I recently got the urge to get back into collecting Pokemon trading cards. I was an avid collector (although I had no idea what I was doing!) when the initial boom happened in the US in the late 90’s early 00’s. Although I was just a kid at the time, I was able to collect quite a few great cards and had a lot of fun doing it.
Fast forward 20 years, my original Pokemon set is at my parents house (they’re not sure where it is!), and I am currently in possession of one pack of Sword and Shield cards that I bought at Target yesterday just for the hell of it (looking at the wall of cards was overwhelming in itself haha).
I want to start collecting cards again but am completely overwhelmed by the number of series and editions that have come out in the last 20 years. To be honest, I have no idea where to start! I am not familiar with a lot of the new Pokemon and am sort of naive to what is popular today. I have a bias towards the first generation cards as that’s what I grew up with and know but want to start from scratch with a new series and generation.
What I am wondering and hoping to get advice and suggestions on is how and where to start. I apologize if this seems like an obtuse thread but I would love to know what popular series and generations people are collecting now.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts, ideas, suggestions or help. I really appreciate it!
A lot of it comes down to “collect what you like”. If you like the earlier sets, Base Unlimited is still decently achievable by most odds, as are the Team Rocket and Gym Heroes sets.
If you’re looking for something new that will get you acquainted with the new Pokemon, you could hop onto bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Main_Page and search for the TCG of each Pokemon and start a Pokedex set of your favorite arts (something I’ve considered doing for a few years).
To add on to what AzulRyu said, you can also scroll through the (at least English) sets here and just see if there’s anything that piques your interest. You may find you want to collect full sets or see a card/mon you fall in love with and want to get all versions of it
Welcome to E4! There is really no wrong way to get to it! Collecting sets, favorite Pokemon, Promo cards, or just artwork you like are all very popular places to get started. You’ll find there are endless challenges you can create for yourself within Pokemon TCG collecting.
My girlfriend and I have only been collecting for over a year now, and understand the overwhelmed feeling you are describing. We started out buying what we saw at the store, and now we are collecting Gen 1 and 2 vintage cards as well. Like @azulryu , said just collect what you like!
Welcome new collector! My suggestion is to learn from my mistakes and don’t impulse by all the new stuff right off the bat. Do a little research on pokellector (as recommended by @nish), bulbapedia, and maybe some youtube videos to go over some of the older vintage cards and the newer cards to develop your taste before you go binge buying!
Thanks for the quick replies and all of the links and advice!
I have been looking at the bulbapedia site for the last few days and trying to hone in on a specific generation. This may be a dumb question, but when trying to collect, say, the Black and White series, is the best plan of action to purchase single packs, boxes, or single cards? Do people try to collect every card from the series or from each expansion? I know it is personal, but there are hundreds and hundreds of cards in each expansion and what looks to be the same pokemon as well.
I will say that for me, I love opening the packs but understand that it’s probably not the best monetary positive decision.
For older sets like black & white the boosters and boxes are getting to a point where singles would be cheaper than sealed product just due to supply. You should be able to find bulk commons for pretty cheap compared to $20-40 for a single booster pack. For newer sets like sword & shield it’s definitely cheaper to buy a box or two (or three lol) to get 80-90% completion and then fill out the last rares in singles
As for single pokemon collecting? It hugely depends on the pokemon in question and how deep you want to go. Bonsly for example only has 1 English card and 3 Japanese cards. Pikachu has over 1000 different cards across all languages. How deep do you want the rabbit hole to go?
@jakester18, welcome friend! Glad to see youve made your way here and I look forward to seeing all of your progress throughout your newfound collecting journey! I restarted as of September from last year and being in this part of the community of collectors has been the most rewarding and beautiful experience, so I hope you find yourself in that same boat as time goes on. That being said, i can give some pointers here as to what might help you to fulfill some collecting goals.
as for where to start, id say look towards what is most appealing to you to reflect the “collect what you like” statement. In coming back, my first thought was to go into the popular hidden fates set which was a blast, but then i found myself a bit unhappy seeing as it wasnt my most favored cards i used to love. I then switched off to doing Gen 2 based things which ive been doing ever since and has made me feel the most joyous.
set goals in any shape or fashion. This is pretty self explanatory. My first goal was to get all the legendaries’ holo cards for WOTC which was small (at the time) and then evolved into doing a full complete neo gen set in psa 9 1st. These can be anything at all, but having things of this nature set in stone could help gear you in the right direction. Be sure to check out things with yourself, such as do you want to do graded cards or raw, are you a set collector or just want your favorite pokemon, maybe theres a single pokemon youd like to collect all cards of, do you prefer older cards vs the new ones coming out, etc etc. All these questions you ask yourself will easily answer any “what should i buy” question which gets memed here often for that sole reason of no one can answer these things except ones self. Taking these steps will really aid in your collecting journey ten fold.
Research, research, research. This is HUGE. Everything from prices, to different cards youve never heard of will be elements that can easily tip your boat while in these waters. When you take into consideration my second step and add that in, researching everything that revolves around your goals is a great move and valuable as anything could be. I wouldnt have 50 percent of the cards i own today if it wasnt for researching, so i couldnt advise this more.
Have fun! This is a widely pivotal piece that easily gets lost in the noise of the day to day, with myself included in this mix. Its so easy to get caught up in everything so just give yourself the time and grace to know that collecting isnt a race, rather is a journey throughout time thats very rewarding when you add in patience and mindfulness. So with that all, just know that you might start out very small in things but before you know it youll have a vast collection and copious memories to cherish for the rest of your life. Thats how it is with me know and ill be forever grateful for this community.
