Pokémon is the centerpiece of my collecting but Im surprised by how many people also collect other things on the side but don’t really talk about it!
In the past year I discovered a few different CCGs and other types of collectables that were important to my childhood outside of Pokémon -and I’ve been having a blast.
The main one is Lord Of The Rings TCG by Decipher
Released in 2001 with the first movie it was a pretty popular game (actually beating pokemon for best game in 2002).
There are 17 sets in total, separated into 5 blocks. The movie block sets were the most popular for players, but the later sets are on average the most expensive due to limited prints.
Box prices range from 150-3k
The arts are for the most part taken from the films - but the foils are stunning due to selective foiling.
PSA pops are super low and the LOTR community seems to be really against grading.
Anyway, just sharing a new little side collection of mine and loving it. LOTR is a big part of my life and I enjoy sharing it with others as many people didn’t even know it existed.
What are you collecting on the side at the moment?
By volume my biggest collection is Pokemon but by value it is world war 2 golden age comics (produced from 1939-1945). I also have a small collection of vintage baseball cards and a small US currency collection. I really love anything historical and would like to get into more historical documents and autographs
Don’t judge me …I love Shining Force, I’ve been collecting the games and books for years.
My favourite rpg series, I’ve got posters, books, soundtracks, Gaiden card set complete.
I DESPERATELY want Shining Force 3 ones but some Japanese collector snaps up every single listing sadly.
Amazing series, started as a dungeon crawler, then srpgs, arpgs and more.
Those book ends are custom with the menu art from Shining Force CD.
I guess I collect games? I mean I actually play them, but I do have a lot of older games in physical. It’s mainly Final Fantasy (this one I can say is a collection since I own most physical releases of the games), Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, and Pokémon. From there it’s a bit of whatever I want to play.
Never got into Shining Force but I absolutely adore Golden Sun and see you also have the games in your collection. I wish Camelot would make another one someday…
This is an older picture, I’ve got a few more now.
There’s a Golden Sun book I want that only came out in Japan too, it’s a great series and I’m a big fan.
I was pretty active over on Shining Force Central actually, been scanning a lot of my older magazines and things for people there, the games have a cult following which overlaps a lot with Golden Sun.
7ED (2001) and 8ED (2003) were Core Set releases in MTG. Think of them as a “welcome set” to MTG for each year (7ED, 8ED, 9ED, etc.). They contained a very large number of cards (350) and were good sets to make decks from because they had reprinted staples, were very cheap, and were widely available.
Foils from this era were very hard to come by. 1-2 foil rares per box and there were over 100 rares in each set, so they are difficult to find. Even more difficult to find in good condition because of “clouding” on the black borders (non-foil cards from this set are white-bordered).
7ED foils have the “shooting star” pattern with no foiling on the art box. 8ED foils have no shooting star pattern but do have foiling on the art box.
Besides Pokemon, I mainly collect MTG and some Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Mostly Alpha cards, but also vintage foils. Some are graded as well, but mostly NM copies and binder sets of the sets I had as a kid. Yu-Gi-Oh is the same, I have just a small collection from the brief time I played it in my childhood, but I played MTG a lot more.
Also, I have some anime figures I collected years back. Some of them have climbed quite a bit in value because of Covid + waifu related things. For example, I have a very popular one I paid $70ish for in 2015 and I seen it sell for over $1000 during Covid. It’s now back down to $500-$600 or so.
I used to have a sizable physical video game collection years back, but after the PS3 era I completely got out of consoles and moved to PC gaming almost exclusively. I wouldn’t mind getting back into physical older school games some, but I just lack the space + time these days to fully enjoy it I think.
I’m trying to be minimalist and selective, so I mainly collect TCG cards and I stick with my plan, because I really don’t want to hoard too many stuff.
Besides pokemon I enjoy yugioh and mtg (especially great artist like Rebecca Guay, she is a goddess)
This is one of my 7-strings, made in California by a very private master luthier. I’d consider myself a collector of these at this point as I own 14% of all the ones ever made, and I’m constantly prowling the internet looking for more. They don’t pop up for sale often as people tend to hang on to them. This is one I bought new two years ago, first opportunity in years. Birdseye Maple board, flame maple top, maple neck, mahogany wings, homemade pickups with matching covers, recessed tonepros. Razor thin neck even by shredder standards, for those of you into guitars, think old Ibanez Wizard on steroids.
…I love Shining Force, I’ve been collecting the games and books for years.
