplace of the franchise (even though they’re not related to any of the main series games).
Top left 'Saur has two indents sadly. All the others should be 10s and 9s (due to centering) in my book. I have no problem with mixed grades for this set.
Next in line are this magnificent Shining Mew I got from a good friend, the CD promos and the two VHS Intro Deck holos. It’s frankly unbelievable how much the CD promos went up in the last few months. I got all of them sealed for exactly 51€ in 2018. After close inspection and pixel counting, they should all meet the requirements for a PSA 10.
I never sent cards to PSA before and I’m in no rush to do so. Actually I’d like to have my whole collection completed and have the grading as grand finale of my journey.
Lastly, here come them birds. They’re all holo reprints of their non-holo originals (Vending and movie promos), but the holo treatment really did them well.
They go along beautifully with this Lugia ex. My only ex card. I just couldn’t pass on it for how cheap I thought it was at the time, like around 130USD.
Obviously I still need a Red/Green Gift Box Zapdos and a UED Web Articuno and I very much look forward to update this thread once I finally get hold of them.
@lamplamp , @deltazero , thanks a lot guys! Yeah the birds in general are blessed with great artworks throughout the whole TCG history. Sadly way too many for me to collect, so I focused in my two favorite trios!
Also I’ll just shamelessly use this opportunity to quote myself, because I hate to see an update in the bottom of a page
Today’s update is neither Japanese nor unlimited, it’s not even Pokemon. Here is my entire Yugioh collection of two cards.
These two cards are quintessential landmarks in Yugioh’s TCG history. Each on their own is a powerhouse, but together compose the infamous **Yata Lock.**They are often referred to as the crucial combo that made Konami/Upper Deck create the first ‘real’ banlist (where cards were actually banned, not just limited). In a nutshell, the effect results in prohibiting your opponent from drawing any cards and make him die a slow and painful death haha. Here is an explanation video if you’re interested.
I just love their history and the looks of the OG Secret Rares. At some point in the fututre I want to get a PSV Jinzo (another overpowered OG Secret Rare), but I’m already more than happy to have acquired these two cards.
Next is my favorite part of the collection and probably the Pokemon thing that brings me the most joy out of everything I own.
Vending Series + Masaki promos.
I consider my Vending stuff as ‘close enough’ master set. I miss almost all Red/Green Gift box reprints (aside from Articuno and Moltres holo in PSA 9), but I got Bill’s PC, the Masaki promos and WHF sheet Pika, Mew & Mewtwo. So at least I have all unique artworks.
The second double page is my favorite. I love all Vending Grass types and the spoof cards are a god tier on their own!
This last double page contains Bill’s PC and the Asobikata promos of Dugtrio and Diglett. The latter two were included in the Red/Green Gift box and are therefore an extended part of the Vending series IMO. The “WHF” Mew and Mewtwo are actually from the promo CD, but they’re the same anyway. Pika is real WHF though, as it can be distiguished from the R/G Gift box version by its glossy finish and the presence of the rarity symbol.
The rest of this page is filled with two spare Vending cards, other CD promos and 4/6 Natta Wake promos, simply because they fill the space neatly.