Hope this helps in one way or another and if you ever need some advice, dont hestitie to hit me up! Join the discord too (as im mainly on there these days for its easier than the actual forum haha)!
I’ll also add to the general chorus of buy what you like. There’s been two recent threads though that might give you a little inspiration and an idea about what and how other people on this forum collect.
Here’s my favorite website for researching Pokemon cards: www.pkmncards.com . It’s the most comprehensive database for English cards and has high-res pictures of almost any card. If I were you, I’d probably search for my favorite Pokemon and then look at all released cards that feature it. Then you can pick your favorite and check what set it appeared in. There’s a moderate chance that other cards from the same set are designed similarly, which might give you your first collection goal. Also you should think about what you want to collect: raw cards or graded cards. The second question to answer as early as possible is whether you want to collect mostly English or Japanese cards. Japanese cards are almost always cheaper, have higher print quality and have an arguably better-looking border. So if you only care about the artwork, you should go for Japanese. However, if you need to be able to read the card text to relate to the card, you should go for English. Just go on ebay and look up some Japanese Pokemon cards and see what it does for you.
I can also recommend Smpratte’s youtube channel, where you can get tons of information about the hobby and certain especially popular cards, such as Shining cards or Crystal cards (although I’m missing his Gold Star video as of late). When I started collecting, I got most of my initial knowledge from binge-watching his videos.
Older sealed product is not worth it now to open. Buy singles if you need to buy stuff older than XY.
Sealed modern is fine, but buy singles until you know what is a good deal. Lots of modern sealed prices are a ripoff.
Buying collections is fun and a good shotgun method to get started, but hold off on it until you really learn the eye for judging condition and interpreting perceived value. Lots of collections people are trying to sell are overpriced trash.
Spend a lot of time price checking cards before making any purchase. It’s helpful to make a list of stores for future use.
Graded cards are great since you know exactly what you are getting, but be sure to look at sold listings to see what you should be paying. They take up a lot of space though and can be a lot more expensive to collect.
In terms of what to collect. I suggest going after a specific pokemon first. Branch to making sets if you need more to do. Collecting sets within an era (e.g. WoTC, Ex-series, Sun and Moon, ect.) is a natural progression. The older the set the more costly it will be to complete and difficult to find all the cards that meet your minimum condition requirements.
Everyone has had good responses so far. Along with doing research and the like here are a few tips/ideas:
Do you have a few favorite Pokémon? Sometimes it is easier to start by collecting the Pokémon you like the most. It is okay for your goals to evolve over time, but this is a relatively simple place to start.
Are there particular card arts you love? You can focus on this as a starting point as well.
Go from the top down: try to buy the most expensive cards you want first. That way, you can get them before their prices go out of reach for you. The less expensive cards are likely to remain in reach for longer.
Patience: We all want everything right now. Try your best not to get caught up in FOMO. Most cards go back on market eventually. If you can’t afford the card now, you can save up for later. Yes, it might be more expensive then but at least you won’t get yourself into financial trouble.
The other posts in this thread are super helpful and echo my thoughts. I’d like to add:
There is no right or wrong way to collect. Collections are totally personal and should make you happy. As @deltazero above me says, try not to get caught up in the hype that certain cards are currently generating, and try not to feel like you should own a particular card to be considered a “collector”. Take a step back to think what it is about Pokemon cards that you love. Maybe the nostalgia of Base Set is where your heart lies, in which case you can work on picking up singles from that set online. As others have already mentioned, you could start a collection of your favourite Pokemon, your favourite artist, full art trainers, gold cards etc.
I totally get why you feel overwhelmed, there are a crap ton of cards out there. Some modern Sun & Moon/ Sword & Shield sets can have over 250 cards alone. The wonderful thing is, collections can be diverse. Buy what you like, and if you figure you want to collect something different down the road then that option is open to you too! For some people planning out a collection works for them, for others going with the flow works out just as good.
Whatever you choose - good luck! I look forward to seeing your collection grow if you decide to share it with us here.
One piece of advice for you is that if you are looking to collect vintage WOTC cards, DO NOT BUY SEALED BOOSTER PACKS with the intention of opening them. You will be paying an arm and a leg for cards that you can purchase much much cheaper individually.
I opened so many collection boxes when I first got back into the hobby and had such horrible pulls. I opened about a thousand worth of random collection boxes just to get mostly bulk. I also opened almost two grand worth of hidden fates and still had to finish the set in singles. Opening packs is fun but gets old fast when it goes bad. New collectors should definitely know upfront it will always be more expensive to complete a set or goal from opening packs vs buying singles
Evolutions, Shining Legends, Hidden Fates. Can’t go wrong. Go after old stuff if you like those more. But no one I’ve talked to has disliked these sets. The modern stuff is cheap and super fun to open. Take it slow and enjoy!
Are there any cards you wanted to collect as a kid, but couldn’t?
When I was collecting in the 90’s, I read in magazines about cards such as the Japanese Birthday Pikachu that got this fabled status amongst me and my friends because of the perceived rarity. Later on, it became clear there were more available and so now I can still add one to my collection (and if I want a challenge; there are different versions which vary in rarity). The same thing with the English Cool Porygon promo-card; It came with the Nintendo 64 Pokémon Stadium bundle that was simply out of reach for me as a kid. And now, it’s still available for a good price.
Try to remember cool cards that were out of reach or simply not in the packs you opened back in the day. Good luck!
