I thought it would be a fun topic to reflect a little bit and hear from everyone what your biggest mistake or “learning opportunity” has been within collecting Pokémon. Whether it’s with buying, selling or maybe something else. I’ll start with a couple experience’s I’ve had.
Way back in 2011-2012 I was into playing Yugioh and not so much collecting Pokémon so naturally I traded almost everything I had for playable Yugioh cards. I think I blacked out the cards I traded from my mind so I’ll never know for sure what I traded but they were probably WotC/ex Holo’s. Obviously in hindsight that was a mistake but here we are. I’m sure this sort of story is pretty common here.
A more recent mistake was buying multiple Amazing Rare’s from Vivid Voltage and Shining Fates when they were initially released. I was scrolling through my Troll and Toad orders from last year and saw that I paid $30+ for Rayquaza… and its like a $5 dollar card today. I didn’t think it was a bad purchase at the time, the cards have so much appeal to me, however I didn’t realize how common they actually were.
Anyways those are a few of mine, hopefully you all have some you’d like to share. It could be a good learning opportunity for new collectors or if anything just a good laugh
My biggest poke blunder happened a long time ago. I initially wasn’t interested in the Pokemon TCG that much, I was more into the video game. That kinda reversed with the Gen3 era. I didn’t have a GBA so I never played RSE, but I fell in love with Delta Species cards and Gold Stars. So I began to collect them and play with them. There was also that childhood friend I really liked, and then puberty hit and feelings of friendship turned into having a crush. But being stupid and young, I didn’t know how to communicate it to her. So she ended up with someone much older. One of the “cool guys” (athlete, had a car already…). I was so angry at her, and also at myself for not being mature enough and for liking something that disqualified me in the eyes of my crush (at least that’s what I thought). I threw my cards away and didn’t touch another Pokemon game until much later. Only a few years ago did I rediscover the Pokemon TCG. So in essence I missed out on Pokemon and countless collecting opportunities for over a decade because of a bad experience. That’s my biggest poke blunder.
My biggest blunder is one everyone probably goes through. For some reason I thought Japanese people had too much honor to scam and I bought a deceptive listing on Buyee and got hosed.
No major mistakes tbh. The two biggest I would say are:
Not buying more than one copy of certain cards like the Mario/Luigu Pikachu cosplay cards, and other cards that are worth 500+ USD these days.
And 2 (and 3), which I’ve told a few times before so I’m just gonna quote (from the What do you regret? thread).
And one more I came across when I was looking for a post to quote about the Wagon promo:
Overall some minor mistakes here and there, but nothing too crazy. Besides, we can only learn from our mistakes, to become more knowledgeable and stronger for the future.
Not having enough money, underestimating the increase by 20000%-30000% and overestimating some of the endeavors that were supposed to nullify the need/possibility of spending on Pokemon. That’s about as much schadenfreude porn I feel like sharing.
One more thing: almost exclusively buying what I like, huge mistake. I like pulling Fossil Hypnos, not buying singles/slabs of Play promos, trophies or bulk listings of POP 5 boosters.
Not buying Espeon GS, Umbreon GS, and Eevee fan club when they were well under $1,000. I always bought the cheaper cards first to fill my binder up as much as possible, and left the big cards last. Anyone who had these types of opportunities pre-2016 or pre-2020 know what I am talking about. Now I am only buying the remaining big cards I need once the next recession hits.
Stopped collecting in 2012~ and selling complete sets of base/fossil/jungle to buy a skateboard of all things, got back into collecting only a few years later and regretted it a lot
I sold a PSA 10 Milotic ex (English) for $285 in 2018. It’s now maybe a $15-20k card.
Over all my time of collecting, I’ve found my biggest regrets are either not buying cards or selling cards. While I may have overpaid for some cards or made some questionable buys at the time, I honestly cannot think of a single purchase that I seriously regret or consider a blunder years later.
I tended to buy the big cards later and wait for it to be the “right time”. It is never the right time and I have missed out on a few big grail cards because they have now gone way higher than I thought they would. Lesson learned. Buy the big ones first!
Had a PSA 7 1st ed zard that I didn’t enjoy enough so I decided to sell it. Sold for $800, still realized a big profit, but then literally the next month the big 2015/2016 boom hit and it skyrocketed to $2400… then obviously there is the current situation we are in. I held the card for so many years expecting the increase but sold out moments before the actual increase.
I remember Charlie saying in an interview that it all depends on what you’re selling it for.
I always try to keep that in mind when I sell things. Usually I’m selling my stuff to buy more cards.
If I were to sell out again, I would do so for a house this time.
I wish I documented more of my collection journey when I re-entered the hobby.
Things like recording some of my Wotc pack openings back in 2017 when they were much cheaper. Or keeping the labels of the mid grade 1st Ed/Shadowless cards I put in my binder.
waiting until 2017 to start collecting. fortunately my late start was not due to criticism so im thankful for that, but i do regret not collecting sooner.
Not taking Pokemon more serious. I got back into card collecting during my college years (around 2011-2015). I was mainly buying old MTG cards during this time (for fun, not really to be investing). Everything of course was soo much cheaper back then. As my dreams as a young kid and teenager was to buy more MTG cards that I couldn’t afford, I basically ignored all the old Pokemon during this time. Pokemon was my 1st experience but like so many people we never took it that serious either as a card game or being something of serious investment/value after the fact for a long time. I really only collected the Pokemon cards for fun that I loved from the early games and threw them in a binder or a box. In comparison, even back in the early 2000s I had a sense that MTG players took the collecting side quite seriously.
I remember going into one of the LGS’s where I live as a kid and they had Power 9 cards inside of acrylic frames and stuff and it always blew me away to see it. I think back then the Alpha Black Lotus was like $3000 which as a kid I thought was soo crazy (of course, look where it is now). I never saw this with Pokemon at all, it was always the ‘kids game’ in comparison.
Anyway, I also had way less money back in college so my options were fairly limited but I definitely would have bought way more Pokemon then. My MTG cards have appreciated very well so it makes up quite well for the lost time but I feel the future growth potential for Pokemon is still very high. The generational appeal across eras goes so far and it’s just so hard to not find something to like about it.
Right now when I mention collectibles as a possible serious investment (especially Pokemon) to most people I get the exact same vibes from them when I mentioned Bitcoin to them back in 2013, they look at me like I was from another planet. People can laugh all they want but these ‘alternative investments’ are no joke at this point. Knowing that the things I loved as a kid (MTG, Pokemon) have just been sitting around in front of me all along as such an important thing to me and so many people just further proves how powerful this stuff is.
haha