I became a fan of Pokémon in 1999 when it reached the United Kingdom. I was a kid, and like many young children, I got caught up in Pokémania and wanted to consume everything I could. The trading card game was the number one item that all the kids at school wanted, however growing up in a poor household made it impossible to own, except for some generous friends who gave me some of their spare cards from the Base and Jungle sets.
About a year later, after Pokémania had started to die down, I finally started to purchase Pokémon cards of my own. I began with the Fossil set, and would regularly purchase a few booster packs every week. I would purchase two or three booster packs at £2.49 per packet, take them home with me, waiting patiently until I had got to my room to open them.
I remember pulling some amazing cards, such as the holo Gengar and Dragonite cards, and coming incredibly close to completing the entire thing. They were stored safely in a cardboard box at the bottom of my wardrobe, knowing that someday I would finish the set entirely. It wasn’t until around 2019, about twenty years after I first started playing Pokémon, when I went to eBay and purchased the remaining six cards I needed.
The six remaining cards that had escaped me were the holographic Haunter, Hitmonlee, Magneton, Raichu and Zapdos cards, and a non-holographic rare Hypno. Completing the set all those years, was such an amazing feeling.
Most of my card collecting happened during the Neo series era, I bought booster packs of cards from Neo Genesis, Discovery, Revelation and a little from Destiny. I even purchased some boosters from a first edition box. Some of the coolest cards I have are 1st edition Ampharos, Slowking and Kingdra (rescued from my nephew when his mother was going to throw it out).
Once Neo Destiny was done, I didn’t purchase Pokémon cards again until 2023 with Scarlet & Violet 151!
Around a year later, a friend was throwing away most of her cards in a clear-out, which I was mortified to hear. I agreed to give her fifty pounds for them, not knowing exactly what was inside her collection, or whether they were even real. To my amazement, the cards spanned Base set all the way to EX Dragon, with hundreds of holographic cards, including a Neo Destiny Shining Mewtwo (1st edition). All of this happened prior to the substantial rise in popularity of the trading card game, and these cards plugged some significant gaps in my personal collection, more than doubling the cards I owned. In September 2020 I decided to purchase the remaining cards needed to complete my Base set and Jungle set, and in 2022 I was able to finish the Team Rocket set too.
As it currently stands, I have about 70% of the cards from 151, and naturally that means that most of them are the hard to get cards. I may get lucky with a few trades, and I may purchase a little more before I throw in the towel completely. It was great fun to open cards again, but i’m happy to make this set a one-off.
I want to end this by briefly sharing my feelings on the hobby. While I accept that the financial angle of Pokémon cards has been a point since the Base set, it has saddened me to see how crazy things have got. Resellers buying up every product they find to flip it online for profit is so sad to see. I spoke to a shop owner who told me how kids just buy and rip open booster packs and go straight to eBay to see how much they’re worth. It feels like people have completely missed the point of what this hobby is supposed to be.
A card in my collection will never make a PSA 10, not just because of their condition, but because grading cards with the intent to sell them has never appealed to me. When I open up my folders of cards, I see an amazing gallery of memories that stretches back to childhood, and I can probably flip through and tell you a story about how I got some of them. In fact, maybe I will on this forum, if anyone is willign to hear them!
I truly hope that i’m able to finish several more sets in the years ahead, especially the ones I have wanted to finish since childhood.
